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Ambiguous Time Resolution

When the clocks go back, one hour of local time happens twice. A natal time that falls in that hour is ambiguous until you say which occurrence you mean, and a chart drawn an hour out is wrong. Compass asks rather than guessing.

Overview​

The prompt appears while you are saving in the Natal Records Editor, for a named record whose natal time falls in a repeated hour and which carries no recorded choice yet.

It states the facts of the two occurrences and offers a button for each, labeled with the time, its zone offset, and whether it fell before or after the clocks were set back. A Cancel button abandons the save. Your choice is remembered on the record, so the question is asked once per record rather than at every save.

Rows affected by a clock change are flagged in the editor's Natal Time column beforehand, with a caution triangle beside the time, so you can see them coming.

note

A time that never occurred, because the clocks skipped over it, is handled differently. That case raises a separate confirmation of the adjusted time rather than this prompt.

The Ambiguous Time prompt open over the Natal Records Editor while saving a record.

Procedures​

Choose the Earlier Occurrence​

To settle the time on the occurrence before the clocks were set back:

  • Click the upper occurrence button, labeled with the time, its zone offset, and "before the clocks were set back".

The record keeps the earlier of the two occurrences, the prompt closes, and the save continues to the next flagged record.

tip

The upper button is the prompt's default, so pressing Enter chooses it.

Choose the Later Occurrence​

To settle the time on the occurrence after the clocks were set back:

  • Click the lower occurrence button, labeled with the time, its zone offset, and "after the clocks were set back".

The record keeps the later of the two occurrences, the prompt closes, and the save continues to the next flagged record.

Cancel the Ambiguous Time Prompt​

If neither occurrence looks right, back out and correct the record's time instead:

  • Click the Cancel button.

The prompt closes and the save is abandoned. The offending record becomes the selected row in the editor, and the editor still reports unsaved changes, so nothing is lost while you fix the time.

tip

Pressing Esc does the same thing.