Copyright: Copyright ® 1995 by Sam Bellotto Jr.


Enigmacross Help
Help on Enigmacross™ Demo

Welcome to Enigmacross on-line Help. The following topics, accessed through the Windows hypertext-based Help system, give a quick understanding of the software.

Solving Puzzles

Constructing Puzzles

Dictionary

How to Register

ASP Ombudsman

Un-installing Enigmacross


Dictionary

With Enigmacross, you can "hot link" your favorite dictionary so it is only a mouse-click away. If the dictionary supports the Windows Clipboard, definitions can be transferred directly into Autoclue. Please select from the following topics for more information:

Linking

Accessing

Data Transfer


Ombudsman
Ombudsman Statement

Enigmacross™ is produced by Sam Bellotto Jr., a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI USA 49442-9427, FAX 616-788-2765, or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.


Registration
How to Register Enigmacross

All registered users of Enigmacross receive not only the latest version of the software available at the time of registration, but the next major upgrade at a significant discount, over 45 professionally constructed acrostics, a spiral-bound Users' Manual (full package only) and unlimited, enhanced product support.

Registration fees make possible further development of Enigmacross software and additional puzzle disks.

The full Enigmacross package enables you to contruct and solve acrostics on your computer. You get access to all the features shown in the Demo, plus many more. And you can even get help with marketing any puzzles you create. The full Enigmacross package costs $55.75 in US funds or $63.75 in Canadian funds ($68.75 overseas in US funds).

If all you want to do is enjoy solving puzzles on your computer, you can order the Enigmacross Solve-Only package. This comes with On-Line instructions and 50 professionally constructed puzzles of different sizes and difficulty levels. The Solve-Only package costs $12.75 in US funds or $17.75 in Canadian funds ($19.95 overseas in US funds).

Register by sending a check or money order in the correct amount, specifying which version of Enigmacross you wish to order to:

CROSSDOWN

133 Akron Street

Rochester, NY 14609-7618

For your convenience, this demo includes the file REGISTER.WRI which may be printed out with the Windows Write application. Fill out the form and mail it in with the registration fee ... today!


Uninstall
Un-installing Enigmacross

After you have given Enigmacross a fair tryout, we hope you will want to order the registered version. In either case, you are obligated to remove the demo from your system. This is very eay to do.

From Windows File Manager, highlight the EMXWDEMO subdirectory (or highlight the subdirectory to which you installed Enigmacross.) Select File then select Delete, or simply hit the Delete key. Answer OK to all prompts. Now go ahead and remove the Enigmacross group and/or Enigmacross icon from the Windows desktop itself. Refer to your Windows Users' Guide if you don't know how to do this.


Solving Acrostics

From the File Menu, click on Solve and open a puzzle from the Solve Puzzle dialog box.

Solve Enigmacross acrostics much the same way you normally solve acrostics. Complete the quotation grid by entering letters directly onto the grid or by filling in the correct answers to the acrostic clues. The first letters of the acrostic words spell out the author and source of the quotation.

Directly below the quotation grid is the Acrostic Bar comprising the first letters of each acrostic word. Below this is the Clue List.

Click on any square from the Acrostic Bar or click on any clue within the Clue List. The Acrostic Word dialog box opens for input.

Close the Acrostic Word dialog box by double clicking the Control Menu box or pressing the ESC key. Both the quotation grid and the Clue List are automatically updated.

You can also click on any letter square within the quotation grid itself. The selected word in the grid is highlighted. Enter letters from the keyboard. Work on the quotation grid is not automatically updated in the Clue List, but you can update the entire puzzle at any time by clicking the Update Button.

If you require a little help, you can hit the Plus (+) key at any time. If you get really stuck, click the Cheat Button to see the entire solution.

At any time, if you make a complete mess of the acrostic, you can undo everything by clicking on Options and then Revert to Saved.

Continue working the puzzle in this fashion until the quotation grid and the Acrostic Bar are both completed. From the Main Menu, click on Option then Score Puzzle.

At any time, select save from the Main Menu to save your work.


Cheating

 Press the Cheat Button at the bottom right of the screen to see the correctly solved puzzle. Do this by clicking and holding down the Cheat Button. Correct answers are shown in gray. Only unfilled boxes are revealed. Entries you have made to the puzzle grid remain. Release the Cheat Button to continue solving the puzzle.


Clue Scan List

All of the acrostic clues can be scanned and selected within the Clue List Box at the bottom of the screen. Use the scroll bar to move through the clue listing. Each clue has a broken "fill-in" line to the right showing the exact number of letters in the answer. You do not enter letters directly into the Clue List, but Enigmacross continually updates it automatically.

To select a particular clue, click on it with the left mouse button. The clue is highlighted and the Acrostic Word dialog box opens for input.


Acrostic Word Dialog Box

Open this dialog box to type in answers for the Acrostic Word clues. The clue itself is displayed above the text input box. The text input box contains one square for each letter of the answer.

Click on any square in the dialog box and begin entering letters. You can enter only the letters A to Z, Backspace, the Spacebar, Enter or the Plus (+) key. Hit the Spacebar to erase a letter in a square. Hit Enter to skip a square without erasing it. If you need some help, hitting the Plus (+) key always enters the correct letter in the square.


Get Hint

If you absolutely require assistance trying to fill in a word, press the plus (+) key to reveal the next unfilled square. You can keep on hitting the plus key to reveal as many letters of a word as you like, but, hopefully, you won't.


Opening a Puzzle

Select Puzzle from the Main Window menu. Select Solve... Highlight and select a puzzle from the Solve Puzzle dialog box. Click on OK to open that puzzle.

You can open a puzzle at any time. If you are working on a puzzle and decide to open another one, Enigmacross automatically saves your work on the old puzzle before opening the new one.


Saving Puzzles

Your puzzle is saved automatically every time you Exit or open another puzzle. To save at any other time simply select Puzzle from the Main Menu and then select Save. From the keyboard you can also enter the Ctrl-S combination.


Score Solution

When the puzzle is completed, click on Options from the Main Menu. Select Score puzzle.

If you have made errors, an error notification box pops up. You can choose to see your errors, which will be check-marked in red, or attempt to correct your errors without this additional help (good for you!)

If the puzzle is correctly solved, you are treated to a short surprise, followed by a Congratulations dialog box with three choices. Select:

Clear to "wipe" the grid so the puzzle may be re-played by you or someone else.

Delete to erase the puzzle altogether from your computer. After you close a deleted puzzle, either by quitting or opening another puzzle, the deleted puzzle is removed from the system.

Cancel to do nothing. The correctly completed puzzle is saved.

If you try to score an incomplete puzzle, you get an error message telling you that the puzzle has not been completed!


Revert to Saved

If you make a complete mess of the acrostic, it is easy to put things back to where you began. Click on Options from the Main Menu and select Revert to Saved... This instantly returns the puzzle to the way it was when last saved.

In Construction Mode, Revert to Saved also wipes out any clues input through Autoclue that have not been saved!


Updating Acrostic

 Because solving acrostics requires working back and forth between the quotation grid and the Clue List, it isn't always practical for Enigmacross to update the screen all the time. You can do this easily by clicking the Update Button located below the Clue List and to the right.


Constructing Acrostics

From the File Menu, select Construct. Select New. Enter a name for the new puzzle in the Construct New Puzzle dialog box (the default name is UNTITLED.)

To open a pre-existing puzzle, click on Open. See Opening a Puzzle for additional information.

If you clicked on New to construct a brand new acrostic, the Quotation Entry dialog box appears. Type the quotation in the upper panel. Type the acrostic in the bottom panel. Click OK to continue. Enigmacross determines the optimum grid size for the puzzle and randomly extracts the acrostic letters from the quotation.

Click on the Grid Button to make any final spelling corrections to the Quotation Grid, if necessary. Click on the Acrostic Button to actually begin constructing the puzzle by extracting letters from the grid and placing them in the acrostic section.

Use the Construction Toolbox to make constructing easier. At any time, if you make a complete mess of the acrostic, you can undo everything by clicking on Options and then Revert to Saved.

When all letters from the Grid have been successfully transferred to the Acrostic, the Grid will be completely empty. The Letters Distribution Panel will also have all the letter counts blanked out. Click on Autoclue to begin defining the clues.

After the puzzle has been successfully completed, Save it.


Quotation Entry

The Quotation Entry dialog box is comprised of two primary zones. Enter the source quotation in the upper (larger) text input box. Type the acrostic itself into the lower (one-line) text input box.

To make input easier, you can enter the quotation exactly as it appears in the original source material, using upper and lower case letters, punctuation marks, symbols, and so forth. Enigmacross automatically strips the quotation of any illegal characters and converts all letters to upper case when creating the finished grid.

An Enigmacross acrostic is limited to 341 letters. This should be a more than adequate length for most acrostic puzzles.

The acrostic text box is limited to no more than 31 letters. Every letter of the acrostic must appear in the quotation. Because of these constraints, it is easier to input the acrostic exactly as it will appear in the puzzle. Do not enter spaces or punctuation marks. Do not exceed 31 characters.

After everything is entered correctly, click on OK and, within seconds, Enigmacross constructs the puzzle grid with letters randomly selected out of it to form the acrostic displayed below.


Grid Button

Click on the Grid Button to make any spelling corrections within the grid itself, or change any of the letters for whatever reasons. You cannot alter the design of the grid. If the quotation requires extensive editing, it is much easier to simply start from scratch and overwrite the puzzle! You can only edit letters that show in the grid and haven't been assigned to any of the acrostic words.


Acrostic Button

Clicking on the Acrostic Button places Enigmacross into primary construction mode. In this state, you can swap letters back and forth between the main quotation grid and the acrostic words, gradually constructing the puzzle.

Click on any letter in the Acrostic Bar to access that acrostic word and work on it. The selected letter is highlighted yellow. The corresponding acrostic word is displayed below the Acrostic Bar on the Acrostic Word Bar. (If no word has yet been built for this letter, only the first letter appears on the Acrostic Word Bar.) The original location on the quotation grid of each letter asigned to the selected Acrostic Word is also highlighted yellow.

Click on any letter from the quotation grid. The letter is removed from the grid, its source position is highlighted yellow, and it is added to the selected Acrostic Word.

Click on any letter from the selected Acrostic Word. It is removed from the Acrostic Word and returned to the quotation grid. It is not highlighted because it is now "unassigned."

The initial letters of each Acrostic Word are permanent and cannot be returned to the quotation grid.

Letters can be removed and/or added to Acrostic Words non-sequentially. In other words, if an Acrostic Word contains eight letters and the fourth letter is removed, the very next letter taken from the quotation will go to position four. Only then will the next letter be added at position nine, and so forth.

To return every letter in an Acrostic Word to the quotation grid at once, click on the Spill Button.


Quotation Grid

The Enigmacross acrostic grid conforms to the standard acrostic conventions used for this kind of puzzle. The quotation is spelled out from left to right, top to bottom. All letters are upper case with each letter occupying a single square. Black squares represent the spaces between words. If needed to complete a rectangular grid, additional black squares are added only before the first word or after the last word. No punctuation marks, symbols or figures are permitted.


Writing Clues

After you have assigned every letter in the quotation grid to an acrostic word and the quotation grid is empty, you are ready to write the clues, or definitions. Click on the Autoclue Button (identified by a magnifying glass icon) located at the lower right corner of the screen.

To define a specific acrostic word, select that word by clicking on its initial letter from the Acrostic Bar before clicking on Autoclue. Otherwise, Autoclue always begins with the first acrostic word.

The individual acrostic words and positions appear at the top of the Autoclue dialog box in red.

Immediately below is the Text Input Box for typing in or editing clues.Use the keyboard normally. You can also enter foreign characters. You have a maximum of 60 characters for each clue.

Beneath the Text Input Box are five buttons and a bar labeled List Definitions:

<<<<	Backs up to the previous definition.

>>>>	Advances to the next definition.

[ ]	Advances to the next blank definition.

V	Inserts data from the Clipboard.

Done	Quits and closes Autoclue.

If you have linked a dictionary to work with Enigmacross and the dictionary supports copying to the Windows Clipboard, you can use the V pushbutton to transfer data into Autoclue.


Foreign Characters

You can enter letters from the complete set of ASCII Extended Foreign and Symbol Characters in Autoclue. Generate these characters by holding down the ALT key and pressing 0 (zero) on the numeric keypad, followed by the three other numbers listed below:

199	Ç	230	æ	243	ó

252	ü	198	Æ	250	ú

233	é	244	ô	241	ñ

226	â	246	ö	209	Ñ

228	ä	242	ò	170	ª

224	à	251	û	186	º

229	å	249	ù	191	¿

231	ç	255	ÿ	181	µ

234	ê	214	Ö	172	¬

235	ë	220	Ü	189	½

232	è	162	¢	188	¼

239	ï	163	£	161	¡

238	î	165	¥	171	«

236	ì	167	§	187	»

196	Ä	182	¶	223	ß

197	Å	225	á	177	±

201	É	237	í	176	°


Keyboard

The keyboard is used primarily in solve (or game) mode. When constructing acrostics, the keyboard is active only when the Grid Button is selected.

Letters are filled in directly from the keyboard. Type normally. You do not need to use the shift key or the caps lock key. All letters are entered in upper case. Furthermore, only the letters A through Z , the spacebar, the enter key, the backspace key and the plus (+) key are allowed during grid input.

Backspacing. If you make a mistake, use the backspace key as you would with any word processor. Keep in mind that Enigmacross uses a non-destructive backspace; backspacing moves your position on the puzzle grid in the reverse direction, a square at a time, highlighting backspaced squares in yellow. Filled in squares are not cleared, but they can be overwritten.

Spacebar. Use the spacebar to erase a filled in square.

Enter key. Hitting the enter key while entering letters skips that square. If the square is unfilled, it remains unfilled. If the square contains a previously entered letter, that letter remains unchanged.

Plus (+) key. In solve (or game) mode, use this key to get a hint.


Mouse

Use the mouse pointing device to construct or solve a puzzle and access Enigmacross' many features and options. The left mouse button is the primary button, although for some functions the left or right mouse button may be used interchangeably.


Opening a Puzzle

From the Main Window menu select Puzzle. Select Construct. To open a new puzzle, click on New. To open a pre-existing puzzle, click on Open.

If you clicked on New to create a brand new puzzle, the Construct new puzzle file dialog box opens. Enter a title for the new puzzle or accept UNTITLED.EMX as the default. Select a destination directory, if required. Click on OK. The Quotation Entry dialog box appears. Type the quotation in the upper panel. Type the acrostic in the bottom panel. Click OK to continue. Enigmacross determines the optimum grid size for the puzzle and randomly extracts the acrostic letters from the quotation.

If you clicked on Open to access an existing puzzle, the Construct open puzzle dialog box appears. Change directories if necessary. Select the puzzle you want to work on. Click OK.

See Associating Puzzles


Preferences

From the Main Window menu select Options. Select Preferences... The Preferences dialog box enables you to customize various aspects of Enigmacross to your specifications.

Manuscript Heading. You can enter your name and up to two additional lines of address information to be used in puzzle printouts. This information will be printed on the first page of each manuscript.

Dictionary Path. Under Dictionary Path, enter the complete path and filename of any Dictionary you wish to "hot link."

Sounds On. If you have a sound card in your system and want to hear Enigmacross' audio messages, check this option. Otherwise, clear this option and Enigmacross will operate silently (except for a few warning beeps if you do something wrong.)

Page Length. You can adjust the bottom margin of printouts by changing this setting. It indicates the number of additional blank lines to place at the bottom of the page. The default is zero (0). You can add up to nine (9) lines of extra space. You will probably need to adjust this if your printer outputs fewer lines-per-page than standard, or if you desire a larger bottom margin.


Saving Puzzles

You can save a puzzle you are constructing at any time. It is a good idea to do this frequently as Enigmacross does not automatically save puzzles in Construction Mode. From the Puzzle option of the Main Window menu, select Save. You can also press the Ctrl-S key combination from the keyboard.


Tool Box

Below the quotation grid is the Construct Tool Box. The Construct Tool Box contains theAcrostic Button, the Grid Button, the Spill Button, and the Autoclue Button and the. These are the elements most frequently needed for constructing crossword puzzles, so they have been placed within easy reach.

 Click on any area within the Construct Tool Box illustrated here for additional information.


Associating Puzzles

You can open any puzzle by associating the EMX file type with Enigmacross and then double-clicking on the filename or icon symbol of that puzzle. Refer to the Windows documentation for help with associating file types. With this method, the puzzle always opens in construct mode.


Printing
Printing Acrostics

Select Puzzle from the Main Window menu. Select Print ... The Print dialog box opens. You have five kinds of Print Styles from which to choose. You can select one or any combination of these styles:

Manuscript. This option is primarily intended for constructors to output their puzzles in manuscript format. The clue pages are printed double-spaced with the keyed answer lines just below and indented on each definition. A final page is output of the puzzle grid with both numbers and the solution.

Manuscript Grid Only. Prints only the final puzzle page of the Manuscript, with both numbers and letters in the grid

Numbered Grid. This option prints out a numbered, blank acrostic grid. Each box in the grid is approximately 5/16-inches square.

Solution Grid. This option prints out the acrostic grid with all the answers filled in. The boxes are not numbered.

Selecting Solution Grid from Solve Mode prints out the acrostic grid as it appears on the screen.

Puzzle Page. This option prints out a blank, numbered acrostic grid and the clues on a single page, keyed and formatted the same way as you might find in the daily newspaper, ready for solving. You can print out puzzles this way to give to others.

With large acrostic puzzles, it isn't always possible to contain the grid and clues on a single page. In such cases, Enigmacross fits as many clues as it can on the first page and prints the rest on a second page.

The Puzzle Title edit box allows you to enter an optional title line for the puzzle. If you do not wish to enter your own title, the puzzle filename is printed as the default title.

The Manuscript style is the system default. You can change this by selecting any other combination of printing options and then checking the Default box.


Linking a Dictionary

First, install the dictionary if it is not already installed. The dictionary can reside on your computer's hard drive or a CD-ROM. However, it must be a Windows application and it must itself be accessible through Windows.

From the Enigmacross Main Menu, click on Options then click on Preferences.... The Preferences dialog box appears. In the Edit Box labeled Dictionary Path type the full path and name of the dictionary's executable file.

This is the same Command Line that Windows uses. You can find it by highlighting the title under the dictionary's icon in the Windows desktop. Then click on File. Then click on Properties. Then click on Command Line from the Program Item Properties box.

The Dictionary Path entry in the Preferences dialog box should look something like this:

C:\DICPATH\MYDIC.EXE

Where DICPATH and MYDIC.EXE are the actual pathname and filename of the dictionary that you have installed. Click on OK to save the information.


Accessing the Dictionary

Click on Options from the Main Menu. Click on Dictionary. If correctly linked, the dictionary window appears on top of the Enigmacross window.

The first time the dictionary is accessed in this way, it must be "launched" and takes a little longer to appear. If you are going to be using the dictionary repeatedly, do not close it after use. Simply click anywhere on the Enigmacross window. The dictionary is moved to the back. Subsequent selections of Dictionary from Options brings up the dictionary almost instantaneously.

The dictionary can also be accessed at anytime by pressing the Ctrl+D "hot key" combination from the keyboard.


Data Transfer

Follow the instructions of your dictionary for copying definition data into the Windows Clipboard. Return to Enigmacross. From the Autoclue dialog box, click on the Insert (V) Pushbutton. The information copied to the Windows Clipboard is in turn inserted into the Autoclue text at the cursor. You can edit this information as you desire.


Enables Acrostic Mode. This is the default. Use this mode to

construct the acrostic, swapping letters back and forth

between the quotation grid and acrostic words until all letters

have been assigned to acrostic words and the grid is empty.


Enables Grid Mode. Used to edit quotation grid.


When Acrostic Mode is enabled, the Spill Button returns all

letters from an acrostic word to the quotation grid in a single

action. An acrostic word must first be selected.


Enables the Autoclue Dialog Box for writing clues. Select a

specific Acrostic Word and then click on Autoclue.


Displays brief menu selection and tool button help message. Hold

mouse cursor over item in question momentarily for help.


Open an acrostic puzzle for solving.


Open an acrostic puzzle for constructing. Click on New to

create a new acrostic. Click on Open to work on one that

already exists.


Save all work on the current puzzle.


Print the current acrostic puzzle.


Change printers or set options

on the default printer.


Quit Enigmacross.


Access the dictionary if one has

been linked.


Score the solved acrostic puzzle.


Cancel any changes made to the

current acrostic puzzle and go

back to the last saved version.


Open the Preferences dialog box.


Help on Solving Acrostics.


Help on Constructing Acrostics.


Help on Linking a Dictionary.


Version information.


Menu Selections

Click on any of the Menu Selections below for additional information. Certain Menu Selections are only accessible in either Solve or Construct mode.