Everything in the Page Designer is an object (a physical component of the page), and each object has properties (characteristics) that you can change. An object's properties can have various values that determine how the object looks when the page is used in Solar Fire. The actual page itself is also an object (you can think of it as the "master" object if you like), and therefore it too has properties that can be used to alter some of it's characteristics.

All object properties initially have a default value set when a new object is added to the page you are creating or editing, but most object properties can be changed to a different value. Most properties have only a few pre-defined values that you can change (e.g. True or False), while a few other properties have a great range of possibilities for the value which you can decide to give them (e.g descriptions, names of files etc).

 

Properties relating to the Page itself

ListAbbrev - Text - Up to 5 Chars. This text is used in Solar Fire’s Chart View page in the list of displayed images, and helps the user identify which page type it refers to.

MarginLeft, MarginTop, MarginRight, MarginBottom - Numeric - 0.0 to 1.0 - This shows how wide a margin to leave at the edge of the page. Typically a small margin of 0.01 (ie 1%) is desirable to avoid objects being drawn tight up against the edge of the page.

 

Remaining Object Properties

Chart* Desc - Text - Up to 20 Chars - There is one entry of this type for each chart that is used on the page (up to 12). This text is used in Solar Fire when the user is prompted to select which charts to display on the page, and helps the user identify where on the page this chart is placed e.g. If there are two charts on the page you might enter “Top Chart” and “Bottom Chart”. If there is only one chart used on this page, then this text may be left blank.

AnchorX, AnchorY - Numeric - Typically 0.0 to 1.0 - This shows the X and Y coordinates (across and down the page respectively) at which the object is placed. For most objects the anchor point is the top, left of the object’s outline, but for wheels it is the center of the wheel. Objects may be specified to be placed outside the borders by setting their Anchor values to less than 0 or greater than 1, but they will still be forced to appear within the page margins. It may be useful to do this to force a wheel to always align with the edge of the page even when the displayed page size is different from the design page size. AnchorX and AnchorY properties may also be set by dragging the object around the page (or off the edge of the page to force the alignment for other page sizes).

Anchor Bottom – True/False – When false, this indicates that the top of the object is anchored to its specified AnchorY property. Hence if the object shrinks due to having less data lines than are specified as its default, then its base will move upwards. When true, this indicates that the bottom of the object is anchored at its bottom (i.e. the specified AnchorY property plus the default height). Hence if the object shrinks due to having less data lines than are specified as its default, then its top will move downwards, and its base will remain fixed.

Width, Height - Numeric - 0.0 to 1.0 - These properties can only be set for objects which are not text based (such as a wheel, grid or user graphic). Text based objects have their width and height determined automatically from the font size in combination with the number of text lines and data blocks. Wheels must always be round, so specifying unequal width and height results in both the width and the height being set to the smaller value when the page is displayed. However, it may be useful to specify unequal values in order to allow wheels to expand when displayed on different page sizes. For example, if a landscape shaped page has a single wheel with a caption above it, then its width could be set to 1 (to potentially take up the full page width), and its height to .8 (to allow a gap of .2 for the chart caption above). In this case the height is smaller than the width, so it is the constraining value. If this was then displayed on a portrait page, then the width would become the constraining factor, so the wheel would expand to take up the full width of the page, but would still allow a gap at the top for the caption.

Chart - Numeric - 1 to 12 - This indicates which of the page’s charts is to be used in the current object. For example, if the page has a Synastry Grid, then two charts will be required (e.g. chart1 = 1 and chart2 = 2), or if the page has two biwheels, then the first biwheel may use charts 1 and 2, and the second wheel charts 3 and 4.

Justification - Numeric - 0=Left, 1=Right, 2=Center - This indicates how text displayed in this object is justified.

Reverse - True/False - This indicates the vertical order in which text appears. When False, the text appears with the first line at the top, and subsequent lines going down. When True, the first lines appears at the bottom. and subsequent lines going up.

Font Size - Numeric - 3.75 to 25.5 - This indicates the font size at which text is displayed. In practice the font size may be varied if the object contains more text lines than expected or the display page size is significantly different from the design page size.

Data Lines - Numeric - Limits vary for different objects - This indicates the maximum lines of data that are expected to be displayed in this object. For example, a flexible points list will display a data line for each displayed point in Solar Fire. If you normally expect to have only 14 displayed points in Solar Fire, then you could set the Data Lines value to 14, in which case the object would display correctly in the chosen font size. However, if you increased the displayed points to 20, then the object would remain the same size, but a smaller font size than the one you specified will be used so that the 20 lines can all fit into the same space. Conversely, if you set the Data Lines to 20, resulting in a larger object, but only have 14 displayed points, then the selected font size will be used, but the size of the object will shrink back to enclose the 14 lines of data.

Data Blocks - Numeric - Limits vary for different objects - This indicates how many side-by-side blocks (or columns) to split the data into. For example, if you have 12 Data Lines, then setting the Data Blocks value to 2 will result in two columns of 6 lines of data each. This property can be used to change the shape of the object - increasing the number of data blocks makes the object shorter and wider.

Title Line - True/False - If the object has a main title line available, then this property can be used to switch it on or off. If it is switched off (False) then the object becomes slightly shorter, but without its title it may not be obvious to all users what the object is.

Frame Type - Numeric - 0=None, 1=Single, 2=Double - This controls what type of frame, if any, is drawn around this object. Most objects that have internal column and row lines look better with at least a single line frame, but objects such as user graphics may look better without a frame.

Graphic File - Text - Up to 255 Chars - This property applies only to the graphic object, and specifies the name of a graphic file (including the file extension) that is to be displayed. This may be any file of type *.bmp, *.wmf, *.jpg, *.ico, *.gif, *.emf. (Unlike previous versions of Solar Fire, it is no longer necessary to copy the graphic file into the Solar Fire folder – you can select a file from anywhere you like.)

Points File, Aspects File, Star File, Arabic Parts File, Asteroid File - Text - Up to 80 Chars - This specifies the name of the Solar Fire file (without the file extension) which is used to determine which points, aspects, stars, Arabic Parts or asteroids that are used within this object. If left blank, then Solar Fire will use whatever default file is currently selected when this object is displayed. This is useful if you wish to always display the same items in this object, regardless of the currently selected files in Solar Fire.

Dignity File - Text - Up to 80 Chars - This specifies the name of the Solar Fire dignity/almuten definition file (without the file extension) which is used to calculate dignity or almuten scores within this object. If left blank, then Solar Fire will use its default file (“general.alm” for the Almutens object, “houses.alm” for the house almutens and “essdig.alm” for other objects).

Rulerships - Text - e.g. Modern, Old, Esoteric, Hierarchical - This specifies which rulerships will be used within this object e.g. in a flexible points list, this influences what is shown in the house rulership and dispositor columns, or in a chartwheel it influences which sign or decanate rulerships are shown if it has a zodiac ring showing rulerships.

Modulus - Numeric - Angle in Degrees - This specifies the modulus angle that is used in this object. Angles may be entered in any format acceptable to Solar Fire (see Entering Angles).

Max Orb - Numeric - Angle in Degrees - This specifies the maximum orb that is used within the object. Angles may be entered in any format acceptable to Solar Fire (see Entering Angles).

Weighted Scores - True/False - This specifies whether scoring in this object will use unweighted scores (ie 1 point per item) or scores weighted according to Solar Fire’s default weightings. The default weightings may be edited using the Rulerships and Weightings editor (see Changing Rulerships and Weightings).

Force Color - Numeric - 0=Automatic, 1=Always Black, 2=Always White - This specifies what color will be used to draw this object's text (if a caption) and/or lines (if a chart or graphical object). The normal (default) setting is Automatic, in which case the text and/or lines are drawn in black if the current background color is light, or drawn in black if the current background color is dark. (The background color is a property of the Color Scheme that can be selected by the user.) The main purpose of this setting is to allow the color to be fixed when the page contains a background graphic, because in that case the color needs to be fixed appropriately in relation to the colors of the graphic, and should not change according to the background color, which is not visible in this case.