Each issue of Astro*Talk will include tips on current astrology programs. If you've discovered any special tips or tricks to get the most out of your software please contact Jeff@thenewage.com. This month tips come from Jeff Jawer of Matrix Software:

Jeff Jawer, Matrix Software
Program:   Win*Star and Win*Star Plus

Win*Star and Win*Star Plus allow you to create as many chart databases as you like. This is an excellent way to organize and store chart information. On the lower left-hand corner of Win*Star's main screen you'll see the words Chart Database with buttons Get, Copy and Move beneath it. Clicking Get opens the last database you used. You can change to another database, or make a new one, under File. I've got a database for clients, one for family members and others for famous people and events. The Notes column looks small, but you'll find that it expands indefinitely so that you can write as much as you like about any client or chart. The Category column comes in handy when using Win*Star Plus' new Win*Search module. This allows you to do research on an entire database, or just choose the category you want to examine.

Copy sends a copy of the selected Current Chart to the database you last accessed. If you want to send it to another database use Get, then change to another database. Move works the same way, but deletes the selected chart from the Current Chart list while sending it to the database.

If you work with Win*Search you'll discover that research goes faster when you let the program calculate all of the charts in a database. Normally, charts are stored with their co-ordinates only (time, date and place) calculating the planets and houses "on the fly." This usually works fine, but when examining large groups of charts the research is much faster when you've let Win*Star calculate them for you. But, having done this for a large group of charts (about 1000) means that they take up more space and may be too large to be copied to floppy disks (for safekeeping). I recommend that before you calculate a large database of charts that you copy the files (the database as you have named it with .ldb and .mdb extension) found in the Winstar\chartsdb subdirectory to floppy disks. If, as I did, you forget to do this, you can create a new database, copy the contents of an existing one, and then put it on a floppy disk. When you copy a database in Win*Star it doesn't include the calculated planetary positions, thus staying small enough to fit on a single floppy disk.

Your chart data is probably precious to you. Computers are uranian creatures that can surprise you in unpleasant ways, so making copies is a way to protect yourself against losing valuable chart data. Your Current Charts can be saved by going to File in the main Win*Star screen and selecting Save Current Chart Set, then follow the instructions. Please note that Win*Search is a recent addition to Win*Star Plus. If you own an earlier version of Win*Star Plus, you can upgrade to the latest version with Win*Search for $25. If you own Win*Star this might be the time to upgrade to Plus with all of its features, as well as Win*Search. The price is $95 and we recommend the CD-ROM version (same price) if you have a CD-ROM player in your computer. Call our sales number, 1-800-PLANETS, to order...and happy research!