Navigation: Deep-Sky Planner Help > Options Menu >

Location Manager

Many of the calculations in Deep-Sky Planner depend on your observing location. The Location Manager allows you create and maintain observing locations as well as organize them into areas. You may also import and export locations and areas to a file. Finally, you may select a favorite location which acts as the default location throughout the product. You can always change the location used by any open document.

The Location Manager is composed of 2 panes. The left contains a hierarchical listing of areas and the locations that belong to each, and the right contains a list of all locations.

Most operations may be performed on a single selection in either the left or right pane. The Delete and Move operations may be performed on multiple selections in a pane. For example, you might want to move several locations to a different area by selecting locations in the right pane and dragging them to an area in the left pane.

To select multiple entries in either pane pane, click an entry and either shift-click another entry to select consecutive entries, or control-click another entry to select additional entries that aren't necessarily positioned consecutively in a sequence of selections. This is the normal method of selecting multiple items in Windows. Finally, choose the desired operation to perform on all selected items.

The Main Menu

File

The File menu contains operations related to importing and exporting files. In addition to importing and exporting, you can view these files and print them.

Areas

Areas contains all operations for Areas: add, delete and rename.

Locations

Locations contains all operations for Locations: add, delete, edit, move and 'favorite'

Window

Refresh rebuilds the entire display from the database. This is available in the event that the display is not synchronized with the database. You can also refresh the view by pressing F5.

Show Favorite scrolls both left and right panes so that the favorite location is shown. You can also show favorite by clicking F6.

The Tool Bar

The tool bar contains buttons that perform the same operations available from the menu. Each operation is described in detail below.

The Main Window

Left Pane - Locations by Area

Locations by Area shows a alphabetical listing of all areas in the database. Each area contains a list of locations. Areas are identified by and locations are identified by . The favorite location is identified by .

You can add, delete and rename areas. You can add, delete, edit, move and 'favorite' locations in the left pane.

Right Pane - All Locations

All Locations shows a list of all locations in the database. Each entry shows the name of the location, its latitude, longitude, elevation, time zone and horizon model name (if any).

You can sort the list by clicking on column headers. You can toggle the order (ascending or descending) by clicking the same column repeatedly. Also, you can sort by several columns by clicking the first column and Shift-clicking additional columns. Repeatedly clicking (or Shift-clicking) a column toggles the order. Ctrl-click to remove a column from sort ordering.

You can add, delete, edit, move and 'favorite' locations in the right pane.

Find Location by Name is a lookup tool. Begin typing the name of a location and the list of locations scrolls to the name as you type (if it is present.)

Creating and Maintaining Areas and Locations

Areas

Add an area by

▪choosing Areas | New from the menu, or

▪clicking New Area on the tool bar

The new area will have a name like 'New Area' and will be ready for renaming to something more descriptive.

Rename an area by selecting an area and

▪clicking once on the name, or

▪pressing F2

When the name is put into editing mode you may type a new name that must be non-blank, unique and up to 50 characters in length. Press Enter to save the new name or Esc to discard the change and retain the former name.

Delete area(s) and all of their locations by selecting one or more areas and

▪pressing the Delete key, or

▪choosing Areas | Delete from the menu, or

▪clicking Delete on the tool bar, or

▪right clicking an area and choosing Delete from the context menu

You are asked to confirm your request to delete the area(s). If you want to proceed, the selected areas and their locations are removed from the database. Note that areas and locations are removed from the database by this operation.

Locations

Add a location by

▪choosing Locations | New from the menu, or

▪clicking New Loc on the tool bar, or

The Location Editor is displayed so that you can enter a new location and the area to which it belongs.

Delete location(s) by selecting one or more entries and

▪pressing the Delete key, or

▪choosing Locations | Delete from the menu, or

▪clicking Delete on the tool bar, or

▪right clicking a location and choosing Delete from the context menu

You are asked to confirm your request to delete locations. If you want to proceed, the location is removed from both the Locations by Area pane and the All Locations pane. Note that locations are removed from the database by this operation.

Edit a location by

▪double clicking the location

▪selecting a location and choosing Locations | Edit from the menu, or

▪selecting a location and clicking Edit on the tool bar, or

▪right clicking the location and choosing Edit from the context menu

The Location Editor is displayed so that you can edit the location. You can also change the area to which the location belongs.

Move location(s) to an area by

▪Select location(s) in the All Location pane, then drag and drop them onto an area in the Locations by Area pane. Any duplicate locations are ignored.

▪Select location(s) in either pane and click Locations | Move from the menu. Choose the new area for all selected locations from the drop down list.

▪Select location(s) in either pane, right click and click Move from the context menu. Choose the new area for all selected locations from the drop down list.

▪Edit a location and change it's Area.

Select a favorite location by selecting a location and

▪choosing Locations | Favorite from the menu, or

▪clicking Favorite on the tool bar, or

▪right clicking a location and choosing Favorite from the context menu

The favorite location is identified by . To select no favorite location, find the favorite location and select it as favorite again: this acts as a toggle. The favorite location is used in several places to make working with locations more convenient.

Importing and Exporting Areas and Locations

Import allows you to add locations and areas to your database from a file. Only files in native DSP format (.location) may be imported at this time.

To import locations you must open the Import Data dialog box by

▪choosing File | Import from the menu, or

▪clicking Import on the tool bar

Export allows you to save areas and locations in your database to a file. The native DSP format (.location) can be imported into Deep-Sky Planner, so it is appropriate for exchanging files with other users or for backup purposes.

Locations and areas may also be exported as tab delimited text files (.txt), HTML (.htm or .html) and MS-Excel (.xls) formats. These formats are appropriate for using the data in other software.

To export locations you must open the Export Data dialog by:

▪choosing File | Export from the menu, or

▪clicking Export on the tool bar

View allows you to open a native DSP import/export file (.location) for viewing. The content and appearance of the file is customized by a stylesheet. You can choose a stylesheet to be used when displaying the file by selecting it in View/Print Style.

Print allows you to open a native DSP import/export file (.location) and print it. The appearance of the file is customized by a stylesheet. You can choose a stylesheet to be used when printing the file by selecting it in View/Print Style. A print dialog box is shown before printing begins so that you can select a printer and specify printing options.

View/Print Style allows you to select a stylesheet to use when viewing or printing a location import/export file. Deep-Sky Planner ships with default stylesheet(s). Please check the Community for additional stylesheets.

What about?

▪Exporting data does not remove any areas or locations from your database. You must do that explicitly using Delete.

▪Importing areas or locations that are already in the database does not overwrite existing data. The duplicate area or location is simply not imported into the database.

▪Importing locations adds new locations to the location list in open documents but it does not change the location selected in open documents.

▪Importing a location with no area defined in the import file is assigned to area 'None'.

▪Importing a location with no time zone defined in the import file is assigned to time zone 'Greenwich Standard Time', i.e., no daylight saving time rule and no offset from the prime meridian.