The User Profiles page has been tidied up a bit.

There are now pop-ups in the card position window when dealing a spread in free selection mode. This helps you remember what each position in the spread means.

The Preview Download button on the Deck Exchange share decks form didn't do anything, this has now been fixed.

There is now an option to NEVER round edges for people who don't like that and have to set it manually each time they install a new deck with edge rounding.

When a deck can't be loaded in a collection (for example because it has been moved since the collection was loaded) at the moment it gives an error when you get to it and you can't go past it. This is fixed so it just gets jumped over.

The PackInfo now saves as nicely formatted XML if you open it in a plain text editor.

The various browser windows the program offers (for spreads, decks, collections etc) now have a little preview window to help you choose the right deck/spread etc.

There is now an option to mark any deck folder as a "Dynamic Collection". This works in a similar way to marking one as "Load on Demand". When a folder is also a dynamic collection it means it is like a collection that you never have to edit, any decks in that folder are automatically treated as part of a collection. The collection can be accessed in two ways: 1) it shows up in the collections menu and you can launch it in the normal way (as a side by side collection) and 2) the folder has a different icon in the Decks menu and you can also shift-click on that with the same result.

There is a tool to check for new updates to the program.

Spreads and Readings with Multiple Decks, and also proper ordering of the cards so for example when two cards overlap the program will remember correctly which one was on top of which.

Two kinds of collections. As well as the previous kind of collection which let you navigate your way through a set of decks, there is a new kind where a single click launches all the decks in the collection at the same time.

Better emails, using default client. It was a big problem with the email feature in previous versions that when you sent an email you had no record of it your outbox. The program now creates a new email in your default mail client and adds the appropriate text and attachments, allowing the user to edit the message as much as they like before hitting send.

Deck parking for multiple decks.

Card Names - useful anywhere you need to select cards from the deck.

Enhanced zoom function.

Title bar data for current deck.

New sort options in Deck Exchange that sort the whole set of results, not just the current page. Faster results.

Maximized background image. This is a new option along with Tile, Stretch and Center. The program will make your image as big as it can while not stretching it out of shape.

Enhanced caption bar graphics (optional).

Plus many other bug fixes and improvements!

The other big change is under the hood, it is that the program has switched from using two letter resource files like "en.resx" or "es.resx" to the longer syntax that allows resources like en-EN or en-US. This means that in future there could for example be separate resource files for Portuguese Portuguese as opposed to Brazilian Portuguese, or traditional Chinese as opposed to simplified.

The program allows multiple instances to run at the same time if you mark that option on the Options form.

There is another new options of "Always shuffle before dealing a spread", combined with the previously mentioned feature of continuous shuffling this means you can select a spread at which point the deck starts to shuffle. With another click on the deck the chosen spread is displayed with the cards as they are at that instant in the shuffle.

A new tool lets the user vary the amount of transparency on the deck parking square and the various arrow controls on the deck.

The missing graphics have been added to the Spread and Card note wizards.

There is now a function key to toggle between face up and face down in Free Selection Mode - it is Control + U.

Spreads and Pop-up notes that are shared can now be associated with a language, so you can search for results in the language you prefer. I have done my best to update the existing the Spreads and Notes with the correct languages.

Remember, if you are upgrading from a version prior to 8.8 you have to move your Packs, Spreads and Readings from [Program Files/Orphalese Tarot] to [My Documents/Orphalese Tarot].

The program has also been updated to include the latest translations.

Since there is now nothing in the OTZ that is not available from a normal web browser I have taken the browser out of the program altogether. If you follow the menu links to the Home Page or Forum this will open the page in question in your default browser of choice.

The spread upload and download is located on the My Spreads menu, and the other features are on the "Tarot Zone" menu group. I hope these changes will be intuitive.

Another change in this program is that the Random Deck option has been moved on to the main menu, from the Compare Cards form where it used to be. There is still a Random button on the compare cards form, but this selects a random card rather than changing the deck. This is a much more logical way of arranging things which someone suggested ages ago, but which I have only just got around to implementing.

The main innovation is the inclusion of a Deck Collections feature which lets you define any number of collections of decks (which can be in different directories) and then load them up as a kind of "mystery tour" to step through, or load them up in the compare cards form for a side-by-side comparison on a card-by-card basis.

Also the option of a user (3 machine) licence has been brought back. This is possible becase the program itself now contains a tool which lets you connect to the database and manage your registered machines. This should significantly reduce the support overhead associated with providing that.

The reason this is a version increment and not just a minor revision is that it also includes a new EULA, explaining to people who register the program that there is no longer any email support offered, and also that the option of a user licence has been taken away, because of the administrative overhead that it involved. Now there is only the machine licence, which the user can transfer from machine whenever they buy a new one.

Contains Norwegian language support.

Reading Wizard: Something similar. The form has been reorganised a bit reflecting feedback from users. The position editing control has the same new features as mentioned above (they are instances of the same component on both wizards).

Compare Cards: I have fixed the bug with scrolling which affected some users and meant that not all the selected decks were visible. I also modified the viewing screen so that it scrolls on the mouse wheel.

Deal a Spread in Free Selection Mode: I have made a couple of changes here so the screen is much less cluttered when this option is used. You go into FSM and choose a spread. The template form appears showing the spread positions. When you click to select a card the image of the card itself appears in the appropriate position on the template (before it was just a white block that appeared). The card itself is not dealt. Only when the spread is complete can it be dealt by pressing a button on the template form. There is also an undo button in case the user accidentally selects the wrong card.

Other improvements with version 7.4 are that it fixes the bug which meant that some users saw the pop-up notes as being very faint. It also fixes the "out of memory" error that some Windows 98 users were experiencing when running a deck with popup notes activated.

It also fixes a bug which meant that it was frequently impossible to register the program on a local area network that used a named proxy server.

Finally it fixes a bug which allowed people to specify a single deck instead of a decks folder on the Options form. The result of this is that they were continually re-presented with the option to "Browse for Missing Decks", often without realising that they were supposed to browse for the folder that contains all their decks, not for a single deck in particular.

There have been changes to the three file formats used by the program: CardData.xml, .reading files and spread files.

Screen Image Bug Fixed. The cards in the screen capture now overlap correctly, reflecting the current arrangement of the cards.

Compare Cards Form now lets you preview the cards you are going to be comparing. There have also been changes to Deck Management Form. Both of these forms now let the user select the deck that is being viewed with a single click.

Five extra "associated deck" shortcuts have been added, so the user can now associate ten decks with the control-alt key combination and the numerical key pad.

The Options Form has been redesigned with a "switchboard" type interface.

The popup notes have been made "sexier".

The plus-and-minus-keys-not-working-on-laptops bug has been fixed.

An option has been added to always hide the program when closing it, minimizing it to the system tray. Users will need to be careful when upgrading that they don't leave the program running (it can be closed definitively by right-clicking the system tray icon and choosing close from the context menu).

The setup file contains a fully updated help file, although so far this is only available in English.

It also fixes a bug to do with the default background settings which were not always being applied correctly.

When you do an incremental zoom on a reversed card the "zoomed" image was not reversed.

If your preference was to NOT show the background, this got lost when coming out of OTZ.

Navigation in the Tarot Zone - I have changed the code again (since the last beta), to get rid of the effect whereby the selected item "jumps" to the top of the tree. Does it still work for everyone though?

The following new features have been introduced:

In the reading notes window there is a mini-menu where the export button used to be, allowing you to import from rtf files created in other, flashier word processing programs.

In the same form, typing a URL will show up as a link. Clicking the link will launch Internet Explorer.

On the options form the dropdown lists that show one's decks now show ALL one's decks (before it was buggy and missed some out). Also, they are all shown in alphabetical order from the top down, not just alphabetically within their folders. I am referrring to the list that you can use to select a start-up deck, and the lists which you can use to associate decks with Control+Alt keys.

The DeckCollectionData.xml file now no longer holds user preferences re curved edges, transparency or the number of cards in each deck. This data was duplicated because it is also held on a deck-by-deck basis in the PackInfo.xml file. Originally I thought it might be worthwhile to allow the user to have preferences that differed from the Pack author/compiler. I have got rid of it though because it is generally a bad principle to have data in two places, in a case like this where 99% of the time the data is the same. Now changes to curvature/transparency/number of cards on the Options form only update the packinfo file, and that is where these preferences are read from when switching decks.

In line with this, the pack info no longer has a separate utility for editing - it is all done directly on the options form.

The program no longer shows the little form which asks you to specify how many cards there are in a new deck. It does something very clever and COUNTS the cards. (If the file name is numerical it is added to the count, if not it is ignored, so "back.jpg" and "box.jpg" don't get counted in).

Sorts out some problems with the XML packinfo file.

Sorts out some problems with assigning a non-default decks page.

Extends the previous bug fix to include the Spread Management form.

Version increments are notified to the user by the program.

The program can open zip files, leading to an enourmous saving in disk space and number of files used for people with large collections.

Numerous bugs have been fixed, including the loss of focus in the Tarot Zone which meant that shortcut keys sometimes failed.

It also fixes a bug which meant it was possible to "lose" a card while editing a spread.

It also updates the Decks and Spreads menus automatically, rather than requiring a refresh of the menu.

The switching decks behaviour includes the option of cancelling.

The Options form allows the user to reset all the "one off" messages in the program (Welcome message, Switching Decks message, Language message at shutdown).

Edit spreads: It allows you to edit spreads you (or others) have created, including adding or removing cards and changing the card positions or the order they are dealt. It also has a facility which allows you to export the spread to .txt format.

Readings: When you take a reading with the new version the reading file now stores information about which deck was used and the size of the cards on the screen.

Extra decks: An exciting new feature allows the user to launch extra decks, making it possible to do readings that rely on having more than one. This can be found on the advanced tab of the options form.

Control + Alt keys: The user can now associate the control and alt keys and the numbers 1 through 5 with particular decks or spreads, or both. Effectively these key combinations run little "macros" that switch the deck (if necessary) and then lay out the spread.

Compare cards form: This has been changed so it gives more information about the decks. Also by clicking on a card in the compare cards window you can change the current deck.

Other changes: The have been a number of other small bug fixes and tweaks to the program.

The first of these is a "Compare Cards" feature, which lets the user compare all the instances of, say, the five of cups side by side, from whichever decks they care to select.

The Screen Capture form has been improved, with a "crop to selection" feature.

Language support has been extended to include German and Danish!

It also contains a number of small bug fixes and improvements to do with the reading notes form, and includes some Spanish translations that had been missing.

I have added an option to always shuffle the deck after gathering. I have also introduced a new shortcut key combination, Ctrl-Z, which brings all the cards to the front. This is useful when you are editing reading notes for example, and you want to see the cards, not the editor - this key combination effectively sends the text editor to the back, behind the cards.

There has been a big improvement to Full Screen mode. It now really is full screen, and a bug that meant it didn't toggle nicely with the Tarot Zone has been fixed.

The Pack Info form has been made a deck specific option, and I have moved it to the deck specific tab. It seems to make more sense that way.

I have made the prompt before closing optional.

A couple of bugs have been fixed with the Deck Management form, which had led to program crashes under certain circumstances.

Less obvious but very important still is the way that changing decks works. This has really been opened up so that you can switch between decks more often when you have cards out of the deck, something that is very important for comparative reading.

It breaks down like this: you can always switch from a smaller deck to a larger deck, no matter how many cards are out. The program will take the extra cards and place them on top of the stack of existing cards. The cards that are added will either be shuffled, or sorted in ascending or descending order, depending on the preferences established on the Options form. The cards in the original, smaller deck won't be disturbed.

You can switch from a larger to a smaller deck as long as none of the cards which are out do not belong to the smaller deck. So if you are using a full deck and you only have some major arcana cards out of the deck, you can switch to a majors only deck without recollecting the cards. What the program does is to go through the deck and remove any cards which are not needed by the new deck. It does this without disturbing the order or orientation of the cards it leaves behind.

Another feature of this version is the replacement of a default back design (the green starry pattern) with a default back colour (actually two colours in a gradient which the user can determine).

Among the many small bug fixes and enhancements in this version are numerous keyboard shortcuts which will hopefully make the program more friendly to people who have trouble using the mouse. These and the other new features are explained in the updated help file.

Best of all, there have been several improvements to the look and feel of the program, including two new default decks which replace the Colman Smith, created by our resident graphic art guru F.J.Campos. These are reworkings of the Rider Waite and the Tarot de Marseille, named the Traditional Tarot and the Imperatrix Tarot respectively.

Upgraders will be able to find these decks on the Tarot Zone.

Free Selection Mode has been made even more sexy. When you go into FSM the deck visually fans out, and when you shufle, deal or sort the deck updates on the screen before your eyes.

Edge rounding on the deck (not the cards) had disappeared in the previous release due to a bug - now it is back.

The program now lets you change to a BIGGER deck while there are cards out. I can't remember now why it didn't do that before.

Bug fix: Sort or shuffle options selected for start-up were being applied when changing decks. This bug was introduced some time in November. I have set the behaviour back so the progrm now does what it says on the tin: apply start-up options at start-up.

New Feature: You can now use the spacebar to deal a card. In a future release I am planning to overhaul the whole program for accessibility issues and update the help file accordingly.

When the Zoom form is launched, you can also saved the zoomed image by right-clicking on it and choosing "Save Image".

The program now supports custom cursors (.cur) files, as well as custom animated cursors (.ani). As with the background image, these can be set for each deck or as a general default.

The Options form contains a utility for creating and editing the info files that can come with Orphalese-ready decks.

The main menu can now be launched by using the context menu key, if you happen to have a Windows keyboard.

A bug which meant that the program got sent to the back (behind other applications) when the deck was docked while users were visisting the Tarot Zone has been fixed.

A new message has been added at start up for new users - everybody who upgrades will see it the first time they run the program.

The last two changes are "under the hood", but you are sure to notice them (like when you have your car serviced and suddenly it feels like new!):

First, when using a background image the program runs much more smoothly (before it made a lot of demand on the CPU). Second, dealing and gathering the cards in free selection mode has been similarly enhanced.

Note: This was first released as 4.7.1, then I decided to increment the version number.

If any one is interested in volunteering to help with translating into any other languages we would be delighted to hear from them.

Important: There was also a file missing from the early release of the upgrade to version 4.6.0. If you find that trying to access the Tarot Zone gives you a 404 (Page Not Found) error, you should also download this version to fix it.

Using this browser capability is separate from logging on to chat with other users. This is because many people do not feel like chatting when they go online.

Another change in this version of the program is that it no longer supports tiled back images. On reflection we decided that tiled back images are unrealistic because real decks do not behave in that way. A consequence of this is that the default Colman Smith deck that you originally downloaded may appear to have an oddly distorted back design. You can download a replacement Colman Smith here.

There have also been several bug fixes. If a new instance of the program is launched while another one is running, the previous one becomes maximized (before it was possible to have two instances running at the same time). Another bug fixed is that under some circumstances it was difficult to maximise and minimize the background window.

Some people reported strange behaviour when they had the card notes and reading notes open at the same time. This did not affect most people, but it has been fixed.

Finally there have been many small changes to the "look and feel" of the program, hopefully making it more pleasing to the eye and fingertips.

Reading management is now easier, allowing you to save the notes and layout of a reading rather than having to do a "save as". It has taken ages to getting around to fixing this obvious design flaw, but at last it is done. The reading form is also a bit more "intelligent", prompting the user to save changes to the text of the reading when they close the form.

The best thing about this version though is the extra functionality it gives to the "card notes" form. Specifically you can do two important operations on the selected card. First, you can copy it to the computer's clipboard. This allows you to paste an image of the card into your reading notes, an image editor, word processor document or wherever else you care to paste images.

Secondly there is a "zoom in" function, which you can access by pressing the "inspect card" button on the card notes form. This offers you something a bit like that scene in Blade Runner where Harrison Ford keeps focussing in more and more detail on to a digital photo. You really can examine every detail of the currently selected card.

Version 4.4.0 is also accompanied by an updated version of the help file.

I have also changed the status panels so the show the length of time you have been logged into the room.

It also fixes a bug which meant that decks which contained the ampersand character in their names did not show this character in the decks menu.

Part of this change is that it also sorts out a bug: when the deck was fanned out the visible edges of the cards were always upright, even if the card itself was inverted. This is now corrected.

First, the card at the bottom of the deck was never getting shuffled. (Despite being a little bug this was obviously a very important one! Anyway, it is sorted now).

Secondly, deselecting to use a custom background now refreshes the background automatically.

The program now supports transparent regions! This means that tarot cards used by the orphalese program no longer have be rectangular. You can have round, triangular or any other shape cards...and all in the same deck at the same time!!

You can now choose an alias or nickname to preserve your anonymity while using the chat room. The chat room has a diary feature that you can use to let other people know when you will be online. The program now supports instant messages as well as a general chat room. Finally, users can send and receive PayPal payments through the program.

Setting the percentage of reversed cards is now optional too. If you don't set a percentage the program will produce a reversed card from time to time, but these occasions will not be predictable.

A "Full Screen" option has been added, which allows users to hide the border and caption panel on the background screen.

The "My Decks" and "My Spreads" menus both have a refresh option, so you don't have to restart the program to see any new decks you have added.

There is a message that appears when you first use the program, explaining that to get started you need to right-click the deck. (This is also explained in the help file, but in order to access the help file users needed to right-click the menu...doh!). Upgraders will also see this message the first time they use this version.

Other changes include the fact that the control panel and options dialog will now appear in the last position that they were moved to, and if the control panel is resized the program will remember that too. The latter can now be reduced in size to the point where the notes portion is completely hidden, which will be useful to people who didn't much use that feature. Finally, the program now recognises the .JPE image file format.

The program will now automatically detect the presence of a predetermined card back design (any image file in a pack folder called simply "back") and use that for the card back unless a different one is specified.

A number of controls have also been relocated within the program to make them more accessible and intuitive. For example there is no longer a "More Options" button off the control panel - these options are all available off the main menu. In keeping with this the help file has been updated.

Finally I have fixed a bug that must have been around since version 3.0.0. This was that changing the background colour didn't do anything until you restarted the program! New users most have thought this was just bad design. How embarrasing.

There has also been a change in the program's "locked down" features. The custom tabletop image feature is no longer locked down, but as of this version unregistered users are restricted to three active decks in the "My Decks" list.

A small fix is that the name of the program now appears on the application group in the Windows XP and Windows 2000 taskbar. Before it had been blank.

An enhancement is that the program now remembers the number of cards on a pack by pack basis. This means that if you are using a folder with only 22 designs in it, you don't have to keep resetting the number of cards.

It also fixes the problem of the program not remembering custom colours.

The program now responds more intelligently to the images that are chosen for the card backs. If the image is square, the program treats it as a "tile", whereas non-square images are stretched to fit the dimensions of the card. Additionally, backs are now remembered by the program on a deck by deck basis.

Finally it fixes a bug which appeared with the Free Selection mode.

All changes to card backs, selected deck, edge rounding and size are now propagated through to all cards, including those that have been dealt.

The menu includes an option to sort the cards in ascending or descending order, and an option to enter "Free Selection Mode". In this mode you can riffle through the pack, selecting the cards you want to deal.

Additionally, users can now set the desired percentage of reversed cards, choose between 22, 52 and 78 card packs and have the option of always showing the background automatically on start up.

Edge rounding is now remembered on a pack by pack basis. Once it is set for a pack it does not have to be set again. The default is always no rounding.

The text editor has a popup menu for Cut, Copy and Paste operations.

The F12 button can now be used to hide the program - quicker to get to than clicking on the system icon!

Holding down the shift key and clicking on a card will reverse it.