◊ For each person information will be given as to who they are most, and least compatible with, and also the average compatibility between the person and all the others in the group – if this is high it means this person would get on well with the other people in the group. The level of compatibility between the two selected charts is shown in the middle, and features a percentage bar.
The bottom section gives general information about the whole set of charts – for example, which two people are most compatible within a group, and what is the average level of compatibility of the group – on average, it would be 50%, so if it is more then the group of people generally gets on well, etc.
All the compatibilities given can either be overall ones (averaging all three cycles) or you can concentrate on one of the three and view the physical compatibilities and rankings. Use the popup menu at the top to choose.
Finally, you can save all of the comparison data as a (big) text file – all information will be saved, for each person involved. However, the compatibilities saved will be those you chose in the first popup. In other words, the text file will only store overall or physical or emotional or intellectual compatibilities etc, and not all four at once.
Multiple comparison setup window
◊ Use this window to determine compatibility ratings for as many different people as you like. On the left is a list, to which you should add the charts you want compared together.
◊ Adding to list: To do this, click Add… and add the charts you want to the list in the standard file window, then click Done to add them to the main list, or Cancel to stop. Alternatively, click Load… to import a list of files that you previously saved.
◊ Removing an entry: Click Remove to delete a file from the list.
◊ File Information: Click on any chart in the list to see information about it.
◊ Saving a list: Click Save to save the list of entries as a special list file which you can import at any time. Double-clicking on one of these list files will open the setup window (unless it’s already open) and automatically add the files stored within, to the list.
◊ Compare: To start the comparison there must be at least two charts in the list: if there are two you will be transferred to the standard Chart Comparison window with the new data, if there are three or more a multiple comparison will take place. Each chart will then be compared with all the others, so that if you chose 20 charts 190 comparisons would be needed (19+18+17+…+3+2+1). In the Multiple Comparison Results window that then appears, you then pick two peoples' charts for comparison using the popup menus.
Preferences window
Chart Section:
◊ Automatically ‘Copy Picture’: If this is turned on then whenever a chart is updated it will be copied into the clipboard.
◊ Show date labels: If date labels are shown then for every day shown in a chart, its day of the month will be shown under the image, eg. 27, 28, 29. Thus each day shown in the chart is indicated by its number, at the bottom of the chart (eg. 18th October 1995 = 18). Month and year labels will only be shown if this option is turned on.
◊ Show line samples: If this is turned on then whenever a biorhythm chart is drawn then next to each cycle name is a sample of the particular colour/pattern/size combination used to draw that cycle.
◊ Start new charts on: Whenever new charts are created, their ‘current date’ is assumed to be today’s date, alternatively their current date can be set to the birth date of the person concerned.
◊ Favourite menu: The date format used by the Favourites menu can be edited with the popup menu – the peoples’ dates of births can be shown in full (standard), or even turned off if you have a small screen.
◊ Dim inactive controls: Whenever a window is inactive all the buttons will be dimmed so you can see they are inactive. This should really be turned on, but it is at the expense of speed.
◊ Smart Summary: If this is on, whenever you open a new chart the Summary window will automatically open too (if it isn’t already open).
◊ Summary starts small: If this option is on, then whenever Smart Summary happens, the Summary window will appear in its smallest size – where only four lines are visible.
Clicking Defaults will set the recommended settings, while clicking Fastest will optimise them for speed.
General Section:
◊ Chart status display: This is what you see at the bottom of a chart window when you move the magnifying-glass cursor – usually a date and the conditions present on that day. In this section, the date format can be altered, and you can choose not to display biorhythmic conditions.
◊ Multiple Comparison: Before you perform a Multiple Comparison, you add files to the list first, and these files are compared in the order they were added. You may prefer to have them sorted alphabetically (ascending order of name, A-Z) before this. The sorting takes no time at all.
◊ Synchro Scrolling: By pressing the arrow keys or clicking in the chart image, you can scroll the chart forward and backward. Eg. Chart starts on 5th October, user clicks on 11th October. The chart date will now become the 11th (an increase of 6 days). If Synchro is on, this same 6 day increment will be applied to all other charts, thus keeping them in synch with the first.
◊ Full window titles: If this is turned on, chart windows will be named with the full path name (including disks, folders etc) rather than just the file name.
◊ Date label is red: The date labels you see drawn underneath a chart usually have the 1st day in bold, and in red. This is just for emphasis. You can choose this treatment for a number of other days.
Clicking Defaults will set the recommended settings, while clicking Fastest will optimise them for speed.
Texture file Section:
In order for you to be able to use textures in chart images, Biorhythms must be able to use a file that contains textures. By default, it will use the file ‘Biorhythms Textures’ which should have been placed in the Preferences folder inside the System Folder. However if you already have a different texture file (and there’s lots of them about) you can use this one instead. Go to the Texture File page, press the Choose… button and select the file. Then press ‘Save’. Next time you start the program, textures from this file will be used.
NB 1: If that file cannot be used, the program will revert to using ‘Biorhythms Textures’. If this file cannot be found either, then you will not be able to use textures.
NB 2: The eight standard colour schemes assume that your using the standard texture file, If you aren’t then they won’t look quite right.
NB 3: Some textures you may meet are compressed – I cannot use these, I’m afraid! Furthermore, if a texture uses more colours than your screen will permit, they may not look very nice. If this is so, their names will be italicised in the Texture menus.
Startup Section:
◊ At startup: Here you can choose an action that will be carried out each time the program starts up. By default, the Handy Hint window will be displayed, though you can turn this option off.
Print Margins window
This is new for version 5.4c. See the Edit menu for information about this. The Item Spacing value determines how much space should be left between different elements when printing pictures from a Chart, Calendar or Comparison – how much gap between the calendar heading and the picture, or between the chart date summary and the interpretation text.
Printing Options window
This is new for version 5.4c. There are two allowed styles for printing text: the first for drawing the header when you print calendars, and the second for all other text. Choose the style you want to edit with the popup menu at the top. Then choose the font, size and style you want. These settings will be remembered if you switch to the other font style. For most text keep the size down – 12 or 14 point text should be best. Choose Save to store this information, Cancel to scrap it. Use the Picture Alignment buttons to align small Chart, Comparison, or Calendar pictures on a page. If you check the Frame Printable area button, a dotted line will be drawn round the page edges, just outside the margins.
Schedule window
This window allows you to save a list of your biorhythm cycle conditions, with or without interpretations, over a long period of time. As you would expect, clicking on the popup menus to the right of the date controls will pop up the date utilities menu. The progress bar will show how much has been saved. For each day I will save: the date, the cycle conditions [ eg. Physical (+), Emotional (-), Intellectual (C) ], and optionally the interpretation. The file will be saved in plain text form, for the wordprocessor you choose from the list.
Search window
Biorhythms’ search module is probably the most powerful aspect of the program. It allows you to search for particular combinations of conditions, for example: all the physically positive days in 1996 or all the days which do not have at least two positive conditions. Once you’ve selected your dates (clicking on the popups reveals more date options), and clicked the Search button (it looks like a magnifying glass), all the days that match your request will be placed in the list (or added on the end, if you prefer). This list can be saved as a text file. Double-clicking on one of the list items, or else clicking once and selecting Go to day will update your chart (behind this window) so that it starts on that day. To choose what to search for, click Settings.
Clicking in the popup menu allows you to choose whether or not to use normal speed or extra speed. The latter will reduce search time by around 75% (on my Mac, at least), the down side is that much of the progress information will be disabled. I'd stick to normal speed for short searches, or 'zeroing-in', and use extra speed for really long searches (more than a few months). The next time you search you can either have any days you found added to the list, or else replace it, choose which one using the popup menu. Furthermore, you can have the search results displayed as text (+)(-)(C) etc, or as attractive (with colour monitor!) pictures. Neither takes longer to draw or much more memory than the other, so it's up to you!
If you want more speed, choose the ‘Unstoppable (Faster)’ option: you’ll lose the (slightly) animated cursor and you won’t be able to stop the search (with Command Period), but speed will be increased slightly (5-10%)!
Search parameters window
Use this window to choose the conditions you want to search for. There are two kinds of search as you can see. The first radio button lets you search for specific conditions, the second is less specific. If you click the first radio button you could search for any day on which you are physically, emotionally and intellectually positive. But if you click the second radio button you can, for example, search for days on which just one of your cycles was negative (and the other two were anything else). If you check ‘all other days’ then you would be searching for any day on which you are not physically, emotionally and intellectually positive. It finds all days which were not what you have chosen below.
These settings will be stored in the Preferences file, so you can access them next time you run this application.
Scheme Editor window
You can have as many colour schemes as you like – you are no longer restricted to 8. Open the Scheme Editor window, and each available one will be shown in the list. To edit one, select it in the list. Its name will be shown at the top, where you can edit it. The controls in the right-hand section will change to show the colours and values currently stored in that scheme. You can change these values.
◊ Add: Click this to create a new scheme – it will initially be identical to the one you're currently working on.
◊ Remove: Click this to delete the selected scheme. This is not permanent, and you can Cancel afterwards.
◊ Modify: Click this before moving to another scheme to update the last one. You can also activate or deactivate schemes by clicking their checkbox.
◊ Use defaults: This fills in the standard colours: red, blue, and green; black pattern; 3 points thick; etc.
◊ Use current colours: If available, this copies the colours from the chart just behind this window, into the Editor window. So next time you see a chart with a really nice look, choose a scheme to edit, click this, then Save it. Now that style will be saved for safe keeping.
◊ Cancel: Abandon all your changes.
◊ Save: Save all your changes and update the Schemes menu.
Texture information window
◊ This window contains a popup menu, which allows you to view all of the textures and a little bit of information about each one.
