BigOven for Windows

Used BigOven for Windows?

Editors’ Review

Download.com staffNovember 8, 2008

Except for a few annoyances, BigOven works well as a recipe database. The interface includes views for recipe details, shopping lists, meal planning, and nutritional values. As we would expect with this type of application, you can schedule dishes for different days of the week and have it automatically compile a shopping list. To avoid duplicate entries, you have to click a button to combine them, and even then it can't tell the difference between single and plural items, so you may end up with "1 egg" and "2 eggs" as separate items on the list. However, the program will automatically combine items on the printed list.

The recipe-details view comes with a number of ways to sort, filter, and search. Each recipe is displayed with ingredients, instructions, servings, and a picture, if one is available. The edit screen lets you modify recipes or add new ones. We found the nutrition function difficult to use, as it requires you to manually link each ingredient to a separate database entry. We like the way Big Oven handles shopping lists, letting you drag-and-drop a recipe name to automatically generate a list of the appropriate ingredients. We also like the Web function, which lets you browse the BigOven database and seamlessly import new recipes, but only after you register the program. BigOven includes all the functions we find necessary in a recipe database and wraps them in a useful interface, but minor problems may frustrate users.

What’s new in version 1.8.977

Version 1.8.977 contains several enhancements to make it easier to use and search the 160,000+ recipe archive.

BigOven for Windows

Used BigOven for Windows?

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Full Specifications

GENERAL

Release: August 13, 2007

Latest update: November 8, 2008

Version: 1.8.977

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Platform: Windows

Operating System

Windows 98
Windows 2000
Windows 95
Windows Vista
Windows NT
Windows 10
Windows ME
Windows XP

Additional Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista

POPULARITY

Total Downloads: 44,064

Downloads Last Week: 0

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Last Updated

User Reviews

3.9/5

29 User Votes

Stay away to avoid headaches
jakeisaroundJuly 8, 2017
Pros
Only decent recipe system out there.
Cons
Bad design, terrible support, full of bugs, and upload from desktop system does not work. No documentation. Slow, with poor response to lookup. Original desktop system far superior..
Summary
If you must but buyer beware
BigOven abandons all PC users of their software.
January 5, 2016
Pros
Pros are irrelevant.
Cons
Everything, as of March 1st you can no longer use this on your PC.
Summary
Stay away, it's a dead-end street. They talk like they care for their customers, but not the case. BigOven just became a lot smaller....
Enjoy a trip back to Windows 95 with this ugly app.
bullywugApril 27, 2012
Pros
Kind of integrates with the web
Cons
Doesn't integrate well with the web. Things get lost and shopping trips get ruined. Advertised features don't work or don't work well. 16.00 US annual fee for using this piece of crap.
Summary
Stay as far away from big oven as you can. Their "features" don't work or don't work as advertised and end up costing your time and major frustration.
Not bad but still room for improvement
hleonardJuly 4, 2011
Pros
- clean interface - good feature set - easy to write up your recipes - connection with internet community - had a smartphone app that includes my recipes and grocery list
Cons
- some things are not intuitive - buggy even after all the years it has been around
Summary
I was looking for a free, simple but still powerful recipe software program to digitize all of my mother's recipes from when I was a child. This was the best of the ones I could find; even better than many programs that charge a fee. There are a few quirks that irritate me, however. There is no save button - it saves it as you go but I feel the need to push something when I am done with a particular recipe. Also, when I start a new recipe, some of the instructions from the old recipe get filled in - could make a really bad recipe. I noticed a recipe for coconut cake had some instructions for meatloaf mixed in - now that would be a culinary disaster. For some reason, I want to always add the measure (such as cup) with the amount (such as 1) when I am typing, causing me to have to correct my errors constantly, but that is my problem, not the software's. Finally, until I read the beginner's guide (which I had to go to the website and find; should be included in the help section), I did not realize what the headline button was for (very useful, separates the recipe into parts, like cake and icing). Overall, I like it alot.
great for quick meals
jimirod1January 2, 2011
Pros
free and fairly straight forward
Cons
some rough spot with misfiled recipes
Summary
it's cool and getting better as time goes by
Pretty good, but not quite up to cloud functionality.
beh9999September 1, 2010
Pros
Allows you to upload recipes you already have in a recipe database. Works okay if you only use it to sync to a windows mobile or palm device.
Cons
There is no way to copy the shopping list from your PC software to your web account. There is no way to keep your online recipes private if you want to. Does not allow you to store your recipes on an external storage card.
Summary
This is good software for keeping track of recipes and for sharing with others. Being able to import recipes into the PC version from older recipe databases in a really nice feature, but it does not yet allow enough integration with the online program to allow me to reasonably use the android or iphone versions. There is no way that I can find, after asking the devloper, to get the shopping list I created on my pc to my web account. Since the Android and iphone apps only allow me access to the web account this is a problem. Also, I may want use recipes on one of those devices that I don't want to share with the whole community, but this is not possible. This is probably the best recipe software for those devices out there, but is not as good as even its own version for windows mobile or palm.
Poor support for imported MealMaster recipes
bliddMay 5, 2010
Pros
Very comprehensive and reasonably intuitive. Plenty of features and the on-line community is a plus. Adding new recipes singly was easy and straightforward. Has comprehensive search.
Cons
Poor support for recipes migrated from MealMaster. Support advice via email is limited. It was not clear how ingredients were handled when found in an imported recipe. It took a relatively long time to import 14 recipes and add them to 200 or so.
Summary
BigOven was a candidate for my project to migrate many recipes from MealMaster. Unfortunately, BigOven did not properly parse recipes exported from MealMaster in any of the forms available. There were duplications in the ingredient details and section divisions in the ingredients section were lost. Instructions for each recipe were imported as one paragraph, losing all formatting and white space. This is so bad that the claim that they import MealMaster files may be misleading. The advice I received from the support section via email suggests that they know these limitations and have no plans to fix, but without being straightforward about it. They also closed the support ticket with that advice, without asking me.
Customer help a joke.
MoonBuzzardMay 27, 2009
Pros
Liked access to over 160,00 recipes
Cons
Security poor
Summary
Serial Num requires manual entry. Three mistakes..license goes void. They don't say anything about that up front....except after you've paid. Seem to have forgotten if they put security concerns before customer concerns...no customer. Read forums first. If you can't get in...well that should tell you something. If you can, hold on to your socks. A program with minimal support is a minimal program.
Wonderful! Easy to use
JKPear8956aNovember 2, 2008
Pros
Hundreds of recipes available
Cons
nothing. it's a great program
Summary
Heavy emphasis on community, member recipes, database.
TotallyChaoticAugust 28, 2008
Pros
The "try soon" feature is great for people like myself who have so many recipes they want to try but forget. You can create categories, great if you like to categorize by nationality - include obscure ones programs like this do not include by default
Cons
Emphasis on "community" is too heavy. As soon as you open the program "member" recipes are put in front of you on the screen. The emphasis in the program is on member-submissions and their own database. Many less common ingredients not recognized.
Summary
If your purpose in buying recipe software is to gain a big database of recipes, including a lot of member recipes from amateur cooks, this program is great. But if you aren't interested in said recipes and want a program that emphasises your own entries this program is not as good. The menus in the program heavily emphasize the database. It's hard to import recipes from the web (I could never import recipies from the Food Network website - had to manually type them in). A lot of ingredients are not recognized, especially international or more obscure ones (you can add them to the database). I got tired of wading through all the recipes the program was trying to push on me to get to my own, and tired of being greeted first thing upon launching the program with community member (amateur cook) recipes. One thing I did like about this program is you can add pictures to go with your recipes.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Aug 28, 2008<p/>I should have mentioned that it's impossible to copy and paste recipes from internet sites into Big Oven. You have to re-type everything. If you want to have a lot of recipes from the internet in your recipe software, that makes this program very tedious to use.

Developer’s Description

By Lakefront Software

Organize and share your recipes with this comprehensive database app.