PC Master 5/PC MASTER 5.iso/SHARE/WIN31/SOLFIR/README.DOC

Text File | 1996-11-27 | 9.6 KB | 196 lines

SOLAR FIRE - VERSION 3.13 - 27th November 1996
==============================================

GENERAL NOTES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
=====================================

FONTS
-----

Solar Fire uses 2 truetype fonts and 1 screen font. These are "Solfire"
"Solfire Bold" and "SF Sans Serif". If you already have a copy of Solar
Fire, Solar Spark or JigSaw installed onto your computer, then it is
recommended that you remove these fonts BEFORE installing the program.
If you do not do this, then the installation program may not be able to
update the existing fonts automatically (as Windows prevents them from
being accessed). If this happens, then you not see the correct glyphs for
the Transneptunian planets and a few other items, when printing a
chart. (You could also get an error message indicating that there is
a problem with the font, in some circumstances.)

To ensure that this problem will not arise, before installing

1. Insert the installation disk 3 of 3 into your floppy drive
2. Open the Windows CONTROL PANEL from the MAIN window.
3. Select the FONTS icon by double-clicking on it.
4. Select the "SF Sans Serif", "Solfire" and "Solfire Bold" fonts from the
   list of installed fonts.
5. Select the REMOVE button.
6. When asked to confirm, ensure that the "Delete Font File From Disk"
   box is selected with a check mark.
7. Close the FONTS windows and CONTROL PANEL.
8. You can now install Solar Fire.

Also note that, if your copy of Windows is a network enabled version, then
it is likely that the "Solfire" fonts will not be correctly installed by
the installation program. In this case Solar Fire will give an error
message whenever it starts up, suggesting that the program be re-installed.
In this case, the Solfire fonts should be manually loaded as follows:

1. Insert the installation disk 3 of 3 into your floppy drive
2. Open the Windows CONTROL PANEL from the MAIN window.
3. Select the FONTS icon by double-clicking on it.
4. Click on the ADD... button.
5. Select your diskette drive (ie. Drive A or B).
6. Select the "Solfire" and "Solfire Bold" fonts from the
   list of available fonts.
7. Click on the OK button.
8. You can now run Solar Fire without any further font problems.



CHART FILES
-----------

The v3 chart file format has changed from that of v2. However, one of the
supplied executables (CONVCHRT.EXE) automatically converts any old chart
files to the new format whenever they are opened in Solar Fire. (A copy
of the old version is kept with a .cho extension, in case you have any
problems and need to re-access the old version.)

Note that the CONVCHRT.EXE utility can also be used to convert charts from
v3 back to v2 format, if necessary.


CHANGES TO USER GUIDE
---------------------

The following changes were made too late to include in the printed user
guide. However, the on-line Solar Fire Help file does include all of these
alterations. Where any discrepancy exists between the user guide and the
on-line help file, the on-line help file will always have the more up-to-
date information.

1. Black Moon Lilith - This should always be read as Black Moon Lilith (mean
position). Its true position is very difficult to calculate accurately. Its
mean position, though, as calculated in Solar Fire, is accurate to better
than one minute of arc.
Also, the glyph for the Black Moon Lilith was changed since the manual
was printed. To see the correct glyph, refer to the tabulation of glyphs
in the reference section of the on-line help file.

2. It is now possible to print more than one chart or grid at a time by
selecting multiple items from the list of calculated charts. The menu items
"Print Current Chart..." and "Print Current Grid..." have been altered to
"Print Chart..." and "Print Grid..." as a consequence of this change.

3. The wheel designer may be used to design dials down to 10 degree modulus.
Previously the lower limit was 30 degrees.

4. The Proportional Houses option is automatically overridden whenever a
chart which includes a zodiac ring is displayed. This is necessary in order
to ensure that planetary positions and house cusps are shown in the correct
position relative to the zodiac ring.

5. It is now possible to save more than one chart at a time by selecting
multiple items from the list of calculated charts. When the "Save to File..."
option is chosen, all of the selected charts will be saved to the chosen
chart file.

6. The Time Map now has an additional option, which allows you to switch
between displaying transit hit numbers and dates of majoe events in the
time map display. Transit hits are displayed in the format 1:3, 2:3, 3:3
to indicate the 1st, 2nd and 3rd hist of a 3 hit transit, for example.
These are only shown for exact hits of planets, asteroids and transneps.
Dates are displayed in the format 23/4 or 4/23 for the 23rd April, depending
on the date format selected in your Windows International settings. These
are shown for all events aprt from Entering or Leaving events.

7. Entry of dates now has extra flexibility and options. Instead of AD or BC
to show the era, the user may now also enter A.D., CE, C.E., B.C., BCE or
B.C.E.. Additionally, the user may also enter OS, O.S., NS, or N.S. to
indicate whether the entered date is in the old style or new style calendar.

8. The formula for the Part of Fortune as displayed in the chart may now
be selected as an option under the Preferences menu. It is possible to
choose to use either a different day/night formula depending on whether the
chart is a daytime chart or a nighttime chart, or to use only the formula
for daytime charts, regardless of whether the chart is daytime or nighttime.

9. The chart import utility now also allows other Solar Fire charts to be
imported. This is useful if you wish to get charts off a diskette, or if
you wish to import charts from an earlier version of Solar Fire.

10. If you are using a color printer, the print dialog box now offers an
additional option to select between i) Color/Greyscale or ii) Black Only.
This allows you to override the settings in the printer driver.

11. When you calculate prenatal Bailey conception or Jayne Uranus charts,
Solar Fire now suggests which of the possible charts to select by
highlighting that suggestion in the list of possibilities. The method used
to select the chart is based on Bailey's methodology.

12. There is now a new option for relocating progressed and directed charts.
In normal operation, when calculating progressed or directed charts, if a
new location is entered by the user, then the resulting chart is calculated
as if the natal chart had been relocated to that new location before the
progressions or directions are applied. However, when the new option is
enabled, the resulting chart is calculated as if the natal chart was
relocated only to the latitude of the new location before the progressions
or directions are applied (the longitude remains unchanged). This applies to
the calculation of progressed and directed charts as well as to the
calculation of progressions and directions in the dynamic reports.
    In order to enable this option, a line must be added to the SOLFIRE3.INI
file, which resides in the WINDOWS/SYSTEM subdirectory. (Any text editor can
be used to do this.) This line must read:-
    RelocateLatOnly= -1
If this line is missing, or if it is set to any value other than -1, then
it is not enabled, and relocations will be performed according to the normal
method.

13. Ephemeris generator has two new options, which can be accessed by
invoking the program with a command line parameter ie.
    sfephem.exe DECIMAL
When the parameter DECIMAL is present on the command line, all subsequent
ephemeris output appears in decimal degrees instead of zodiacal annotation
with glyphs. Also, the ephemeris viewing screen will then have a new button
called DUMP... which allows the user to select a file to which the ephemeris
is dumped in comma quote delimited format. This format is useful for importing
the data into spreadsheets or other programs, for example.

14. The dynamic module uses only the applying orb for any aspects used
in creating the report. However, the aspect editor allowed different
applying/separating orbs to be entered by the user. To avoid any confusion
the aspect editor has been altered to ensure that the applying and
separating orbs for transits are automatically forced to be identical.

15. The interpretations may now be viewed in a word processor of your
choice, without the need for specifying a location for an exported text
file. Further, the interpretations may be automatically formatted (eg. bold
headings, centred text etc.) for a more attractive appearance. In order to
select a word-processor of your choice, open the interpretations window
and select the "Word Processor" option from the "options" menu. Look in
the on-line help file under "How to Use Solar Fire"/"Viewing Interpretations"
/"Viewing a Full Interpretations Report". Note that these new features
also affect the "Export Text" of the dynamic report viewing screen.



INSTALLATION
============

1. Start Microsoft Windows
2. Choose "File" from the Program Manager Menu
3. Chose "Run" option from the "File" menu
4. Type at the prompt

     A:SETUP

   (Substitute your floppy disk drive address if necessary e.g. B:SETUP)
5. Follow the instructions given by the setup program

If you have a previous version of Solar Fire, then it is recommended
that you install the program to the same directory as your old
version. This is necessary to ensure that you will have immediate
access to all your old chart files and other data files.