Tutorial

From the first chart to transits, returns, directions and printing

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This tutorial follows the way an astrologer works with HORCOM. It starts with casting and reading a birth chart, goes on to the chart settings, transits, returns, directions, the Munich rhythm theory and partner charts, and ends with your chart collections, printing and the keyboard. Every menu entry and dialog caption is named as the English edition shows it.

Contents

  1. Getting started
  2. Your first chart
  3. Reading the chart
  4. Chart settings
  5. Saving and fetching charts
  6. Entering birth data with historical time
  7. Transits and the running sky
  8. Returns
  9. Progressions and directions
  10. The Munich rhythm theory
  11. Two people
  12. Rectification, harmonics and special charts
  13. Aspectarium, midpoints and histograms
  14. Sky tables
  15. Statistics
  16. Managing your data files
  17. Printing and export
  18. Screen, keys and commentaries

Getting started

Download the newest release from the GitHub releases page. On Windows unpack the zip anywhere and start horcom_gui.exe, on Linux make the AppImage executable and start it, Installation has the details. On Windows the data folder must stay beside the program. It holds the planetary tables, the ephemeris files, the place and time zone catalogues and Robert Rettig's historical time zone notes.

The program speaks German on a German system and English everywhere else. SPRACHE / LANGUAGE in the VIEW menu switches it permanently, effective on the next start.

The menu bar has seven menus. ABOUT HORCOM holds Robert Rettig's commentary texts, the best companion to the program. IN-OUT holds your records, files and exports, EPHEMERIS the sky tables and the statistics, HOROSCOPES the chart views and the pair charts, EVALUATION the returns, directions and transits, MISCELLANEOUS the remaining tools and conversions. VIEW holds the side panels, text size, colours and language, and at its foot the file tools CHAIN FILES and AAF FILE < > HORCOM FILE. IN-OUT, EPHEMERIS, HOROSCOPES and EVALUATION open with their DEFAULTS entry, and dividing lines group the entries that belong together.

Your first chart

HORCOM opens without a chart, like the original program. The wheel and the side panels stay empty and the entries that need a chart stand grey until a birth date stands in the DATA panel or a record is fetched or entered. The DATA panel on the left is the whole input, and the chart recomputes with every change, there is no calculate button.

  1. Type the given name and the name. They appear on the banner and on the corner of the chart sheet.
  2. Enter the birth date as DD.MM.YYYY. Years before Christ take a vC after the year. The chart appears as soon as the year has its four digits, a pause in the middle of the year draws nothing. Enter takes a shorter year such as 197 at once.
  3. Enter the Clock time of birth.
  4. Type the place name. Its longitude and latitude stand right under it, as in Robert Rettig's entry box, in degrees, minutes and seconds, east and north positive. Alternatively PLACE FILES / FIND PLACE in the IN-OUT menu (Ctrl+L) finds the place in the gazetteer and fills its name, its coordinates and its zone. ENTER PLACE into a place file beside it keeps the current place in a place file of your own.
  5. Enter the time zone in hours east of Greenwich. The … button beside the zone opens the zone catalogue when you only know the zone by name.
  6. Set the two rows of switches under the zone. Summer time raises the entered clock time by one hour, so a daylight saving birth reaches UT without editing the zone. True local time (LT) reads the clock time as the solar time of the place, for births from before the time zones. Before 1810 it is turned into mean local time on its own, until 1890 HORCOM asks which of the two the record gives, the note beside Summer time names the clock in force.
  7. The Universal time (UT) row closes the time rows. It shows the moment every calculation uses, what the clock time, the zone and the switches make of it, with the UT date beside it when that falls on another day. When you know the UT, type it there and the clock time follows.
  8. Choose the house system. Placidus is the default.

The switches under the house system set the chart's options.

The time you typed last leads. A fetched record, a computed chart or a typed UT keeps its UT when the zone, the summer time, the local time switch or the place changes, and the clock time moves instead. Picking the birth place of a fetched record therefore shows its clock time and never shifts the chart. A clock time you typed keeps its value, and the UT follows the zone, the summer time or the place you give after it.

Back and Forward on top of the panel walk through your changes, so Back is also the undo key (Alt+Left or Ctrl+Z, forward Alt+Right or Ctrl+Y), also while the cursor stands in a field of the panel. Every settled change counts as one step, a typed field as well as a jump to a solar return or a loaded record. Each click on a switch and each choice in the planet selection is a step of its own however quickly they follow, while the keys of a typed field and the steps of a spin box join into one. A step brings back its banner line, 54.SOLAR or the name of a record, and the birth the next return counts from.

Reading the chart

The banner on top shows the Julian date, delta T, the sidereal time as ARMC and the active house system. The wheel lies like a sheet of paper on the desk, the ascendant on the left, the aspect lines in the middle and the birth data down the left margin. The mouse wheel zooms around the cursor, dragging with the left button moves the zoomed sheet, and a double click brings the whole wheel back.

Three side panels can be switched on and off in the VIEW menu.

A panel can be dragged by its yellow title to another side, set beside or above another panel, for instance any of the three left of the wheel beside, above or below the DATA panel, stacked on another as a tab or floated as a window of its own. The DATA panel keeps its whole height, a panel above or below it gets the rest of the window and scrolls its rows when that is short, so this needs a tall or maximised window.

The EPHEMERIS menu has the full screens: PLANET COORDINATES and EXTRA PLANET COORDINATES with every column, the box of the house cusps AC, H2, H3, MC, H11 and H12, and VARY THE TIME to step the chart through time. Both read like the coordinate panel, the longitude first with the R of a retrograde body, Vel.' and A right beside it, then latitude, right ascension, declination and the distance in percent of the mean and in AU. The two forms of the node and the Black Moon name themselves, DR true or AG mean, the true form first with its symbol framed or inverted like in the panel, and their Mean and True box shows in yellow the form the chart works with. The extra sheet gives the distance in percent for the real bodies Chiron to Halley too, measured against the mean distance of each body's own ephemeris file. The values stand in bold and the Moon phase in the header in a yellow label box.

Chart settings

CHANGE HOROSCOPE DEFAULTS in the HOROSCOPES menu walks through eleven topics. Pick one and the questions run on from there, R or PgUp steps back, EXIT ends. The topics are

SAVE slow SCREENS ? is still asked but has no effect in this version.

CHANGE EPHEMERIS DEFAULTS chooses the longitude mode, apparent with light time, with aberration, or true, and sets the fixed point, an ecliptic degree of your choice entered by sign and degree. It then rides the chart as the point FP and can be kept or deleted later. All defaults are saved at once and kept for the next start.

HOUSE SYSTEM in the MISCELLANEOUS menu offers all ten choices in one box: Placidus, Topocentric, Koch, Regiomontanus, Campanus, Equal from the ascendant, Vehlow, AC and MC only, no houses, and no houses without the nodes. It then shows the HOUSE TABLE with the chosen system in a yellow label box and the cusps in bold.

PLANET SELECTION in the VIEW menu shows single planets alone or in red and highlights the birth ruler. A planet marked red loses the black square the wheel otherwise lays under the birth ruler and the true points, so a highlighted ruler stands plain red. The rows of the lunar nodes and the Black Moon follow their switches in the DATA panel, ticking a node there turns the Lunar node switch on, unticking both turns it off.

Saving and fetching charts

HORCOM keeps charts in data files, collections of records with name, birth moment and place. DATA FILE IN-OUT (Ctrl+O) in the IN-OUT menu is the hub for them. It first asks for the working data file, an existing collection, a new name to start one with the current chart, or an AAF file, the common exchange format of astrology programs. The bound file and its number of records stay visible in the DATA panel. The hub then asks one question per box.

FETCH records offers the bound file or Choose another file. For more than 45 records it first asks whether to sort the list alphabetically by the first, second or third word of the name, by birthday or by date. The list shows name, date, UT, coordinates and place. Pick up to five records, each one passes through the entry and display box on its way onto the chart. If you change a record there, OK asks whether to SAVE it in the file, continue EDITING or ONLY TAKE OVER the change for this session. SHOW CHART ONLY opens the chart of the marked row in a window of its own, so you can look through a whole collection without loading anything. Space leads back to the list and F6 turns the chart heliocentric.

ENTER the CURRENT record (Ctrl+S) saves the chart on screen. It asks which data file should take it, the bound one, another existing file, or a new name that starts a new file. A record of the same name raises OVERWRITE the SAME NAMED RECORD in the file ?, with OVERWRITE, SAVE the record IN ADDITION and CANCEL. A derived chart such as a solar return or a combine is saved with the person's name and its own moment, so it joins the file beside the birth record and never replaces it.

The fetched charts sit in the five RADIX DATA slots of the IN-OUT menu, SATZ1 to SATZ5. The checked slot is the chart on the wheel. Clicking another slot switches to it and opens its entry box, OK takes an edit over, CANCEL just switches. Every slot remembers the data file its record came from or was entered into, and switching to the slot makes that file the bound one again, so the DATA panel and the next FETCH name the file of the chart on screen. Every computed return writes itself into the SOLAR... DATA row of its radix, so the latest solar return stays one click away.

RESULT as RADIX, right under the slots, makes the derived chart on screen a radix of its own, so transits, combines and further returns can be cast on top of a solar return or a progression. The slot reads like SATZ2: SOLAR 2000 ALS RADIX NAME. The program warns first, Only for the EXPERIENCED ! CHAOS LOOMS !, with CANCEL as the default. When all five slots are taken, one slot gives way after an overwrite question.

CLEAN UP / RESET asks DELETE the DATA and STORED PICTURES of this session ? and on OK empties all slots, the stored pairs and the Back and Forward steps, ends every partner chart and returns to the empty screen of the start, the DATA panel without a name and a date at the place the program opens with.

Entering birth data with historical time

For a birth with an uncertain time zone, summer time or an old local time, NEW ENTRY of RECORDS (Ctrl+N) offers the full entry mask. When AAF files are present it first asks which format to use. The AAF format loops through the AAF box and asks after each record whether to enter another one, OK = Save writes the record into an AAF file. Entering the chart type, country, summer time or zone field opens its pick list. In the zone list LMT takes the local time from the longitude, and LTT turns true into mean local time, on its own before 1810 and after a question until 1890. The HORCOM format opens one empty mask per call and reads the clock as local clock time.

Ticking CET and OTHER ZONE TIMES opens the time zone box. Zone time plus the difference gives UT, so CET is -1. A click on a nearby place of the EUROPE or WORLD list takes its zone, the SINGLE and DOUBLE SUMMER TIME boxes add one or two hours, and the WORLD button opens the named zone catalogue.

Tabbing from the name into the place field opens the place menu: NEW PLACE or EDIT PLACE, the PREFERRED PLACE, PLACE FILES : FETCH - ENTER - DELETE, DELETE PREFERRED PLACE and UNDO. The preferred place is your usual location, when none is set the next place typed by hand becomes it. Tabbing on from the coordinates of a new place asks SAVE the PLACE ?, YES enters it into a place file, the third button makes it the preferred place.

OK then asks SAVE the record ? Or continue EDITING ?. SAVE picks the data file, ONLY TAKE OVER as a record, the default, just puts the chart on screen. A missing day raises DATE MISSING ! and a longitude beyond 180° Invalid geographic longitude !, both return to the mask with the typed fields kept.

CHANGE IN-OUT DEFAULTS sets how the fields behave. With AUTOMATIC ADVANCE, the default, a field typed to its full length hands on to the next one, a day after two digits and a year after four. WITH TAB STOP or MOUSE leaves the moving to you.

Transits and the running sky

TRANSITS in the EVALUATION menu first asks the output mode.

TABLE and LINEAR GRAPHIC ask a few questions in turn. First the base aspect, 15°, 22.5°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, 180°, 360° or any other divisor, or one of the combined grids 30° and 45°, 60° and 45°, 60° and 90° that keep only the multiples of both angles. Then the running factors, all of them, from Mars or from Jupiter outward, chosen ones marked red, or only chosen ones, then the start and end date, whether the Moon takes part, and with parallax on the event place. The radix targets are the bodies with AC and MC, and following the direction defaults also the intermediate cusps of houses 2, 3, 5 and 6, the four cardinal points and the midpoints of every pair.

Before the list opens, SORT the LIST ? offers time, aspect or the order found, and a click on a column head sorts by that column. The running body and the radix point each carry their degree right beside them, in bold like the dates and the aspects. Hard aspects stand in red, sextile and trine in green, the heavy planets MA SA UR NE PL inverted. The time shows hours and minutes where the running body is fast enough for it. The list also carries the retrograde passages, marked R, and the transits of the mean node, each exact to about a second. A long run shows a progress window, CANCEL or Esc keeps the list found so far. A STATION, a running body standing still near the point, stands in bold red. A double click on a row opens the transit chart of that moment. SAVE AS EXCEL FILE… writes the list in its shown order with the heading lines as a CSV file with semicolons between the columns. A German Excel opens it by a double click, ready for its filters, an Excel set to the comma as list separator reads it through its text import with the semicolon as separator. The mundane aspect table has the same button.

MUNDANE ASPECTS finds the exact aspects the running bodies make with each other, as a table with the two bodies as P1 and P2, each with its degree beside it, or as a linear graph. With a combined grid it offers the void of course rule for horary astrology, a body then only counts while it stays in the sign it stood in at the moment of the aspect.

INGRESSES PLANETS-MC-AC in the EPHEMERIS menu lists the moments a body enters each sign. It asks for SUN, MOON, MC or AC, the other planets and Chiron, Quaoar and Xena follow. The Sun takes a calendar year, the Moon and the planets a date, MC and AC a date and place. Space, plus or PgDn page forward and R, minus or PgUp back. For a planet each sign moves on to its own next entry or back to the one before, so no entry is skipped or shown twice, and the title then names the latest entry of the page. The slow bodies stop at the end of their ephemeris files, for Quaoar and Xena in the year 2201, a sign whose next entry lies beyond keeps its own. A planet that turns retrograde at a sign start enters the sign, runs back and enters it again, the table names the first entry of that loop.

CLOCK casts the chart of the present moment. It asks whether the system time is right and, the first time, for the place. While the clock runs, a strip under the main window shows UT, AC, MC and sidereal time every second. It can also be taken over as a record that ticks every five seconds, though Robert Rettig did not recommend it. Called again, the clock offers to delete itself.

Returns

The EVALUATION menu is grouped in blocks: the returns, the Munich rhythm theory, the directions, the dynamogram, the multiple directions and harmonics, and the transits.

SOLAR casts the chart for the moment the Sun returns to its natal degree in a chosen year. Previous year and Next year walk through the years without leaving the dialog. LUNAR does the same with the Moon. Its box SEARCH with : offers DATE, NO. FUTURE and NO. PAST. By number it counts the n-th lunar return from birth, as used for the Troinsky tertiary progressions, and number 0 is the radix itself.

SOLAR, LUNAR and PLANETAR show the event place with a Choose place… button that asks EVENT place = BIRTH place ?. The return is then cast for where the person lives that year, while its target stays the natal position. Every result names the count of returns since birth, like 32.SOLAR or 668.LUNAR, in the banner and in the centre of the wheel, in both directions of the year buttons. A birth typed into the DATA panel without a record row counts as the radix of its returns, and so does a COMBINE on screen, its returns count from the mean moment and place of the pair. SOLAR LIST and LUNAR LIST show up to 84 return dates on one sheet, a click opens the return of that row.

PLANETAR extends the returns to the other planets. It searches by date or number and lists every passage, a body in a retrograde loop crosses its natal point three times. Pick a moment to view the chart or take its time over. PERSONAR asks for the planet and the place, shows the chart and offers CREATE a FURTHER PERSONAR ?. With Heliocentric on, SOLAR becomes TERRAR, the Earth's return. Chiron, Quaoar and Xena are always available as planetar bodies.

Progressions and directions

CHANGE DIRECTION DEFAULTS heads the EVALUATION menu. Pick a topic and it walks that one and every one after it, EXIT ends. The topics are the sextile of the Munich rhythm theory, the paging of long tables, small or large symbols, the marking of the heavy planets and the aspect colours in the tables, the intermediate cusps and cardinal points as targets, the latitude of significator and promissor in the primary directions, the midpoints in the tables, all or only those with three different factors, and whether the linear graphs run upward or downward after R. Ebertin.

SECONDARY DIRECTION (a day for a year) and SOLAR (LUNAR) ARC DIRECTION first ask the output mode.

PRIMARY DIRECTION ( E.C.KÜHR ), SYMB. DIRECTION: EQUATORIAL (in the MUNDANE or RA SYSTEM) and SYMB. DIRECTION: ECLIPT. list their arcs as dates, as years of life with the month, or as the bare arc. They ask the base aspect, the key (one year per degree, NAIBOD or any other), the planets that take part, at least two, and the years of life to cover. The headings show the key as Key:… Y/°, and the primary list names the latitude choice under the table.

All direction lists sort by time or aspect, and a click on a column head sorts by that column. Dates and aspects stand in bold, the hard aspects 0, 90 and 180 degrees in red, 60 and 120 in dark green. The secondary direction lists the retrograde passages and the mean node like the transits and asks whether to include the Moon, the arc methods always include it. The intermediate cusps, the cardinal points and the midpoints join as the direction defaults say, the midpoints only in the ecliptic methods. The secondary direction, the solar and lunar arcs, the primary direction and the symbolic directions in the RA SYSTEM or MUNDANE switch Heliocentric off.

PROGRESSED HOROSCOPE casts the progressed chart of a day for a year, and DAY HOROSCOPE the chart of any day at the birth's true solar time. The DYNAMOGRAM draws the summed intensity curves after Krafft-Goerner over five years of life, and WATCH the SINGLE ARCS ? first shows each pass of the analysis.

The Munich rhythm theory

The MUNICH RHYTHM THEORY walks the seven year phases through the houses after the Döbereiner school. It is meant for Placidus houses and hints when another system is active. The EVALUATION MODE box offers

The following boxes ask the direction, the date or year and month format, the starting phase, the time unit and the period per house, then the SPECIAL POINT, kept from the last run, given as an ecliptic degree or through a date, or none. Every date is written with the full year, since a walk spans 84 years and more.

SEPTAR casts the Septar charts. Twelve houses of seven months make the seven years one Septar governs, so its box asks only the period per house, SEVEN for the Septar, then the year of life of interest and the special point. Septar number n is the solar return of the (n - 1)th birthday: at 30 the fifth Septar covers the years 28 to 35 and is the fourth solar return, at 70 the eleventh covers 70 to 77. The result box names the Septar, the years it governs and the solar return with its calendar year, and below seven years "1. SEPTAR = RADIX" follows. Like the twelve houses of the rhythm the Septars end with the twelfth, the box takes the years up to 83 for SEVEN, and a longer life takes a larger key per house through OTHER.

Two people

The HOROSCOPES menu gathers the pair charts under HOROSCOPE COMBINATION / COMPARISON. Each takes its records from the filled RADIX or SOLAR slots, so fetch both people first.

Composite and combine are always geocentric and carry the fixed point along. They name the partners with the full name on the sheet and with name and first given name in the banner. Once a pair chart was made, its menu entry names the pair, and a click asks SHOW the LAST STORED PICTURE ? or RECALCULATE ?. A click on a SATZ slot in the IN-OUT menu returns to the single chart.

Rectification, harmonics and special charts

CORRECTION in the MISCELLANEOUS menu rectifies the birth time. Pick the sidereal time, MC, AC, an intermediate cusp, the Sun or the Moon, give the target value, and the birth time shifts until the chosen point reaches it, always to the solution nearest the given birth time. The correction works in Placidus houses and geocentric positions and restores the house system afterwards. After a Sun or Moon correction the PLANET COORDINATES table opens.

* PRIMARY DIRECTED AXES * in the CORRECTION box turns the axes at the Naibod rate to an event date and time, direct or converse, for rectification by known events. The wheel shows the sidereal time difference, the event moment, the directed sidereal time and, once a variation was made, its value, running sum and mean. The trial shifts are collected in a sum memory and their mean can be applied to the radix.

TIME WANDERING and PLACE WANDERING step the chart through time or place while the Schiemenz counters sum along, every step flashing the strip at the bottom of the window with a short soft signal tone. A key held down steps on with an even tick. F1 or the HELP ( F1 ) button at the bottom shows the key sheet of the walk again and holds the walk, any key goes on. BEEP ON / OFF in the VIEW menu silences the tone, the strip still lights up. Only a time walk whose result you take over adds a Back step.

MULTIPLE DIRECTIONS / HARMONICS in the EVALUATION menu offers seven modes. The MULTI modes ask the event date, whether the houses move with the planets or come new from the directed MC, and for MULTI 3 and MULTI-ARC the reference factor, the fixed point among them. They draw the directed chart outside the radix with both coordinate columns, the tight cross aspects and the directed midpoints on the axes and cusps. HARMONICS asks for the harmonic number instead of a date. These charts always use a geocentric ecliptic radix with the mean node and the mean Black Moon, without changing your panel. After a key the birth time can walk in hours, minutes or seconds, and after the next key another date or harmonic follows or the session ends.

A return or day chart cast at another place names that place on the sheet and in the DATA panel, while the birth record keeps its own.

Aspectarium, midpoints and histograms

ASPECTARIUM in the HOROSCOPES menu asks for the largest divisor, eight, twelve or sixteen, and draws the triangular aspect matrix: exact separations in whole minutes above the diagonal, the named aspects below it, the hit count of every body on the diagonal, the divisor table with angle and orb beside it and the planet weights under it.

MIDPOINT GRAPHIC draws a tree for every point with the pairs whose midpoint falls on it, page by page with Space, Enter or PgDn, and offers the sort by the 45 degree dial at the end. On both screens the right mouse button picks single planets, shown red or alone with their aspects or midpoints, NORMAL OUTPUT shows all again.

HISTOGRAMS in the VIEW menu counts elements and qualities, the sign points and the house points side by side with their total. Fire, earth, air and water wear their sign colours, cardinal, fixed and mutable the matching quality colours. The window is also the weight table: the point value row takes a digit from 0 to 9 per point, the last cell weighs every additional planet, and POINTS in the 1st HOUSE DOUBLE and 1st BIRTH RULER DOUBLE double the planets of the first house and the ruler of the ascendant. The weights also feed the histograms of the A4 print.

Sky tables

In the EPHEMERIS menu:

In the MISCELLANEOUS menu:

Statistics

STATISTICS G/H in the EPHEMERIS menu searches whole chart collections. First create an evaluable file from a data file of the SPEZIAL folder. Every record is computed with the current settings, so set them before you answer PARAMETERS SET CORRECTLY ? with YES. Records whose latitude the house system cannot handle are left out and counted in the report.

START the EVALUATION then asks one condition after the other. First the object, a planet or cusp, a house ruler, a midpoint, an aspect, a mirror point, a name or letter sequence or an Arabic part, then where it must stand, at a degree, in a sign, in a house, at a planet or anywhere. Further conditions join with OR, AND INCLUSIVE or AND EXCLUSIVE. The result list shows every match, the records meeting all AND conditions in inverse video. Click a row to view that chart or take it over as a radix, press W for another condition and ESC to end.

BUILD an EVALUATION FILE in the EPHEMERIS menu computes a whole collection into a research dataset.

Managing your data files

Where a data file has an AAF twin, the program keeps both in step and asks you to make changes in the AAF file: Make changes in the AAF file only ! Otherwise DATA may be LOST !!. File names can be of any length, a missing .DAT or .AAF suffix is added. Files are written so that a crash never leaves half a file behind.

Printing and export

SAVE HOROSCOPE in the IN-OUT menu holds the exports: SVG as a vector drawing, PNG as a picture of 1920 by 1440 pixels, and PDF. SAVE HOROSCOPE as PDF and PRINT (Ctrl+P) first ask for DIN A5 or DIN A4. A5 is the classic sheet, the wheel with the margin table. A4 is the large upright page with the wheel over the full tables: positions with velocity, the aspect list with the mirror contacts, the house cusps, the midpoints and the element and quality columns. HISTOGRAMS for ELEMENTS in CHANGE HOROSCOPE DEFAULTS decides whether those columns count signs only, add the houses, or are left out. Transits, dial and comparisons print as they show.

The PRINTER OPTION is for those who print most outputs. It starts off, F8 or PRINTER OPTION ON / OFF in the IN-OUT menu switch it on. While it is on, leaving an output page first shows a small HARDCOPY ? box, and the graphic outputs ask SCREEN, PRINTER GRAPHIC DIN A5 or DIN A4. F9 collects two pictures and prints them stacked on one DIN A4 page. The PRINT button of a record list or the commentary reader prints the rows.

SHOW / or SAVE the LAST PICTURE in the IN-OUT menu brings back the last output, then saves it as a picture in the bilder folder, loads a stored one or deletes one. F7 copies the window in front to the clipboard and offers to save it as a PNG picture.

Screen, keys and commentaries

DEFAULTS OVERVIEW at the head of the VIEW menu shows every default in force at a glance. While the GREAT YEAR display is on, a framed box on top, white in the black on white dress, gives the age point of the chart's date with its reference. TEXT SIZE scales the text of the whole program, LARGER TEXT and SMALLER TEXT (Ctrl+Plus, Ctrl+Minus) step from 80 to 200 percent, NORMAL TEXT (Ctrl+0) returns to 100. Under COLOURS choose BLACK on WHITE, the default, or NIGHT SKY, a dark theme with gold headings. BACKGROUND COLOURS sets your own colours for the dialogs and the area behind the chart. CHART BACKGROUND chooses the paper of the chart itself, WHITE like Robert Rettig's screens, the warm PAPER of the theme or a light colour of your own, on screen, in print and in every export. RESET EVERYTHING… returns text size, colours, windows and all defaults to the state of the first start and restarts the program. The charts of the session are cleared, your records, places, files and the language stay.

In every question box the answer that stands ready wears a heavy frame, in the default boxes it is the setting in force, so Space or Return keeps it and moves on. The Tab key moves the frame to another answer.

Under ABOUT HORCOM, INTRODUCTION = EXPLANATION 1 opens Robert Rettig's own commentary texts, from the introduction to his notes on directions and the Munich rhythm theory. The English edition shows English translations where one exists. CHANGES / NOTES / QUICK GUIDE offers his change list and short manual.

The function keys:

KeyAction
F1on the main window, or the right mouse button there, opens First aid and introduction. Inside an output it opens the commentary of that menu.
F2shows the chart in between, in the outputs that allow it. A derived chart first asks whether it or the radix shows. F2, Alt+A or ESC closes it again.
F3starts the calculator
F5opens the angle conversion
F6switches between heliocentric and geocentric
F7copies the front window to the clipboard and offers a PNG
F8switches the printer option
F9activates the double print

Inside an output, Alt+E, A, C, R, F, D or Z, and M act like F1, F2, F3, F5, F7, F8 and F9. Where a question follows a chart, as with PLANETAR, PERSONAR and MULTI, a bar at its foot reads ON with SPACE or a mouse click. Esc in a question box cancels it and the step it belongs to. Esc on the main window asks END the PROGRAM HORCOM ?, and DESKTOP ( QUIT HORCOM ) in the MISCELLANEOUS menu quits as well.