I really want this option too.  My family likes the idea of a family cook book but they wanted the categories to be inside jokes.

And we are vegetarian and I don't need/want the meat or fish sections (seems weird to leave empty) and would like a general main dish or cheese section to capture the main dishes we eat.  Is there another web-site that does this?  I have already entered 30 recipes, but i might consider starting over as this is really going to be odd!

The lack of this feature is the main reason I have not bought anything from Tastebook. The best way to vote for the addition of this feature is to keep your money and let Tastebook know they are losing sales!

I too am in the group that refuses to purchase what I have created until they offer this feature.  I am creating a holiday theme cookbook and want each tab to represent a holiday....not have all the recipes a huge mixed jumble.  Also the alphabetizing drives me nuts. Why would I want my recipe titles to be Stew - Beef, Stew - Vegetable.  Why can't I just re-order the recipes however I wish.  I am willing to pay extra for these features too.....Tastebook could just make them an "option" for a higher price.

You really should make plans to offer this, or at least revamp what you do offer.  What is the difference between "bites" and "appetizers"?  And you have no vegetable section at all unless you think all vegetable dishes are sides.  And what about sandwiches? 

i want my book to have chapters for the major holidays.  i would buy an entire book just to have holiday divisions.  you really need to create this feature.

Oh man. I am completely frustrated that we aren't able to use our own categories!  S Nissan, how can we put pressure on the powers that be to make this change??

As a vegetarian I find it ridiculous that I am not able to organize my meals as MAIN DISHES or other such title.  Only offering meat-centric titles seems strange since there is a vegetarian option for purchase through TBs.  How did you organize those recipes if you only had meat titles?

Why isn't this an option?  It can't be that hard to do in a database based application.

I agree!  I really want to set my own categories.  I am also vegetarian, and am very irked that I have to have a "meat" category that will have no recipes in it.  It doesn't seem like this would be a hard thing to do, to be able to make it customized.  I will probably not purchase my tastebook, which is unfortunate because there are so many cool features that I like about it.

I agree also!  I would love to be able to customize sections, and until that is a possibility i will not be purchasing a tastebook even though i think this service is amazing, and so far the best i've found out there.  Having empty sections is not something I want. In addition I have so many recipes that I was considering doing a entire book just on Desserts (with tabs on dairy, fruit, pies), another on Sauces (cream, dressings), another on Baking (bread, rolls, sweet, savory) etc.  If we can't change our tabs then it would not be possible. 

It would also be nice to customize the art on dividers the same way you can customize the cover of the book.

I am surprised that there are no plans for this as it seems like a basic that any serious cook would want. I want to do a book too but will find a different way or wait for this feature.

I totally agree.  I want a tab just for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Or at a minimum at least a "holiday" section.  Tastebook, please, please, please reconsider your position on this.

I also agree! I want to be able to have a seasonal cookbook. Make this happen and I will definately purcahase many for Christmas.

Does anyone know of another site that offers this option?

Add another vote for customizable categories.  I realize that you can just remove from the binder the categories you don't use (for example, I don't eat seafood, so I'll just remove that page).  However, there are recipes I have that don't fit any of the offered categories  I'm surprised there is not a "Main Dishes" category, since many main dishes do not feature meat.  Also, I would like to make a dessert only cookbook, but categorize it into 'cookies', 'cakes', etc. 

I'll be checking back to see if this feature is added in the future. Thanks for listening! :)

I'm 100% with you. Give the customers what they're clamoring for. This can't be a big deal programming-wise. Put someone on it for a day or two and solve the problem. Don't make excuses. 

I am another vegetarian wishing I didn't have empty tabs in my cookbook.  I would love customizable tabs to reflect how my family eats, since most of our food probably looks like side dishes to other families, but are main dishes to us.  PLEASE allow us to do this... before I have to print a cookbook for a wedding gift in February!

I agree.  The lack of ability to customize the title pages and to order the recipes how I want is incredibly annoying.  I can make a book at other sites like Blurb with any format I want.  This seems like a very basic feature to offer and should be added.  Half the recipes I put in my book are personal anyway, so the download feature from Epicurious, etc., is only mildly convenient.  I also don't like not being bale to add my own photos to the pages from Epicurious that don't have them included. 

Please, please, PLEASE allow for customizable dividers or chapters.

I was planning on ordering several TBs as gifts this year but will not (cannot) do so until I can name my own categories. As a vegetarian I categorize the foods we eat much differently than a typical meat-eater might. 

Please consider offering this option. Until then, I will not be printing.

I must be able to arrange my own chapters or I will discontinue my tastebook account. Certainly it would be simple to add a program just like your title program but for individual chapters. I would like fish, seafood, beef, poultry, pork, lamb, pasta etc and I would be willing to pay extra for it. Thank you.

I started creating my Tastebook, but am unhappy with the categories offered so I am going to pay a little more and create my book through Blurb instead. I will change my mind if Tastebook fix this soon.

i too will not purchase until i can customize chapters. love the idea, but my 'tastes' don't exactly follow the rules that Tastebook has set forth.

I agree with this - it is especially annoying for those with dietary restrictions, such as vegtarians - it's just strange to have those chapters in the book when they are not used.  Though we can take those out, it looks weird to have two tabs missing.

I agree with everyone else.  I was so excited about this site and just today went to try to do chapters and realized you can't.  I wanted to do a cookbook on just breakfast foods but this is impossible if I can't change the categories.  Please do something!!!

I am so frustrated by this!  I began creating a book for my friends wedding but want it to be more personalized AND she is a vegetarian so I don't want meat chapters.  Someone mentioned Blurb...are there any other good websites to use?  I'm willing to pay extra.

I agree.   I would like a Passover category.

With all the people asking for this feature why has TasteBook not answered - - - It is incredibly difficult to put recipes in any real order with such a limited number of categories - - - We are all wanting our cookbooks to be ours, that is difficult to do when forced to utilize tabs that just don't fit our particular type of cooking.... Please make alternate categories a reality for us Tastebook.... Thank you....

I agree - this especially is difficult for those of us who are vegetarian.  It would be wonderful to be able to have custom categories - or at least a Main Dish category!

DITTO! I want to be able to edit the section titles and the stock photos!!! Tastebook, listen to these recommendations and EVERYONE will win!!!

Tastebook,  listen up.  Your losing customers...myself included.  Work with the Vegetarians, Vegans, Gluten-free, Live-Foodies, and others trying to promote healthy cooking and eating.  The Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) is not what I want to aspire to or pass on to family.  When I do a search for Vegetarian, stop giving me meat recipes.  When I do a search for 101Cookbooks recipes (which is a mostly vegan/vegetarian blog), and is something you offer for me to pull recipes from, I get nothing.  Allow us to customize our cookbooks so they are uniquely ours.  

I just joined Tastebook, thinking it would be a good replacement for storing tons of hard copy recipes (torn pages from magazines, etc). Literally the only stipulation was checking to make sure I could tag recipes with things important to me. Since apparently we can't do that, I don't plan on using Tastebook. Tagging is an extremely fundamental part of any social networking site, so it's surprising to me that not only is it not planned, but the suggestion is to alter titles to be more descriptive and thus, more cluttered and awkward. This isn't 2000, please add this baseline feature.

I am having same issue - making family cookbook and need some specific tabs for different holidays/dishes.

Also want to add one divider for grandmas old day recipes :( does anyone know of a website that can do this?

I just typed in 75 recipes! But it may be worth more work if I can find one that does this.

Its just silly that for something so customized you cant change something so simple! 

I'm glad I realized that I cannot cusomize categories before I put a lot of work into this.  I will go back to createmycookbook.com which I've used in the past.  It's unfortunate because I liked some of the other features that tastebook.com offers.

Beth:  Thank you for suggesting createmycookbook.com . This is what I have been looking for!  I have held off making another cookbook from tastebook because it's just plain impractical without customizable tabs.  It is even more disappointing that tastebook has ignored the generous cutomer feedback (if this is how many people who have posted comments, imagine how many have just ditched the website without saying anything) after offering solutions that do not address what the customers are looking for.  Maybe they have stopped monitering the forums??   In any case, I've given up on tastebook.  Too bad.

Yes Jessica!  I totally agree.  I also will be switching to createmycookbook.com.  It really is too bad that they are not responding to our request.

Are you serious Tastebook?  You are not going to let us create our own categories?  So sad.

I am VERY angry at Tastebook.  I started three cookbooks after I got married over TWO years ago. One of which is a Holiday cookbook and requires custom categories for each holiday.  At the time, I noticed the limited custom options, but Tastebook was clearly changing so I just assumed they would add these features as more people purchased books and asked for them.  I started adding recipes and saw that they created this board for feedback, so I was then positive that the features I needed would soon be added.  but no...and for what reason?  Does Tastebook not care about its customers?  Do they really think we want to order a "Vegetarian" cookbook with a "Meat" tab??  It makes no sense.  I have written personal emails to Tastebook and added multiple comments on this site, but they just do not seem to care.  All I want too is the option to order my own tabs separately and to be able to put my recipes in any order that I wish.  The book is a BINDER...you add the tabs yourself anyway.  All they have to do is offer a custom tab option (if they want to charge more...go ahead!) and allow you to put your recipes in any order you wish.  That way when the book is printed, you can put your recipes in the order you want with breaks where your custom tabs will go...how is this not a possiblity to be added to the current system?  Alas, I have given up.  It has been two years and I am now ready to print my books, but I will instead find another site to copy and paste my recipes and pictures into and order from them.  Too bad Tastebook, you lost yet another customer.

I, too, am VERY suprised they have not added a custom tab feature. I made a Tastebook back in 2007 as a gift when it was still relatively new and I complained about that feature then. The book I made was great, and of very nice quality.  I have had a whole dessert  tastebook that I made back then just sitting and waiting for them to offer custom tabs (clearly their preset tabs do not accomodate a book about just desserts!) 4 years later and they STILL haven't added this feature. As someone else said, this is losing them a lot of business b/c not surprisingly, I have never ordered that book. This is really frustrating that they have not taken user wishes into account and have limited themselves (and us) as a result. I wish they would comment on why they are not offering this feature. What could possibly be the problem?????

So this is a shame I was going to make a family cook book but I wanted to make it bilingual and I can't.  It seems senseless for me to even bother making a book if it can only be read by English speaking members of the family.  Considering some of the best family recipes would come from older relatives who do not speak English.  So much for making a family cookbook.  I'll have to look at other option online.

Just wanted to add yet another vote for custom categories. I realize there are clunky work-arounds that we can all use for now (removing tabs, renaming recipes, etc.), but can an admin at least speak up and give reasoning for this not being offered, or perhaps (hopefully?) a timeline for when it might be available?

The images and format you offer are far superior to any other site I've tried to work with for a family cookbook project, but the lack of customizable features would mean spending a good deal on a not-quite-what-I-wanted gift. Doable, but not satisfactory.

I wanted to create a cook book for two months of quick,easy, and healthy recipes for my family to use during our busy sports season.  I wanted the categories to be week 1, week 2,etc and to have the first page of each category be a shopping list.  Tried doing this with tastebook but just too difficult.  Going to check out createmycookbook.com now.

I just spent 3 hours loading my personal recipes to this site only to find out i can't delete or change the categories. I wanted to present seasonal recipes based on my Organic Farmers Market...was going to order about 50 of these cookbooks, but now i have to start all over again with another site. This is extremely disappointing!

Agreed! We're creating a book for a friend and nearly all the contributions are vegetarian. This book's set-up is going to look kind of lame with big empty sections and the soups/salads section far outweighing the rest. Tastebook, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give users the option to change tabs. The pages themselves are lovely but it's a shame the book is so out of balance.

Umm... Tastebook, are you listening? This is probably the greatest flaw in your product, but it seems you're content to remain silent while the complaints pile up. I wonder how many people simply went elsewhere without bothering to track down this forum.

No, Tastebook is not listening. They really suck at customer wants/needs/satisfaction. God help you if you have an issue...good luck getting service.

They do have a very good product, though and what they have to offer is quick,  relatively easy and inexpensive, while still being customizable.  But they are one of the most rigid, narrow thinking companies I've dealt with. It's such a shame. Wish they'd wake up!

I just imported all recipes to find that I cannot change the categories or the order in which they are presented within a category without strange recipe naming conventions.  This is really disappointing and a basic product feature.  What is wrong with this company?

The least TB can do is respond to this thread.  I think one thing we can do is "like" Tastebook on Facebook and then ask them questions there...maybe there will be a better response.

Add me to the growing list of potential customers that would like to personalize categories...there is not even a crockpot/slow cooker tab

I definitely agree with this. I would be ordering a bunch of these if there was a way to cusomize the tab names. Not everyone's kitchen falls in line with TasteBook's organization methods... this is a much-needed improvement.

I just signed up and was so excited to make a cookbook until I realized I couldn't make my own categories.  I am now switching to createmycookbook.com instead.  What a bummer!

I want to make a cookbook to organise my cookie recipies. I would have had one just for all my chocolate chip recipies and bars and things like that. I think that I'm going to switch websites as well. I had a normal book going, but some of the categories I knew I wasn't going to use, and there wassn't a category for some of the recipies I already had. Bummer....

I think you all should "like" them on Facebook and complain.  I did that but they said not many people are wanting the customizable tabs!  Really????

I agree with Gina, we should like them on facebook and then not like the category tabs.  Interesting that I have to put so much effort into something I would like to buy but won't until they have this functionality.  Glad someone said something about Blurb.  At least I can control the order of the recipes and put in a table of contents for my category list.

Yay...finally!!!!! Thank you!