How do the Pantry and Shopping Lists work together?

The Merge feature will merge your shopping list into your pantry. However, you will need to use the "Make New Shopping List From Pantry" command from the File Menu to merge your pantry into your shopping list.

In your shopping list you have these items with checkmarks to show that you NEED them:

1 gallon milk
2 cups sugar

Now press the Merge button and go look at your pantry which now shows you have:

1 gallon milk
2 cups sugar

It assumes you purchased these items and adds them to your pantry.

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Now set your pantry up like this (with no checkmarks to show that you DON'T HAVE them):

1 pound butter
2 cups flour

Now use the command: Make New Shopping List From Pantry from the File Menu. Go take a look at your shopping list, which now looks like this:

1 pound butter
2 cups flour

with checkmarks so that they will print because you need to go buy them.

Now you can add recipes or whatever to this shopping list and save it.

I understand how it adds ingredients to my shopping list that aren't part of my pantry, but how do I find out which ingredients from my recipes that I need to buy before I go shopping?

You use the Merge button. Your pantry needs to have amounts and units for the items too.

Set up your Pantry so it has your ingredients with amounts and units. Press the CHECK ALL button at the bottom so you have a checkmark in the Have column.

Create a Shopping List. Press the CHECK ALL button at the bottom so you have a checkmark in the Need column.

Press the MERGE button. This causes it to look in the Pantry. It will see the things in your pantry and REMOVE the checkmarks from the Need column of those ingredients in the shopping list. Only those items that have checkmarks will print.

You can select several shopping list rows, such as those that don't have a checkmark, and right click and delete them.

To Try:

Create a pantry that has these things:

4 cups flour
1 gallon water
1 pound butter

Make sure there are checkmarks in the HAVE column.

Create a shopping list that has these things:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 ounce butter

Make sure there are checkmarks in the NEED column.

Then press the Merge button while looking at your shopping list. It should remove the checkmarks from your items in the shopping list stating that you don't need them. They won't print either.