I am very pleased with my new balcony umbrella: I needed it to reduce the afternoon glare in my top floor apartment. It was tough finding an umbrella that would work in my confined space. I could tilt it to stand horizontally, but I like this direction better--the narrow ends fits perfectly within my balcony walls. The shade comes with fabric ties at top, middle, and bottom, to hold the fabric in place when the shade is closed. Untie them, and the umbrella arms swing out. The arms are easy to extend to the fully open position and lock in place at the top and bottom. The great trick will be keeping it from taking off like a sail. I attached scissor latches with lock-bolts on both ends of a heavy, plastic-coated cable, double-looped the cable tight around the pole, then hooked them on heavy eye-hook bolts in my balcony railings.