Details of Program Releases and Revisions
 
Revision 10.3.6.13-14 August 2024 I have resized the preview form for the Deck Exchange because it was brought to my attention that some users could not see the download decks button because it was off the screen.
Revision 10.3.6.12 June 2024 Updated language files.
Revision 10.3.6.11 January 2024 No changes to the program, just a new signing certficate.
Revision 10.3.6.10 September 2023 Contains fully updated Romanian translations.
Revision 10.3.6.8-9 May 2023 Fixed bug in Spread Wizard.
Revision 10.3.6.7 July 2022 Updated language files.
Revision 10.3.6.6 September 2021 Inculdes a small change in the Spread Wizard.
Revision 10.3.6.1
10.3.6.2
10.3.6.3
10.3.6.4
February 2021 These versions address the same issue with card order in the reading images as the last update. It is now finally fixed in veresion 10.3.6.4.
Revision 10.3.5.1 January 2021 Fixes a bug in the image generated for readings which meant that the numbers of each card dealt were appearing reversed. This version is also signed with my newly updated code signing certificate.
Revision 10.3.4.1 October 2020 Includes option to peek at the card on the bottom of the deck.
Revision 10.3.3.3 May 2020 Ensures registration form always topmost.
Revision 10.3.3.2 May 2020 Includes an "Unregister" button.
Revision 10.3.3.1 May 2020 I have migrated the website to a server with SSL (so it has a more secure "https" type address). This means that the online features of the program have stopped working in previous versions. Download version 3.3.1 for free to carry on using the online features of the program
Revision 10.3.2.3 February 2020 Fixes a bug with the screen capture feature for emailing a reading.
     
Revision 10.3.2.2 October 2019 This is a follow up release to the previous one. The screen choice is now remembered between sessions and the program will open on the previously used screen if it is available.
     
Revision 10.3.2.1 October 2019 This release lets you use the program on a secondary screen when you have one set up. Before this version everything always used to open on the primary screen, now the program will run on whichever screen you have the deck and background form (some windows will still open on the primary screen the first time round, but when you move them to the secondary screen the program will remember this preference).
     
Revision 10.3.1.2 May 2019 Fixes a bug which was causing the program to crash if you tried to add comments in the Deck Exchange before the card preview images were fully downloaded.
     
Revision 10.3.1.1 May 2019 This version includes a fully updated, context-sensitive Help file. Press F1 on any screen in the program to instantly access the relevant page of the Help file. Includes coverage of recently introduced subjects such as Universal Notes, Dynamic Collections, Naming schema, Subsets, Vector Graphics, etc.
     
Revision 10.2.1.1 (b) November 2018 This version contains a new set of Universal card notes, i.e. a data file (called UniversalCardData.xml) that sits directly in your packs folder and is shared between every deck. This is useful for making universal annotations that don't apply to any deck in particular.
It also makes it much easier to edit any of the pop-up notes, be they for a spread, a reading or the notes for the cards themselves. Just press the enter key and you can edit them directly without having to open the relevant wizard.
Finally it also fixes the problem of not being able to mouse scroll wheel to view notes when using a laptop. In the new version the up and down arrow keys can also be used to scroll notes.
     
Revision 10.1.3.5 March 2018 Hopefully fixes a bug with the program losing card notes.
     
Revision 10.1.3.4 (b) February 2018 This is the same as the previous version but not digitally siged because my code signing certificate expired and has yet to be be replaced.
     
Revision 10.1.3.4 (a) April 2017 Successfully fixed bug with window resizing out of view.
     
Revision 10.1.3.3 March 2017 Ditto as previous fix didn't work.
     
Revision 10.1.3.2 March 2017 Tries to fix a bug where for some users at some times some parts of some windows are out of frame.
     
Revision 10.1.3.1 January 2017 1) Fixes a bug that had come in with 10.1.2.2, namely that making the pop-up notes scroll correctly came at the price of each card activacting when the mouse was over it. This wouldn't make any difference if the cards were placed apart from each other but it meant when the overlapped the card whose notes were showing was brought to the front. This was wrong as has now been fixed. Plus the scrolling still works. 2) Fixed a bug which could cause the program to crash on start up if the mouse capture data had not saved correctly the previous time the program was run.
     
Revision 10.1.2.3 January 2017 This resolves a bug in the Spread and Reading Wizard windows to do with positioning the cards. When the form was resized the cards could change position slightly, to the extent that if the window was deliberately resized repeatedly by dragging its sizing handle in and out the cards could be made to jiggle until the all migrated to the top left corner of the window. This behaviour has now beeen fixed, the cards only move when they are intentionally repositioned by the user.
     
Revision 10.1.2.2 January 2017 Fixes problem of lengthy card notes not scrolling on some machines.
     
Version 10.1 November 2016 The Deck Exchange now includes a small thumbnail image for each deck shown in the results. This makes it MUCH easier to highlight potentially interesting decks. It is true each page takes a little bit longer to load (with 50 results per page it is like previewing a small 50 card deck) but obviously this is nothing compared to what it would take to preview each of the 50 decks separately.

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.

     
Version 10.0 July 2016 Subsets - e.g. you can define a set of cards to use from a particular deck and load it up just like any other deck in your collection, so you can have say a Majors only deck and a full deck using the same cards without duplicating any files on your hard drive.

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!

     
Version 9.4.2 April 2016 As of now the program has its own dedicated Help Website maintained by Linda, better known on the Forum as purple_scorp. On selecting Help on the menu or pressing F1 the program now opens your default browser and points it at this site.

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.

     
Version 9.4.1 August 2015 There is a new default method of shuffling, which is that shuffling carries on until the user clicks the deck again signalling the program to stop. The idea is to give the user more control. If a seed has been used for the shuffle the decks is shuffled repeatedly using the same seed. You can go back to the previous behaviour through the Options form.

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.

     
Release 9.3.1 October 2013 This release has the following bug fixes/work arounds:
The deck can now be parked by double clicking in the "Parking" square.
The F8 can be used to toggle the mode for reading notes. The border and scaling on the card images in the RTF editor is optional.
Cards can be moved around the screen using the arrow buttons even when the pop-up notes are showing.

In addition it has the following new features:
The main form for adding shared decks now does an audit of the decks you have previously shared on the server but which might have been deleted because of the caching algorithm. These unshared decks show up with a different icon, allowing you to find them and reshare them if you want to.
The program also has a new command on the Decks menu, "Gather cards to new Deck". This allows you to make a new, smaller deck with the cards which are out of the pack.
     
Release 9.2.1 September 2013 In this release of the program the program does not automatically collect the cards before laying out a spread. This allows the user for example to select a significator card and put it on one side before laying out a spread.
     
Version 9.2 August 2013 In this version I have succeeded in making the Deck Exchange much quicker on the first load. I have also made it so you can access the main menu of the program by right clicking on the deck even when the deck is "parked".
     
Version 9.1 August 2013 This version of the program has Free and Network modes. By default it is set to work in Network mode. This lets the user view and evaluate the network features as a teaser. You can hide these features in settings. In that case the program behaves exactly like the previous Free Edition. In either case there is no time limit and you can have as many decks as you like in your My Decks list. The program has also been given a complete make over with its icons and splash screen etc.
     
Version 9.0 January 2013 This version of the program was brought out in a panic because I thought (probably mistakenly) that the server that I had been using to host the online features of the program had become infected by some kind of virus, and as a precaution I took it offline and wiped it. So this version was completely free with no option to register, but it was also missing all the exchanges, user profiles and other network features.
     
Version 8.12 July 2011 In this version I have addressed the serious limitations of the search function for spreads and card notes (pop-up notes). You can now do a text search which will find any instances of the text anywhere in the spread or cards. Both forms both show paged results with buttons for easy navigation. I have also improved the User Profile pages, making it easier and faster to browse the different profiles.
Version 8.11 March 2011 In this version of the program there have been some changes to the way the program lets you share your decks. The most important change is that the Orphalese Deck Service is no longer bundled with the program. It is a separate download that you need to install if you want to share your decks with other users. This is intended to avoid some of the issues that people had with the installation and uninstallation of the program. If the Deck Service is not installed, or not running, you will see that the button to add decks is disabled.
     
Version 8.9 August 2010 This ties up some of the unfinished business relating to the previous version, or in other words it fixes a lot of the bugs it created. Several of these related to being able to share files on the P2P Exchange, so users who have been having trouble with that are encouraged to download the upgrade.

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.

     
     
Version 8.8 January 2010 Outwardly there is not a lot of difference with the previous version, but the program has been reorganised so that it keeps its files in the user's My Documents folder instead of the program directory. The benefit of this is that the program no longer needs to be run with Administrator priviliges under Windows Vista.
     
Version 8.7 May 2009 Restores the functionality associated with CardData.xml files: these can now be uploaded and downloaded again in the same way that spreads are.

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.

     
Version 8.6 January 2009 Version 8.6 takes all the functions that were located on the website and makes them part of the program itself. This includes:
-Uploading and downloading spreads
-Managing your machines
-Updating your email address and other settings
-Viewing profiles of other users
-Creating your own profile, advertising your website or whatever

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.

     
Version 8.5 August 2008 Version 8.5 introduces the possibility of sharers and downloaders making comments on the tarot decks featured in the peer-to-peer Deck Exchange. I hope this will lead to some lively and interesting debate about the decks, as well as practical information (missing cards, what language the card data is in etc).

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.

     
Version 8.4 November 2007 Version 8.4 is a major consolidation of the programs existing features, with many bugs fixed, especially in the Deck Exchange.

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.

Version 8.3 July 2007 This version contains a few small improvements. The P2P Deck Exchange now has a column showing file size. There are a couple of new keyboard shortcuts (for launching an extra deck and doing a seeded shuffle). The numbering of cards in the card notes window now starts at zero. And I think there might have been a couple of other things that I can't recall right now.

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.

     
Version 8.2 June 2007 This improves the visual feedback on the Deck Exchange and fixes a number of small bugs that had been reported. It also shows the number of users sharing decks as a percentage of the total users logged on. There are also improvements to the Add Decks routine.
     
Version 8.1 April 2007 This makes navigation among the result pages easier, and also gives visual feedback about which shared decks are more easily obtainable. It also has a modified installation routine which should fix the problem of the install sometimes asking for a non-existent user name and password.
     
Version 8.0 March 2007 Version 8.0 of the program replaces the deck exchange with a peer-to-peer file sharing tool, which gives users liberty to share whichever decks they like, within the limits proscribed by international law and, hopefully, the bounds of taste and decency.
     
Revision 7.6.2.2 February 2007 This revision has a control for setting the upper deck limit that the program will recognise (which is 300 by default). It also fixes a bug which meant that inverted cards were not showing notes under all circumstances, and hopefully fixes another bug which meant that the compare cards list was sometimes limited to 16 decks.
     
Revision 7.6.2.1 January 2007 This release includes improvements to the way card notes and personal card notes can be edited and managed, and a handy "fast find" utility for locating your favourite decks.
     
Revision 7.6.1 November 2006 Consolidation release with bug fixes (Management forms and RTF form not appearing when their menu items were clicked). Also a slight tweak: clicking the cross button while in internet mode now just returns the program to normal functioning, rather than closing the program. This seems intuitive because the Tarot Zone feel like a separate window from the main one.
     
Version 7.6 November 2006 New OTZ/Website: The Tarot Zone and the website have now been combined into a single site. This has entailed changing the way the site is navigated when using the program. The "Navigation Tree" has gone and the Tarot Zone entry point has been redesigned.
     
Revision 7.5.1 September 2006

Contains Norwegian language support.

     
Version 7.5 August 2006 Spread Wizard: Generally simplified. There is no need to specify an associated deck for each spread. I have got rid of the first screen so that you go straight into editing a spread. Also the control for editing spreads is more powerful. It responds to the direction keys on the keyboard. For example the up arrow moves the selected card up one pixel. If you have Snap to Grid activated it moves the card to the nearest grid line and then by three pixels successively (the distance between grid lines).

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.

     
Version 7.4 August 2006 This contains the new feature that registered users can directly publish (and subsequently edit) articles in the Tarot Zone. The Forum is a great place for leaving messages, but if you want to make a more enduring contribution to the OTZ community the articles section is the place to do it.

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.

     
Version 7.3 June 2006 This version prepares the Deck Exchange to distinguish between viewable decks and non-viewable decks, depending on the wishes of the copyright holder.

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.

     
Revision 7.2.3 April 2006 This includes new features in the compare cards form. You can now choose to view rows of 2, 3 or 4 cards, effectively allowing you to control the size of the images to a greater extent. There is also a checkbox which when checked will make the page display the pop-up card data for each card.
     
Revision 7.2.2 April 2006 Bug fixes to do with new deck exchange. Guests can now log in to the OTZ with a nickname and post to the forum. Added the "Date Uploaded" column to the deck exchange. Added an option to always park the deck automatically when entering the OTZ.
     
Revision 7.2.1 April 2006 Bug fixes to do with new deck exchange.
     
Version 7.2.0 April 2006 Introduces a client-side exchange browser tool to replace the regualar deck and other file exchange pages in the OTZ.
     
Revision 7.1.0 March 2006 Mostly bug fixes arising from the previous release, but with one important new feature: now you can set up a spread in Free Selection Mode choosing which card will go in which position and dealing them out one card at a time.
     
Version 7.0.0 March 2006 Outwardly little changed from the previous version, version 7 of the Orphalese Tarot runs on version 2.0 of the Common Language Runtime. This important change makes it an ideal platform on which to build exciting new features.
     
Revision 6.5.4 January 2006 A couple of bug fixes: The "Browse for Missing Decks" item was showing up on any empty deck folders, instead of just the top level one as intended. And general spread notes were not appearing correctly when the mouse was hovered over the deck.
     
Revision 6.5.3 December 2005 Improves the areas of the program where the background screen is previewed (screen capture, options form etc) to show the screen in a more faithful way. Also the centering option for background images has become more like the way Windows Desktop centers images.
     
Revision 6.5.2 December 2005 Takes care of an important bug that was preventing unregistered users from accessing the Tarot Zone.
     
Revision 6.5.1 December 2005 Makes the Pop-up form a bit clearer and has a default option of LWB rather than Personal.
     
Version 6.5 December 2005 Version 6.5 Includes many enhancements to the spread and reading wizards, as well as the popup notes options. The program can now allow the user to keep two sets of notes for the popups: one, the default, can be used to represent the LWB for the deck, while the other can be used to contain personal notes.

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

     
Revision 6.4.3 October 2005 This revision of the program includes card backs on the compare cards form, giving the user another way to select a deck they feel drawn to. The main menu features a "My Readings" list and a Reading management tool, bringing it into line with the other main features of the program: decks and spreads. This is in preparation for version 6.5 which will include a major overhaul of the way readings work. The user preference for whether a background is shown or not is now remembered unless specifically overridden by the "Always show background at launch" setting. The deck downloads form now includes a new folder button. The spread wizard has been separated out on to a separate form.
     
Revision 6.4.2 October 2005 Another small bug-fix: The fast download facility was not working correctly when there were leading or trailing spaces in the deck name.
     
Revision 6.4.1 September 2005 Simply contains fixes for bugs that came to light after the release of 6.4.0.
     
Revision 6.4.0 September 2005 Improved download of decks and spreads. Provides a button on the side panel to download decks. This lets the user choose where to install and unzip the deck, in a single operation.

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.

     
Revision 6.3.2 August 2005 Changed behaviour of reversals, which can now be set on a deck-by-deck basis. This includes changed behaviour when switching decks: if there are cards out the program assumes that the user is doing a comparative reading and leaves the deck alone. Otherwise it shuffles the cards and applies the appropriate percentage of reversals.

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).

     
Revision 6.3.1 June 2005 This revision includes Hebrew language support, which is the first right-left language that the program has been translated into. It is very cool to go to the appearance tab and select Hebrew as the language: the program updates in real time (as it does with all the other supported languages) but in the case of Hebrew this means that the on-screen elements such as text boxes, drop-down lists and even the main menu also switch to right-left mode, which is very interesting to see if you have only ever seen Windows from left to right!

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.

     
Version 6.3 May 2005 This version makes comparative readings even easier by giving the user single-click, forward and backward navigation through the collection of decks used in the session.
     
Revision 6.2.0 May 2005 The following bugs have been fixed:

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).

     
Revision 6.1.6 April 2005 ...but it was lying. I am starting to think that the six point one release is jinxed. Oh well, here is my most recent attempt to sort out the problems with the XML form and the problem of the program not remembering registration data.
     
Revision 6.1.5 April 2005 Bug fix: the XML utility was behaving very badly. It is very sorry and it says that it won't happen again.
     
Revision 6.1.4 April 2005 Bug fix: The program was not remembering the user's unlock name and key between upgrades.
     
Revision 6.1.3 April 2005 Allows the zoom form to scroll when maximized.

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.

     
Revision 6.1.2 April 2005 Fixes a bug which caused an error message on opening the Compare Decks and Deck Management forms.
     
Revision 6.1.1 April 2005 Version 6.1.1 of the program gives you more control when returning cards to the deck. Before this version cards always went back in at the top, but now you can hold down the Alt key to return the card to the bottom of the deck, or hold down the Control key to return it at a random position.
     
Revision 6.1.0 March 2005 This release allows the user to specify their own choice of Decks, Spreads and Readings files, rather than relying on the defaults supplied by the program.
     
Revision 6.0.1 March 2005 Fix of bug to do with "InitialiseBackground" error message at start up.
     
Version 6.0.0 February 2005 Version 6 removes some little used features of the program (the internet chat, the browser favourites etc), making the program much faster to load and offering in their place a Tarot Zone which is much more integrated into the program, with a client side navigation menu (loaded from an xml file on the server) etc.

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.

     
Revision 5.5.1 February 2005 Windows 98 and ME users reported problems with the previous version. This was probably to do with code that had replaced the "Refresh" buttons on the menus, automatically refreshing the menus when the folder contents changed instead. The refresh buttons are back until the next release, when I will try to find a way of doing the refresh automatically that is platform safe.
     
Version 5.5.0 January 2005 Version 5.5 includes a new feature which lets you generate reading notes based on the spread and card information, and including images of the cards used in the reading.

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).

     
Revision 5.4.1 December 2004 Fixes a bug with the Help file which was not minimizing properly in Windows XP.
     
Version 5.4.0 December 2004 ToolTips: This version shows any notes associated with particular cards as a tooltip (small popup window) when you move over the card with the mouse. When a spread is dealt the information includes any notes associated with the position within the spread. This feature can be turned off on the options form.

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.

     
Revision 5.3.3 October 2004 This version contains Greek language support. The reading notes form has been made maximizable, and shows in the Windows taskbar when minimized.
     
Revision 5.3.2 October 2004 Connects directly to the new OTZ instead of being forwarded.
     
Revision 5.3.1 September 2004 Fixes a bug to do with downloading spreads.
     
Version 5.3.0 September 2004 This version includes Swedish language support, as well as a number of small tweaks.
     
Revision 5.2.4 July 2004 Simply fixes a bug that was introduced in 5.2.2. If there was an extraneous file in the Packs folder itself this lead to a critical error which stopped the program from loading.
     
Revision 5.2.3 July 2004 Minor bug fixes mostly, but as of 5.2.3 the program also sends a flag to the Tarot Zone at the moment of connection to indicate what is the language preference of the user. This can be used in the future to assist in having language specific versions of the OTZ.
     
Revision 5.2.2 June 2004 Now the program differentiates better between what is a deck and what is a subdirectory containing other decks. Zip and Executable files are ignored for the purpose of identifying a deck.
     
Revision 5.2.1 June 2004 Fixes a bug which meant the program was crashing out at startup for some users. Makes the splash screen "always on top".
     
Version 5.2.0 June 2004 This new version of the program contains a couple of exciting new features which have proved very popular during the beta testing phase.

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!

     
Revision 5.1.5 March 2004 Fixes a bug which meant that some users showed up in the Tarot Zone as guests, even though they had regsitered the program.
     
Revision 5.1.4 March 2004 This fixes a bug with the card notes form, which meant that sometimes text entered in this form was losing its formatting.
     
Revision 5.1.3 March 2004 This includes a tool for saving the spread files which now appear on the new Spreads page in the OTZ (Tarot Zone).

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.

     
Revision 5.1.2 February 2004 This includes as "Save As" button on the reading notes form. I have also changed the shortcut included in 5.1.1 to Ctrl-Q, so as not to conflict with the undo operation.
     
Revision 5.1.1 February 2004 This revision includes a couple of bug fixes to the new "Screen Image" utility, and a nice enhancement - you can now add text to the email you send. The bug fix were a) that the program was not remembering where images were being stored properly, and b) that when you were using a non-rectangular deck the card was shown with its transparent colour. The work around is that non-rectangular decks are now shown against a plain background, with the transparent colour swapped for the background colour. As long as the cards do not overlap the illusion holds out.

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.

     
Version 5.1.0 February 2004 This version contains a new way to send readings - instead of just sending the positions of the cards, now you can send an image of the cards with your chosen background, and have it automatically go out via email. This also streamlines the print screen and screen capture facilities, because the new "Screen Image" form also lets you save these "electronic postcards". If someone sends you a reading generated with the program you will find that you can also use this form to open the reading - and that it contains a rather handy zoom feature which kicks in when you click on the image.
     
Revision 5.0.5 February 2004 Free selection mode has been improved so that the deck always tends to remain centered (the deck repositions itself towards the center of the screen each time a card is dealt).

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.

     
Revision 5.0.4 February 2004 A couple of bugs fixed with the deck management form.
     
Revision 5.0.3 February 2004 This includes a couple of nice new features, like the fact that the empty deck is now a ghostly see-through card (except for users of Windows 98 who will just see a light blue card), and the fact that the degree of edge rounding can now be specified as a value between 0 and 20.

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.

     
Revision 5.0.2 January 2004 This takes care of a few bugs in the spread management form, and also changes the way the program loads and displays windows, making it more snappy.
     
Revision 5.0.1 January 2004 This fixes a new bug that cropped up - the program was not finding the last deck used or the default startup deck.
     
Version 5.0.0 January 2004 Finally version five arrives with spread management functionality and a spread creation wizard.

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.

     
Revision 4.9.2 January 2004 This tidies up some of the icons, which were not displaying properly when used with certain Windows themes.
     
Revision 4.9.1 December 2003 This brings the deck utility on to the "My Decks" menu, and smartens up the program, with more Office 2000 style icons.
     
Revision 4.9.0 December 2003 Important new functionality in the form of a tool for organizing your decks. This allows you to create sub directories in your packs folder, which are picked up and become sub menu items on your "My Decks" folder. You can organise your decks manually with Windows Explorer, or using the Deck Management Utility now included on the Options form.

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.

     
Revision 4.8.2 December 2003 Another bug bites the dust: during FS mode, whether card edges were inverted or not was out of synch with the deck.
     
Revision 4.8.1 December 2003 This contains a couple of bug fixes: in the last version the deck did not refresh properly in FS mode when collecting cards. Also, under certain circumstances the controls in the tarot zone were picking up the same back colour as the screen.
     
Version 4.8.0 December 2003 First change you will notice: the menu has been smartened up with Office style icons. Amongst these there is a new menu item: Zoom has been promoted from the Card Info window to the main menu. It also has a short-cut key: F7.

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.

     
Version 4.7.0 November 2003 This introduces Spanish language support, and co-incides with the release of a Spanish version of the Help file. The program will detect which language to display based on the user's regional settings, but this option can also be overridden on the Options form. Special thanks to F.J.Campos for his time and effort in translating both the program and help file.

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

     
Revision 4.6.2 November 2003 No outward changes, but this revision includes better error handling, which should make it easier for users to report any bugs or problems encountered when running the program.
     
Revision 4.6.1 November 2003 Fixes a couple of bugs to do with internet mode. There was a tendency for the deck to become "docked" (hidden) rather too easily, especially in free-selection mode. Now the deck cannot be hidden in this mode of operation.

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.

     
Version 4.6.0 October 2003 This version of the program adds a web browser which brings a number of exclusive services directly into the tarot program. Users can now find out whether they have the latest version, report a bug or see what's new at a moment's notice from within the program.

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.

     
Revision 4.5.2 September 2003 This fixes a new bug with the registration form - the buttons were not showing and hiding correctly.
     
Revision 4.5.1 September 2003 This includes a bug fix to the Card Notes form, which sometimes generated runtime errors.
     
Version 4.5.0 August 2003 Lots of changes including two new options: the option to not see the card you are hovering over in free selection mode and the option to set a default font for card and reading notes. Selecting to deal cards face down now determines the way cards appear in free selection mode too.

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.

     
Revision 4.4.1 July 2003 This sorts a minor problem with sending readings through the online forum.
     
Version 4.4.0 June 2003 Version 4.4.0 incorporates the following features:

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.

     
Revision 4.3.1 (B) June 2003 Not really a program revision at all, but this release of the upgrade (self-extracting exe) includes an extra component that will be needed by people upgrading from versions prior to 4.3.0. If you downloaded an upgrade since the second weekend in June and you have experience problems using the online forum you will need to replace it with this download.
     
Revision 4.3.1 June 2003 This fixes a bug which appeared in the last version release, a couple of days ago. The "Sort Ascending" and "Sort Descending" commands were failing to sort the pack. This has now been fixed.
     
Version 4.3.0 June 2003 This version includes a feature which has been requested by a number of users. This is the ability to make notes against each card. The notes are specific to each deck in your collection. Another aspect of this is that it allows deck authors to distribute notes with the deck, describing their take on each particular card.
     
Revision 4.2.4 May 2003 This contains the definitive fix to the duplicate card problem.
     
Revision 4.2.3 May 2003 This release was intended to safeguard against the possibility of a duplicate card being drawn, but ironically it actually created the problem it was trying to prevent. If you have this version please upgrade to the latest one!
     
Revision 4.2.2 April 2003 This fixes an important bug with the online forum that meant people were being kicked out after a certain period of inactivity.

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

     
Revision 4.2.1 April 2003 This adds a feature which you can use to make the program notify (by playing a sound) when someone comes online in the chat 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.

     
Revision 4.2.0 April 2003 This includes a couple of changes to free selection mode which increase the feeling of working with a real deck. You can now invert cards while in free selection, and also drop cards into the fanned out deck at any position you choose. Use the control key while dragging to get even more control: see the section in the updated help file for details.

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.

     
Revision 4.1.0 April 2003 Allows unregistered users to log in to the online forum with a limited feature set.
     
Revision 4.0.2 April 2003 Fixes a bug to do with the diary feature in the online forum.
     
Revision 4.0.1 April 2003 This sorts two little bugs that appeared in version 4.0.0:

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.

     
Version 4.0.0 April 2003 This new version release tidies the program up and includes big enhancements to the way reversed cards are treated, both in so far as how reversals are generated (now as a transformative operation during shuffling) and how they are displayed on screen.

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!!

     
Revision 3.2.0 March 2003 This includes several bug fixes and enhancements to the internet features of the program:

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.

     
Revision 3.1.6 January 2003 With this revision it is no longer necessary to have a pack named "Default". Deleting the default pack had been leading to errors. The deck that is now supplied with the program is the Colman-Smith Tarot.
     
Revision 3.1.5 December 2002 I have added another option to the way cards are dealt. You can now set an option where the card comes out of the pack when the mouse goes down, but can then be positioned and is not released until the mouse goes up. This means you need only half as many mouse clicks to build up a spread manually.

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.

     
Revision 3.1.4 November 2002 You can now position the cards more exactly, by using the arrow keys. Pressing Up, Down, Left or Right moves the selected card by one pixel in the direction indicated.

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.

     
Revision 3.1.3 September 2002 Most of these changes relate to free selection mode, which has been made easier to use. The cards are wider when fanned out, so they are easier to select, and selections can be made using the arrow keys instead of the mouse.

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.

     
Revision 3.1.2 September 2002 This release fixes a couple of bugs to do with card backs. When the design was stretched (not tiled) on the back, the card was not updating properly when resized.

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.

     
Revision 3.1.1 September 2002 Some redundant code has been removed so that the program loads faster. There is also a dialog box which appears now when you use a pack for the first time, and it doesn't contain an information file to indicate the number of cards. It lets you set the number of cards at the outset so you don't have to go through the control panel.
     
Revision 3.1.0 September 2002 An important enhancement to this release is that the program can now handle packs containing any number of cards. The program also gives more information about the currently selected pack, through the "About" box. This information is contained in an xml file included with each pack. Packs downloaded prior to September 2002 will not contain this file, so the information will not be present, although this does not affect the functioning of the program.

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.

     
Version 3.0.0 August 2002 The Web Edition. This version introduces IRC Capabilities to the program. OK, in fact it is more like ICQ than an internet chat room, but we hope this is just the start. It is not the technology that is stopping us from turning the program into a portal to a 24 hour tarot-related chat room (as if!), but the question of bandwidth. We really don't know how much bandwidth will be needed for this, so will be looking at the reports we get back from our ISP with great interest.
     
Revision 2.1.3 August 2002 This introduces one new feature and a couple of tweaks. The program now lets you select an image to use for the "tabletop", instead of just a colour. It works exactly like your Windows desktop: you choose the image and then you select whether to have it tiled, stretched or centered. This feature will only be available to registed users.

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.

     
Revision 2.1.2 August 2002 This incorporates a minor change which allows people to re-register the program under a different name.
     
Revision 2.1.1 July 2002 This revision addresses the fact that switching between packs with different numbers of cards was sometimes leading to errors and unexpected behaviour.

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.

     
Revision 2.1.0 June 2002 This revision introduces more printing functions into the program. You can now print screen captures directly from the program, as well as being able to print the contents of the text editor.

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.

     
Version 2.0.0 June 2002 The first full version increment introduces a raft of changes suggested by people who have been using the program. Many thanks to everyone who has suggested improvements. The changes made to this version include:

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.

     
Revision 1.1.0 June 2002 This revision addresses a number of issues that came to light soon after the intial release. The control panel has been completely redesigned and includes a text editor. A screen capture facility has been added. Spreads are now stored as files, rather than being hard coded into the program. The Help file has also been extensively updated. Importantly, if you have upgraded to version 1.0.1 by downloading the exe from this page then you will need to create a folder called "Spreads", and download some of our spread files. This is because they were not supplied as part of the Setup package until this version. You can find details on our Tarot pages.

     
Revision 1.0.1 June 2002 This first revsion of the Tarot program gets rid of a bug that became apparent to do with resizing the cards. Also some images appeared to have an uneven black border.