Astrolog32, as a default, launches with an 'Here and Now' chart - it uses the 'here' you chose in the set-up ~ your hometown, most likely ~ , and the computer base-time, adjusted for time-zone as you chose in your installation dialogs, and perhaps, plus a docking of one hour to run matching your pc's Daylight-Saving-Time. From there, you can set it to any chart data you like, via the [Edit] or [File] menus.

BEFORE YOU DIVE IN: One thing you should know:

When charting in a different time-zone to your own, Astrolog has an enduring quirk, that it needs a minus before an easting of hours, viz: minus seven, -7, to hop from Chicago Time to Paris Time; and a plus (or nothing) before a westing of hours, viz: plus seven, +7, 7, to hop from Paris Time to Chicago's. See Timezones.

Astrolog32 displays a chart after you've browsed to its file; after clicking [File] > [Open Main Chart], or keyboard-switch Alt+o, you'll be offered the \Charts folder-window, like the image at right; or you can go [File] > [Open Chart #2], or Alt+Shift+o, to load chart #2.

  NOTE: Those two different keyboard shortcuts aren't Alt+zero! that's Alt+o for orange!

    ...navigate through the folder offered to the chart you want, and go 'Open'.

  NOTE: going [File] > [Open Chart #2], it'll load but it won't be seen - in order to see it, go Shift+x to swap charts. For charts #3, #4, it's menu or command-line only to load them, and they too remain invisible unless called to a multiwheel.

ANOTHER WAY #1: Charts in batches can be opened in a series, through using Astrolog32's [File] > [Search charts] engine: they will picked out by some common factor or factors, see 'Search Charts'.
After putting in the parameters you want shared throughout the batch, and clicking 'Search', they can all be reviewed, one after the other alphabetically, or pick one out, to view: single charts can be hunted too, by name - but remember, Astrolog searches the 'hidden' names (see Naming files), not the Windows™ filenames.

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ANOTHER WAY #2: where you can remember a filename, it may be opened quicker by Astrolog32 command-line: typing -i(space)filename.DAT will raise filename.dat - use upper or lower case spellings - doesn't matter! but it's only the top folder, \charts (find paths in astrolog32.DAT), which will be searched, not any sub-folders. If it can't find the named file there, it will, supplementarily, search \main and \miscellaneous. See ABOUT SWITCHES, to read about the i switch.

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ANOTHER WAY #3: keep frequently-used chart-data available in Notepad, Excel, or Wordpad! The /qb lines from in any .DAT files you have may be highlighted-and-copied (go Ctrl+c to copy), then pasted in some text-file (like some my-regulars.TXT), or other prog (like some my-qbs.XLS), - put each entry on a different line, (adding a semi-colon, then the native's name, before adding the next entry on the line below); - like this:
    /qb 5 12 1928 12:00:00 ST +6:00 94:34'43W 39:05'00N; Bacharach, Burt
    /qb 9 29 1907 12:00:00 ST +6:00 96:55'06W 33:28'00N; Autry, Gene ...
  ...when a line is highlighted-and-copied, and then pasted into the Astrolog32 command-line (see ABOUT SWITCHES), it is then 'OK'ed & the chart displayed, - only without the chart-name, - when you press Enter key. Try It - check out Burt Bacharach, for instance..
This is a very compact way of hoarding the charts which you've made already, then quickly loading data to one, or multiple, launchings of Astrolog32. But if you omit the "/qb" part, you can crash the program, or turn on 'Decans'!

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ANOTHER WAY #4: keep key chart-data available in macros! New-style V. 2.04+ releases can, with the MACRO folder 'on', call charts from some of the F-keys - see New Macros; old macros too can call up charts, - see Standard Macros.

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ANOTHER WAY #5: in V.3.20/3.30+, keep key chart-data available in 'Celebrity Charts', a pop-up list in the [File] menu which can be edited to carry your own faves, separate from the (usually larger) \Celebs free download.

Info on the Objects & their meanings, see Objects       Identify Aspect-Grid's glyphs, here       Astrological words, try LookUp Timezone abbreviations, see here;       Time-Differences from U.T. (0°00), open World-Times       To switch to 24-hour clocks, go here Change your House-System, see (De)-Restrictions, & FAQs here;       to make new chart, click here       Installing to best suit 'New Macros', choose Step 4, or Step 5. For updating your default location/ your timezone/ if DST, go here;       Going to print, click here;      to save, click here

PUTTING-TOGETHER OF ASTROLOG32'S OUTPUTS calls for a page-maker ( this Companion has one! - in .DOC format - click here to open it; or click the Title .gif of this Companion..

• - individual text-screens can be copied for pasting by going
    [Edit] > [Copy Chart as Text], or Ctrl+Shift+5, (watch Astrolog32 flip into text!) ..
    then paste them as snippets in your chosen document, Ctrl + v.


• - while the graphics images can be copied for pasting, going
    [Edit] > [Copy Chart as Bitmap], or Ctrl+Shift+6, (watch Astrolog32 flip into graphics!), ..
    and pasting the image/text into a place you want, as here.

ALTERING SETTINGS, BUT FOR GOOD: Settings are not autosaved - - saving your charts is easy, here.   but saving the settings you prefer involves saving the Config. File! ,   and, well, there are TWO ways of saving the Config. file, - click on to a special section, TWO KINDS OF SAVING, which explains the advantages of each method, RED and BLUE.

And on the topic of the Config. file astrolog32.DAT, it's worth knowing right from the start that Astrolog32's Config. file is accessible to you the user, but at risk of being tragically lost once it's personalized, - more in danger from the program's RED kinds of saving than from any edits you may make subsequently

The Config file controls what you get..

ESSENTIAL KNOW-HOWS FOR PROGRAM & CLIPBOARD MANAGEMENT

Global Shortcut COPY HIGHLIGHTED TEXT Hold down Control ~ Hit c

Special Astrolog switch SWAP BETWEEN TEXT & GRAPHICS Hit the 'v' key!

Global Shortcut     PASTE COPIED TEXT     Hold down Control ~ Hit v

These keyboard-switches are essential, to deal with address-lines, command-line, text-snippets, and image-transfers: also pasting in from LIST of COMMANDS, or pasting file-paths into the Search dialog, (which see below). Right-click menus and the Edit menu often can't capture your best snippets - an example use, watch green animated illustration here.

GETTING INTO KEYBOARD SWITCHES? click <11:47 AM 31-May-23a href="#mf">here (v), here (Shift+v), here (n), here (c) and here (x) for the five most crucial ones used in the English Astrolog32, and open the KEYBOARD SWITCHES page for lots more - and the essential tips for their use.

CLICK, FOR MORE SOLUTIONS IN 18 HOT COMPANION TARGETS.

Stuff here, lookups there.. for me, using Astrolog alongside my accumulated text, templates, tables & pics got easy and fast, after it dawned on me I'd have to make my own created worktop, with ~ look-ups for changing paths (in an .RTF or .TXT, to re-direct a search), ~ or some pages of snippets for presentations, comparisons ~ pull-out folders of statistics~ the Console Folder (below!)...

    DODGE No. 1          

Fed up with rootling about in your \astrolog32 folder, just to tweak things? If you want quick access to one, or several, of the folders nested in Astrolog (e.g. 'charts\personal', 'main', 'atlas\american'), and/or to relevant docs, then create a 'Management Center' or 'Console' folder (on your Desktop, or in My Documents, or wherever).

Here's how: First, create and name a folder in (say) \desktop, called 'MY_A32_HUB'.
..fill it with:

• link to \charts folder
• link to \Miscellaneous folder
• snippets, pics of immediate interest
• the Helpfile, or a link to it
• a shortcut to the Config.file, astrolog32.DAT, for edits/viewing..
• weblinks to 'Astrolog32.altervista.org'
• a link to the program astrolog32.exe itself here, too: see how.

Leave the folder and create a shortcut to it - put the shortcut in QuickLaunch.

Now you can fire up or modify Astrolog32, inspect, corral, and load files-to-view, and handle the \charts folder, from one place!

If you have charts in the \charts folder, your program will open them when you go [File] > [Open mainchart], or [File] > [Open chart 2], both options offering a folder-view of \charts, - though there is no constraint on you hunting them down, to open, or to edit them in Notepad, within your \charts folder open in Windows Explorer™! ~ this is why a shortcut to your \charts folder is important! ~ to delete your chartfiles, this is the safe & practical way!

If you have text-files saved from your work, just skip opening the Astrolog32 program, use Windows Explorer™, navigate to \miscellaneous and open them in the text-editor of your choice (such texts would include aspect-lists, interpretations, help-lists, positions, ephemerides-printoffs.. all generated by Astrolog and sent to \miscellaneous).

Filename searches of multiple folders in \charts, using 'Windows Explorer™':
Given that you just want to find a chart by its filename, your operating system's Search-within-Folder is more versatile than Astrolog32's, in as much as you can switch to a different path, and a different folder, more quickly, if you draw a blank.

Actually your options for getting an entry onscreen are many: you can, firstly, raise the chart by opening it in Notepad, copying its /qb line into Astrolog's command line, then clicking 'OK' (you don't get to see the /zi line info); the proper way, using Astrolog32's [File] > [Open Main Chart], is a second option; thirdly, go the swish route of modding Astrolog32 so that files open in the program simply with a double click, as they do in Astrolog 6.30 and 7 - see DODGE No. 7 for how; fourthly, use Astrolog32's 'Search Charts',.. you can simply go Alt+s, shorten the address to C:\whatever\astrolog32 so as to embrace folders other than ..\charts, type in a bit of the name, and click 'Search',.. then pick and then 'OK'; fifthly, see yet more..

Going [File] > [Search Charts] opens a small but still very useful set of filters, selecting up to five definers for a search of the charts:

• any part of the filename
• any one luminary, planet or any object, filtered by Zodiacal sign, so if you remember the Sun sign, but not the name, you can filter for that
• particular aspect between any two luminaries, planets, (& Nodes, Uranians, East or West Point, if you have them on)
• one luminary, planet or any object filtered by its House
• one luminary, planet or any object in a chosen Gauquelin sector

You can load filters, using all five lines! .. and _pos.DAT files can be returned if you type in the ending .._pos.DAT - likewise with choosing .AS, or .A32 files.
'Alt+s' is the keyboard switch to call this Search feature in English Astrolog32 ('Ctrl+c' in the Italian.)

Note 1. there is no filter for year - unless you inserted the year in the file-name when you saved it; then you could put it in the 'search for'...'in name' field.

Note 2. Any folder can be searched, not just \charts.

Note 3. If you click  Search, with 'subfolders' ticked, but none of the filter-lines, 'Search charts' will supply all the charts in your selected folder, in alphabetical order.

Don't click  OK yet!

When the hourglass vanishes, any results appearing in the box on the right can be opened with a double-click, or you can flip through the series, starting anywhere from the first alphabetically, by highlighting it, clicking the 'OK' button, then going Ctrl+n to go on to the next.

Charts raised can be progressed/regressed with the 'p' switch, or otherwise modified, and then re-saved. ~ you can then move on to the next, or back to the previous of the listed charts, if you want to, or even interrupt your search to make a new chart, and then pick up the searched returns again by going Ctrl+n.

To go to the next / go back:
  exclusively when you have called a search up, the menu-options [File] > [Open next chart] (Ctrl+n) and [File] > [Open previous chart] (Ctrl+r) will work one-by-one through your searched charts in sequence, to the first, or last, of the list that [File] > [Search charts] has provided.   ( Italian has Ctrl+s for next, Ctrl+p for previous in sequence.)


NOTE: Look out for three catches:

that you must tick the tickbox to the left of each filter-line you're using;
secondly, when the 'Search Charts' dialog box has been filled in, you must click 'Search', not 'OK';
thirdly, you may need to tick the tickbox for 'Search subfolders'.

EXAMPLE: 'Who, in my \charts folder, has Uranus at the Vertex?'

  Go [Settings]> [Object Selections], and make sure that Uranus (in 'Planets'), and 'Vertex' (in 'Points') are ticked..
  Open [File] > [Search] - If you have a filter for timed charts, put that in Search "Only with definer in name" field; or, use "Celebrities";
  In the middle line of the five filters starting "Only With", click the initial tickbox, then select [Uranus], then [conjunct], then [Vertex]; click  Search   Aha! John Galsworthy..

    DODGE No. 2          

Filling in that 'SEARCH DIRECTORY' field?

You can select a particular or network subfolder to search - click the ['..'] box, - but in my folder system, this navigation was impossibly lengthy!.. having your preferred path to hand, to paste into the "Search Directory" address field is what's ideal so open Notepad:

Copy into it the address-lines to folders you frequently access.. separated by two empty lines - I shall call this file Popup.DAT!..
- I added my favourite destinations, a command-switch reminder, and an interesting snippet, or two:
I saved my Popup.DAT in \Miscellaneous, to use as needed...

Access via [Run] > [Open Command File], select Popup.DAT, right-click, go Open with.. and pick Notepad.

NOTE: You can equally well save .TXT, or .DOC, or .HTML, in \charts folder, and access it through the [File] > Open Chart #1 dialog's window, in every case,
changing the file-type field to see displayed "All Files"; then, right-click on the file to select IE or Chrome, or Word or Notepad, as appropriate: see examples below, and right:

In Astrolog32, there are file-names saved within the file-content (i.e. typed into in the 'Name' field, which becomes the /zi line), and file-names that you save with, into the \charts folder; often the two end up the same, but they don't have to be, and they can serve different functions.

Any searches for any part of a name which you typed only in the 'Edit' dialog Name-field will only be found in an Astrolog32 Search (see Search Charts Filter). But as for a search with Windows™ "Search For Files and Folders", - such data is within the file, and Windows™ will not search within .DAT files as if they were text; with Windows™, only the [File] > [Save Mainchart data] names, that is the saving filenames, which will be searched for and found.

  Let's call these two the 'saving' name and the 'hidden' name.

The hidden names are what you typed in the 'Name'-field, before the chart was 'OK'ed during data entry (and if you typed nothing, there's no 'hidden' name!). I can put much saltier remarks in 'hidden' Name-field, as they are seldom stumbled upon there: others keep 'hidden' name short, as this will suit its incorporation in any Interpretations print-outs (Interpretations, about).
For this reason, the name which you save a chart by (as opposed to the 'hidden' name from the 'Edit' dialog), should be the one which holds any key information for a Windows™ filesearch: e.g.
  Doe,John_1865_family,horse doctor,Ohio,unrect.DAT

On the other hand, long file-names may not be accepted in folders written to CD-Rom.

Every chart-file you save gets the suffix '.DAT' by default, and by default, every file you see in your \charts folder has it too. But you can consider another, .A32, or .AS, for saved chart-files (see here, for pluses and minuses of this); .AS is the default suffix for Walter Pullen's 'Astrolog 7' sister release.

Naming & saving are two opportunities to bundle information connected with the chart
- first, when giving your chart its 'hidden' name during chart-editing: you can save as many as 255 characters/spaces in the name Astrolog32 shows in the Name field - any more, and you will see, on reopening, a error notice 'Passed out of range switch "/zi"', or 'the command info file is not in any valid format (character 255)', or 'Value 0 passed to switch /M out of range. ', (or, the files may end up broken!).   ..and a down side is, long 'hidden' file-names look absurd when incorporated into Valja's alternative-interpretation readings.

  - secondly, you can save more data by choosing to type in different information, when it comes to saving into the \charts folder. Windows™ has a different allowance - it will allow 140 characters maximum - but it depends on the length of the full address path to your \charts folder whether it displays correctly: if it's as long as the path to \My Documents, the names may be foreshortened, like this SHORTE~1.DAT..
And for this reason, I don't keep my \charts in My Documents.

[Edit] > [Edit Main chart data ..] pulls up the dialog needed to make a new chart, modifying the 'Here-and-Now' data seen at your launch.
Equally, it's the same dialog-box you need, to re-edit the chart in front of you in order to rectify it, or enter data for another, .. for making a new chart often means serially over-writing the current chart's data! - the fields do not clear.

So, unless you're hurriedly saving a Quick,Quick! chart..

each field needs a typing-in, or a pick from a pick-list - after the ten fields (see right) are filled in, and 'OK' is clicked, this will be the datum that Astrolog32 retains as The Radical, to show, to save, to deliver all the other viewable options for you; this is called 'Mainchart'.
The keyboard shortcut to edit the current chart, or create a new chart, is Alt+z.

You only need to type the first three letters of the month in the first field, and after that, the 'tab' key carries you through the fields in order. At 'Time', 'Daylight Saving' and 'TimeZone', the down arrow-key spins through the options; or you can put these three fields in manually - it's maybe quicker.

After selecting the timezone, click 'Call Atlas' for giving Astrolog32 the location, (about, see THE ATLASES); then, location and co-ordinates are automatically filled in, (though you can insert them manually).

Click 'OK'!

A Quick,Quick! chart means that you need not type anything in: to raise a chart for the present moment, just click 'Here & Now' (or key in letter 'n'), and then some name alone is needed: "Just seen 2 UFOs over the Bay". Click 'OK'.

Or, to call back a chart you sent to the 'Astrolog clipboard', click 'Recall Data from memory'. & click 'OK'.

This new 'MainChart' you see on pressing 'OK' is on chart-thread #1, - this is the principal working chart-thread, seen, and doing te bulk of the work where there's no call for accompanying charts in Relationship Mode, and as well, it's the only one that can be copied or saved.

At this stage it's time to verify, and go on to saving the chart, usually in .DAT format (about DATs or _pos.DATs).

When you fill [Edit Mainchart Data] again, and 'OK' new input, then the first Mainchart data will be dumped; whatever data-fields you don't change will carry over - so, unless you are careful, data from the previous chart you may find unmodified, in the new chart!!

~ And all the other chart-threads are set up similarly, ~
overwriting the data found in their respective "Edit Chart" dialogs,

[Edit] > [Enter/Edit Chart #2 Data...]
[Edit] > [Enter/Edit Chart #3 Data...]
[Edit] > [Enter/Edit Chart #4 Data...]

Birthtime is recorded widely by states in continental Europe, though Norway hospitals retain the data and disclose it only for 'medical' purposes. Neither England & Wales, nor Ireland record time, unless twins are born.
With data supplied from Astro.com, a timeline for the recording of this detail at citizens' births would be as follows:

Austria, 1939, January 1
Prussia, North-East Germany, 1874
Italy (all) 1866, January 1
Denmark, 1862
Scotland, in Great Britain, 1855
Neuchatel, in Switzerland, 1854, March 1
Frankfurt, West Central Germany, 1851
Lausanne, in Switzerland, 1821, July 1
Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, Southern Italy, 1820
Geneva in Switzerland, 1798, October 22
Belgium,   1793
s` Gravenhage - The Hague, Netherland, 1793
France     1792, September 22
Old Germany, with many exceptions, 1792, January 1

Australia and Canada also do not record birthtime, unless twins are born. In the USA, a 'long' birth certificate can be obtained nowadays, including birthtime.

---------------- OR----------------




DAT files and _pos.DAT files serve different purposes .. see below

Chart files are not auto-saved with Astrolog32: it's up to you to save them through the [File] menu, and they can be saved to any folder except of course, in Program Files!

• Opening [File] > [Save Main Chart data] is the menu-path for saving the Main chart as a .DAT file (the keyboard switch Alt+w opens the same dialog window) - these .DAT files are Astrolog's standard format for saving and view.


• Going [File] > [Save Chart Positions] is the menu-path to saving the Main chart as a _pos.DAT file (the keyboard switch Alt+Shift+w opens the same dialog window). These also are .DAT files and Astrolog's alternative format for saving and view (why, More about _pos.DATS).

By default, these all save to \charts folder.  (To change default saving destination, see FAQ here)

 These .DAT files Astrolog32 uses are small: only Astrolog and its offshoot pro-
grams can open them as charts, but Notepad can open them to reveal the data.

Apart from .DAT file saving, there's [File] > [Export to] > [Save chart as Textfile], and [File] > [Export to] > [Save chart as Bitmap], the first to save chart-data as a .TXT (a textfile referring to whatever Astrolog has onscreen), the second to save a file in .BMP image formats. Use an appropriate program (e.g. Notepad, Paint) to retrieve and open them subsequently, ..by default, these save to \miscellaneous folder.

With a Save chart as text save, the @0102 header in the file is absent: usually this is just a list of positions as text, (very useful to save a chunk of ephemeris); it's saved to \miscellaneous only - you can publish the object-positions in Word, Paint, Wordpad, or Notepad. (BTW, this save will bounce Astrolog into text-mode).
An advantage of this data-only format is, that any text's contents are searchable via Windows™ file search.

An image-save is tidier than a screenshot, (see below: APPEARANCE & IMAGING); and [Save chart as bitmap] will send the captured chart to \miscellaneous; but, being a .BMP file, each chart-image will consume 150+kb, and probably more unless you shrink the Astrolog window using the window pullhandle beforehand - a reason, then, to prefer to choose [Edit] > [Copy chart as bitmap], paste it in an image-editor, and save it as a smaller file-type.

  Astrolog can't re-open these with [File] > [Open .. Chart]..

You can type out an entire .DAT file in Notepad, if you choose: the letter spaces are critical, though, and the @0102 header essential.

As long as the file starts with the customary @0102 and is in the layout as shown in the section below, Astrolog32 will open it even were you to save it with the suffix .TXT; and other file-suffixes will be accepted, if they're other text-file formats, but you must remember to pick 'All files' in the 'files-of-type' field, for Astrolog32 to browse them if they're in your \charts folder....

A code convention which Astrolog32 adheres to is that where there is a semi colon, everything after is ignored by the program.
This is how Astrolog32 gets away with the remark in the middle of the file
      ; Date is in American format: month day year".

The program's software is designed around translating letters into charts, so these .DAT files are just text-files that drive chart-creation in Astrolog32.
Here's an example, as seen in Notepad (panel to right).
This is an older (Astrolog 5.40) chartfile, - I have marked out the letter-spaces in blue. These are Astrolog32-compatible, as are Astrolog 6's .as files.

Saving via Astrolog32, there are another three lines put in, two blank and the middle line being a prompt for when you edit your charts in Notepad, to use American format dates in the /qb line: it's an advice line, as it all follows an initial ";".

@0102 tells the program it's a valid chart.

The fifth and sixth lines have the data: in /qb, ST is standard time, DT tells Astrolog to take off an hour from time stated. Then, after /zi, "internal name-data" "placename" follow.


You can add a note as a seventh line, if it commences with a semi-colon, ";"; it will not be displayed by Astrolog32, though.

Newer V3.xx releases can open .hor files native to the Morinus program, as well.   V2.05 may have trouble opening V3.xx's .DAT files.

    DODGE No.3          

If you want to bundle a lot of text with a chart you have already made, a quick way is to go [Open] > [Open Mainchart] and locate the chart; right-click on it and force Windows™ to open it in Notepad, (or Word if pictures are to be incorporated): then proceed to open the chart normally in Astrolog, (this for safety's sake.)
Now, in your text editor, delete the text-version's contents, and paste in your gathered-up notes and pictures, saving with the same name, but as .TXT or .DOC, in the same folder.

REFUSAL TO SAVE:
Astrolog signals any error in the naming by refusing to save, and not displaying other charts in the destination folder: Windows™ baulks at odd characters in the filename, which may be there even if you can't see them: as, for instance, if you paste in a name from a .DOC or .RTF, which may include hidden formatting instructions (even line-breaks!).
Problems arise with / \ : * ? ! " : in particular, colons, : and double quotations, ", are not allowed in chart-names!

[File] > [Save Chart Positions] sets up the save as a _pos.DAT, which, like .DATs, save by default to the \charts folder.
The keyboard switch to save in this way is Alt+Shift+w.
This is Astrolog's other format, for saving charts that are less simple, viz:

• A composite chart
• An harmonic chart
• A multichart
• A progressed chart
• A midpoint chart
• A Kensky flipped chart
• .. and others

The letters @0203 tell the program it's a valid chart. These are bigger files, holding the Sign, degree & minutes-decimal of each object.

When accessed using Notepad, these 'Chart Positions' lists declare no time, and no co-ordinates, but they detail the positions of every planet, Luminary and Point that is normally listed in the info sidebar; also they do not itemise what kind of derived chart it actually is! which made you select a _pos.DAT rather than a .DAT - so you must stipulate, in the file-name, all useful source-data, and the tweak(s) that made you choose _pos.DATs as a solution, e.g:
  COMPOSITE_Felix(prog.)&Ludmila(prog.)_pos.DAT
 or,
  FOURTH_Harmonic_Elise_pos.DAT

Re-opened in Astrolog32, _pos.DATs that host multiwheels must be reset to the appropriate number of charts, (i.e. Relationship Mode ON), to see the full multiwheel, so be sure to indicate in the file-name the number of charts incorporated, for example:
  4CHARTS_Sonia,William,Jasmine,Leo_pos.DAT.

A _pos.DAT mainchart cannot be re-worked just like a .DAT chart, e.g.

• _pos.DATs will not re-set with any planet at the centre other than Earth.
• progression will not work in any way, but will usually crash the program!
• Most other [Chart] options won't work; they will make the program do funny things..

You may find a .DAT chart-file which won't open; I mean those which show up as files which can't be deleted, nor can they be modified even in Notepad.
For these, you must highlight all files in the relevant folder, then de-select the broken file concerned; now cut the rest and put them all elsewhere. Now delete the folder.

THIS IS THE FIRST KEYBOARD-SWITCH TO LEARN: switching to text is most simply done by typing ' v' (without quote marks) at the keyboard, though there's the menu options [View] > [Text mode], or [View] > [Graphics mode] as well.   ( Italian vers. toggle these, using Alt+zero.)
Image to right shows the text-mode for [Charts] > [House Wheel], which is the standard boxchart alternative to the Speculum of Positions, and go Shift+v to return to the Speculum, then v, back to the graphic.

This 'v' switch is a toggle, and will switch you out of whatever graphical window you have, to (some other) output as text, or, out of any of the text mode pages back to the nearest graphical option - map, aspect-grid or chart. (If ' v' doesn't go all the way, then go Shift+v, or Alt+Shift+v, then ' v' again, should get you back to the chart).

By default, by typing v you will see [Charts] > [Standard Wheel] in its text version, - see right - in other words, The Positions aka the Speculum. But there are extensive different outputs according to your Menu or keyboard choices.   All the data-pages accessed by the [Lists] menu are texts, and will, without your leave or bother, switch the program to text-mode.
In delivering chart-data, Text-mode differs from the graphical in important ways: there's no sidebar; the harmonic status is not given onscreen; nor is the Julian Day; in fact the tiny chart-data subscript can be hidden too.

The data onscreen can be exported as a chunk to a text-editor, using the [Edit] menu, or by the awkward keyboard switch Ctrl+shift+5; the layout in Wordpad is much better that Notepad, and Word is better still. Via [Save] > [Export], these non-chart outputs will save as black-on-white text-files only.

Another text presentation is of Aspects (see image, right), where a summary of Configurations can be appended to it by Alt+l, how-to here.

A third text presentation can be the Dispositors and Rankings, see Dispositors,....

If any other text is appended to the Speculum, then the Speculum can be deliberately erased by the command-switch /v.

  If you prefer text-mode at launch, go [Edit] > [Edit Config File], find =X, change it to _X; save file; close and relaunch. That's the 'safe' way - see another way, by just going [File] [Save current settings..].

Whatever you have called up, Shift+v is the usual keyboard-switch to revert to your main chart datum i.e the Speculum:
if you can't, the exceptions are:

• no harmonic settings are reverted; for these, it's easy to use command-line (see end of MACROS & HARMONICS).
• The following groups of command switches:
  'Switches which affect how a chart is computed' ~ (see LIST of COMMANDS).
  'Switches which affect how the chart parameters are obtained' ~ (see LIST of COMMANDS).

Custom lists of data can be raised, appended each to another and viewed, exported, or printed off in a single run, by using the command switches (which you can copy-paste from the LIST of COMMANDS daughter-page of this guide, into the command-line), or by using macros. See examples of both there.

  EASY EXAMPLE: to add Objects' angles to Local Horizon, and add Parts, set the following

[View] > [text-mode]
[View] > [monochrome] ..optionally set background to white, text black
[Settings] > [Object Selections] optionally select the planets/points you want
[Run] > [Open command line], & enter this command
/Z
and Go 'OK'.. the data will be added to the positions already on view.

...enter this command
/P
and Go 'OK', Arabic Parts' positions appear.

To switch them off again, enter
_P _Z & press Enter;
...or just go Shift+v, to revert to the core data.

  TOUGH EXAMPLE : to print off an ephemeris, a screenshot is quickest, but for
a text version, set the following

[View] > [text-mode]
[View] > [monochrome] ..optionally set background to white, text black
[View] > [Print nearest second], if you want high accuracy
[Settings] > [Object Selections] select the planets/points you want.

[Run] > [Open command line], & enter one of the following commands

• -E , for current month ~ according to the chart you have up..
• -Ey , for current year ~ according to the chart you have up..
• -Ey n, where n is the year/ span of years you want ~ I can't make this switch work..
• -qy n , for year n, year starting on Jan. first
• -qm m n, for year n, year starting on month m ~ e.g. 2 for Feb, 3 for Mar, etc..

Optionally add, after a letter-space

• -sr , data in Right Ascension, rather than ecliptic longitude
• -gp , data in equatorial declination, in the grid of aspects
• -ap , data in equatorial declination, in the grid of parallel aspects

Press Return key.

In V. 1.3x, when you have the lists you want, press the Return key again;

• Type '/o YourChosenName.TXT' in the command line.., and go 'OK', or press the Return key again.
  The file will be created and sent to your \main folder

In V. 2.05, use [File] > [Export] > [Save chart as textfile], or [Edit] > [Copy Chart as Text], to start to save the data. Your text, pasted in Wordpad, can now be editted to ensure the font is small enough for each day's data will print all on one line, then printed.

If your clock-time advances during summertime, you may well consider it worthwhile to change Astrolog32 to be one hour ahead, as the clocks are. If the charts you make are usually close to the present date as well as confined to your DST zone, as in Europe & U.S., - then toggle the little 'Summertime' switch you'll find in:
[Settings] > [Set Default Location, Timezone..]; Astrolog32 V2.05
.. (Alt+Shift+d opens the dialog) ..
.
. your keyboard's 'down' arrow flicks this switch to 'Summertime';   then go 'OK'; then, [File] > [Save current settings], and 'OK'.
DST will then be applied to all charts after you re-launch, and in the [Edit] > [Edit Main Chart] and [Edit] > [Edit Chart #x] Summer-Time fields, it will show 'Yes', and Astrolog sets the charts for an hour earlier than your time-datum; the more hands-on way is to open astrolog32.DAT, find the -z0 line and change -z0 x to -z0 x+1, (e.g. -z0 0 to -z0 1 if in UK), and save, for 'Summertime' to be applied with your input.
Otherwise, Astrolog32 remains on your Standard Time.

A down-side is, you will notice there's scarcely a change visible in the sidebar - it says 'DT' instead of 'ST' (standard time) - and you need to be sharp on the look-out for a possibly-wrong time-setting when erecting your next non-DST chart.

    DODGE No. 4          

If you make worldwide charts as well as domestic and 'Here & Now's, you could deploy two Astrolog32 installations, one for current events during your DST summer, but the other permanently at your standard time; my two versions have to look quite different, so I know which Astrolog version I'm in. To do this yourself, see the very last article here.

Seen when in 'graphic' mode, this is the vertical panel on the right of the chartwheel, detailing planets' and cusp positions. It cannot be moved, but it can be hidden.
[View] > [Show chart info] (little t, a toggle) has various effects: it hides the sidebar, while also hiding the chart-data subscript at the bottom of the non-chartwheel graphics. It calls graphics mode, if you're in text mode. And it makes the chart oblong!
as does [View] > [Show info sidebar], Alt+t.

..you will need to follow either of these toggles with Shift+q, to make the chart-wheel square again. Otherwise this view will print oblong - another reason to follow up with Shift+q. Alt+t is the Hide-Info-Sidebar-AND-Show-Data-Subscript toggle.

TAKE CARE! - In older releases of Astrolog32, pressing 'q' without holding down 'shift', means you will close the program immediately!

To see chart-data progressed from the start-time, here are two routes that Astrolog will compute for you. The first route offers more options as to the exact lapse of time for reckoning one 'day'.

[Charts] > [Progressed (Single Wheel)], (Alt+Shift+p), opens a dialog box so that you can put in the time-data to progress to; then Astrolog will re-make the Mainchart so that the planets, houses and points are progressed according to the formula chosen in the dialog box, (Settings), - by default, 'day-for-a-year' up to 'Here & Now'. Note: there is a little tickbox top left ('Do Progression') in the 'Progressions' dialog box, - this must be ticked: then click 'OK'.

• The second choice is 'custom' - you choose the day-length per year lapsed, then years and parts thereof will be calculated pro-rata.
• The third choice is Solar Arc Directions: a 'mean' day is reckoned for each year lapsed, and all the chart's Objects progressed by such days or parts thereof.
• In V3.20+, Lunar Arc Directions are available too.
• 
  The first choice progresses by gearing each year (month, etc) lapsed to the actual day-lengths (hour-lengths, etc) succeeding the natum. For this method, which is default and I think the most used option, 'Progressed & Natal' does a similar thing and, to my eye, offers more visual cues as to upcoming aspects-by-progression, as it's a dual-chart.

Getting out of your progressed chart to the Radical again: open the 'Progressions' dialog box again - where you'll see the data you entered is still resident - uncheck the 'Do Progression' tickbox and 'OK' it.

[Charts] > [Progressed and Natal], Alt+n: this creates a bi-wheel, setting the progression to the date of chart #2, using secondary progression/regression. It only requires that you set up chart #2 appropriately and go Alt+n.

To escape the bi-wheel, use c.

Other Way Round?: If you see a pending aspect-by-progression in the natal chart, and want to reckon the actual year/month when the effect is actualised, Astrolog can do it with a digression into a quite different aspect listing, just of those aspects which perfect on your chosen day, or month, or year, - displayed by using the command-switches -d, /dm, or -dY <years>; you must be in text-mode to see the list; you can use 'p' to survey days (months, years) before or after. (It would be great to click on the aspect and jump straight there!)
Escape to the standard listing with 'v'.

Progression by Animation: To progress planets day-for-year by animation, advance your Radical by 'p' steps to match your year-age, key '#' and add two 'p' steps for each month beyond your last birthday. Finally, to turn the Ascendant back to its natal degree, key '@', and then 'r': then animate 'p' steps for four times your age in years.
Progressing in this cranky way sets up a chart that is more stable and more versatile: you can animate it again quite freely, to inspect evolving aspects and their perfecting and disappearance, or to apply other Astrolog tweaks which a progression-by-dialog-box will not tolerate. See Animation.

As well as being presented at launch, 'Here and Now' chart can be called up at any time simply with an 'n' (without quote marks) at the keyboard, or alternatively use the [Charts] > [Here and Now] link, or the [Edit] > [Enter/Edit mainchart..] dialog box link... handy, so long as your pc's time and date are correct.

'Here & Now' is automatically loaded to all chart-threads
(Main, #2, #3, and #4) at launch, remaining till you edit them.

'Here & Now' clears all fields to default including the DST field but excepting the Name field (this remains unaltered).

As well as just pointing to a narrative for the day at hand, 'Here & Now' can come in useful, by using it in a synastry chart (i.e. with the /r command switch, /r mychartname.DAT now' will compute today's transits for file mychartname.DAT) to display today's planets in my own houses.   This is easy: launch Astrolog32, set your own chart as Mainchart, and click [Charts] > [Synastry].
Press 'c' to revert to a single chart-wheel.

Using chart #2's default 'Here & Now' also serves for making a comparison chart (go Alt+c), which ends up showing today's transits around the Mainchart, and is a very useful switch.
Press c to revert to a single chart-wheel.

Loading or entering data for Chart #2 you use similar dialog procedures as the Mainchart, - it's [File] > [Open chart #2] or [Edit] > [Enter/Edit chart #2]; switches, Alt+Shift+o, Alt+Shift+z, respectively. After 'OK'ing your data, Chart #2 is created and lurks out of sight - Chart #1 is still visible, and Chart #2 will only appear by selecting the bi- (Alt+c), or Multi-wheel.
To inspect it then by itself, there's this valuable option only:
Chart #2 data can be viewed or copied or printed just by itself by making it the Main chart! - transfer it by going [Edit] > [Exchange main chart and #2], and then, now as Mainchart, you can pursue all options with it. (Quicker, go Shift+x to swap them).
This Shift+x is a toggle, and will switch you to-and-fro, so you can edit, and later switch back.

Using this option, which is in [Charts], sets the window to showing the midpoints of positions taken from two time-data, presented as a single chart. The two time-data are whatever are entered at Chart #1, and at Chart #2:  so given that you have a mainchart loaded, enter the other data into [Edit] > [Edit chart #2], and 'OK' it (it won't appear), or use Chart #2's 'Here & Now' chart (so long as Chart #1 is different!);   then, selecting [Charts] > [Composite] (the shortcut is Alt+Shift+y) will create and show virtual planets and points, at the midpoints for each planets' (or objects') pair of positions across chart #1 and chart #2.

[Charts] > [Two Wheels], or Three Wheels, or or Four Wheels maximum, (called multiple charts, bi-wheels, synastry charts, in the Helpfile) ~ with these choices, you can pool two charts or more in a single ring.

Load data to each chart-thread you want as well as Mainchart, using [File] > [Open Chart #x], ([Edit] > [Enter/Edit Chart #x data] in V. 2.05); when they're loaded, then to view them as a multiple chart, go [Charts] > [Two Wheels], [Three Wheels], or [Four Wheels].
Alt+c, the keyboard switch for combinations, will deliver just chart #1 inside chart #2 - use shift+x to swap.

A multiple chart is great if one of the charts is your own or a client's, as, using today's positions as the other chart, it reveals what characteristics will be well-met-with, what will not. ~ Or, you can riffle through charts you have searched out, and with Alt+c, compare each with whatever's at chart #2. Find out who's to cultivate, who's to avoid!

Calling text-mode, only the positions for chart #1 are shown, but pressing Alt+l calls 'Aspects', and here only the aspects cast between one chart and the other appear as a list. A command-switch (or macro) cutting out minor aspects, like -YAR 6 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 ;, may be useful. Alt+k will colour it.

Of the multiple charts & their data, when in Standard Wheel mode you can only see Chart no.#1 or Chart #2 (view each in isolation as mainchart by swapping them via [Edit] > [Exchange mainchart and #2] - a recent, very useful adaptation). Charts #3 and #4 can only be viewed in the Multiwheel.
If you want to compare more than two charts, but want more control and less fuss, the difficulties mentioned with Multiwheel are an argument, maybe, for launching more instances of the program, and either using Alt+tab to view them alternately, or tile them.
Or, temporarily use a switch/macro to cut out the points from the data, so only the planets are shown (as
-YR 11 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1).

NOTE: This sets Astrolog32 mode to [Charts] > [Relationship Mode ON]. Switching it off, type c, will hide charts #2, #3 and #4.

• Charts created via [Edit] > [Edit chart....#3, #4 ] to make up a Multi-wheel cannot then be resolved apart for saving individually, and the multiwheel, which can be saved as a Multiwheel _pos.DAT file, strips out the time data from each chart; which leaves you with taking an image-copy as a record. If you save as a text-file, only chart #2 is registered.

[Charts] > [Synastry] doesn't look like a multiple chart, - it displays the planets of chart #1 in the houses of chart #2, so it's a virtual chart, it needs c to exit it, and shift+x to swap over the two charts.

[Charts] > [Aspects Midpoints grid] serves two-chart data, the 'bi-wheel', see Aspects & the Aspect-Grid; use c to exit it.

[Charts] > [Date Difference]: this also is a combination chart, (as well as flipping to text), and it needs c to exit it.

Relationship Mode OFF is called by [Charts] > [Standard], or by typing c at the keyboard: this isn't a toggle.

This takes away all the charts apart from the Mainchart - a very necessary switch to learn, to terminate the following:

• Date Difference text-page
• Multiwheels
• Composite
• Synastry
• Midpoint, or
• 'Progressed & Natal' chart and text offerings

LISTED AS TEXT

Aspects for any chart can be displayed listed only as text, either by closeness of aspect to exact (in °, ', "), or with + for applying, - for separating; choose [Lists] > [Aspects], or Alt+l, (which is not a toggle).
Go Ctrl+x for ordering them 'according to power' according to Astrolog's algorithm. (Ctrl+x is a toggle, which will return you to 'according to closeness').
Alt+k renders the list in colour, which may help for picking out a particular object..

To return to Standard (positions), type shift+v; to return to the graphical, type the v key.

If you want more, or less, aspects calculated and shown, then tick, or un-tick, aspects in [Settings] > [Aspect Selections] beforehand.

A quite different listing, just of those aspects which perfect on your chosen day, or month, or year, is displayed by using the command-switches -d , /dm, or -dY <years>. I think that this command merits a dialog method of raising the data; the command switch seems unpredictable, and finds an whole year's computations understandably too much.   Remember to clear each switch after use, before setting another.

PARALLELS: Alt+Shift+x is the keyboard switch for parallels and contraparallels, aspects for which a tight orb of 1 degree is typically used. (Alt+Shift+x is a toggle.) For parallels and contraparallels, you need a time-accurate chart datum.

BI-WHEEL: If your current chart is a bi-wheel, this option only presents you with a text-list of all aspects between the two charts, and not the two individual charts' internal aspects.

GRIDS

To view aspects visually, the Aspects & Midpoints Grid, as Astrolog32 calls it, is, like the chartwheel, shown as a graphical grid or a text-grid: go [Charts] > [Aspects/Midpoints Grid], or take the shortcut, shift+a. Where the object a's row and the object b's column intersect, the aspect-glyph marks the aspect: - these glyphs occupy the left and lower part of the grid.

In the upper-right area, the sign of the nearer midpoint between each pair is shown; ~ the text version gives those midpoints in degrees & minutes. At font size 3 and above, the graphical also shows these midpoints in degrees.

GRIDS FOR A BI-WHEEL

In a bi-wheel's aspect-grid, then the Mainchart's Planets and Points are listed on the vertical axis, chart #2's are on the horizontal. Only the aspects between one chart's objects, & the other's, are shown. (See tight)

By experience and custom, smaller orbs-of-the-aspects are used when picking the working aspects between two individuals, i.e. in Synastry.

Use keystroke 'c' to revert to Mainchart only.

8° for major aspects in The Radical, (with 12° between Sun & Moon - see additions), are good standard defaults for general purposes. This is even though the situation arriving may not seem key to events until an aspect is at 3° of orb. When dealing with the mood of the public, I use huge orbs between Sun & Moon, namely 40° for opposition or conjunction.

By experience and custom, smaller orbs-of-the-aspects are used when picking the working aspects between two individuals, i.e. in Synastry, they are muffled because, in John Lennon's phrase, "we are talking  about the space between us all": I don't know what feelings occupy someone next to me - but I'm all too aware of my own.

Change your Orbs-of-Aspect at [Settings] > [Aspect Selections and Settings], or go Alt+Shift+a.
Alternatively, run a switch or macro in [Run] > [Command Line] for orbs appropriate for transits, progressions, - or use New Macros.
Currently, if you look in [Run] > [Run command file], Astrolog32 V3.20+ offers to apply any of a selection of orbs: tight, or wide, reduced, for transits, for Synastry, for progressions and directions..


ADDITIONS TO PARTICULAR ORBS: Only by editing the Config. file can you stipulate, as customary, an addition of, say, 2° between either Luminary and any planet: a consequence of 2° is that between Sun and Moon there would be an addition to orb of 4° between them, in major aspects. Scroll through the Config. file to find the section "; DEFAULT ASPECT ORB ADDITIONS:", and the line
-YAd   1 10   2.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ; - Sun and Moon are here coloured red. For the order, see here.

It's according to the aspects chosen in [Settings] > [Aspect Selections, Settings] , whether you see more or fewer aspect-glyphs on the grid (for a guide to them, see down the right hand side of the image to right). To see the Settings dialog, the keyboard toggle-switch is Alt+Shift+a, where ticks in boxes will switch or hide aspects.
Alternatively, run a switch or macro in [Run] > [Command Line] for a different selection.

There are two modes for stars in V2.05, either:

• The Default: what Stars you get when going [Settings] > [Include Fixed Stars.. ] (or, Shift+u - a toggle) depends now on which, of them all, are actually aspecting planets at the time-datum; also, by default, Fixed Stars are always 'off', and so must first be toggled 'on'; and no other stars could be shown! (this option for viewing leaves [Star Selections], and Alt+Shift+r which opens this selection popup, redundant).



• Old-Style, or Alternative: it used to be that a personal selection should be made at the start of each session, as just switching Fixed Stars 'on' meant, if 'all' were selected, the entire batch of available stars used to appear in your chart, and it was a messy sight; on the other hand, if [Settings] > [Star Selections] were all 'off' when you clicked [Settings] > [Include Fixed Stars.. ] (or, go Shift+u), then this feature seemed not to work.
  Later, I seem to remember it went: [Settings] > [Star Selections], (Alt+Shift+r) first, - select - and then the stars should appear without more ado ..but this feature now seems to be irretrievably broken.

* It was intended to change this situation, - custom selections being saved in the Config. file, - but at present the problems faced are insurmountable.

Safest way, the Config. file itself needed to be opened, altered and saved (e.g. see right); find the line starting =YU   ; and for 'Original', at the start of the line delete '=', and put an underscore instead. Save, and close.

The default offer that Astrolog makes to assess the different balances of power in a chart is entirely of the modern school of thought, - other way is mentioned lower down in this section.

Values to all objects each per se can be conferred according to your preferences, by your edits in the Config. file, (in the -Yj, -YjC and -YjA lines); also it can be done, through the [Object Settings] menu; (in both, Astrolog calls power 'Influence'); and, power when-in-transit has defaults in the YjT lines, or [Aspect Settings] menu.
To do this, users of Astrolog32 can apply power-numbers piecemeal to each aspect, orb and object, either as in the past through amending the Config.file lines, and saving the file, or now, through these menus:

• [Planets & Minors Settings] > [Minors] or (Alt+j),
• [Cusps & Uranians Settings] > [Uranians], or (Alt+Shift+j),
• [Settings] > [Aspect Settings], or (Alt+Shift+a).

After your edits, go [File] > [Save current settings], but be aware this is a RED SAVE, q.v), and any other tweaks you have made in the session will be made default too, and some edits may be lost from the Config.file.

Higher numbers signify more intrinsic power, on a scale from 0 to 50, but at default, 'influence' was always at 10 for the major planets and the house-cusps, less or none for minors. With V. 2.02, more detailed values are conferred on objects through the original defaults. If you prefer everything in one place, you can instead go [Edit] > [Edit configuration file..] to inspect/alter all the 'Influence' settings in the Config.file, and then Ctrl+s to save file.

To see the current chart's values for the objects and aspects, in text-mode go Shift+j. (Shift+v to return to locations).

Far more values are allocated, for House, for dignities and accidental dignities, if object directly disposits many planets, by ratios inside the program, and these, and your planets' intrinsic defaults together, are totalled and displayed in '-j', '-j0' text-lists, using these switches in command-line. Fullest explanations are in Helpfile.TXT and Helpfile.HTML, where Walter Pullen calls power 'influence', Valja Abramov calls it 'power', and both have made copious explanations dispersed in these texts, so open and seek one or other:
Walter Pullen's work:
" -j: Display astrological influences of each object in chart. ",
" -j0: Like -j but includes. ",
" -D: " - to list power in the aspects,
" -T, -T[p]n : " - to list power in the transits,
then look for the phrases
" Determining the strength "
" Weighted chart. "
" -Yj "
" For each of the 18 aspects "
Valja Abramov's work:
" 4. Power Calculations - overview "
"   EXPLANATION of POWER CALCULATIONS  "

Power/Influence values that you choose have a great bearing on Astrolog's Interpretations output.

This Because this feature does not differentiate kinds of power which in my experience have no overlap in their different trajectories, and as the user controls call first for a Delphic knowledge of the ratios, I can't yet make use of these calculations, so I leave the topic to the motivated enquirer.
Note: As planet Earth is not included in Power calculations, Astrolog cannot reasonably estimate relative power in non-Earth-centred charts.


ANOTHER METHOD

The Classical astrologer will look for a more refined set of weightings such as can only work with a timed chart, - someone with a familarity with assessment by Day-or-Night charts, Accidental Dignities, Terms and much else in the choosing of Almutens. Help can be found in this arena only with Astrolog32 V3.xx, where the [Trad Tech] menu offers an array of tools.

These are a set, not unique to Astrolog, of non-existent objects in defined orbits, the product of some bygone dippyness. See seorbel.TXT, in \main for more.
(But these are useful, as their orbits can be redefined in much older editions of Astrolog32; recent times have brought the discovery of real objects beyond Pluto, and if an agency is found in them, each's orbit can be given to an Uranian; or, if you want a fixed object in the Cosmos, an Uranian would serve, (but only with Astrolog32 V. 1.10, an older release. See FAQs here.)
By default, though, these are restricted from view and calculation. Select them via [Settings] > [Object Selections].

[File] > [Exit] used to kill Astrolog32 immediately without any invitation to save charts; with V2.05, there's a dialog to confirm quit.   Hitting letter q, or the Esc key, operates in the same manner, be aware.

With V3.45, this safety-net is dropped, and q, Esc and [File] > [Exit] shut it down immediately.
For an immediate program-termination in V2.05, try Alt+Shift+F4.

Accessible from the open program, Astrolog32 V. 1.3x has only the Helpfile in .TXT format, and the Readme in .HTML format, - only these two editable files hosting an users' custom data, or some of it; more recently, version V2.05 has just the Helpfile.TXT! But any .HTML is useful, as you can present yourself with hotlinks or pictures. Here's how to modify Readme.HTML, or write something similar in \charts..

    DODGE No. 5          

HTML pages can host hotlinks, or pages, maps or pictures, all of such pages or pictures being downloaded/created then saved in, for simplicity, the \main folder: - with earlier releases, find Readme.HTML in \main, open 'Properties' and alter, un-ticking 'Read only'; then open Readme.HTML in Notepad, and scroll to the Disclaimer: - if you have V2.05 or V3.xx installed, open \main, \companion_files, and open An_Add-on_Page.HTML in Notepad, where you'll find instructions, in capitals - save back into the Companion, or as suggested here.. -

Either way, you need to insert lines into the bodytext, hotlinking to your site, downloaded or home-made HTML or .DOC, or an image or more: .

A typical hot-link to raise a local webpage out of the \charts folder, (assuming you installed Astrolog32 to the root folder):
    <a href="file://localhost/C:/astrolog32/charts/An_Add-on_Page.HTML" target="_blank" />my webpage of lookups</a>   works fine... ....at the tags' end, add <br> <br> if there is another..

Here's a link to raise an image, a 'British DST table' out of ...\main :
    <a href="file://localhost/C:/astrolog32/main/DST-table-image.PNG" target="_blank">DST table</a>   ..

Online, for linking to a website, any accessing .HTML page you make should contain a link like, e.g, this one to the V2.05 homepage:
    <a href="http://www.astrolog32.altervista.org/index_008.htm" target="_blank">Link to Altervista for atlas, etc..</a>

For paths, snippets and switches, the easiest dodge is to use the top of the Helpfile.TXT, (which you'll find in \main), as image to right .. but you can't put hotlinks to images or websites.

OR,
take over this bundled insert_data.DOC file, it'll host weblinks!

OR,
check out using the \charts folder, as here! - or the \miscellaneous folder, here!

The Helpfile, which long pre-dates this Companion, is a core bundled document in Astrolog32, and the essential go-to if you want to understand how Astrolog works and how configurable it is. Both HELPFILE.TXT (and the Helpfile.DOC) presented you with the same information - a library of command-switches with commentaries - HELPFILE1.TXT and HELPFILE3.3.TXT now have their latest changes in their headers relating to New Macros and A32 Atlases, but Helpfile.HTML, below, is much easier to move through, and also has helps on Atlases and New Macros.

Click to view..

Commands Library

ALL VERSIONS:

With the .DOC and .TXT, the keyboard switch Ctrl+f will help you find references to what you seek, by searching the document for an Astrolog command-switch, as, primarily, information is listed only for each switch. With Helpfile.HTML, menus and hotlinks help to navigate.. - the truth is, there's a lot of vital technical information which in the .TXT and .DOC versions is gadabout and hard to pursue - and note, parts of the Helpfile (all versions) are now out-of-date; they are partly marked up as such in my HTML ver...

Valentin Abramov's additions to the end of the original Helpfiles (re. bugfixes to 5.41G, all included in Helpfile.HTML) are mentally more of an easy stroll, - so are "X WINDOW GRAPHICS FEATURES" (Chapt. 6) and "MS WINDOWS FEATURES", (Chapt. 7) too, and the latter section I recommend to beginners and menu-users ~ in Helpfile.HTML there's a direct link ~ just click entries under 'Chapter Seven for detail'on each Menu, in my split-window Helpfile.HTML. Truly though, a re-write of these V5.40 Menus is long overdue!

FIRST USER TIP (txt): If, in the .TXT version, the long intro "Readme" is no longer of interest to you, then go 'Find..' (Ctrl+f) to find .."This file contains a complete list of all the features" - that's the real start, for browsing the switches..

FIRST USER TIP (html): In my .HTML version, the head of the working data is "Eight Chapter Overview", then "THE LIST OF COMMAND SWITCHES", ten groups of links (which will convey you to Chapter 2's descriptions about the power of each switch and keyboard command); or simply scroll down into the hotlinks.

At the HTML version's end are outlines of the use of Atlases, New Macros and Astrolog's Reference Numbers.

• 1. that these switches are an advanced option, with a significant learning curve.
• 2. a little bit about the program's breadth of options, and maybe an interest in, and a slight grasp of, loading switches in the command line (copy switches out of the Helpfile, and learn by trial-and-error), having an eye to how to undo any changes you raise, e.g. by using v and shift+v, or 'kill' or 'revert' switches, etc., - about, see in ABOUT SWITCHES.
• 3. tag-brackets like < and > are used to enclose where a number or name is required, but you are not expected to use the tag-brackets in your switches, nor square-brackets, nor the semi-colons nor what follows these, - those semi-colons just mark where the working code ends and the explanation begins (see section below ABOUT SWITCHES > 'Switch Parameters').
• 4. In both documents, 'printed' often means 'displayed onscreen', not at the printer!, Options for printing text out are barely covered in the Helpfile.
• 5. If you are a newby preferring Menus, this Companion you're reading is aimed to be more helpful, and especially the section Core Tweaks.

This is a PDF file, and opens, via your browser, from a link in [Help]. It covers features and thinking behind the available Almuten, In Mundo, P.Ds, and Aspect Grids, all charts and speculums that the [TradTech] menu-button opens.

ONLINE HELP-PAGES
A number of online resources for Astrolog32 are listed here.
Check out 'Links', at the developer's V3 page, here.

ONLINE MUST-SEES
The Old-Style to New-Style date converter here, for updating Julian Calendar dates.

LOCAL HELPS
This Companion is one of course, with TimeZones and Commands pages, and now contains a prompt-sheet for those newly interested in astrology, here and a walk-thru for installing V2.02, V2.05 and V3.45. .

THE PROGRAM'S OWN PROMPT-SHEETS, from the [Help]menu:

NOTE: Most pages open by replacing your chart, and are dismissed again by keypress v - so as not to interrupt your workflow, copy these Helptexts into a separate lookup using [File] > (Export) > [Save chart as text], Ctrl+5.

NOTE: If you click 'Close', rather than type 'v', you will inadvertently close Astrolog32!
[Help] > [Browse Astrolog32] - seeks an net connection to a homepage of Astrolog32:
V.1. 30, http://uk.geocities.com/astrolog32/ (defunct)
V. 2.02, http://www.orionsoft.cz/astrolog32/ (no longer)
[Help] > [Browse Astrolog home] - seeks an net connection to Walter Pullen's frequently-updated home-page, http://www.astrolog.org
[Help] > [Browse Astrodienst Atlas] (shortcut is Ctrl+w) - enter your birth-town in an online searchfield, at http://www.astro.com/atlas
[Help] > [Signs] (Alt+2) gives each's modern ruler, part of human affairs associated, and which House has similar qualities.
[Help] > [Objects] (Alt+3) - lists all available objects and the Fixed Stars, with, in the case of the planets, their Fall, Dignity, Debility and Exaltation signs.
[Help] > [Aspects] (Alt+4) - lists the aspect glyphs, with the orbs you have set.
[Help] > [Constellations] (Alt+5) - their names and significance.
[Help] > [Planet information] (Alt+6) sizes, distances, moons & solar year.
[Help] > [General Meanings] (Alt+7) - a very basic steer to the kernel of astrology.
[Help] > [Keystrokes] (question mark) lists the older single keystroke toggles. Note: to 'animate chart', ENGLISH A32 uses 'p', others, 'shift+n' or lately, 's'.
[Help] > [Switches] (Alt+8) lists the Command Switches, not keyboard switches!
[Help] > [Obscure switches] (Alt+9) lists the latter group of Command switches.
[Help] > [Program Status] tells you what charts are loaded.
[Help] > [About Astrolog32]: (Ctrl+o), is a potted history, now with 'cold' weblinks for current release sites, opens in a separate window.

Astrolog being, from its beginning, a keyboard-driven program means accidental key-strokes in an Astrolog32 session can really spoil your day! - (the 'Esc' key is the worst, as it closes the program, in versions before, and after V2.05, without even a 'by-your-leave'). Followed closely by 'h' - Heliocentric, and 's' - Suddenly in Sidereal!
Old-school users will be used to such brinkmanship in an end-user program. Newbies are warned - be ready for the unexpected, working to save promptly any unsaved charts.

It may help to have an steeply-raked keyboard.

Failing to clear each keyboard switch may provoke unwanted overlays of text and graphics, - the 'Backspace' and 'Spacebar' keys may only offer a short respite if this arises.

One of Astrolog32's greatest features has been its ability to advance and regress charts in different steps; see it by simply pressing 'p', it will show the default advance, - every second, it will advance the chart-datum one day; every time you hit 'r' , it reverses; and when you hit 'p' again, animation stops.

At [Animation] > [Jump Rate], each hop can be set from a second, to a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a year, a century+.

At [Animation] > [Jump factor], any Jumprate you choose can be multiplied.

Shortcuts to all these jumprate options can be found in the page TABLES of KEYBOARD SWITCHES, but they are also in the Animation drop-down, and here, on clicking the Title gif of the Companion, (the right-side, not the left).

This animation feature works not just with charts, but in horizons and map views, ephemerides, lists and the calendar, and continues to shift the chart through time even when Astrolog32 is the inactive window.

Pressing [Animation] > [Timed exposure] (little j) during the graphic of [local horizon] or [Orbit], e.g. see here, each interval will 'leave trails of positions', which illustrate the apparent trajectory and speed of objects in the night sky over days.
Pressing 'backspace' key will clear the screen at any point.

At the 'Here & Now' chart you start with, press Shift+1 (which makes !), then p: the chart will update by tiny steps each second, and you can, among other things, monitor aspects making and breaking (switch Shift+a), or view your local horizon (switch Shift+z; plus, in the Earth's Northern Hemisphere, i), with the planets' relative dispositions in the sky, or watch globe-rotation in real time.
This relies on your animation-update-rate remaining at one second, which the Shift+1 switch set.
Press p again to stop the animation, and $ to reset animation jumps to 'days'.   A different use, see Charts centred on planets other than Earth.

Animating the graphical chart through hours, weeks, or months etc, it can be a challenge when the whole map spins round as time advances, (either because of Rapt Motion or because of the Zodiacal shifts, as opposed to the Proper Motion of planets).
To cure this, you can lock the wheel's Ascendant or Midheaven to a slow-moving object (e.g. Pluto ...Neptune ...Uranus ...Saturn); you need to write a command switch, as this switch is not in [Run] menu in V2.05, nor in V3.xx! .. by using the -1 <objnum> switch or the -2 <objnum> switch.

If you have a use for this, maybe try this initially as an astrolog32.dat macro, as follows, using the easier method 2 described here; here's the script to insert to 'define' this macro, using -1 <objnum>:

/WM 6 "Locks Sat. to ASC"
/M0 6 "-1 7 ;"   ..using 7 for Saturn as here, or 8 for Uranus, 9 for Neptune, 10 for Pluto.

Save astrolog32.dat. The most stable locking of a chart comes from locking on Pluto: <objnum>s for Stars etc won't work.

Most likely you will need to revert this before your session ends:

/WM 7 "Resets ASC to normal" ;
/M0 7 "-1 22" ;   ..for reverting for normal.

Save astrolog32.dat.

[File] > [Print...] (the keyboard switch is Ctrl+p), opens the 'printer' or 'choose printer' dialog box to print directly: but you may want a 'landscape' print-off: go Ctrl+q first! ~ Astrolog32 has its own Postscript setup, that can be managed in the [Settings] > [Miscellaneous] dialog box.

Prior to printing text or a graphic, the Character scale will affect the font-size - 'Ctrl+2' is default, and 'Ctrl+1', ... 'Ctrl+3', and 'Ctrl+4' are other switches for glyph-size that can be set, no matter whether in Graphical- or Text-mode, though in your text outputs, only the lettering and numbers will be shrunk or enlarged.

Alternatively, [Edit] > [Copy chart as text] sends a text-version to your clipboard, so you can paste and format in a text- editor. (this will bounce the chart-view into text-mode anyway). This clipboard item can be pasted into Wordpad or other editor. This routine allows you to copy all textlists, like Interpretations, or Aspects, and format them into MS Word, or a publishing software of your choice.
The shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+5.
For set-up of text outputs, see APPEARANCE & IMAGING.

[Edit] > [Copy chart as bitmap] (Ctrl+Shift+6): this makes a copy of the chart image, or any other graphical display (& if you are in text-view, it will bounce you into graphical mode) available to you in the Windows™ Clipboard, from which you can paste straight into Word (here, if you are viewing this in an older I. E.); or it can then be pasted into any image-editor that will host bitmaps: you can then save in any format.
With all releases including the newest V3.20+, the Shift+q switch shrinks the size of the graphic before copying. ~ to get it back to size, use the pull-handle.

But compare [File] > [Save chart as bitmap], (now in [File] > [Export]), where you can save a bitmap image straightaway, in four actions, using the shortcut Ctrl+6.
For set-up of graphical outputs, see APPEARANCE & IMAGING.

Getting things the way you like them, tweaks, are Astrolog's USP (along with.. Astrolog's free). There are two major ways: tweaks for the present session only, and permanent tweaks, such at setting things up.
The session tweaks are best left to command switches and keyboard switches, or using the menubar until the switches become memorable; the permanent tweaks have to be made at a time when a beginner is unsure about method - they're covered in See More and CORE.

Appearance

Objects

See More

Rare

CORE

& Save

[View] > [Colored Text], Alt+k, 'Colored Text' is applied to text not to graphics: (it bounces you into text-mode when set, so to get straight back to the graphic, type v). Your preferences can be made default, - see Core.

Hiding the program!:   There's a way to hide everything leaving a plain empty window: hitting the 'Backspace' key does this, and [View] > [Window Settings] > [Clear screen] does too.
Pressing 'Spacebar' calls Astrolog back again, as can its menu equivalent [View] > [Window Settings] > [Redraw screen] - and this last tweak eliminates any on-chart marks, accidental or otherwise.

Hiding planets/ other objects:   going [View] > [Show glyph labels] (toggle little l - l for 'lunch') will hide/show all planets, luminaries and calculated points, like the nodes - just the aspect-lines remain; this is how the chart will print. It will call the graphic-mode, if you're at a text window.

Hiding aspect-lines, not so easy, but see how-to in About Switches. But Bonus Mode hides lines in Gauquelin Sectors.

[View] > [Show border] (b is the toggle):   this hides, or shows, the border around the chart, - this will call the graphic-mode. You can't make 'no border' a default feature, except by making the colour parameter for the lines the same as the background colour ~ which is a dodge! ~ but you will lose the horizon-line and MC/IC-line too: achievable by altering astrolog32.DAT, at Main Colors (the -Yk 0 8 line), or through modifying [Settings] > [Color Settings] (and not for newbies).

[Extra] > [Bonus Mode], (toggle i): Bonus Mode has different operation, according to your display: (in text charts, Bonus Mode calls graphical)

• In chart-wheel: hardens the main aspect-lines, thins out the minor ones
• In Aspect-Grid, the midpoints and the glyphs are swapped
• In Astrograph, it shows when MC sweeps each planet, on a given day (useful)
• Hides the Moon's course, in the graphical-ephemeris
• combined with the [Local Horizon] chart, and [Extra] > [Modify Chart], then in Chris Mitchell's words, Astrolog32 'Bonus Mode' "turns the local horizon chart into a kind of Campanus mundoscope! ..the horizon is now the horizontal line, the local meridian is the vertical line, and the prime vertical is now the circle!" - see right.

Beware: setting i in Combination chart, means c to return to chart #1 doesn't work.

  With [Extra] maps and constellations:

• flips Show/hide planets in [Show Globe], or amid Constellations


• etc, etc,  I can't know all its effects, so try [Bonus Mode] with different displays!
  
  

[Extra] > [Constellations ON], (switch f) swaps between 'looking at the sky', and 'looking at the globe'.   (Revert to chart with Shift+v). [View] > [Reverse Background], little x, inverts both your text and your graphics main colours, (follow it maybe with m for monochrome) - if you view with a dark background, but want to print black on white. With V.2ox, see CHANGING 'MAIN COLOURS' etc via DIALOG BOX below.

[View] > [Graphics Mode], [View] > [Text Mode] - (it bears repeating) - swap between seeing a graphical chart, and seeing chart data as text: much quicker typing little v.

[Settings] > [Calculation Settings] - this dialog does many tweaks, including to set harmonic charts and to opt for another planet at the centre of the chart - but both are quicker by command-switch (see HARMONIC SWITCHES).

You can set up Astrolog32 to display and give data for at least 117 objects & points, including cusps; 127 if you include Arabic Parts in the available text list. By default, only some 24 objects are shown, or listed in text-mode, from a given chart-time-datum.

You can include or exclude objects or points on a per-session basis according to the nature of your work, by using the dialog boxes itemised below: you can make more objects (like cusps, minor planets, etc, but not Fixed Stars), appear every day by default in your text- or graphics-views, by saving the Config.file (astrolog32.DAT) after you have expanded or restricted what you want.
Each link ending in "...Selections" in the [Settings] dropdown menu will open a dialog-box, (though there are quicker ways).

  1. By way of [Settings] > [Object Selections], all major and minor planets, also Uranians, and the cusps, can individually be restricted from view and calculations. (the keyboard switch for this dialog is Alt+r).

  2. By way of [Settings] > [Transit Selections], all major and minor planets, also Uranians, and the cusps, can individually be restricted/reset in calculations when transitting. (the keyboard switch for this dialog is Alt+Shift+f).

  3. By way of [Settings] > [Progressed Selections], all major and minor planets, also Uranians, and the cusps, can individually be restricted/reset in calculations, when progression dialog box is used. (the keyboard switch for this dialog is Alt+Ctrl+p).

  4. By way of [Settings] > [Aspect Selections and Settings], Alt+Shift+a: this important dialog allows to reset the Orbs and any Influence for each of the Major and Minor planets and Points used: tick-box the ones you want 'on', untick those you want 'off'.
If you need to alternate between two (or more) aspect-sets, I suggest to use macros to reset, and then to return to default (MACROS & HARMONICS).

  5. By way of [Settings] > [Planets & Minors Settings]: this dialog allows to reset the Orb-Additions and any Influence (Power) of the Major and Minor planets, and Points used. Again, macros allow different addition-sets to be called ad hoc.
See that a maximum Orb (defaulted 360 degrees) exists for each, - which means you can 'clip' accumulating Orb Additions, e.g. at 15.
Under "Add" and "Influence", a "0.0" here indicates that the objects have not been weighed for more orb, nor as to 'power' - those numbers can be upped to your choice, such as extra two degrees for the Sun.

  6. [Settings] > [Cusps & Uranians Settings]: as '6' above, to trim orb of cusps and Uranians

To make your selections permanent, now go [File] > [Save current settings]; Save and 'yes' the file-overwrite.

THE FOLLOWING CANNOT BE MADE DEFAULT, ONLY SESSION:

7. [Settings] > [Star Selections]: here, select your preferred Fixed Stars. In V.20x, making choices is sometimes sufficient. In V3.20+, I'm finding out.

8. [Settings] > [Calculation Settings], whereby planets can be locked on a chart's Ascendant Degree, or at Midheaven.

9. [Settings] > [Calculation Settings], whereby any Central Planet instead of Earth can be selected, with the exception of Moon.

Time Out! Dodger gripes about Session Tweaks for Tropical users: For Sidereal users, in Astrolog it's a snap to call Sidereal (toggle 's'), Decans (toggle 'g'), or Navamsa (toggle 'y'), or Domal (toggle 'f') - - these are all simple keyboard switches. Heliocentric is easy, too (toggle 'h'). (See Sidereal, Vedic). Unluckily for workaday seekers after Western style birthcharts in Astrolog, these essentially one-time-and-done adjustments to the program were long ago assigned many of those simplest keyboard switches (e.g. h, g, s, y, f - all tweaks for Mundane or Sidereal work); this means that for a modernist's typical tweaks, say - for viewing aspect-lists, a grid, to save to or open \charts, or transits, shift-key keyboard switches do much of the heavy lifting; and for delivering some things like Major Configurations we must dig into [Settings] > [Chart Settings] (see Midpoints & Planets' Configurations for that journey!), or go command-line...  To redress matters, here's a Remedy..

'Beginner's Option' - see below

Display more accurate positions of Objects and Points, as a permanent feature: either
1, in the Config.file, set -b0 to =b0, then:
 [File] > [Save current settings]; Save and 'yes' the file-overwrite.

Or, 2. go Alt+b, then:
 [File] > [Save current settings]; Save and 'yes' the file-overwrite.

Or, 3. in [Settings] > [Chart Settings..], on the right of the dialog, together with Scientific Notation of degrees in decimal. 'OK' it, then:
 [File] > [Save current settings]; Save and 'yes' the file-overwrite.

Switch off redundant Aspects/Change the Orbs: go [Settings] > [Aspect Selections & Settings] which calls the reset-fields for all aspects (bar any orb additions), including if they are to be listed for 'applying' and 'separating'. Astrolog reckons orbs in decimal: in this Companion in ATLASES, there is a converter from minutes of arc to decimal. (Alt+Shift+a also calls this). See BASICS # 1 > Aspects to identify the aspects available, and the symbols used.

Showing Other Aspects: Going [Settings] > [Parallel Aspects] (toggle is Alt+Shift+x) hides the general aspects and shows instead the parallels and contra-parallels, for view, list-view, calculations and printing - you can't set this as default.

In some situations, the switch -gp will present as text, the Midpoints Grid, plus parallels listed. It's unreliable, and not a toggle.

Quintiles and Septiles are maybe best called with a command-switch which switches them on while switching Major Aspects off. Try -YAR 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 -YAR 6 11 1 1 1 1 0 0 -YAR 12 18 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 ;

These and other small aspects also may be in Configurations but not noticable in the chart, because the planets are apparently randomly placed around the Radical: use harmonics 2 or 5, to see such things.


In the [Settings] menu:

[Settings] > [Calculation Settings], (Alt+Shift+s), is important for making very major in-session alterations, but only choice of Nodes, Sidereal Houses, Sidereal Offset of objects' positions, and your settings for Lilith (Dark Moon) can save to become default: heliocentric, or any planet-at-centre (except Moon) charts can be opted for here for the session, and harmonic charts derived from the basic chart data. Opt here for equatorial positions instead of ecliptic. But these latter cannot be made the default status for Astrolog32.

[Settings] > [Chart Settings], (Alt+Shift+c) is a portmanteau dialog box where
1. the default 'Alternative stars' has been switched so that the new-style view of those-currently-aspecting is shown as default. A tick in the box used to reverse this, making Alternative Stars work.
Also, here are various different additions to text-lists.
2. summaries of major aspects
3. planets' speeds compared with mean velocity
4. include aspects to midpoints, among many. (It is often necessary that the appropriate text-chart be called.)
5. you can add the immediate-dispositors' glyphs to the Signs in the wheel. This is a cabinet of assorted fixes, and includes how
6. 'Flower' graphics are displayed.

Command Switches offer a rapid path to many of these re-settings, see ABOUT SWITCHES.

[Settings] > [Arabic parts Settings] is a dialog where you can define different calculation formulae and inversions, and the circumstances where Astrolog32 will list any Part's aspects. There's no shortcut.

[Settings] > [Graphics Settings] - You can alter your standard animation delay (in milliseconds) here, for the duration of your session.

Otherwise, see APPEARANCE & IMAGING for the [Settings] dialog's other tweaks, including [Settings] > [Color Settings].

[Settings] > [Special] > [solar chart] (Alt+1) puts the Ascendant at the dawning Sun.

[Settings] > [Special] > [Flip signs houses] (f), this creates a Kensky chart, useful to think about a chart, as if things were otherwise, I suppose.

[Settings] > [Special] > [Geodetic houses] (Alt+Shift+h) houses of interest to 'quake analysts.

[Lists] > [Arabic parts] tells the program to serve the Arabic parts text-list. Alt+p is the shortcut.

[View] > [Sort aspects by power, or orb] (Ctrl+x is the toggle) re-sorts the aspects list (see [Lists] > [aspects], Alt+l), accordingly.

[View] > [Show Aspect Info], (switch Shift+i, a toggle), shows or hides a non-modifiable overall 'power calculation' derived from the aspects and positions in the chart - this only appears in the graphic chart sidebar, so If you're in text-mode, this will flip Astrolog32 into graphics-mode, with the calculation added.

Beginner's Option
You can opt for Simplified Mode, (available with V. 2.02 and after), after your first launch - it's the last option in [Settings], - where you can return to 'Advanced' at any time. This tidier window means a beginner can do chart-making (and viewing and saving), without the siren-calls of Astrolog32's obscurer alleyways.
Before opting into Simplified Mode at all though, you need, while in Advanced mode, to set-up any basic requirements, like:
[Settings] > [Sidereal or Tropical]?
[Settings] > [Chosen House System]?
Do you want Objects' locations to-the-second?, ........ go [View] > [Print nearest second]
Do you want more, or less planets?, ........ go [Settings] > [Object Selections]
Prefer standard 8 ° orbs for planets? ........ go [Settings] > [Aspects Selection & Settings],
.. anything else? ..(see below).. - and then be sure to go:
 [File] > [Save current settings], and save file ;

..next, go [Settings] > [Simplified Mode], if you mean to keep wth this choice for a while.

REVIEW THESE TOO BEFORE OPTING FOR Simplified Mode.

Altering date format:  D-M-Y (Europe/Russ/Afr/N.Z) or M-D-Y (US/Can), - and the 24-hour clock, ~ find this choice in [Settings] > [Miscellaneous Settings]; and change here the number of columns'-width of text-data, whether onscreen or to print. 80 columns is narrow in my opinion; my Config. file has this line (: I 80) upped to 120 for A4 outputs.
This dialog, (Alt+Shift+b), has a field to add or remove cells in the graphics-mode aspect-grid grid, to accomodate more, or less, points or objects, as you make them default or necessary in the [Settings] > [Object Selections] dialog. Go  [File] > [Save current settings], and save file 

[Settings] > [Sidereal/Tropical]; press s to switch between Tropical and Sidereal view of the Zodiac's offset to the Cosmos. Setting your preference during a session and, before quitting, going  [File] > [Save current settings], and save file , makes your choice your new default.

([Settings] > [Calculation Settings] can set different ayanamsas and a custom Zodiacal Offset for Sidereal charts).   Then, [Settings] > [House Types] sets a different Tropical or Standard Sidereal house system. Which House System to choose? see FAQ > House.
At the same dialog box, restrictions or lets can be applied to the 'Angles' cusps' data appearing too. Positions for ASC, DESC, M.C, and I.C are not in the chart info, because Off by default, and here this default can be altered -  just save the Config. file.

Also, you can reset what interpretations you want to see, or chose 'None' in [Settings] > [Miscellaneous Settings]; and maybe tackle your Postscript paper settings for printing.

Your choices of glyphs for Pluto, Uranus, and Capricorn, also Lilith, are in [Settings] > [Graphics Settings].. and  save the Config file  for the changes to stick.

[View] > [Colored Text], Alt+k, is applied to text not to graphics: you can abandon this default, by altering astrolog32.DAT, (change -k to =k).  Save the Config. file.

Hidden from us while we change our settings, the astrolog32.DAT file's data in computer memory is undergoing constant re-drafting.. so when we decide to Save Settings, it is the current setup, * with one or two unrequested re-writes to defaults which over-writes the astrolog32.DAT you launched with. A link to do this re-write is in [File] menu.   Then re-launch Astrolog32 to see it's truly saved. (this [File] menu route is the RED METHOD, q.v).   But you can also go Ctrl+s with the file, opened via [Edit] > [Edit configuration file];   after editing it, using my "Customizing the Config. file" section as a quide; just save it Ctrl+s, and * there will be no unrequested re-writes to defaults, (this is the BLUE METHOD).. Which is preferable? click to see.

For example, your defaults at installation are: white background (version 2.02 on), locations in minutes of arc, graphical chart, Tropical signs, .. and of course your default location, .. yet it is a one-minute job if you are an old hand, to change three of these so that you have new defaults. (Changing default location takes a little time .. see further down for how.)

NOTE: Any changes you save are reversible.

EXAMPLE Tweak 1: a tweak by keyboard switches: To set Astrolog32 to, say, 'print nearest second', text, and Sidereal,   go Alt+b; then go s, then v likewise..

EXAMPLE Tweak 2: some tweaks via the menus: To set the program to, say, monochrome, and treat cusps as 'objects', go [Settings] > [Object Selections..], find 'cusps' and click 'Select All', then go 'OK'; then go [View] > [monochrome]...
..to alter orbs of Aspect, go [Settings] > [Aspect Selections & Settings], and edit the 'Orb' fields..

--------------

  ..NOW THIS WILL OVERWRITE YOUR CURRENT SETTINGS! -ALSO ANY OLD-STYLE MACROS!

  go [File] > [Save current settings]; Save and 'yes' the file-overwrite, overwriting the Config. file. This is a RED METHOD settings-save.

From that moment, your changes are the new default, but the Config. file will have been cleansed of anything odd. In V.3.20+, you don't have even to confirm the rewrite.. see new notification image, right.

The old-school way (BLUE METHOD) is to go [Edit] > [Edit Configuration file] to review, to alter, then finally save astrolog32.DAT with Ctrl+s.
One advantage of this method is, it doesn't delete any macros you've created at the foot of the file. and, you don't have to start sessions with a wheelchart. More..

EXAMPLE Tweak 3: to set Astrolog32 to Earth, Sun and Moon only at every launch, open the Config.file, find
  -YR 0 10   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
and change to
-YR 0 10   0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Save the file with Ctrl+s. Close the Config. file.
Launch Astrolog32. To reverse this, revert to the upper entry, and save.

EXAMPLE Tweak 4: to set Astrolog32 permanently to the display of, say, the derestricted display of all 'minor planets', and true nodes rather than mean: find the line starting -YR 11 21 ..and change all the ones that follow to zeroes;
find _Yn, and change it to =Yn.
  Save the file with Ctrl+s. Close the Config. file.
Re-launch Astrolog32. To reverse this, revert to the previous entry, and save.

Go [Edit] > / or [Settings] > [Set default location/timezone], or, easier, Alt+Shift+d, to call a dialog for changing:

  1. Annual DSTs ~ type 'yes' if it is DST currently.
  2. Home timezone ~ ..find your off-set to UT here.
  3. Degrees Easting or Westing) ~ obtain via [Call Atlas] if your country's included, or....
  4. Degrees Northing or Southing) ~ or via Google, via GPS phone (type in to replace defaults)
  5. Home location name ~ type in if atlas doesn't insert; ...
- if online, go astro.com/atlas.

After edits,  go [File] > [Save Current Settings..]; Save and 'yes' the file-overwrite.

Close Astrolog32 and re-launch it.

1. The Fixed Stars: they won't appear until called. (V. 3.00 may be different, though)
2. The harmonic that Astrolog32 launches with: that's Harmonic 1 only.
3. Astrolog32 can't launch with other than a one chart graphic complete with info sidebar; or with a text-list of positions/ a calendar/ interpretations /aspectgrid.. (see what's required for such unconventional options here and here).
4. Anything on the [Extra] menu.
5. Chart at launch cannot be other than Earth-centred.
6. The 'Flower' graphic.

• if you backed up a recent copy of astrolog32.DAT, find it and import a copy of that backup file into the Astrolog32 \main folder, where you will be asked 'Do you want to over-write?' - go yes, and overwrite your broken astrolog32.DAT.
• failing that, deleting the original astrolog32.DAT, then going [Edit] > [Edit configuration file] will open a new Config. file, but you'll have to re-personalise it, then 'Save'.

The Mainchart's dispositors can be seen - in various hierarchies - by typing Shift+j (not a toggle), or clicking [Charts] > [Dispositors]; use Graphics mode (If you're in Text mode, a grid laid out in text used to appear - now it is a list of Pullen's power estimates.)
NOTE: using the keyboard shortcut switch shift+j, a bug was apparent in V. 2.04, - text and graphics could overlay, and the background change - using the [Chart] menu method is safe.

The planets higher in each cell disposit the lower ones, and imagining the arrows as one-way neural pathways, then the lower planets take their nuances from the upper! - the arrows point the other way, though.

Note, Points cannot be displayed in these hierarchies.

Where Final Dispositors are bi-corporeal, in my experience both their sets of characteristics, Earthy and Airy, manifest as dominating the chart.

As in other modes of the program, pressing 'p' makes it update by progression. Use switch v to return to the chart-data.

The descending order of planets-by-Sign (below) is a schematic of the chain of dispositions of a chart of W.H.Davies (right); he wrote 'Autobiography of a Super-Tramp', a 1950s 'must read'.

Springing from an idea from Theodoros Natsinas, and getting away from the Radical's aspect-display, this chart is an analytic of significant degrees of a given chart, expressed in the chart circle as a petal-shape, radial from the centre, toward degrees that are 'trigger points', i.e. sympathetic/antipathetic to the planets' positions as an whole; with waves or spikes at the circumference.
It looks for two kinds of point, those that accentuate tension, and those of most benign aspect - 'Harmonic' here means harmonious.

Opening [Settings] > [Chart Settings], or Alt+Shift+c, is the only way of opting for this graphic, or switching it off.

[Charts] > [Biorhythm Chart], (switch shift+y), sets up a sine-wave chart showing three varying qualities at a glance - "Intellectual", "Emotional" and "Physical" assessments; note that these are reckoned for the chart #2 birth-datum, on the day of the Mainchart, so, either both chart#1 and chart #2 need to be set up or if only the first, then by going switch Shift+x then switch Shift+y, 'today's evaluation' for the Mainchart can be seen. Switch Shift+y is not a toggle.

The waves' low points reach -100% (said to be a low ebb), .. +100% (said to be buoyant).

The graphical shows month to view, the text version gives the biorhythm percentages for the seven days before (T-7 days) and the seven days after (T+7 days) on the date cited as chart #1.

The command-line switch is -rb, and needs the files to be specified in the command-line.
-r0 <file1> <file2> ;
will keep the charts separate in comparison.

There is a distinction between any of the above types of particular relationship charts and the actual comparison between two separate charts.
The -r0 <file1> <file2> option is used to generate actual comparison charts.

For example, to see what your biorhythm is like for the beginning of December, do "astrolog -qm 12 2020 -rb nul yourchart" on the command line and no further input is needed.

For example, combining -r0 with the -g switch will cause a full grid chart of the aspects between all the planets of the two charts (with person1's planets on the vertical axis and person2's on the horizontal) to be displayed.

The -yb <file> switch will display the person indicated in file's biorhythm for today. The -yd <file> switch will display how many months, days, etc old the person in the file is right now.
There are also switches -yp[0] and -yt which similarly behave like -rp[0] and -rt above but automatically compare to now.

-Yb <days>: Set the number of days to span for a biorhythm chart.

[Lists] > [Transits] opens the 'Transits' dialog box so you can input a point in time ahead of the Mainchart's, (of course), so as to to see any particular day's (month's, year's) transits to the Mainchart which you have running. Abandoning 'None', select whether Transit to Natal, Transit to Transit, or Influences... on [OK], the 'hits' are displayed as a list.
('Here & Now' button selects 'now, today', for any hits to the Mainchart). Esc key dismisses the dialog.
Keyboard switch is Alt+Shift+t - press v to return.
This input dialog also appears when using V. 2.04+'s 'General' & 'Particular Planet' transit Macros - Ctrl+F1 to Alt+F1, - these allowing the display of transits under any custom parameters of the macro.

(NOTE: You can use this dialog to set a progression target-date, as well).

V. 2.0x has another option [Transit & Natal], in [Charts]; this works in graphic mode as a bi-wheel, when you have set your chart#2 as the future day you are enquiring into: chart#2's positions surround chart#1: the Moon is restricted in all versions of Astrolog32, (but can be seen if you go switch Shift+x, or v for text - both toggles).

[Lists] > [Midpoints] offers a text-list of the mid-span positions between every pair of the same planet, and pair of the same point/angle, when comparing the Mainchart and chart #2, so it's a two-page printoff of some 112 mutual midpoints of all objects. Going [Edit] > [Copy chart as text] sends the list to the clipboard, to paste into a doc., or it may be sent straight to printer, or appended to other text output.

See also, in the Aspect-Grid, the midpoints' Signs are displayed in upper right half, both in the graphical and text display.

You can append a list of all Planets' Configurations - both to the Aspect-Grid (text version - see right), and/or to the Aspect List; but - it is eight clicks just to get there.

First, click on [Settings] > [Chart Settings], and tick the box for "Text Aspect Grid Shows Aspect Configurations, (text)", - I can't make it default yet - maybe others can.

Also, click on [Settings] > [Aspect Selections], ticking the box "Text Aspect Lists show Aspect Summary": the configurations will then appear after the text-list of aspects.

With a command switch, there's a much easier way:

/a0 for the aspects, and the Configurations appended too

/g0 for the aspect-grid, and the Configurations appended too

Good news - these are toggles!

Configurations reckoned are: Cradle, Grand Cross, 'Mystic' Rectangle, Grand Trine, Kite, Stellium, T-Square, but not Yod. Cradle, (M E Jones calls it a Bowl), has planets are confined to one hemisphere.

Before reviewing the Configurations present, consider restricting Points (i.e. not planetary) in [Settings] > [Object Selections]; or run a macro to suppress them. For pictures of these Configurations, see WORD LOOK-UP, > Configurations.

Clicking [Settings] > [Sidereal Zodiac] relocates the zodiac according to its antique linkage with the constellations, named for the Signs: you can use the keyboard switch s, a toggle which switches in/out of Sidereal/Tropical; saving the Config.file will make this choice your default charting mode.

For a familiar thirteen-box chart, choose 'text-mode', and perhaps Alt+Shift+v.

Reversing the sequence of the signs in the zodiac, Vedic orientation is called by the letter 'z', (this is a toggle), or by altering [Settings] > [Vedic wheel Display] (which is like [Settings] > [House Types] > [Whole House] - the house divisions each appear 30 degrees across the zodiac, so there are no intercepted signs). Now, Lagna is top-left. [Settings] > [House Types] > [Shripati Houses] will adjust objects' positions from any default Western house-system.

Otherwise, [Settings] > [...Calculations Settings] is an essential point-of-visit for Siderealists, being a portmanteau dialog box for setting up a number of features (the switch is Alt+Shift+s - it is not a toggle); under Zodiacs, there are seventeen Ayanamsa settings ~ find here Fagan-Bradley, Hipparchos, Sassanian, & others.

The trans-Saturnians can be suppressed from their default appearance by de-selecting them in [Settings] > [Object Selections], made permanent by going [Edit] > [Edit configuration file], and saving astrolog32.DAT. Saving the Config.file, astrolog32.DAT, (go Ctrl+9), saves any other alterations you have chosen, too.

Or keep your options open: press v, then Alt+Shift+v, then just run a macro like /s 24 /YR 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 /J /c 13 ;, when you want a Sidereal perspective, without making Sidereal charting your default.

 Far more extensive options come with V3.20+, like P.D.s, Hora Shastra, a must for some in 2021.

Harmonics can be set in [...Calculations Settings], too, and can be raised without reference to the Sidereal elements in the dialog box, simply by entering a number in the relevant field, and 'OK'ing. In order to go from one harmonic to another, simply alter the 'Harmonic chart factor' again - the numbers will not compound, it re-calculates from the Radical.

Decans, (which are not the third harmonic), can be called by [Settings] > [Special] > [Show decans], or by keying letter 'g' (a toggle).

Similarly, the Navamsa is three clicks away, via [Settings] > [Special] > [Show Navamsas], or, type letter 'y' (also a toggle).

NOTE: Navamsa & Decans will compound, if both are 'ticked'!

These re-divide the House-Wheel, nine unequal sectors to each quadrant, interpolated without respect of House Division's irregular spans-by-latitude, apparently according to some exponential scale. They serve to fraction areas of charts for comparative analysis of planets' positions (whether high or low, east or west), set against people's professional career choices, or their lifelong debilities. Charts with their Gauquelin Sectors must be time-exact.
Keyboard switch is Shift+m.

The sectors (there are 36) are numbered clockwise from the Ascendant.

Michel Gauquelin conceived this division of chart areas, which has no burden of past associations, and used France's timed birthcharts to build huge databases. 'The Mars Effect' caused ripples, and drew the 'skeptical' part of the science establishment into a shameful attempt to shut him down, by bogus peer-review.

This feature uses chart #1 datum and chart #2 datum, but makes just one chart, using the House alignment of the Mainchart, chart #1, but displaying the planets of chart #2.
The keyboard shortcut is Alt+y.
Use Shift+x to put the planets of chart #1 in the House alignment of chart #2 or press c to revert to Mainchart.

In terms of use, generally, expect to experience your susceptibility to their planets appearing in your 3rd, 4th and 5th Houses; your adjustment to their planets in your 6th, 7th and 8th Houses; your forbearance with their planets in your 9th, 10th and 11th Houses; and your identification with their planets in your 12th, 1st and 2nd Houses.

Even although it is a chart 'Having No Time or Space', Interpretations can be run on this chart, as Astrolog doesn't forbid even quite pointless exercises!

To see hits between the two charts, though, you need a Comparison Chart - see Multiwheels.

The Synastry chart may equally just rely on a 'Here & Now' chart at chart-thread #2 to supply a display of transits; check out 'Here & Now' and Chart #2 section, if you need to set up #2.

    DODGE No. 6          

Largely, these fields are for reassurance, or, the analysis of any failures to send and fetch stuff in Astrolog's folders: these fields are editable: each defines how Astrolog32 accesses one folder in its folder-system, and not in any way how the chart-making and calculating-engine works.
These fields replicate the last section of the Config. file, which does the same job (where, equally well, you can edit these paths).

If you need to modify these fields, either:

   1. you have trouble getting Astrolog32 to find its charts, atlases, interpretations, miscellaneous or ephemerides folders..

2. you are setting up a new install, and want to direct its calls for atlases, ephemerides, charts, etc, to an earlier install or program, or another location for the folders.

THE V.2.05 VERSION. The Directory-fields in the image above are the default paths offered in Astrolog32 V.2.05. They are no longer the best paths: in all versions of Windows AFTER XP, these locations will not work, really at all.   See below for your better options, with Windows 7 and after.

So although by default they install to 'Program Files', C:\Program Files\Astrolog32\.. (as seen), this V.2.05 version will adjust to any other location, and they will direct calls to their folders having amended these paths automatically, if, as you should, you opt out of 'Program Files' during the installation (viz. see third 'Directories' image)


NOTE that if you have moved your Astrolog32 V. 2.0x after install, (and certainly if you have installed V. 1.3x other than at C:\astrolog32), you will find you have to change these paths and save the Config.file (or, of course, move the Astrolog32 folder back to where you first chose, maybe in an older version, to C:); then it can work.. (and you may need to re-make shortcuts to astrolog32.exe, to launch the program).

So, to change what's in these fields, you can browse to your intended target-folders, then you can copy from the address-bar showing the folder, if in XP or before; releases after Vista need a right-click in the address-bar, and 'Copy address as text'.. and insert them in the appropriate fields, and go 'OK'. (See the very end of the CUSTOMIZING DEFAULTS WITH CONFIG.FILE section, for how). Then you must save the Config.file.

IN EARLIER VERSIONS: note the difference with this set of Directory-paths (at right) - these are the default paths in in V.2.02 . These versions expect the program to be installed to a folder called \astrolog32, in a root folder \astrolog, at the root C:, and they direct calls to the modular folders there.

If you install your Astrolog32 V.2.02 anywhere else, you will have to change these paths and re-save the Config.file, (and you'll need to re-make shortcuts to astrolog32.exe, to launch the program).   Humph!

So this is a good location for V.2.02; for V.2.05, see the next illustration.

Next, here are the paths for an re-routed english-language V. 2.05 install at C:, - it uses the old V2.02 defaults.

Although the installer process will propose the \astrolog32 folder at the root C:, in fact another folder, called \astrolog, needs to be interposed by you, or the New Macros will not work. Ideally, the extra folder would be made by the Astrolog32 V. 2.0x installer during installation, - but it isn't..
You can successfully create it now and then park \Astrolog32 within it; but make sure the directory paths in your personal astrolog32.DAT are correct, once it is up-and-running.

  This is a good location for V.2.05, though you might prefer an User\ Library folder, or \Downloads, if macros aren't initially of use to you.

With an eye to the future of Astrolog32, here are the paths for my V. 3.20 install, in an User's 'Videos' library: nowadays the filepath can be nice and short, and notes in the dialog-box state the contents of each target-folder.

The New Macros will work fine, and, moving the Program folder is logged by the pc, and these should update automatically. Amazing!

There is a graphical and a text version, and only the text option is in [Lists].

The text-list details Zodiacal degree and time for all risings, culminations and settings, during the whole day in question. Fixed Stars can be included individually, or by [Settings] > [Include Fixed Stars]: any planet except The Moon can be Central.
You can call these via Alt+Shift+l for text (not a toggle, and that is l for 'lima').

The graphical, which is called by going [Charts] > [Local Horizon] shows the spread of the luminaries & planets around the horizon, pointing up their culminations, upper and lower, also quadrant and conjunction, - pressing p for progression becomes a demonstration of the changing night sky, if Jump Rate is 'Hours'; pressing i makes the markers for locations more clear.
As well, Fixed Stars can be incorporated in the image, and any planet bar the Moon set as the hub to the 360-degree view.
Go switch Shift+z (not a toggle) for graphics.

When Saturn or further-out planets are made Central Planet, then if we assume that Change there, as on Earth, relates partly to shifts of other planets, this animation reveals the very poor yogas of these distant worlds, that at home they are seldom conflicted or changed, places of monotony.

This uses the world map to illustrate the culminated position of planets and points through the day in question. [Extra] > [Bonus Mode] shows longitudes where, at the chart's time, planets are at zenith.
The text version spells out the longitude of where, at the time in question each planet was on the midheaven and on the nadir, and the latitude of where the planets actually appeared at zenith.
The keyboard switch is switch Shift+l, (not a toggle, and that is l for 'lunch'). To escape to the standard chart, press Shift+v.

Astro-graphology is a big topic, but curiosity's arrow has led me in other roads. It is extensively covered in HELPFILE.TXT, (as 'astro-graph' - note the spelling), and Wikipedia's Astrocartography page explains the topic too.

This feature is a text-file generated ad-hoc by Astrolog32 to describe personality traits that would arise, if the mainchart data is a birth-chart; also called by alt+shift+i.
What interpretation-set you see is controlled by [Settings] > [Miscellaneous], where there are two permutations of interpretation-sets to choose from (on the right of the dialog's window). (With V. 1.3x, seeing any 'alternative' interpretations at all depends on whether you have downloaded the 'Interpretations' zipfile and extracted it to where Astrolog32 expects it to be, \interpretations.)

• The standard interpretations are a list of planets read according-to-Sign-and-House, without regard to aspects. These are the Interpretations presented by default: clicking [Lists] > [Interpretations], (Alt+ Shift+i), will put up a copyable text-list.
  


• The alternative interpretations are only available on request, then, and include an automated estimation of relative power, and adjustments for the effect of major aspects - these come from files you can edit to your own purposes: they rely on Valentin's sequencing, which is hidden in the program. Files pl01.DAT thro' pl10.DAT reference Sun thro' Pluto, I discover, and pl22.DAT, pl25.DAT, pl28.DAT, pl31.DAT cover Ascendant, I.C, Descendant, Midheaven. These interpretations can be very good.

If you select 'alternative' in the [Settings] > [Miscellaneous] window, you can choose one of six different levels of editable alternative interpretations, and going 'OK' to an option will deliver your selection during the current session, choosing from:
1. default - 'Info Only'.
2. Each planet's quality defined individually.
3. Each House's quality defined individually.
4. Each House's quality defined in terms of its dispositor.
5/6. All Houses' and planets' qualities defined individually, and default readings, less/with their dispositions.

It isn't possible to make the alternative selection the default selection. When in 'alternatives', Alt+l returns you to the default interpretations; then Shift+v back to the alternatives;   It's alt+shift+i, or [Lists] > [Interpretations] again, to escape interpretations and return to The Speculum.

[Extra] > [Constellations On]
This sets the maps on, but with an outward perspective: so does switch Shift+f, a toggle that thereafter only switches from skymap to earthmap.

Other triggers for maps are switch Shift+g - delivers Equatorial Globe or Equatorial Constellations, and switch Shift+p, [Extra] > [Show Polar Globe] / [Polar Constellations], sets to the South Pole - press i for North Pole.

In all cases, switch Shift+f switches from looking in to looking out.
All these maps can be modified, by going switch i, or switch p. Bonus Mode incorporates the planets, in graphics mode, with these [Extra] options ; it is a toggle more handily driven by the keyboard switch i.

[Extra] > [Modify Chart], (number 'zero') functions differently in different modes: Specifically, if in wheel chart mode it will toggle between the standard wheel and the house-emphasized wheel.

In addition, it will toggle the "horizon chart displays with polar center" flag from the Chart Settings dialog, with the "world map in Mollewide projection" flag from the Graphics Settings dialog.

Toggle p, and trying [Extra] > [Globe Tilt] > [any value to increase, ] [ to decrease, ] can have the globe rolling everyway, as well.

To escape to the standard chart, press Shift+v.

In V.3.40, [Extra], a fine 3D Celestial Sphere illustrating the obliquity, Zodiac and Great Circles will be found, an import from Astrolog 7.

[Extra] > [Calendar] leads to two options for viewing: relevant Month or relevant Year. These pages have scrollbars, but do not scroll in this option, so if you are (say) counting days beyond a year's end or start, you can't scroll to the next/previous year. Instead, progress the calendar, using the ^ keyboard switch (Shift+6) for 'progress by years', then the p keyboard switch.
The keyboard shortcut for Calendar is switch Shift+k, which then also toggles between the 'Month' and 'Year' view.

To escape to the standard chart, press Shift+v.

[Charts] > [Ephemeris] - this displays a text or graphic page - the midnight positions of planets and points for each day in the month which the Mainchart-data falls in.
Switch Shift+e calls the same thing. The toggle switch v switches to/from a 'graph' version which itself is handy for a overall, if simple, take on the month's conjunctions.
For years rather than months, only the command-line will serve - go [Run], type in -Ey, press Return

For controls of what gets displayed, see example of switches for printing off the ephemeris here; it shows midnight positions.

For years where the quality Swiss Ephemeris files are not installed, less accurate databases (Moshier - 3000BC to 3000AD - the Matrix routines which generate the Asteroids and Points data anyway), will fill in the planets' positions on all versions of Astrolog32.

The ephemerides obey Astrolog32's calls just fine, but a significant bug exists with charts before 1 A.D., which with Roman-period charts we have to know about, - it's then easily fixed when you read this.

TROUBLESHOOTING EPHEMERIDES:
Because other (hidden) ephemerides step in when the relevant Swiss Ephemerides are absent for a particular era), there's no real way of knowing if your chart has been served by those hidden files, as they are wrapped within the executable astrolog32.exe; although you may see the Swiss .se1 files in \ephemeris folder, any error in the Config. File's path to that folder will interrupt their use, although you'd hardly notice..

OBTAINING EPHEMERIDES:
Clicking DOWNLOADS (home-page of V.2.05), and clicking the 'click here for English' flag, can lead you ultimately to Astrodeinst's 'sweph' page, for Swiss Ephemerides, where, click on zip-files you want, download them to your desktop, and unzip the contents (.se1 files) into the folder \ephemeris.

Of interest for charting the past, the following zips include the files you see on the right:
sweph_00.zip, & swephm_00.zip : 2BC to 599AD.
sweph_06.zip, & swephm_06.zip: 600 to 1199AD.
sweph_12.zip, & swephm_12.zip: 1200 to 1799AD.
sweph_18.zip, & swephm_18.zip: 1800 to 2399AD.
sweph_24.zip, & swephm_24.zip: 2400 to 2999AD.

But remember, you already have the contents of sweph_18.zip, & swephm_18.zip, covering 1800CE - 2399AD.

[Calculation Settings] > Central Planet...(Sun, Mars, Venus or other...) renders data as centred elsewhere in the Solar System, (with the exception of 'Moon' as an option). Type the planet's name in the field where 'Sun' is shown, or use the following numbers:
0 for Earth, 1 for Sun, 3 for Mercury, 4 for Venus, 5 for Mars, 6 for Jupiter, 7 for Saturn, 8 for Uranus, 9 for Neptune, 10 for Pluto.
.. this illustration charts the craft "Curiosity" landing on Mars, and is a 'Null' chart as far as any zodiac goes.

.. such charts will print and copy for export alright, and will save as a .DAT file or image or text, but not usefully as a _pos.DAT: when a saved chart is re-opened, the central planet or luminary, where it's not the Earth itself, must be re-set via [Settings] > [Calculation Settings] and this won't work with _pos.DATs, so only .DATs should be used.

Quicker than opening [Settings] > [Calculation Settings], use switches: the switch -h 10 will set Pluto as central (interesting, but the view from Pluto isn't great..); revert with -h 0.

Even if you have astrolog32.exe as a right-mouse-click option on a chart file, Astrolog32 won't open with the chart you've highlighted in a folder window, as other programs do. You can only open & alter .DATfiles using Notepad, from your right-click options list; unless, that is, you want the ability to open .DAT files with Astrolog32 enough to jump through hoops to obtain it; I am much endebted to Michael Rideout at 'Astrolog_List' forum, for explaining this dodge:

    DODGE No. 7          

If it weren't that Astrolog32 uses .DAT files, - an universal text-format used by Windows™ and countless other applications, this would be just a case of setting the executable astrolog32.exe as a right-click option for .DAT files, then making all .DAT files amenable to it.
It woud be rash to suggest such a radical action, because .DAT files are used by many other programs.
Instead, this dodge entails using a new suffix, not .DAT, then tweaking Windows™ to accept it.

To benefit, you will have to save in future using the new suffix, also choosing "All Files" in the "File of Type" field; and optionally, duplicate all your old Astrolog32 .DAT files to a new folder, and, as a batch, convert their file-extension to, say, .A32 - .. then, populate your \charts folder with these A32 versions.
Or you might just keep your .A32 option for special charts! - you can put them in any folder & open them with a right-click "Open with.."!

This is the procedure in Xp:

Decide on an unused file-extension, such as Michael's .A32 ending, - or .as (lists are available on the web of file-extensions already in use).

1. create a duplicate of any .DAT file, on your desktop, rename it yourchart.DAT, and change the name to show the new file-extension (this example uses .A32 ~ so, yourchart.A32). You will be asked "If you change a file-name extension, it could become unusable. Are you sure etc..??" - go "Yes"

Next the executable:

2. Double-click 'yourchart.A32', to try to open it - a dialog box appears ;
3. Click 'Select program from a list', and click 'OK' ;
4. Make sure the 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file' tickbox is checked ;
5. Click 'Browse..', and navigate into \main folder within Astrolog, and highlight the astrolog32.exe file there ;
6. Click 'OK' ;
7. Close Astrolog32! - it will have opened with an 'Here & Now' chart ;

Last, the new type of file's properties are altered:

8. Open 'My Computer' ;
9. On the menu, select [Tools] > [Folder Options] ;
10. Click 'File Types' ;
11. Select 'A32', and click 'Advanced' ;
12. Highlight 'Open..', then select 'Edit..' ;
13. Put your cursor in the 'Application used to perform action' line, press 'end' key. Leave one space after "..olog32.exe", adding "-i", (with the quotes), & leave another space before "%1". (Image below) ;
14. Save, and exit ;
15. Double click on yourchart.A32, and it will open in the program.

The result is, that in any folder window, or in 'Recent Documents', or on the desktop, any .A32 chart will now open in Astrolog32 from your right-click menu, or, if you prefer, by default.

Anyway, it's beyond me how to modify the file properties of .DAT files, having tried!
Instead of .A32, consider too the suffix .as, as it's used in the current US-based Astrolog 4, 5, 6, 7.

The 'Celebs' download consists of a big starter pack of charts, (the pack I downloaded holds 1724), of mostly Italian, United States', and German notables - all Astrolog-compatible .DATfiles with with good time data at least at first appearance - however, with a large number of the current batch (2018), the timezone has not been set right or at all (correct some with my World Time-Offsets page); many seem speculative, with regard to time, being at odds with Rodden's Astro-Databank, a well-curated resource, or with the Gauquelins' meticulous data, while some contain major clangers. Most charts are named surname-first, so that they can be made alphabetical order lists in a Windows™ or Astrolog search. Find them at Robbie Luporini's site here.

There's a potential nuisance value to putting these or other collections into \charts as .DATs: in mingling with your charts, they take over the \charts folder, - anything newly created by you won't be found among them, except when listed in time order: better in their own separate or sub-folder!   In V 3.20, 'Celebs' Charts' are in a special pop-up; in V.2.05 if the folder is put in \charts, they can be opened from there via [File] > [Open Main Chart], then double-click the 'Celebs' folder to access them.

Pretty good chart data of well-known people can be browsed at Rodden's Databank at Astro.com, but charts there are not .DAT files. Each chart datum is assessed for its likely exactness, and rated.
At CURA you can find still the data collected from French record-offices by Michel and Francoise Gauquelin and others, although it is in tab-separated-value tables in HTML docs.
To erect some charts but with no initial time data, Wikipedia's dates of birth are quite good. French Wikipedia used to be better for charts before 1752, or before 1918 in Russia or before 1926 in Greece, Turkey: there you would find both Old-Style day and Gregorian day given. They have mostly ditched that, and earlier page-versions seem to all be 'cleansed' also. But Good News, German Wikipedia routinely carries on with both NS and OS dates.
The least reliable online data in my experience is 'Birthday Today' sites, which garner click-thrus by offering the names of notables day-by-day. I hope to publish my own set of 820 datfile charts by mid-2023, and I mean them to be as accurate as possible.

Of course the best data is the birthdays you can glean from your family and acquaintances, and your own, especially if you can discover time of birth. These are the surest building-blocks towards certainties in your subsequent work.

V. 2.05_with New Macros   <Pick Your Release>   V. 2.02, V. 3.45+_with New Macros

TIP 1: if you have Astrolog32 installed already, HIDE that installation's astrolog32.DAT file! - see why & how here.

TIP 2: have this check-list open as you install!: double-click Astrolog32_V2_05_setup.exe...

1 pick your preferred language ~ easy, but you can't change it, later..

2 A 'Setup wizard' dialog appears
  Welcome to the Astrolog32 setup Wizard!     ~ [Next]..

3 License Agreement ~ Scroll down for the important bit:

If you want to use the New Macro system, you might highlight-and-copy that path for your install C:\astrolog\Astrolog32..but to install elsewhere, read this paragraph

choose the 'Accept' button ~ [Next]..

4 accept, or browse to,

a destination for the install ~ C:\Program Files is a workable choice ONLY under Windows Xp and before so avoid that location, and if you aim to run New Macros, you might paste in the path I suggested you to copy in the previous step., ~
C:\astrolog\astrolog32 ~
the installer never, unfortunately, ever forgets a miswritten path

..., at CONFIRM (step 6 below), installer will come back with that path C:\astrolog\astrolog32....

        ...or, wherever else, e.g. ~ C:\Users\YourName\Documents\astrolog32, if the new macros don't interest you much..

  ~ [Next]..

5 accept, or browse to, a destination for the program's shortcut ~ easy ~ [Next]..

6 Both paths from dialog 3 and dialog 4 need acceptance ~ CONFIRM..INSTALL? ~ [PROGRAM INSTALLS]..

I'll assume you chose Run "Astrolog32"  Chartframe is made; a new dialog set starts..

7   Alerting Dialog, preparing you for the possibility your country's details are not in the download, may state:

Note this address is updated to our new homepage..
If you run a black background, this message WILL NOT APPEAR unless you highlight it! ~

This zipfile-download site mentioned is replaced by Astrolog32.Altervista's! ~

If your country's not one of the five, read on.. or just pick anywhere.. you can amend later with this tool! ~ [Next]..

8 Only V2.05, deciding Regional Choices:
do you like 6-22-1985, or 22 June 1985;   how about these ? No?   Crucially, Sidereal or Tropical? (see Word LookUp)

BE WARNED, with V2.05 - if you click 'Indian', then prefer either of the others, 'Indian' data won't quit the fields, and you have to start over;
- likewise, choose 'American', then prefer another, and Washington's +5 hr. TZ won't quit.; and be aware you cannot revert this choice, once the program is installed.


~ [Next]..


9 Default Location and Timezone: choose a town you make

most charts in, so ~ unless you chart in London, (or Paris in the French A32, Rome in the Italian A32), either:
A, click 'Call Atlases', and select 'International'.. see here for a guide to working the atlases' window.. but

B, U.S. users!, and anyone not catered for ~ EITHER 1. just click 'London' for now, collect your state-file later, and amend! ~ (see what's involved to amend, first here, Obtaining Atlases...then, next here, Changing defaults.. Find out which you need by scrolling Atlas files Lookup.

OR 2. certainly grab and upzip American_UPD.zip from the V3.45 website into your ..\atlas\american folder.

C, Or if online right now, Google-for co-ordinates for your home-town, putting ..'XX:xx'xxW( or E)', 'XX:xx'xxN( or S)' in the appropriate fields in the Default Locatio and Timezone dialog,..
then type your town's name in 'Location';

D, Or at any stage, browse to www.astro.com/atlas and use Searchbox, picking 'continent or country', then 'Birth town for your co-ordinates.

E, For a locally sourced makeshift, here's 14 European Locations, & Commonwealth TZs!, or browse 65 World Cities.

~ if you chart in London, Paris (Vers. francais), or Rome (Vers. Italiano) you are golden! - you don't need to hustle for co-ordinates!

NOTE: you can change these Locational & TZ defaults later on.


then ..... what timezone you are in?

  ~ Brits/Irish/Icelanders! installing V. 2.0x! you are NOT in zone -1, change to 0! - that -1 is a continental default!
.. if not in the default timezone, open this Companion's 'Times' page, to find out how many hours from Universal Time, (Astrolog's core-time), + or -, to enter:

  otherwise, for USA Standard, then Daylight times..

USA	Alaska TZ AKST	Pacific TZ PST	Mountain MST	Central TZ CST	Eastern TZ EST	Atlantic AST
	put 9	put 8	put 7	put 6	put 5	put 4
Daylight	put 8	put 7	put 6	put 5	put 4	put 3

  For Bulgaria, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, The Levant, Romania, and Ukraine, insert -2 for the Timezone.


~ [Next]..

10 Directories' paths offered for checking, check how you're routed, .. see how they match here..
~ [Next]...

11 simplified or advanced mode? ~ you choose Advanced, you can change later ~ [Next]..

12 click [Finish] and it launches, with a pop-up; when you click 'Save', all your choices are written to astrolog32.DAT, ~ for regular reference by the program; you may be asked to 'OK' that, and certainly then save it.. make sure the Save is to \main ...and the install is complete. (..It is a weird feature of this legacy-ware - so accept the offered astrolog32.DAT. If you don't, you will still have to on re-launch! ..saving it to the \main folder.)

V2.05 & NON-DEFAULT INSTALLATION: 'YOUR V2.05 NEW MACROS WILL WORK ELSEWHERE!'

When choosing a non-default location for the installation, as with Win 7, 8 & 10 we must, the reason that V2.05 may not acknowledge that part of the contents of \miscellaneous is anywhere in your newly-installed \Astrolog32 bundle is that trying to raise MACRO_personal.dat, it seeks a set-up file for MACRO_personal.dat along the wrong path!.
So, although V2.05, towards the end of the installation process, gets the required 'Save' of the Config. file to the \main folder : and, although the program-internals themselves too have already taken your address-paths paths on board, and the Config. file has registered and will even display your chosen path (around line 164, the DIL: line), calls to open MACRO_personal.dat are rejected on the following basis:

File
"C:\Astrolog\Astrolog32\miscellaneous\MACRO\PERSONALE\personal.dat"
not found in directory your chosen path astrolog32\charts..   ..(as, after \MACRO\PERSONALE\, \charts would be the first and only other place it looked).

So,
To have the personal.dat file working, you must re-write the path to it, .. the path is at the very top of MACRO_personal.dat ..so, find the actual path and edit MACRO_personal.dat to match accordingly, using Notepad. V.3.20 avoids all potential confusion by eliminating the Config. file's address lines!

#UseInternationalAtlas ;

SOME BASIC LOCATIONS, EASTINGS & WESTINGS
  UK/Irish timezone = 0 | London 51.30N 0.10W | Cardiff 51.30N 3.12W | Manchester 53.30N 3.15W | Glasgow 55.50N 4.15W  

Durham 54.46N 1.34W | Dublin 53.20N 6.15W | Ottawa 45.25N 75.42W | Adelaide 34.56S 138.36E | Dunedin 45.52S 170.30E

| Belfast 54.35N 5.56W | Groningen 53.13N 6.33E | Madrid 40.24N 3.41W | Dusseldorf 51.13N 6.46E | Vienna 48.12N 16.22E

TIMEZONES from UK/UT: Perth T.Z. = -8, Adelaide T.Z. = -9.30, Sydney T.Z. = -10, N.Z -12 | EST T.Z. is 5, .. PST is 8.

After this dialog appears:

Disclaimer This software is provided freely for non-commercial purposes...

you can follow the V2.05 install (above) from Step 9; and like V2.05 you may have to have hidden any astrolog32.DATs in prior installations, first, though with V2.02, I haven't had Config-borrowing issues.

After the first chart is made, ponder on your preferred home-town, get its co-ordinates, then you can make a bee-line for this section to set Default Location and TimeZone: and to find what atlas files you might install to permanently serve up these data, and places around, scroll through Atlas files Lookup; and how to incorporate them, 'atlas' section.

#UseInternationalAtlas ;

Stage 1:   Read Online Information at the site, and then, for the English-language version, download Astrolog32_V3_45_setup.zip to your C:\unzipped, or C:\Users\YourName\downloads, or what-have-you.

Stage 2 (optional):   Save a copy of Astrolog32_V3_45_setup.zip to your 'Documents' folder somewhere: releases of Windows at release '7' and after may delete some executables installed by a user, if some problem arises. Installs in C:\ or Documents should not be affected, but this way, you have a spare..

Stage 3:   Open your C:\unzipped (or what-have-you) folder and either:

Either 1. right-click the setup executable, then 'Extract', to be presented with a dialog showing an editable path and saying:
'Select a destination & extract files':

Choose either one of your libraries (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos) or maybe your 'Desktop' or 'Downloads folder, or... Choose 'Computer', then choose C:\, or a folder you've made there..
- you can invent a folder there or anywhere - the installer will make it..
- and wherever you choose, it will create a folder within called \Astrolog32_v3_45_setup

Double-clicking on that invokes the installer ..and creates the program-folder within the setup folder:

You could, accordingly, end up with:

• C:\Astrolog32_v3_45_setup\Astrolog32, or..
• C:\Users\Dodger\Videos\Astrolog32_v3_45_setup\Astrolog32, or..
• C:\Users\Dodger\Downloads\Astrolog32_v3_45_setup\Astrolog32 (filepath a bit long?)

Or 2 (neater!). Decide wherever you want to run Astrolog32 V.3.45 from - namely of course, anywhere but Program Files; (for, unless you have Windows Xp or Win '98 still, you won't be able to save a thing there); and favour a shorter file-path.

double-click, and again double-click, and the installer and all the Readmes are shown in a 'dummy' folder-window, and you can (Ctrl+a) highlight-&-copy (Ctrl+c) all the Readmes and the installer together, pasting them all in the folder where you have decided to install the program.

Stage 4: Right! it's time to run the executable astrolog32_V3_45_setup: after 'pick language, (you are offered an extra language, Chinese, for which you will need a chinese font),

..the installer will offer to make a folder 'astrolog32' right there: Accept! the program will install, - then you can, if you want, delete the ..setup file and Readmes, after.

You could, as viable targets, end up with:

• C:\Astrolog32; you chose "C:\", (nice 'n'short), or..
• C:\Users\Dodger\Videos\Astrolog32, you chose your 'Videos' library, or..
• C:\Users\Dodger\Downloads\Astrolog32, see image, right

3 & 4, Agree to a desktop shortcut, accept paths you've chosen,

5, [PROGRAM INSTALLS]..

6, New Dialog-set explaining the atlases available... for any of the 34 USA states not in the release, in \american, go to the V2.05 'Downloads' page and download 'ALL USA' atlases as a .zip! .. I suggest to unzip the lot to a \temp folder, and to copy them selectively into \atlas\american after your install is completed, or you will overwrite any (quicker, lighter) .ATL state-files already downloaded.
All internationals are there too, as a mammoth .zip. Check their names out using Atlas files Lookup.

7, 'Completed Install' announcement

Without more ado, the first chart is made: now is the time to think about some primary [Settings] choices (see Core), and..

meanwhile,
Read the Quick Start ENG.pdf to guide you through main features of Mr Ren's release. Later,you'll need to set up the program for your place of charting-most-often - go [Settings] > [Set Default Location/Timezone], (or Alt+shift+d).; select your state and town as best you can with the Atlases available, (Czech is not present; seek out ez.atl in the mammoth international.zip at astrolog32.altervista.org; also lo.atl, for Slovakia); but do not altogether trust Time Zones suggested, after using [Call Atlas]!

Follow the key advice from the V2.05 install tips above, here.

Or, use online info available at astro.com/atlas,
  or, come close as you can with 65 World Cities data
  PLUS, use my 'Times' page for accurate timezones;
    and my Xtra Basics for some European cities' co-ordinates.


Your updated time and place will appear on relaunch. You can change them again later!

ONE FOR U.S. STATES, ONE FOR EVERYWHERE ELSE

Both of these service the filling-in of new chart-data, when you have the [Edit] > [Edit chart data..] dialog box open. Also they are on call when resetting your own default location in [Default Info], (arriving from [Settings] > [Default Location/Timezone], Alt+d).

In [Edit] > [Edit chart data..], when you click on a [Call Atlas] box, it presents you with fields to to click on, then fill in.
Then, so long as you have the two Atlases installed, the Longitude, Latitude & Name fields will be filled in for you.

At 1 in the image below, default search is usually USA, so if you want International, click to that choice first-off, then select the Country. For USA, it's State that must be selected first. Continue to follow the arrows..

NOTE: the atlases are quite unconnected with the timezone selection, which must be done manually (though V3..20+ offers suggested offsets).

At 2, jumping to the Country, or State (US). The lists of all countries (states) are too long to scroll, and keying the first letter of the country's (state's) name in the field makes the list scroll down closer to your target: the 'down' arrow-key take you the rest of the way. Proceed to 3...

At 3, to browse for a placename (city, town, village), try the first few letters only, and the atlas will filter you a manageable selection. Further clues in the listings may include the zone of the country (international), or state county zone (american), - each atlas has also its own filter, in 'Advanced Settings' (more, see below). If this doesn't unearth your place, you can browse all the locations in any State or Country in Blocks; that you may start with the First Block, the Middle, or the Last, is an useful option when, in Texas, the First Block only runs from 0 thru' B!

Hitting the Return-key to OK' your "first letters" of some town or city, will bounce you out of the Atlas!

At 4, you must use the  Search Atlas rectangular button to raise the list of possibles.

To finish: after highlighting the location you want in step 5, you click 'OK' (6); - the "Use first part of feature name as Chart name" box (top right), can save a bit of typing.

AVAILABILITY: find any further atlas files you need in the bundles at this Altervista page.
.. or, for 17 US states, unzip American_UPD.zip from V3.45 website into your \american folder (no need with V3.45)
or LOOK-UP LOCALLY: click on Atlas files Lookup to find at-a-glance the atlas file's name that you want.

    DODGE No. 8          

To go straight to all Villages, Towns or Cities, in an US state: In 'first letters', type 'City of' without the quotes, click 'Search Atlas' and scroll down - all cities in a state are listed in sequence; Or, likewise, type 'Town of', or 'Township of', without the quotes, and scroll down - all towns in a state are listed in sequence. Other sequences are 'Borough of...' (Pennsyl.), 'Village of...' (Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin): 'University of...' gives inconsistent results, - try it, but then commonly-used names of universities.

AK, DC, KY, NE and NV have townships dispersed among general listings.

A LOOK INSIDE ASTROLOG32'S .ATL FILES

Atlas files in \international begin with @0500 - you will see this if you open one in Notepad - and if a nation has administrative regions, these are then listed, with their two-letter or two-number codes; below that, each actual location has its own line, starting with quality-of-name-indicators (N,V) and size-indicators, or just dashes, then the co-ordinates; any admin. code; and finally the locations' name is gazetted, this being in alphabetical order.


Atlas files in \american begin with @0600 . Digging into the 'state' file of a typical U.S. location, uprights and separators in the string give an order for the program's routines to follow:

• type of Feature | Feature Name | Cell Name | County Name % Search field @ longitude latitude | altitude

.. where, "Feature" is a place in the atlas. It can be a town, village, hospital, school, etc..  "Cell " means a geographical region where the feature is found.

To add a location, - say you are monitoring lightning strikes on Pikes Peak, just west of Boulder, but closest is 'Gillett' - use much of Gillett's string, change the co-ordinates, and the name, but above all, keep the number of separators, viz:
ppl|Gillett (historical)|Pikes Peak|Teller|105w07.22|38n46.55|3029
loc|Pikes Peak|Pikes Peak|Teller|105w02.39|38n50.26|13895

INSIDE A TYPICAL .ATL FILE

COUNTRY FILES: THE HARD-TO-FINDS

My Hard-to-Finds include: Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) is listed in the country No Mans Land, but it's not a primary location in the Israel file; many parts of the city are however listed in Israel file. Also, Babylon is absent when so spelled: it's "Babil", in the Iraq country file. Nuremberg, so spelled, is not in the Germany file, where it is Nurnberg.
Nizhne Novgorod fails to appear in the Russia file, but other spellings do, e.g. Nizhniy Novgorod. Kiev's newer spelling, Kyiv, does not appear.
Crna Gora is also called Montenegro, and its locations are in 'Serbia and Montenegro.atl'.
In Brazil alone there are 36 locations called Sao Paulo; mostly though, it's the mega-city that's at issue, which is at 23s32 46w37.

Old Names in India: Madras has become Chennai; Bombay Mumbai, and Calcutta is Kolkata. To the south, Ceylon is called Sri Lanka.
Myanmar retains, in Astrolog32, its older name, Burma.

Far East, before the '80s and in English, Beijing was known as Pekin, Taiwan was called Formosa; Djakarta is close to Old Batavia; Saigon is now HoChiMinh City; New Hebrides is now Vanuatu.

Blasting Off: The Baikonur Cosmodrome is at 45n58 63e18, the Kennedy Space Centre (formerly Cape Canaveral) is at 28n35 80w40; the Wenchang Space-Launch site is at 19n41 110e57, .the Xichang Launch site is at 28n15 102e02.

In Africa, old names are replaced by newer: Abyssinia became Ethiopia; Bechuanaland became Botswana; Chad (Fort Lamy now N'Jamena), formerly in French Equatorial Africa (FEA); Central FEA became Central African Republic.

Central FWA (French West Africa) became Niger Province (capital Niamey was Ansonga); Western FWA now Mali and Mauritania; Belgian Congo, after Congo Crisis became DRC with Pres. Mobutu (Democratic Republic of Congo), and then Zaire 1971-97, but increasingly cronyist: the south became Katanga, having separated from DRC, (town of Elizabethville became Lubumbashi): Kabila's revolt took out Eastern Congo (capital Stanleyville became Kisangani). Also with Mobutu, Leopoldville became Kinshasa, Albertville became Kalemie.
The Republic of The Congo (capital Brazzaville) is separate and was formerly southern French East Africa (FEA).

Kenya: (capital is now Nairobi); Nigeria: (capital now Abuja); Northern Rhodesia became Zambia (capital Lusaka was Livingston); Nyasaland became Malawi; Rio de Oro became Western Sahara; Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, (capital Harare was Salisbury); South West Africa became Namibia; Tanganyika became Tanzania; Swaziland in 2019 became eSwatini.

Issues with USA, (Continental)
Panama City? .. if not in Panama, it's in Florida!   Ottawa, could be the one in Illinois, USA!   City of Pittsburg is in California, unlike Pittsburgh, PA, or indeed Ohio's New Pittsburgh, New Pittsburg, and Pittsburgh Junction; and Kansas City, not all in Kansas, half of it is in Missouri.   Duplicate names to many more Eastern cities may be found in California, names like Baltimore, Illinois Hill, Saint Louis, Ontario, Port Chicago, Washington.

U.S.A. (Territories): Johnson Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Baker Island are listed under "Minor Offshore islands of the U.S.A.", in atlas\american.

United Kingdom: data is good, so far as it goes, but unlike Republic of Ireland, UK in 2007 had newly-concocted administrative districts, which NGA-GEOnet had not absorbed in 2007.
Holy Island, (Northumb. UK), is absent: Lindisfarne Abbey, the only location, is 55n39, 1w36.
Northern Ireland: towns in Northern Ireland are in the United Kingdom atlas file.
Isle of Wight, Scottish Western Isles, Orkneys, Shetland Isles, and Scilly Isles are represented in the United Kingdom atlas file, but the latter three groups not so thoroughly.
Offshore, to the south, some islands have quasi-autonomy and they are separate files in Astrolog's atlas, viz:
Channel Islands: two of these islands (Guernsey and Jersey) appear listed separately in atlas\International, reflecting their status. Alderney's locations are in 'Guernsey' file: Sark is 49n26 2w22.
Isle of Man: towns and villages are, like the Channel Islands, listed separately in atlas\International.

Ireland: Names in both Gaeilge and English can be sought and found. Locations did not include two Aran Isles: Inisheer, 53n01, 9w31; Inishmann, 53n05, 9w38, as offshore, only settlements on Inish Mor, Clare Isl. and Acaill Isl. are listed. They, and others, appear in my forthcoming ei.ATL!

Europe generally
Azores, Madeira: in the Portugal country file, e.g. Lajes, 28w16; Funchal, 16w54.
Balearics: in the Spain country file; e.g. Santa Eulalia, Palma de Mallorca, Mahon.
Canary Isles: in the Spain country file; e.g. La Palma, San Cristobal de La Laguna, Las Palmas de G Can., Puerto del Rosario, incl. Gomera.
Corsica: in the France country file; e.g. Ajaccio.
Faroes, though Denmark administers, are separate.
France: locations include some islands' villages: Noirmoutier, Ile de Batz, Porquerolles, Oleron, Sables d'Olonnes, Bel-Air, Groix ..(search both Ile, L'Ile,); ~ but not, apparent to me: Belle-Ile, 47n20 3w11; Mont St. Michel, 48n38, 1w31; Ile de Re, 48n46, 1w25, L'Ile d'Yeu 46n43 2w21, Huelgoet, Verdelet...   .. gasp! the swell Commune of Courbevoie, near Paris, is missing: 48n54, 2e15.
Guadeloupe in the West Indies, and Mayotte, near Madagascar, have separate atlas-files: gp.atl, and mf.atl.
Italy: Capraea, Capri, Elba, Lampedusa, Pantelleria, Sardinian and Sicilian locations,..: all in the Italy country file, but not Montecristo, Stromboli.
Malta includes Gozo.
Norway includes Utsire Islands.
Portugal includes the island of Madeira.
Reunion is listed independently from France.
The Greek Archipelagos: some names of towns differ from common English usage, but islands can be pinned down by their main towns, all in the Greece country file: Amorgos: Katapola ; Andros: Andros; Crete: Irakleion; Karpathos: Karpathos; Khios: Chios; Kos: Kos; Lesbos: Molyvos; Limnos: Myrina; Mikonos & Delos: Mykonos; Milos: Adamas; Naxos: Naxos; Rhodes: Rodos; Samos: Samos; Sifnos: ?; Skiathos: Skiathos; Skiros: Skyros; Skopolos: Skopelos; Siros: Ermoupoli, Syros; Thera: Akrotiri; Thasos: Thasos.
Cyprus is neither in the Greece nor Turkey country files, but listed as a separate country.

NOTE: the atlas files for Croatia, Czech Repub., Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have their listed locations largely unallocated to internal zoning.   ~ You can improve this! ~ send the developer an amended file! ~ note I have ei.atl and uk.atl in hand now, and won't hide that it is a drudge job..

NOTE: Recent political changes: South Sudan has come into existence, but its towns will be found still in Sudan country file. Parts of Ukraine have been absorbed into Russia, but will still be listed in Ukraine. Kosovan towns are still listed in Serbia. Republika Srpska is in Bosnia and Herzegovina file.
Absent from \international listings are Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten ~ pre-2010, all their towns were parts of "Netherlands Antilles" (which is in the countries_list - find there also the remaining municipalities, the so-called "B.E.S Islands", which remain under the Dutch government).

WHAT COUNTRY FILES YOU'LL HAVE..

Users of versions V. 2.02, and before, may need to populate their atlas folder with at the least their preferred country's file before they can abandon the 'nearest choice' offered in the installation's setup.
Users of versions V. 2.05 have five Anglophone country files all ready to choose from, but it may not be their country of charting, so as outlined in 'Obtaining Atlases' below, a visit to Altervista will fix it.

EXTRA!: English-speaking users still in fact have the Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland & Italian country-files, with V. 2.05, as the installer serves these users as well; just self-extract Astrolog32 again to the Desktop, choosing 'Francais' language, delve into the '..atlas\international' or 'atlante\internationale' folder it has created, and copy/paste the fr.atl or it.atl file you find in there to your english 'atlas\international' folder. Delete the install from the Desktop. (To the curious - the French & Italian keyboard-shortcuts differ from ours; Czech installer was problematic in earlier releases, and even today having an appropriate character-set will mean you don't see ? ? in the text).

ATTENTION! the reverse is true also: by installing the 'English' version of V2.05, the atlas files for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and United Kingdom can be copied into your installation's atlante\mondiale folder.

Users of versions V.3 onwards will have many U.S. atlas files along with the customary picks of other countries' files, whether or not selecting 'English' as their language. Location, i.e. 'Town', picks can now lead to TimeZones for any of the default countries when using V.3.40, so choosing nearest major city, and clicking 'Time Changes' or 'Variantes' should supply TZs + DSTs for years from 1920 or so; pick your year, DST and then click [Apply].. but IMO more work needs to be done on the TZs.

  65 WORLD CITIES
If short of a country-file, these locations might approximate:

TROUBLESHOOTING ATLASES:

If clicking the button "Call Atlas" (in the [Edit] > [Main Chart Data] dialog box) doesn't work, either the program is looking for \atlas on the wrong path, or you haven't got the right files in the folders:

• 1. be sure that there is at least country_list.atl file and one other .atl file in the \international folder; and, at least states_list.atl file and one other .atl file file in the \american folder.
  Older releases came with nothing! NOTE that without the country_list.atl or the states_list.atl, the atlases cannot work however many other .atl files you install.
  
• 2. see if one of the last lines of astrolog32.DAT steer the program to those folders (read the lines which start with :DIA and :DII ); see the [Directory Settings] section in BASICS #3/Directories. Or read this faq CANNOT FIND ASTROLOG32.DAT.

OBTAINING ATLASES:

First, look and see what's there already: open Astrolog32, go [Edit Main Chart Data] > [Call Atlas..]; also click [International]

NON U.S.: for individual 'country' .atl files, open ..\Astrolog32\atlas, open your \international folder, open country_list.atl in Notepad, and look up the code for the country-file you want, always somename.atl; check that it is absent from the \international folder.. if country_list.atl is absent, nothing will appear so download that first!

U.S.: for individual 'states' .atl files, open your A32 folder, open ..\Astrolog32\atlas, open \american folder, open states_list.atl in Notepad, and look up the states-file you want, always somename.atl; check that it is absent from the \american folder.. .. if states_list.atl is absent, nothing will appear but an error message, so download states_list.atl first!

both these indexing lists presented in a compendium look-up, Atlas files Lookup

  Now Southville used to host an excellent 'Atlas' helpfile courtesy of Antonio Ramos, the pith of it I reproduce here a zipfile that's a must-read ..

when ready, navigate to the biggest site for them, Downloads at Altervista, - here you cannot pick your state's or country's file individually, but download either All US, or All International, or both, and unzip each bundle to the correct atlas folder; or, unzip to a \downloads or \temp folder: then unzip their contents, and pick-and-choose which to add to the folders; (now these batch-downloads, both together, will take up 172MB!).
Alternatively, grab American_UPD.zip, a selection of 17 US states, from the V3 site.
Another site, for an individual town, is Astro.com's atlas page, available through the [Help] menu in V. 2.05 and V.3.00.

GEOMETRY: in graphical mode:

[Extra] > [Modify Chart] shifts the Chart Angles, squeezing some signs within the Zodiac circle, and stretching others, so that the Vertical appears at right-angles to the Horizon. A toggle switch does this as well, a zero (0). The two options at the top of your [Charts] menu, [Standard Wheel/List] and [HouseWheel], swap these two views.

Colour

Size

Fancy

Saving

Invert&Print

& Text

Other

COLOUR: in graphical mode:

All windows now appear by default with a white background but, before V. 2.02, Astrolog32 has a blue background.   Also, by default, each planet and its name is coloured according to its Element. Astrolog is all about preferences, and these and other defaults are stored in the Config. file, where they can be altered.

A different sample background is offered in V3.30, when you click [Run] > [Open Command file], then choose the Portal File "MACRO_personal.DAT"; NOTE: at this Portal the Trans-Saturnians are restricted.

In the Configuration File, look in the ;DEFAULT COLORS listings, (but back up astrolog32.DAT first, into \miscellaneous). Check out the Colour Numbers, (the image to right), for use with command switches and in Config. file.
Or, use the more modern [Settings] > [Color Settings] dialog - see CHANGING MAIN COLORS etc via DIALOG BOX' below.

Colour Selection groups of the chart and text, as managed in the Config.file, are:

• 'Corner Decoration'. Off by default, see here to reset. For a taster, try altering this first, using Colour Numbers (image above) in the -Ykc line.
• 'Main Colors', at -Yk line: (image at right)
• 'Planets and Points', - by default coloured according to 'Element' (Airy, Earth, Fiery, Watery): line -YkC (image at right)
• 'Aspect-lines', according to choice; for their sequence: line -YkA, (image at right)

CHANGING THE 'MAIN COLORS' etc via CONFIG. FILE: (Works in V.3.20 too)

This example involves editing the 'Main Colors' line, after -Yk 0 8 , saving, then re-launching, so this method can't be an in-session tweak, although a 'New Macro' can do colour-changes on-the-fly.. I prefer this way, it's less opaque:

Pre-V. 2.00, the default '4' (after the -Yk 0 8 (twocharacterspaces) 15 .. ), in 'Main Colors', is responsible for Astrolog's dark blue background; back up first, then change '4' to '2' .. That '2' is a dark green, ..

...rather hohum..
.. maybe black? For black, put a zero. And save astrolog32.DAT.
With this dark background, you will need to change the other default items' colours which are set already to '0', or else they'll disappear; and save astrolog32.DAT.

The 'Default Colors' are best changed after due consideration of all the element-colours of objects and points.

In V. 2.05 release, the numbers differ to give a white background, but altering is as above; the same suggestion - back up first: in the line beginning -Yk 0 8(twocharacterspaces)0 15 7 8.. ..skipping the initial 0 8, then 0 sets the lines, then 15 the white background, then it's degree markers, then the bulk of the Sidebar lettering: after that, items of less significance.

  The text-image above, "ALTERNATIVE DEFAULT COLORS", shows a modified DEFAULT COLORS line - it will result in a chart coloured as the cropped image at right.

The Yk, Yk0 and YkA lines are similar: the first two numbers in each string are not to be altered, as they are range parameters, (about, see WORD LOOK-UP). Then follows the strings of numbers, where position defines the item to alter, and the color-number you give it is the colour it will be.


The V. 2.02 release has a delicate blue-yellow default chart: its Config. file's -Yk line states -Yk 0 8 (twocharacterspaces) 0 11 8 4 1 2 6 4 13 ; Main colors.

In V. 3.45 release, the numbers are different, and there are two visual modalities, swapped by typing x.


CHANGING 'MAIN COLORS' etc via DIALOG BOX:

Go [Settings] > [Color settings]

Pre-V3.20, 'Standard Color Palette' allows you to alter the chart-colours you presently have, swapping any choice from the 16 drop-down colour names (right columns) to replace the defaults (written on left); - this is a good choice in the situation where you haven't already changed the defaults (such as after an installation). A tip is, - you can take a screenshot of Color Settings dialog-box after you've modified it, and before you go 'OK', so that you have a papertrail of changes. Your changes appear immediately on 'OK'!   'Black', 'White', 'Red', 'Green', .. on the left are proxies of 'Lines', 'Background', 'Degree Markers', 'Sidebar Text', etc .. . Saving the Config. file is required if you want your changes to be default.

In V3..20+'s Colors Settings (see right), any new colours you choose via double-click, will straightway update to become the default colour-numbers in your 'Color Table'; Black, White & Red, the first three for instance, are just the installation-defaults, and perennially proxy for : 'lines-colour', 'background-colour', 'degrees-colour', 'text-colour', etc.., just as they are in V2.05...if you click on the tiny swatches, your palette becomes infinite!

SIZE: in graphical mode:

If you want your chart permanently bigger, or smaller, the default size can be altered in Config.file & saved (better), by altering the line :Xw, and saving the file.
Or in [Settings] > [Graphics Settings] these dimensions can be changed and OK'ed - but then you must still go [File] > [Save Current Settings] - this being a RED METHOD save - other Config. preferences may be lost.
In neither case will the change of size take place until you relaunch.

Just for a session you currently run, the pop-up arrows appearing at the edge of the program's window will let you narrow or widen your chart as preferred; then use shift+q: after doing this, again, you can go [File] > [Save Current Settings] and save this size in the Config. file - this again being a RED METHOD save.
Every time you use shift+q on your graphical chart, it makes it slightly smaller.

• For clearer charts, set your resolution higher if you can. Then, a vertical size of 701 makes a big chart if you have a 768 x 1024 screen.
• For 800 x 600 resolved screens, a vertical size of 528 takes up the whole screen. (The dialog boxes are bigger at this resolution.)

Editing by hand, open the Config. file, edit it at
:Xw Xxx Yyy ; Default X and Y resolution
and re-launch, - each time making a better guess.


Beyond this, Astrolog and Astrolog32 are not scaleable except forxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the hack of a permanently-larger or smaller character-scale which you can introduce into the program by editting astrolog32.DAT with -Xr 200/300/400 among the GRAPHICS DEFAULTS.

MATCH GLYPHS TO CHART-SIZE

While you can 'shrink-graphical chart' by repeatedly using the Shift+q keyboard switch, you can only resize it back up again with pull-handles (at the mid-sides of the window).
In doing this, maybe press < shift-key to make glyphs smaller: this allows shrinkage of all the graphics, too: the > key does the reverse.

CORNER DECORATION SIZE:

When the coloured corners are switched on to 'moire', (change :YXC 0 80 60 to :YXC 1 80 60, & Save Config.file), the moire must in fact be scaled down to :YXC 1 33 33 if on a standard-sized chart - which makes an appealing 'spider-web' surround as well.

FANCIER IMAGING

Depends on your imagination! - but Astrolog only supplies the images and text. After going [Edit] > [Copy chart as bitmap] in the graphical mode, then the chart, astrograph, dispositor page, map, aspect grid or any other chart can be pasted into MS Paint or other suitable image editor, for subtler colours or special arrangements for your gallery, or to print off. Use .PNGs, rather than bitmaps, though..   A quick and easy enhancement is to just tint the colour outside the chart-circle differently -(in 'Paint', use the 'Fill with Color' paintpot); then go Ctrl+Shift+i, to 'Invert colors!'.

YOU CAN EXCHANGE THEMES IN ALL VERSIONS, HACKING THE CONFIG.FILE.

1. EDIT into astrolog32.DAT, in place of what you have:-   ; DEFAULT COLORS: -YkC   14 14 14 14   ; Element colors -YkA 1 18   3 12 9 10 14 13 13 3 3 11 6 6 1 5 5 1 1 5   ; Aspects -Yk0 1 7   9 3 11 10 14 12 5   ; Rainbow colors -Yk 0 8   4 0 7 8 1 2 6 4 13   ; Main colors -Ykc 0     ; Corner decoration color ; ALSO LINE BELOW... .. :YXC 1 31 31 ; Corner Decoration

or 2. EDIT into astrolog32.DAT, in place of what you have:-   ; DEFAULT COLORS: -YkC   0 0 0 0   ; Element colors -YkA 1 18   3 9 9 10 14 13 13 3 3 11 6 6 1 5 5 1 1 5   ; Aspect colors -Yk0 1 7   9 3 11 10 14 12 5   ; Rainbow colors -Yk 0 8   11 3 12 5 5 5 5 5 5   ; Main colors -Ykc 15       ; Corner decoration color ; ALSO LINE BELOW... .. :YXC 2   50 50   ; Corner Decoration

CREATING & HACKING A CONFIG FILE IN V3.20+..

If no astrolog32.DAT can be found in \Main,

PROVOKE the making of an astrolog32.DAT, in \Main, by Saving some altered settings:

EDIT into astrolog32.DAT, in place of what you have there:-   ; DEFAULT COLORS: -YkC 2 2 2 2 ; Element colors -YkA 1 18 4 3 3 4 4 7 7 3 3 11 6 6 1 5 5 1 1 5 ; Aspect colors -Yk0 1 7 9 3 11 10 14 12 5 ; Rainbow colors -Yk 0 8 16 6 1 8 6 6 6 8 8 ; Main colors -Ykc 4 ; Corner decoration color ; GRAPHICS DEFAULTS: _Xr ; Background Inverter ..["_Xr" is On, "=Xr" is Off] ... ... :YXC 0 47 47 ; Corner Decoration

---------------- -----------------

PLAINER, INVERSE and PRINT IMAGING:

Bitmaps are the file-format that Astrolog32 exports, and bitmaps together with MS Paint™ have no better resolution than 100 dpi output whatever image format you use - note, this will print off clearly in a .DOC page so long as the bar for presentation isn't too high, but is far from the 600 dpi used for illustration in a quality book of charts and photographs!

The keyboard switch x inverts the background colour and 'lines' colour, for each colour has an assigned opposite colour. See left, and right its inverse.
Clicking m reduces the palette - only three colours, those you have defined as the default's 'white' and the default's 'blue' or 'black', plus any corner decoration, will be used. See below.
(In these images, light blue had already replaced default 'black' planets, and black had replaced the default (old V. 1.34) 'dark blue' background, so - on inversion, 'my' blue planets remained as 'my' black swapped to white, and any red corners would became green.)

Monochrome, switch m, uses just three colours; two, if Corner Decoration is switched off.

[Settings] > [Miscellaneous Settings] has fields where you can set the choice of 'landscape' or 'portrait' on paper, and define what paper-size you employ, when printing from the program.

Printing text, the dialog [Settings] > [Chart Settings], (and equally so the :I line in astrolog32.DAT), hosts your choice for the number of text-screen columns, - that number has to suit views onscreen (like [Lists] > [Interpretations]), and [Edit] > [Copy chart as text] outputs as well. Typically, it's set at '80': with the latter, going Ctrl+1, any text output will paste into an A4 page without overruns, most likely.   Printing text in landscape format, try 110 columns. Test these by calling Interpretations, and [Edit] > [Copying] into a new page in your Text Editor.

TEXT-MODE PRESENTATION:

In text mode, pressing Alt+k will colour-enhance the lists of positions, the maps of Earth & sky, and aspects grid.
[View] > [Character Scale] offers you a way to re-size text and glyphs - the switches 'Ctrl+1' for smaller, 'Ctrl+3' or 'Ctrl+4' for bigger, biggest, perform this alteration quicker - at your best sizing, each line in lists will not over-run to the next line..
The option Alt+v, the House Wheel, it's a chart executed in a text form.

OTHER TEXT & GRAPHICAL TWEAKS:

Controls for these are not all gathered in one place, but [Settings] > [Graphics Settings] controls the chart-size (see above), globe-tilt, decorations at corners, and glyphs can be exchanged a for others which you prefer.

To launch Astrolog32 with anything other than a round chart, lines can be added to the Config. file: see the end of "ADDING A NEW LINE" here.

To expand the aspect-grid to embrace more 'objects', [Settings] > [Miscellaneous Settings] has that option.

These are changes you can make permanent by saving the Config. file.

21st Century:
SAUDI ARABIA, 2016.

20th Century:
TURKEY, Gregorian Year adopted Jan 1 1927, but for days, months, see below
GREECE, either in 1923, 15 Feb to 1 Mar; or in 1924, Mar 9 to Mar 23
BALKANS, MONTENEGRO, 14 Jan to 28 Jan (by a report) in 1919, but see below 'Bulgaria'
SERBIA, 1919, 14 Jan, then 28 Jan., (acc. Wikip., but see below)
JAPAN, some say 1918, Dec 18, others say in 1872 q.v. below
ARMENIA, AZERBAIJIAN, 1918, 17 Apr to 1 May
UKRAINE, EAST ROMANIA, 1918, 15 Feb to Mar 1
ESTONIA, RUSSIA 1918, 31 Jan to 14 Feb
TURKEY, (2nd report), 1917, 15 Feb to 1 Mar., but year, see above
EGYPT and OTTOMAN PALESTINE, (one report = about this year, but see below 1875)
BULGARIA, incl. Occupied Serbia/Macedonia, in 1916, 31 Mar to 14 Apr., by one report, but see below 'Albania', above 'Balkans'
LATVIA, (East, i.e Livland, Grodno, now in BELARUS), 1915, 22 Aug to 5 Sep
LATVIA (Western Maritime, i.e.Kurland) & LITHUANIA, (East, i.e.Kovno & Vilna), 1915, 12 May to 25 May (occup.)
EASTERN POLAND (Russian Orthodox), 1915, Mar
ALBANIA, SERBIA in 1912, 14 Nov to 28 Nov, by one report, but see above 'Bulgaria'
CHINA dropped regnal years 1912 in favour of Gregorian years. But months and days remained
dialectic, though Rep. of China re-affirmed Gregorian days from 1929, 1 Jan; months became Gregorian 1949.
The Shanghai cantons and missionary stations would have kept European dating, always.

19th Century:
KOREA, NORTH & SOUTH, 1896 adopted Gregorian months, days, on 1 Jan.: still, up to 1962, years were often defined by reign.
LAOS, 1889 adopted Gregorian, from Burmese Cal.
THAILAND, 1889 from Siamese Cal.
EGYPT, 1875, 11 Sep, from Moslem Cal. (Wikip., but see above 1918)
JAPAN - Some say; first used Gregorian on 1 Jan 1873, equal status with trad. cal.; others say in 1918 q.v. above
ALASKA in 1867, after its purchase from Russia q.v, 6 Oct to 18 Oct
CAMBODIA 1863 adopted Gregorian, from Burmese Cal.
SWITZERLAND, Protestant part Grisons, 1811
BELARUS North, 1800, (then Lithuanian), a revocation, 11 to 1 Jan! (see 1915)

18th Century:
VENICE in 1797
LATVIA, Kurland, 1796, a revocation, Feb 7th to Jan 28th!
LORRAINE 1760 re-instates Gregorian, 16 to 28 feb.
SWEDEN, with FINLAND, then ruled,- see note below, a complex case of missed leapyears; then, 1753 17 Feb to 1 Mar
ENGLAND, WALES, & SCOTLAND, English-speaking AMERICAN COLONIES, IRELAND, in 1752, 2 Sept to 14 Sept
LORRAINE, 1735 (E. France), revocation to Julian until 1760!
NOVA SCOTIA 1710, revocation to Julian, 13 Oct to 3 Oct! (until 1752)
SWEDEN with FINLAND, then ruled, in 1710 decide on revocation to Julian! (until 1753). See Swede note
SWITZERLAND, Protestant cantons, 1700 31 Dec, to 12 Jan, 1701, but see Swiss Note, below, & above, Grisons, 1811
MULHOUSE, (France), 1700, OR 12 Jan, 1701
NETHERLAND #7: Friesland, Groningen, in 1701, in Jan
NETHERLAND #6: Gelderland, 1700, in July. Zeuth, OverYjssel, in 1700, on 30 Nov to 12 Dec
SWEDEN with FINLAND, then ruled, begins switch over 44 yrs starting 1700, - aborted after 3rd leapyear, having missed 2! a revocation, Swede note
DENMARK with NORWAY & SACHSEN ANHALT in 1700, 18 Feb, to 1 Mar
GERMANY, Protestant relig. areas, western Prussia, skipped 11 days in 1700, 18 Feb to 1 Mar

17th Century:
FRANCE, Alsace (Protestant), 1685?, 5 Feb to 16 Feb
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY (Fr.), NS from 1682 French claim
GERMANY, Minden, 1668, Feb 1 to Feb 12..
GERMANY, Prince-Bishopric Hildesheim, 1631, 15 Mar to 26 Mar
GERMANY, Osnabruck, 1624
LATVIA, (Western Maritime, i.e. Kurland) 1617 (don't know day), to a 1796 revocation , q.v.
LITHUANIA (South-west, part DUCHY of PRUSSIA): 1612, 22 Aug to 2 Sep. (Later revoked in 1800?)
POLAND, (West, part DUCHY of PRUSSIA), 1612, 22 Aug to 2 Sep.
QUEBEC (Fr.), NS from 1605
NOVA SCOTIA, 1605, up to a 1710 revocation! (until, presumably, 1752)

16th Century:
TRANSYLVANIA (Eastern Romania) 1590, 14 Dec to 25 Dec
HUNGARY, 1587, 21 Oct to 1 Nov
DUCHY of LITHUANIA, 1585, 21 Dec to Jan 10, 1586 (Later revoked 1800 under Rus?)
IRELAND, Catholic Armagh in particular chose Gregorian, c. 1584 to the end of the Nine Years' War and a Papal dispensation sought 1630, to observe Julian, pro. tem.
NETHERLAND #5, 1584, Groningen, a revocation on Nov 19th to 10th! (until 1701)
CZECH & SLOVAK REGION (Silesia, Moravia, Bohemia), 1584, 6 Jan to 17 Jan
GERMANY, Catholic relig. areas, in 1583-85 (variously but not Hildesheim, Minden)
AUSTRIA, either in 1584, Oct 5th to 16th; or 1583, 14 Dec to 25th Dec
SWITZERLAND, Catholic cantons, 1583 or 1584; rest, see Swiss Note below
NETHERLAND #4, 1583, Groningen city, Mar 1st to Mar 12th, till 1584, see above.
NETHERLAND #3, 1583, Catholic Holland, 2 Jan to 12 Jan
NETHERLAND, SOUTHERN #2, Liege, i.e modern W. Belgium,
1583, 10 Feb to 21 Feb, OR, 1582, 22 Dec to 1583, 1 Jan
LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLAND #1 (Catholic parts: Brabant, Zeeland and the Staten-Generaal), 1582, 14 dec to 25 Dec
FRANCE, 1582, 9 Dec to 20 Dec, including LORRAINE (but see above). Not Alsace, Mulhouse, (but see above).
PORTUGAL & its COLONIES, POLAND (Catholic bit), SPAIN & its COLONIES, & most of ITALY, all on the Papal decision, skipped from 4 Oct 1582 to 15 Oct

  For countries' past and present Time-Zones, see separate page WORLD TIME OFFSETS TO UT, + DST.

SWITZERLAND TO GREGORIAN - NOTE

Grisons, 1811
Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Glarus (Protestant part), 1798
Graubunden (Protestant part), from 1783 to 1811
St. Gallen, 1724
Glarus (Catholic) and Basel, Bern, Neuchatel, Sargans, Schaffhausen, Geneva and Zurich, 1700
Valais, 1655
Graubunden (Catholic parts) 1623/1624
Appenzell Ausserrhoden, 1597, a revocation to Julian!
Thurgau, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Obwalden, Nidwalden, 1584
Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, Freiburg, Solothurn, Le Landeron, 1584
Roman Catholic Diocese of Basel, 1583

SWEDEN TO GREGORIAN - NOTE

Sweden, then reigning over Finland, started to change from the Julian calendar in 1700, but it was decided to make the (then 11-day) alteration gradually, excluding the leap days (29 February) from each of the eleven leap years, over 1700 to 1740 - the difference would not be constant, but change every 4 years.
But the leap days that should have been excluded from 1704 and 1708 were not excluded - they were still in fact 10 days behind. King Charles XII abandoned it - it was decided to revert to the Julian calendar. This was achieved by introducing the unique date 30 February in 1712, adjusting the discrepancy in the calendars from 10 back to 11 days. Sweden and Finland finally adopted in 1753.. Wednesday, 17 February, was followed by Thursday, 1 March.

-----------------
CALENDARING ADJUSTMENTS for ASTROLOG

. Anyway, Astrolog automatically uses the Julian calendar for dates before October 4, 1582, and automatically uses the Gregorian calendar for dates after October 15, 1582, dropping the days the first adopters did.

This means that no day-corrections need to be made for dates before October 5th 1582, - but for dates after that, those of us dealing with charts in the United States colonies, Venice, Greece, Russia, the Black Sea periphery and corners of Protestant Northern Europe including Britain and its colonies have to verify, and usually convert the countries' pre-alteration dates from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian. But dates in Spanish- & French-ruled territories in N. America need no alteration.
  How many days to jump? - see the yellow-and-brown 'Switching Julian to Gregorian' image, above.

The other thing remaining to catch us out is, the old Civil Year-End in March - used in Central Italy till 1749 and Venice till 1797; and also a major problem for us Anglophones, as Britain's officials used the Old Year's End, the public the New, until 1752: see Start of The Civil Year in Europe...

And did you know, England, that we could have adopted Gregorian earlier? Queen Elizabeth and her government were in favour of the change; advised by the astronomer John Dee they planned in the course of 1583 to drop three days in May, one in June and three each in July and August. However approval was not forthcoming from Edmund Grindal the puritan Archbishop of Canterbury, who said that cosying up to Rome in this way would put England in schism with the other Protestants.

Much of above data, from calendopaedia.com.

An online Julian-Gregorian converter S.Gibbs' site .

For DST adjustments, click APPLYING SUMMERTIMES, 'DST'.


----------------

Roman, Muslim or Babylonian charts are an extra few pen-on-paper calculations away, unless you luckily know the Julian Day of the event: to get to the exact day in these calendars often involves counting the days from a month's start, which itself is defined by a moon-phase (livius.org, numachi.com and tyndalehouse.com have good information on their diverse counts - sometimes the whole year must be reckoned), but, with Astrolog32, you can find by inspection new moons after an equinox; and most ancient day-counts were reckoned from the sighting of such new moons. ~ But see below ...

- THE B.C.E. CORRECTION -

If you use the Julian Calendar across or before the start of the Christian Era, note that you have to deduct one year from the negative numbering since there's no Julian year 0 BC or 0 AD, ~ but Astrolog is math-driven, and has a Zero AD! (and a Zero BC - same chart). So Astrolog's Zero AD is in fact 1BC.

      So, Astrolog's -2 will give you a 3BC chart!

This may seem an insupportable nuisance, but ...
This remains an unfixable situation in Astrolog, but it also reflects a longstanding duality in historians' usual Pre-Christian chronologies. Since 1BC in the Julian Calendar is 0 AD/-0BC in Astrolog, to raise a chart dated "105BC" would require the input "-104". This adjustment must be remembered for charts throughout the five hundred fifty years BC in which epoch some good data are in fact available.

- THE START OF THE CIVIL YEAR, c.1200AD (C.E.) to 1752 -

Across Europe, choices of New Year's Day were shaped by states' regard for Papal Edicts advocating Jan. 1st, weighed against long-standing custom: Tuscany and The Venetian Empire were reluctant to adopt Jan. 1st, while Sweden was compliant by the 1530s. In France, it took the Edict of Rousillon (9 Aug.1564, OS) to promote it; the Florentines still held to tradition until 1749, when Granduca Francesco III di Lorena forced everyone to recognize the 1st of January only. This, in Italy, left just Venice, which only capitulated in 1797, and Roma/Lazio, which capitulated around 1800!

This brought to an end a Italian local difference, too, in the year-count, because North Tuscany (Pisa) started their year of 1748 on (modern style) our Lady Day March 25th 1747, while South Tuscany (Florence, Lucca, Prato, Siena, and also some Papal documents) started their year of 1748 on (modern style) Lady Day March 25th 1748; while Venice started their years on Mar 1 from 1522 until 1797, (and so, their 1748 began on (modern style) March 1st 1748).

For Lazio & the Curia, the New Year began on Dec 25th (Nativity Style) until around 1800; this style of New Year actually pre-dates most other styles, and was a vestige of the prestige of Rome hitherto.

 Special page dedicated to Italian/Venetian/Incarnazione calendars.   

- DAY-STARTS IN PARTICULAR, ESPECIALLY ITALY -

I have learned to be most careful of calendaring in Italy generally for its diverse practises, ~ and also of hour-counts with European charts, between 1300 and 1749: hour-counts could begin, particularly for astrologers, at noon, counting off up to 23 hours either way through sunsets as if the day didn't change, - the direction being indicated by the terms ante meridie (before midday, and counting back); or post meridie, a meridie (after midday); - in those days, noon ephemerides were normal. But the Clock Time hora horologii, or domestic time, might be cited or simply used, which would be reckoned from sunset on what we would call the previous day: and of course, sunset varies across the year, so 10 hor. horolog. on 1 Julii in Venice would be 10 hours projected from 19.45, 30 June, i.e. 5.45 am. 1st July, (maybe + 30 min.):   but 10 hor. horolog. on 1 Januar in Venice would be 10 hours projected from 16.20, 31 Dec., i.e. 2.20 am. 1st January, (maybe + 30 min.).
And re. that (maybe + 30 min.): to ease matters for legal and commercial purposes, it was long ago agreed across Italy to start their new day one half-hour after sunset. This practice of time-keeping was called 'Ora Italiana', and was abandoned bit-by-bit, as

(a) from 1859, major cities tried day-starts at midnight: still there was confusion because each town still had its own time!
(b) For putting an end to such problems, the 'Regio Decreto #3224' of Sep 22 1866, inposed on the mainland of Italy the local time of Rome, 49 mins ahead of Greenwich. (But Sicily continued with the LMT of Palermo, and Sardinia with the LMT of Cagliari, their respective headtowns ... Meanwhile, many villages in the Italian countryside retained the habit of beginning the day at sunset) .
(c), only with the last Decreto was MET, UT+1hr., set for all Italy, (ending the local times also of Sardinia and Sicily). This Decree came into force on the 1 Nov, 1893. For this research my debt is to Mr. Libranti's fuller page as posted at C.U.R.A.
In addition, when dealing with a Solar Time or LTT, additional computations are required to convert it to/from clock-time, as the two seasonally vary, q.v. Equation of Time.
The pity of it is, Italy is the best source for birth-data of private citizens, pre-1540.

A breakdown of John Aubrey's nativity, described in 1685, then 2023 terms:

natus 1625/6, March 11th; (noon)+17hr 14' 44'' Post Merid, (tempus verum) (Old Style) sub latitudine 51° 30' (error)

born 1626 (New Year End = Jan 1st) March 12th; midnight+5hr 14' 44'' (i.e. next day's morning), (by sundial) (& March 22, New Style!) latitude 51° 06' (corrected); * westing is c.2:08'W

  - THE TIMES ARE A'CHANGIN' -

In Britain, the generally-understood "Ante Meridie" came to mean morning in general, and as Latin faded out over 100 years ago, AM began to be made-sense-of as "After Midnight", - so that an astrologer's 3 a.m. in old docs, (being 9th hour of the day after midnight, the third before noon), can now be mistaken for 3 AM, (the third hour of the day after midnight)!!

  - UNIQUE FRANCE -

In France, the 'Dixneuvieme Siecle' may refer to the years 1900 - 1999 and so on in the past, whereas the 'Nineteenth Century' in English-speaking countries refers to 1800 - 1899 and so on in the past.

- DOMESTIC TIME-KEEPING BEFORE 1820 RELIANT ON SUNDIALS -

Before 1670, while the great in the land would have ownership of, or had sight of a clock daily, it would have been a gravity-powered clock; else, there were the mattins or vespertine bells, and sundials. No radio-signal, nothing. Solar Time was king.
Then with Dutch innovations, there came spring-driven clocks, a trickle at first, but through wall-clocks, pocket-watches, mantel clocks, long-cases, their presence domestically grew to a flood around 1800 to 1820, with industrialisation in Europe and New England meeting middle-class purchasers.

For astrologers, the seasonal mismatches between clock-time and Solar Time made the former initially unattractive, but the pervasiveness of clocks won out, as we see, and we must make the best. In those past days, these clocks would all have been set by sundials anyway, for largely local purposes, and so the difference between a regular (or indeed irregular!) clock-time, i.e. some Local Mean-Time, and Local True Time would have been irrelevant except when charting horoscopes, because astrologers' ephemerides would have been for an imaginary Mean-Time accurate on one particular longitude, typically Toledo, Novara, or Vienna.

Soon the astrolabe and cross-staff were history: beginning with Local True Time, or later, reckoned o'clock, this datum relative to ephemerides' time, plus the Longitude and Latitude adjustments to the locus, became the familiar hurdles that would exercise the mind of an Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century astrologer setting up a chart.

For an example of how Solar Time faded out after 1800, see Nations' Time-Offsets ~ scroll to 'United Kingdom'; the coming of the railways cemented the rise of the mean-times offered by clocks.

- YEAR-ENDS OUTSIDE OF ITALY -

Aside from Italy and Britain, Byzantine Rite Orthodox countries used March 25th, same fashion as Pisa did (see above), but days behind, while Russia, see below ~ in fact these communities would not abandon the Julian Calendar until the 1910s and after.

Since 988AD, Ukraine and Russia had used the March 1st, like Venice: after a 6-month year during our 1492 (which they called their 7000AM), the next year-start was moved forward to 1st Sept, so years began before the Catholic Jan 1st - this was revoked only in 1700, by Peter.


Britain & her dominions were also very late both in adopting the New Style (NS) calendaring and the year-starts on Jan 1st, clinging to March 25th, Lady Day, for the latter, on all legal documents; and so recorded dates from Oct 5th, 1582, to Sep 2nd 1752, across the British Empire (barring Scotland), may need to be corrected for use in Astrolog, on two counts: to add missing days from being behind the Gregorian calendar: but first, to locate any OS dates between Jan 1 and Mar 24 in the appropriate NS year! - and this latter catch applies, absolutely, before 1582 too, -   See 'SWITCHING JULIAN TO GREGORIAN DAYS' image above.
However, during our Seventeenth Century, at least domestically, people began calling Jan 1st the 'New Year', e.g Pepys' diary 1667, - yet two decades later, Aubrey quoted his 1626 birth-year both in Old-Style and New, so basically, mid-1600s, it's your call!   Find below Britain's old, then official, year-starts, by group. (all years are inclusive)

| Yrs c.1250 - 1582: all ran from March 25, OS |

| 1583 - 1599: All Britain   years ran from March 25, OS (April 4, NS) |

| 1600 - 1699: Scotland years ran from Jan 1st, OS (Jan 11th, NS) |
&
| 1600 - 1699: England, Wales, Ireland, Colonies officially, years ran from Mar 25th, OS (April 4, NS) |

| 1700 - 1752: Scotland years ran from Jan 1st, OS (Jan 12th, NS) |
&
| 1700 - 1752: England, Wales, Ireland, Colonies, ONLY officially, years ran from Mar 25th, OS (April 5, NS) |

| 1753 on: All Western Europe bar Venice ran from Jan 1st, NS |

  SECTION # 8

You can reckon to gain or lose two hours for each 30 degrees of 'easting' or 'westing', from your pc's time. So, if it's 9am in Cairo, and Beijing being 90 degrees east of Cairo, then it's 3pm in Beijing..3 x 2 hours ahead (each line on map marks two hours' rotation).

So, how to apply a timezone adjustment in the 'TimeZone' field, by entering additional or subtracted hours manually, - useful where the drop-down timezones don't cover or are a bother: bear in mind that your Astrolog32 is already set up to your local or preferred time-zone, and the shift you make is with reference to that timezone.
But first, an easy pitfall, which is, failing to remember if you have DST set as default, or a summertime addition already set in your current session.. (if you have this, the 'Summer Time' field will say 'Yes').

You must first:

• If you have DST 'on', and it won't apply in this case, take it off!


• Look up/reckon the time difference - in the WORLD TIME-OFFSETS TO UT, & DST daughter-page some timezone info sites are listed besides the timezone data you'll find there, and most of them give the time difference from UT; the chances are, some math will be involved to work out the correct number of hours for you to apply the difference in time as an 'easting' or 'westing'. Then type the number-of-hours shift in, if necessary with a minus before it, and Astrolog will make the adjustment. Only remember, Astrolog is quirky! - the following explains..
  
  
  EASTING:

  to apply a gain of x hours from your home timezone, (i.e. for timezones ahead of yours,- that is, for places east of where your Astrolog32 is set), you enter like this:   minus 1 hour (put -1:00) for places a single time zone away; minus 2 hours (-2:00), two zones away, and so on. From UT here in the UK, it's generally minus 3 (-3:00) for Baghdad, minus 10 hours (-10:00), for Australia NSW;
  from Pacific Standard Time (PST) in USA, it's minus 3 (-3:00) for EST New York. This is for guidance only - these examples take no account of any local Daylight Saving adjustments.

  WESTING:

  to apply a loss of x hours to your local timezone, (i.e., for timezones which run behind your local time,- that is for places west of where your Astrolog32 is set), you will enter hours without the minus: e.g 3 hours (3:00) for California, if you're on Eastern Standard Time. So, from UT+1 in the Netherlands, apply 6 hours (6:00) to locate yourself in Eastern Standard Time US, or apply 9 hours (9:00) for Los Angeles, (that's a 1 hour westing to London Time, and 8 hours westing, London to L.A.). Again, this example takes no account of local Daylight Saving adjustments.

• If you haven't, determine if DST is applicable for the chart you are raising, and if necessary, apply it.

Using the timezone-adjustment codes available in 'Timezone' drop-down: these will shift your timezone to some common zones ~ see table below - each code consists of three letters.
Rather than picking one from the drop-down, they can be typed in (it's quicker) - and, upper-case or lower-case - it doesn't matter.

Local Mean Time (LMT) Note: the special time zone setting "LMT" allows you to do charts in Local Mean Time, a time-reckoning used in a world where clocks existed but before time-zones were invented, or, as an essential concept to astrologers and time-geeks: It is Time, smoothed and standardised away from Solar Time (otherwise called LTT, Local True Time, see below).
LMT is the one code that you can't set as a default in [Edit] > [Set default location, time-zone..] menu.
When the code LMT is selected, a local time will be reckoned for that exact longitude, doing the "subtract four minutes for every degree west of your time zone's standard meridian" arithmetic, to make it work for that specific longitude's local-time. This is handy for countries where time is a local matter still, or Western dates pre-1850, when towns had their own local times.
You can create a rough chart for an unfamiliar place using LMT, without ever troubling with time-zone input!

You will see that after the chart is made, the difference between LMT and your default timezone is shown in the TimeZone box. Unlike any other timezone input, LMT refers to a particular location: it does not refresh itself, so has to be reset at the next chart you make (re-select, or type, 'LMT'), unless the location remains exactly the same. It's pointless using LMT if you don't know the place that you are charting.

Local True Time (LTT), the local Solar Time on any day, is not directly available via the program, but can derived from LMT with the corrections below: this correction is necessary because the intervals between Solar noons are not regular, when compared to clock-noons, a matter adjusted in the 'Equation of Time' (see 'Solar Time', in Word Lookup). The same applies for sunsets, which even today mark the start of days in Moslem culture, and dawns, both much more important than noons in any pre-clock reckoning of day-time. NOTE, for most situations nowadays, though, clock-time is everywhere and has been in Europe and the Americas for at least 180 years.

The greatest differences between LMT and LTT occur seasonally, in November and in February, each year, when corrections of up to 16 minutes are required.
To obtain Solar Time (rounded to 1 min.) from your LMT, add or subtract the time-intervals in the lowest row of the table below, to your clock time.

MONTH	J	a	n	u	F   e	b	M	a	r	c	A	p	r	i	May	J	u	n	e	J u	l y	A	u	g	u	S	e	p	t	O	c	t	o	No	v	e	D	e	c	e
# WEEK	1	2	3	4	1-2-3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1-2-3-4	1	2	3	4	1-2	3-4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1-2	3	4	1	2	3	4
MINS +/ -	6	9	11	13	14	13	12	10	8	6	3	1	0	-2	-3	-2	0	1	2	5	6	6	5	3	1	-1	-3	-6	-9	-11	-13	-14	-15	-16	-15	-13	-9	-6	-3	1

The table above is correct for Gregorian dating. Pre-1660 charts are almost certain to be Solar Time, (but they may be Julian Calendar). And if your data relies on a reckoning from the Sun's or Moon's Rising or Setting; or if it is rectified, you need not consider Equation of Time, except to indicate in your chart-notes that the Time-datum is Solar in this case, and whether it is a Local True Time or a Zone's True Time.

NOTE: Astrolog32 does not make any automatic DST adjustments, - they must be made manually, unless you have Astrolog32 V3.3 or higher. See WORLD TIME-OFFSETS TO UT, & DST for relevant data.

The DST option will be set for your next chart, or the whole of your session, by selecting 'Yes' in the 'Summer Time' field visible in [Edit] > [Enter, edit mainchart data] dialog, and this will insert a one-hour docking for when hours are shifted ahead in summer; useful as the Zones drop-down doesn't include any summer-times..   the next time you launch Astrolog32, it will have gone.

To make Astrolog dock one hour by default as standard, during the months your clocks are advanced ~ go to [Settings] > [Set default location, timezone..], and change the top field, (the same place to take it off again). Go [Edit] > [Edit configuration file], save, and re-launch; then make an 'Here & Now' chart. The 'DST' field will register [YES], but you can turn it off for non-DST charts, for the rest of the session.
The summertime addition field has to be re-thought for each new or foreign chart, or the setting will carry over to a chart where an adjustment is not called for... it won't drop out after you have made your first DST chart in your session ~ I've been caught out many times!

NOTE: Everyone confronted with birth-data published in Anglophone North America should know that order of day, month and year there is always Month-Day-Year, or Year-Month-Day.

Astrologers in Anglophone North America should be acquainted with the convention used everywhere else, Day-Month-Year!

<<<<         >>>>

---

COMMAND SWITCHES: WHAT THEY DO:

Command-line input remains the most potent, fast interface to Astrolog32 (though a very few switches have lost or changed functionality in successive incarnations of Astrolog).

Use of the Command-line leads to macros (which skip the need to type stuff in): switches and macros are essential if you want to quickly flip to a setup which only a command switch accesses, or is a bother by other routes...

  To use switches you must first call the command-line box (go [Run] > [Open Command Line], or just press [Return]):

 What it's asking: "Enter the commands (i.e. switches), and (any required) parameter(s), in the field below" 

Try typing -c 2 and 'OK'ing it, - Astrolog32 will bump the chart into Equal House; this you can see in the graphic, however, note that many, many useful options which the command-switches can access will not appear unless you are in text-mode, - if so select that beforehand or after, by typing letter v.

To revert the change to your Houses, you need to know that reverting switch too (..and here's my difficulty with explaining switches - I don't know your starting-point; was it Placidian? Koch? Other?),   but anyway, try -c 0 reverts to Placidian, -c 1, to Koch, and more House System numbers here; or revert via the [Settings] > [House Types] menu.

USEFUL EXAMPLE:

/X, or -X, is a fundamental command, to go text-to-graphics, and
typing -X does the same as typing /X
.. / and -, either, as suits you

to go graphics-to-text,
command _X does the reverse of command /X or -X
.. try switching and C

 The command-line is case-sensitive!

 The command-line is opened more simply by pressing your [Return] key! - once, to open the
Command-Line; then type in (or paste in) the switch(es), - then go [Return] again to make it happen  

This swift altering of the program is possible because every object, every aspect, each colour, and every House System has a reference number, referred to in the Helpfile as an <aspect>, an <objnum>, a <color>, or <value>; you will find some of the objects' numbers here, colours' numbers here, and House Systems' numbers here. A Fuller listing is at the end of the LIST of COMMANDS page

The source for all the command-switches, detailing what each does, was for a long time just the 'Switches' page in [Help], and Helpfile.TXT bundled with the program; but these lacked convenience .. now LIST of COMMANDS is available for lookups, and for all in-depth queries, seek bundled Helpfile.HTML, by clicking this link:-

Commands Library

Getting back to your point of starting, try Shift+v; it is best practice to clear each switch or macro back to the core data; the switch Shift+v clears some; then, others are toggles, like /a0; and other long commands need 'kill' switches to revert them, namely:

• Switches which affect how the chart parameters are obtained.
• Switches which affect how a chart is computed.
• harmonic switches.

A 'kill' switch is my term for a switch written specifically to revert a previous switch.

EXAMPLE
To hide aspect-lines, put in   -YAR 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 -YAR 6 11 1 1 1 1 1 1

'kill' to recall aspect-lines
put in   -YAR 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 -YAR 6 11 0 0 0 0 0 0


EXAMPLE
To invert colours, and Switch off decoration, put in   -Xr -YXC 0 32 32

'kill' to revert colours, set deco to web, '64'
put in   -Xr _YXC 2 64 64


Writing 'kill' switches as well is a chore, but V. 2.04 and later releases have the answer! - see the invoked Macros Resetter BACKtoMAIN, here.

 Peek here at the Companion's much shorter SWITCHES list 





A TYPICAL FORMAT of SWITCHES
/YIA
the switch <asp>
the range parameter <string>
not flags but text, in this case

As you see with these, most switches require some assembly,
being made up of a basic switch, followed by string of parameters..

Look up TAGGED SIGNIFIERS     Look up OBJECT NUMBERS

22 for Ascendant, 23 2nd Cusp, 24 3rd Cusp, 25 I.C., 26 5th Cusp, 27 6th Cusp
28 for Descendant, 29 8th Cusp, 30 9th Cusp, 31 M.C., 32 11th Cusp, 33 12th Cusp.

A TASTER OF SIMPLER SWITCHES - CORRECTED

SWITCH	FUNCTION	EXAMPLES TO TRY	TO REVERT..
-a	add aspects to speculum	-a -k color aspects	-a -k
-X	swap visual for text!	-X -g	_X -g
-i	display chart x.DAT	-i mychart.DAT	revert to 'Now' with -n
-n	display 'Here-&-Now' chart	-n -h 4	no revert, but -h 5
-r	compute ...	-r3 ; for triwheel	-r1
-d	text-list of perfecting aspects..day/month/yr	-k _X -d 3; or -k _X -dm 3; or -k _X -dy 2020	-d -X
0X1	FORCE TEXT-ONLY	- -	no revert
-k	colorise all text output	-k -X	-k _X
-X1 xx	Put Obj to Ascendant	-X1 sun	-X1 ASC
-g	text aspect-grid	-g -YR 11 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1	-g -YR 11 21 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
-z	day's end tweak, e.g. time	-zt 23:59	no revert.. or -n

INTRODUCING VIRTUAL FILES, & SYNTAX

Where some <file x> is normally specified when using -i & -r commands (which perform compute a chart.., and compute a dual-chart..), - an example above is -i mychart.DAT, - there's also files called set, now, nul and tty.. they're are not switches, but 'placeholder' virtual files to insert in commands. W.P.'s Helpfile library says they skip actually re-typing data, viz.:

set tells Astrolog, 'just use the last data used on this chart thread..'
now tells Astrolog, 'just use the default place, and now, on this chart thread..'
nul tells Astrolog, 'just use the data currently on this chart thread..'
tty tells Astrolog, 'prompt the user for the info..'


ANOTHER FORMAT of SWITCH, different from TYPICAL FORMAT of SWITCHES above, is outputs:
/os
output switch <nul>
real or virtual file > <updater.DAT>
the target file, in \charts

In the third frame, the old syntax appears, a right-arrow  >, to steer the output (find these and more under "Switches which affect how the chart parameters are obtained:").

... and there are other formats to switches: discover all in the Commands Library.

Macros which are chains of command-switches remembered by your program and usually
pre-prepared by you before adoption, by-pass the command-line. Jump to MACROS.

    DODGE No. 9          

..JUST ABOUT SWITCH PARAMETER MARK-UPS: or, WHAT THESE BRACKETS, DOTS etc SIGNIFY   in LIST of COMMANDS..

TIP: don't type them in!


AN EXAMPLE
..here's a switch which, in its bracketed bits, has what I call Tagged Signifiers detailing its due parameters:

/t <month> <year>: (Compute all transits to the Radix, in month/yr.)

Here's what you might type in:  /t 2 1956

Parameters give 'specific things' for a switch to operate, a group of objects, or years, or charts, and the kind of 'thing' is always indicated between some brackets, - you can see them in the [Help] > [Switches] page, or LIST of COMMANDS page, or the Helpfile, -but you don't put the brackets, commas, ellipses in! which are the mark-ups for the Tagged Signifiers.

Another example: the available parameters for the -Xs switch are -Xs <100,200,300,400>, - meaning the -Xs switch can be followed by any one, (but only one), of those possible options, as: -Xs 100, -Xs 200, -Xs 300, or -Xs 400 - no tags, no commas.

SO NONE OF THESE MARK-UPS GET TYPED INTO A SWITCH:

< and >,

(tag brackets), are commonly used to wrap & indicate a command switch parameter which you should replace by the appropriate value.. (The Helpfile's 'Description of Each Switch' will tell you the kind of value..)

[ and ]

(square brackets), are used to wrap & indicate an extra command switch parameter which is optional.

...

(an 'ellipsis'), within some brackets, generally refers to a variable length list of values, - up to you what you include, so see helpfile for relevant info..

, ,

(commas), are used to separate either/or parameters: choose one, or another; so commas don't get typed in!

Just take note of any letter-spaces between parts of a command - this is an easy error.

<<<<         >>>>

---

MACROS: WHAT THEY DO:

Macros are just frequently-used switches - see above: or even chains of switches, so they change lots of things all at once.   Too long to type, then, you could just store your frequently-used switches in any handy document-page open at the same time as Astrolog32, then 'highlight', copy & paste them into the command-line; but there's a more elegant way.. call them with one touch of an 'F'-key.

After you have assigned uses to the function keys "F1, F2, .." through to "F11, F12", (and on to assign higher numbers - but via keyboard they won't work beyond M0 48), you will have created from up to 48 to 120 'Fx' macros. Note too the Menubar way of running them, for those F-numbers over F48 - see an image of a V.2.05 [Run] drop-down in use here: it shows each macro in its dropdown of links & fly-outs. Note that from the keyboard, Enter will open the command-line, but not the [Run] menu (the keyboard switches needed to 'go live' with New Macros are Alt+h, then left-arrow, down-arrow, Enter. Shame 'bout that!)

Mouse-clicking [Run], with V. 2.05+ onward, the new 'Portal' link [Open Command File] is the best gateway to this new option: it opens a dialog box with two new hot-links - either MACRO_default.DAT or MACRO_personal.DAT - either one, when double-clicked, will activate the cache of (potentially) 120 pre-written macros, each of which you can then try out, and later modify to your own purposes.

Before being re-located to the \miscellaneous folder, macros were (precariously) hosted in the Config. file.   A macro can load a set-up or a chart, the moment you launch Astrolog32: so, using an older Config.file-style macro for an example, the F2 key would call a birth-chart for 'John Bull', where you have a final astrolog32.DAT entry like this:

-M0 2 "/qb 6 1 1900 12:00:00 ST +0:00 1:37:00W 52:26:00N" ;
-WM 2 "John Bull" ;

; astrolog32.DAT   (the closure)

.. in the style of Trump's data which can be seen defined in the lower image ('; DIRECTORIES'), in this section.

.. If you have this (imaginary) 'John Bull''s data as a V.2.05+ macro, it will be written up in MACRO_default.DAT, and so pressing an F-number could run a /i... command to load 'John Bull's' chart, so long as the macro has been defined in this way, and the chart saved in ..MACRO/CARTE.

In this 'new cache of macros', macros using the F-keys mostly have pre-written functions, in anticipation of your preferences, and are run-ready, though this macro-module is a work in progress.. Many of these macros run from .DAT files in \MACRO, which you can edit in Notepad, and, provided that you are in Advanced Mode,, all macros become available if the cache is invoked as follows:

You click [Run] > [Open Command File..], and double-click either the MACRO_default.DAT or MACRO_personal.DAT link, the [Run] drop-down will 'go live', - either choice creating the self-same (and editable) drop-down of macro-links, but delivered through one or both portal files, MACRO_default.DAT and MACRO_personal.DAT.

In the menu, clicking any of these macros onscreen, or clicking the same-number 'F' key, executes a switch-line, summoning up tweaks to the data served, or to reconfigurations, appropriate to the chart in question and by-passing your astrolog32.DAT defaults, as the portal files make switches, or datfiles using the MACRO folders, run.

Nowadays, V2.05's defaults not suiting MS Windows post-Vista, MACRO_personal.DAT needs a tweak to make it work: see why and how here, about getting personal.DAT to run.

NOTE: we are told these are available to us only if the relevant folders are installed at "C:\astrolog\Astrolog32\". see Installing 2.05;
but mine run mostly fine from "C:\A32\... ", the Config. File's paths and this file MACRO_personal.DAT both having been corrected.. So there are ways..


MACRO_default.DAT and MACRO_personal.DAT

These two files are the Portals to access the 'live' Macro Menu:
Open your miscellaneous folder, and look at each, using Notepad, - but particularly MACRO_default.DAT.
It's good to know that when you relaunch, any changes the macros made won't re-appear unless called again.
At first, with both Portals, if you press Shift+F8 'RESET', they reset orbs-of-aspect very tight!
I suggest, you probably won't like MACRO_personal.DAT until you have personalised a file that it calls, personal.DAT! If you treasure your usual astrolog32.DAT settings, try out MACRO_default.DAT first.

BACKtoMAIN.DAT

This is arguably the most important macro in the 'live' drop-down..As each macro may as well be cleared before another is run, the most used and important macro here is at Shift+F7, BACKtoMAIN.DAT: it will clear almost any macro, ready for a next one,.. (There are also three macros to turn off interpretations and combination charts, not yet written!).   the keyboard-switch shift+v still also works as normal.
Open ...\miscellaneous\MACRO\DEFAULT\BACKTOMAIN.dat to see how it resembles Config.File, or could, if you edited it.   A neat edit can make BACKTOMAIN.DAT revert your charting away from Daylight Saving Time, which typing n may not: add this under the header @0309 ;
-z0 0   ; Preferred Daylight time setting [0 standard, 1 daylight]

ALSO NOTE Shift+F8, RESET.DAT

when you need to return to the chart via the 'New Macros' proxy alternatives to astrolog32.DAT (files called default.DAT or personal.DAT), - RESET.DAT does not exit the New Macros however.

If you want your macros to be of this new kind, then after setting up either one to your full preferences,
renaming your preferred Portal File as autorun.DAT will mean it's already running, each launch!

  THE CURRENT DEFAULT OFFERS in V2.05's and V3.45's MACROS

AT THE MOMENT, with New Macros activated
F1, F2, F3 - call charts to suit couples in a partnership - over-write ad lib.. The third, (3.DAT in ../CARTE) is a _pos.DAT composite of 1.DAT; 2.DAT
F4 is unallocated - you can create a macro at F4 immediately!
F5 & F6 call older / modern dignities, through TRADIZIONALI.DAT, MODERNE.DAT
F7 -  F9 restrict to our modern planets, only ancient, or only Luminaries.
F10 calls asteroids, through the filter of PIANASTE.DAT
F11 - F17 Shift+F5, switch orbs for different situations.
F18, Shift+F6 is unallocated - you can create a macro immediately!
F19, Shift+F7 - abandon last macro, ('BACKTOMAIN').
F20, Shift+F8 revert program to Config.file's and 'New Macros' defaults, ('RESET')

F21 - F24, Shift+F9 to Shift+F12, unallocated at present
F25 - F38, Ctrl+F1 to Alt+F1, call transit dialogs for each planet
F39 - F46, Alt+F2 to Alt+F9, unallocated at present
F47 - F49, Alt+F10 to Alt+F12, and beyond, are some Planets' Returns ..from this point (F49), functions are indicated, but only some are defined, and they only work with a mouse-click ~ NOTE, many potential macros are sacrificed to make explanations, e.g. macro 61!

  For a full list of New Macros, find List-of-macros-in-table, an .RTF, which only opens with a click with Internet Explorer. With Chrome, FF, find it in \main > \companion_files.
  To access this list regularly, save a copy, e.g. into \Miscellaneous.

--------------------- --------------------

To learn to edit these datfiles, look in \Miscellaneous folder and open the Portal files which list the macros. These, when clicked, in turn run switches, or more often, datfiles from folders in the \Miscellaneous\MACRO folder. The paths to the datfiles, and those files' streams of unfamiliar switches within, are daunting at first glance: if a beginner writing switches, you will need the at your elbow! or make do with (also local) SHORTENED LIST of COMMANDS guide.

Put simply:
any -M0 lines that start with the path
"-i C:\Astrolog\Astrolog32\miscellaneous\MACRO\...",   are not just switches, but steer to datfiles in the folders, variously.


THE LOCATION OF THE PORTAL FILES..

MACRO_default.DAT, MACRO_personal.DAT, which make the [Run] Menu, live in ..\miscellaneous, and present the 'new macros'...

default.DAT and personal.DAT live in ..\miscellaneous\MACRO\PERSONALE

BACKTOMAIN.DAT, and the two RESET.DATs, live in ..\miscellaneous\MACRO\DEFAULT

1.DAT, 2.DAT and 3.DAT, (F1, F2 & F3), are in ..\miscellaneous\MACRO\CARTE: overwrite 1.DAT, 2.DAT with your own choices of charts.

More MACRO runfiles' locations, find Landscape_Table-of-Macros5.RTF in ../main/companion_files folder.


 THE RESOURCE FOLDERS HAVE ITALIAN NAMES..

PLANETS - various selections, DIGNITIES - as different options, ORBS - for varied situations,
PROGRESSIONS - for various periods per planet, TRANSITS ditto, INTERPRETATIONS; ..ALL IN miscellaneous\MACRO. ..of special note, macro 64, automatic 'Secondary Progressions', in PROGRESSIONI, conveys objects to today, by 'one day's travel for each year' or part thereof pro-rata.


 THE STANDARD PATH  

To view all these files and macros, then with V2.05, if Astrolog32 is installed to the optimum (but non-default) place, then click

  'My Computer', click Local Disk 'C:', click astrolog, click astrolog32, click miscellaneous... and you're there

..else try a 'File-&-Folder' Search for '\astrolog32.'

For V3.3 +, if you don't remember its location, go "Open Chart", and the dialog's address line should tell you where you installed.

  CUSTOMIZING:

Seeing that Robbie's choice of macros are NOT SET IN STONE! - YOU'LL WANT TO CHANGE THEM; but to grasp the working of Robbie's macro-sets, get a little practice first - tinker a little with the older macro-making-method, as old-style macros can still be used (any you have are written at the end of astrolog32.DAT, and can indeed be simply typed in there. Use astrolog32.DAT macros as a sandbox! - bound to add, back astrolog32.DAT up first! - and only save the file with Ctrl+s, (why?) .. - see how old-style macros work here).

To edit these pre-defined New Macros, for preference open Portal file, MACRO_default.DAT in Notepad, (or better, in an editor like 'Gedit' with coloured markup BibTex or CG, because New Macros are unforgiving of error - you may see the standard error message "Value 0 passed out of range" on running the Portal file).   * * BACK UP FILE, FIRST * *   See animation below, where F4 is 'defined'.

NOTE: After each edit, you can keep the program running, and refresh your 'MACRO_default' drop-down, by flipping to [Run] > [MACRO_personal] then back again to see your newly-written macros listed.. and try them out!

Rather than writing your own, you can insert any of specimen #1 - #20 macros by highlighting and copying off this page.

Ultimately, if you like to start with a clean sheet, you can skip adapting the '_default' and '_personal' examples, and instead draft your own, writing some macros while importing others - call it something.dat - it must start with '@309   ;', and be saved in the \miscellaneous folder.. all the while still retaining these two Portal-files unaltered; and you can, and probably should, come to alter personal.DAT, the config.file which MACRO_personal.DAT runs - me, I just hacked my old, customised astrolog32.DAT data into place within personal.DAT, as I couldn't stand the multicolours, and wanted my preferred orbs; and, liking a black background, I removed the line -Xr        ; inverted colours. See STANDARDIZING ASTROLOG32.DAT AND PERSONAL.DAT - MAKING THE LEAP.

There's no need to stick with the names MACRO_default.DAT and MACRO_personal.DAT; myself I've made three 'MACRO' setups, MAC4Events.DAT, a MAC4Research.DAT, and a MAC4Search-&-Alt.folders.DAT, instead. Suits me.

Finally and to repeat, if you prefer your New Macros at some final point whether in ..[Open Command File] > [MACRO_personal] or in some other home-made Portal, rename that DATfile as autorun.DAT and ever after, when you open Astrolog32, all the V. 2.05 or V3.45+ macros will be available when you launch!

You can chop and change macros' positions, in the list, to bring your favourites to the low F numbers: see image, above.

  AN EXAMPLE EDIT

Here is a simplish edit to MACRO_default.DAT, to make F4 (unallocated) set the chart to Harmonic 4 with Null Houses:

1. Open MACRO_default.DAT in Notepad, to get to alter the -WM 4 name-line, and add a -M0 4 instruction-line:

-WM 4 " -> Set harmonic 4 & Null"
-M0 4 "-i C:\Astrolog\Astrolog32\miscellaneous\MACRO\ARMONICI\h4.DAT"

Save file.

2. Now go to folder ..miscellaneous\MACRO\ and make a new folder 'ARMONICI';
in it, create a new empty text file, renaming it h4.DAT
Open it and type in just the following:

@0309
-x 4 -c 14;
; set to harmonic four

And save file.

Test, by calling [Run] > [Open Command File..], click MACRO_default.DAT, press F4

'kill' to return to harmonic 1:
press Shift+F7, to run BACKtoMAIN.DAT.