Hi Clay,

> Using a new installation DVD or memory stick: I am assuming that all personal settings
> that we are currently using would be null and void and that we would have to go back and
> reset everything to the parameters currently being used?

You could load a mark file from Guide 8. At present, the way to do that
would be to save a mark file, maybe called 'my personal settings', whilst
in Guide 8. Then install Guide 9, copy that mark file over to the Guide 9
folder, and run Guide 9 and click on File... Load a Mark. You'd then be able
to click on 'my personal settings', and Guide 9 would load 'em up.

I admit, though, that this isn't in any way automated, and it would be
nice if Guide 9 had an "import my Guide 8 settings" option. That's an
interesting challenge... lemme think about that. The "simple" method would
be for Guide 9 to rummage around the hard drive looking for 'guide8.exe';
when it finds it, it would then look for a 'startup.mar' in the same folder,
and grab settings from that. But there may be a better way.

> Will you actually have the UCAC-3 catalog ON the DVD that downloads?

Yes. I was able to compress UCAC-3 from its "original" 8 GBytes down to
about .9 GBytes (with the price of losing certain data: less significant
digits that are basically random noise, and some of the data flags).

If you do happen to have the full 8 GByte data on your hard drive,
Guide 9 will be able to use that instead (much as Guide 8 can). It may be
a bit slower at times, but it'll let you get all the "minor" information
that I suspect 99.9% of users can do without.

-- Bill