What program is easier to use, AstroElite vs Solar Fire Options

[Admin]

Quick start

Lets have a look into Solar Fire Gold 7.06 and analyze how much user effort the most frequent and typical operations require.
When the program starts we see only empty windows.


To get a chart wheel a user must:

1. Click an Open button in main window toolbar
2. Select an event
3. Press Chart Database Open button. By the way, a Chart Database seems not a correct name for the window. Chart means a graphic representation of some astrological event like person birth. For example, natal or progressive chart. If we are editing Muhammad Ali's birth date or place what 'chart' we are editing? None. We are working with event, not a chart.

Finally, to get a only a preview of previously calculated chart SF user must execute 3 actions.


To pull out a full-size wheel user have to do another 2 clicks

• Go to View menu item
• Select Current chart

To see a previously viewed full-size wheel user must repeat 3+2=5 (five) actions.

When AstroElite program starts, it automatically restores your working environment 100%, including main window size and screen position. No any user actions required.

[Admin]

Quitting the program

Let's click a 'close' icon in window right upper corner.
The window shuts down without any prompts, that's no bad, but after restart all settings gone and user must repeat those tedious 4-5 steps to restore a working environment.

What MS Office is doing here? To save some disk space I have removed MS Office installation cached file. Later, when I've launched SF it stopped loading with this message.


Nevertheless I've provided the asked PRO11.MSI, SF failed to start normally and I must reinstall the program.
Why all that?Because SF is built with Visual Basic 6, 35-years old technology that relies on multiple ActiveX libraries extensively used by many other programs, including MS Office.Thus, installing/uninstalling other programs you risk to make SF stopped working and vice versa, uninstallation of SF may cause other programs to crash.
All AstroElite programs do not change anything beyond their root folder.
They don't install any drivers or fonts and do not modify a Windows registry.
To remove an AstroElite program it's enough to delete a folder where program installed,

The application folder may be copied or moved from disk to disk or from one PC to another without losing its functionality or customer settings.

[Admin]

Individual wheel settings adjustments

OK, we got a wheel. A graphics quality is mediocre with a real mess instead of aspect lines.


Non-interactive wheel

The wheel doesn't react on mouse clicks except a right one that pops-up a standard context menu.
By clicking AstroElite aspect glyph you may see an orb and the time when the aspect was or will be exact.


Individual planets/points control

Suppose, at some moment we don't need Pluto, Chiron or other planet in a wheel and want to hide that and focus on something other. Let's count the actions in SF.

1. Right mouse button - context menu
2. Select Displayed points
3. Select object in a list and press Edit
4. Click the planet to move it to inactive list
5. Press Save
6. Press Select

Hurray! Only 6 actions and a planet is hidden. Another six and it's going back.
In AstroElite you need a single click to turn planet on/off.

How make all aspects orbs wider/narrower for a given chart?

No way.
SF doesn't allow a manipulation on group of the aspects. All you can do is to edit and apply a named orbs set.

1. Right mouse button - context menu
2. Select Aspect set
3. Select Planets
4. Press Edit
5. Individually edit the orbs
6. Press Save
7. Press Select

7 (seven!) actions just to access the orbs menu and exit, excluding a setup procedure itself. AstroElite performs this operation in a snap.
Change color palette (scheme)

1. Right mouse button - context menu
2. Select Color scheme
3. Select color scheme in a list
4. Press OK

4 actions. AstroElite does this in a jiffy.

• How to change a houses system?
• How to turn on/off individual aspects for a given chart?

[Admin]

How to change a chart date

A chart date editor is located in a separate window and a Rectify button must be pressed to go there. After editing a user have to click Apply or OK, that results in two unnecessary actions. A chart doesn't repaint during the editing.
When user pressed the Apply a Cancel button has no effect, i.e. it doesn't restore the original chart date.



Adding chart notes/comments