Natal Records Editor

The Natal Records Editor maintains the saved records that Natal and Transit charts are drawn from. Store a person, an entity, or a founding moment once and any chart can be drawn from it instead of re-entering the data.

Overview

The editor is a table of seven editable columns with a File menu and a Data menu above it, and Add, Delete, Save, and Close buttons below.

Rows are edited in place with a single-click gesture: click the row to select it, then click the cell, and the row enters edit mode. The Natal Date and Natal Time columns edit through masked date and time boxes; the other five are plain text. Tabbing off the last cell of the last row adds a new record.

A caution triangle beside a natal time marks a time that a clock change made ambiguous, because the hour either occurred twice or never occurred at all. Saving settles those before writing. See Ambiguous Time Resolution.

info

The records file is shared with the sibling R7 applications, so records you save here are visible to them too.

Procedures

Open the Natal Records Editor

To bring up the editor:

1. Open the Edit Menu.
2. Click Natal Records in the Edit menu.

The Natal Records Editor window opens, showing your saved records in a seven-column table.

Add a Natal Record

To append an empty row ready to be typed into:

• Click the Add button.

A new empty row is appended to the bottom of the table, selected, with its Name cell already in edit mode.

tip

Tabbing forward off the last cell of the last row adds a row too, so you can enter a run of records without reaching for the button.

Edit a Natal Record Text Cell

To change the value held in one of the text columns:

1. Click the row you want to edit in the Natal Records table.
2. Click the cell you want to edit.
3. Enter the new value.
4. Press Tab to commit the value.

The cell shows the new value and focus advances to the next cell of the same row, which stays in edit mode.

note

This is a single-click gesture, not a double-click. Pressing Enter instead of Tab commits the value in place without advancing.

Edit a Natal Date

To change a record's date through the column's masked date box:

1. Click the record's row in the Natal Records table.
2. Click the Natal Date cell.
3. Enter the date into the masked date box.
4. Press Tab to commit the date.

The cell shows the new date and focus advances to the Natal Time cell, which stays in edit mode.

Edit a Natal Time

To change a record's time through the column's masked time box:

1. Click the record's row in the Natal Records table.
2. Click the Natal Time cell.
3. Enter the time into the masked time box.
4. Press Tab to commit the time.

The cell shows the new time and focus advances to the Location Name cell, which stays in edit mode. A caution triangle appears beside the time when the new value fell in an hour the clocks repeated or skipped; saving then settles it.

Delete Natal Records

To remove one or more saved records:

1. Select the rows to remove in the Natal Records table.

   tip

   Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on macOS) to toggle individual rows in the selection, and Shift-click to extend the selection to a range.

2. Click the Delete button.

Compass asks you to confirm first. Confirm, and the selected rows leave the table and a neighboring row becomes selected.

tip

The Delete key does the same thing, and asks the same question first.

Save the Natal Records

To write your edits to the shared records file:

• Click the Save button.

Any flagged natal times are settled first, rows without a name are skipped, and the remaining records are sorted and written. The saved records become visible to the sibling R7 applications.

tip

Ctrl+S saves without leaving the keyboard, and File → Save does the same from the menu.

caution

A record whose time fell in an hour the clocks repeated raises the Ambiguous Time Resolution prompt during this save. A record whose time never occurred is settled instead by a confirmation of the forward-shifted time; declining that confirmation abandons the save and selects the offending record.

Close the Natal Records Editor

To leave the editor:

• Click the Close button.

With unsaved edits outstanding the editor first asks whether to save them, and stays open if you decline or the save does not complete.

Reference

Table columns

Column	What it holds
Name	The name of the person, entity, or founding moment the record stands for.
Natal Date	The record's date. Edits through a masked date box.
Natal Time	The record's local clock time. Edits through a masked time box, and carries the caution triangles that mark a repeated or skipped hour.
Location Name	The name of the place the record is anchored to.
Latitude	Latitude of the record's place in decimal degrees.
Longitude	Longitude of the record's place in decimal degrees.
Height (ft)	Elevation of the record's place above sea level in feet.

File menu

Command	What it does
Save	Writes the edited records to the shared records file. Also bound to Ctrl+S.
Exit	Closes the editor window, asking about unsaved edits first.

Data menu

Command	What it does	Details
Import	Reads natal records out of a CSV file and appends them to the table.	Import Natal Records
Export	Writes the records in the table out to a CSV file.	Export Natal Records

Related Topics

• Import Natal Records
• Export Natal Records
• Ambiguous Time Resolution
• Natal Chart Configuration