Hi folks,

As it happens, I got an inquiry not long ago from a Guide
user in Sweden about returning to the "old" Messier function.
So I'll recycle some bytes from my reply to her:

With the new "Go To Messier" function, you _can_ still hit
"m", then enter the number of the Messier object and hit
Enter, just as before. Guide will find that object in the
new on-screen list and highlight it as you type in the Messier
number, and will recenter on it when you hit Enter. (It's
not exactly obvious, but the same thing applies to finding
text in many of the new "Go To" functions, and in Guide's
help and tables in general: type in the text you wish to
find, and it will be shown, highlighted. For example, in
"Quick Info", you can type "twilight", or just "tw", and
Guide will scroll down to show you the twilight data. In "Go
To... Planet", you can type "Neptune", or just "nep", and
hit Enter, and Guide will recenter on Neptune.)

But these comments did cause me to see that I had made
one mistake: hitting "M" and typing the Messier number
doesn't work for M-2 through M-9. In those eight cases,
Guide "finds" and highlights M-21 to M-91. If you download

http://www.projectpluto.com/messier.zip

(about 10 KBytes) and unZIP it in your Guide directory,
this behavior will be fixed. (I just had to rearrange the
top grid of Messier numbers a little.)

I could see the possibility that one would prefer to have
the original "Go To... Messier" behavior, with the small
dialog box where one absolutely _must_ enter an M-number.
(The only advantage I can see to this is that it remembers
the previously-entered M-number. So if you have, for
example, "gone to" M-13, when you hit M later, "13"
will already be waiting for you.) It's a tiny advantage,
but... it's easy enough to make both capabilities available,
so I've done this. To set up Guide to revert to the old
"go to Messier" function, you should apply this file:

http://www.gwi.net/~pluto/guide8b.zip

It contains a revised guide8.exe plus an extra file required
by this change.

When you have done this, you can fire up Guide and go into
"Settings... Toolbar". You will see that options are provided
both for 'go to Messier' and, just below it, "alternative 'go
to Messier'". Click on the "alternative" one, and then on
"Choose Hotkey", and you can select 'M'.

Once you have done this, hitting "M" will bring up the original
small dialog box, working exactly as the "go to Messier" function
did before.

-- Bill