Creating Text for a New Report
Contents
If you haven't already, it is suggested you read Editing and Creating Source Text for an overview of the reporting process.
There are several options available to you if you wish to create a new report using your own text. This is not the same as simply modifying the text of a report once it is displayed in the "Report Viewer". When you do that you are only modifying the text in that report as it is displayed for that particular chart or charts. What is being discussed here is either permanently altering the text a report will display every time it is run, not just modifying it on an ad hoc basis, or actually creating a brand new report text.
1.The easiest way is to modify the existing source text of a report that came with Solar Writer e.g. the "Modern" report. This will overwrite the original author's text with your own in the places where you modify it. That means however that you will be permanently changing the original author's text. If that is what you want to do then this is the simplest way to create reports with your own text in them.
>> To modify the original author's report text
a)From the Main Window click the Report menu
b)Click on Select, and select the report whose text you want to permanently modify (If you have a specific Return report installed in Solar Writer (e.g. Solar Return report) see Selecting Alternative Reports for what might be involved when you select it ).
c)From the Main Window click the Report menu again
d)Click on Compile
e)In the "Text Compiler" dialog box click the Edit button.
This will open the report's Source file so that you can edit the text in it. See Input File Layout for the rules regarding writing text interpretations in a Source file.
TIP: You should be able to see readily enough the actual interpretation text in the file, and be able to deduce what astrological item or signature the text is referring to. Even if you find the rules for keywords etc. confusing, by carefully altering only the actual interpretation text the Source file will retain it's integrity and should still display report text properly.
Note: If you do decide later on that you want the original author's text to be available in Solar Writer, then you can simply re-install that report. However, in doing that you will then overwrite and lose the text modifications you wrote in the report ! Using this method you can't have both the original author's text AND the modified author's text on the computer at the same time.
The reason for this is that the changes to the report text are being made in the same Source file for the report. As explained above you can make changes in the Source file, but if you ever re-install that report the installation process replaces this Source file with the version of it that is in the installation files. To modify the original author's text with your own text AND still be able to use the original author's text unaltered you will need to use option (2) below.
Note: If the rules for editing the text in a Source file initially appear too daunting for you, then you may be best to use option (2) below anyway, as that way you can get some practice without involving an existing report.
2.The next easiest way to create a new report is to copy the files from an existing report and save them under a new name, and then edit the source text in the copied files as required.
3.You can also create a new report from scratch, although this is not recommended unless you are already very familiar with the structure and syntax of Solar Writer source text files.