Zoom 2/Zoom - Release 2 (1996)(Active Software)[!].iso/games/think/wordpuzzlepro/s/wsd_help.txt

Text File | 1995-09-07 | 28KB | 724 lines

Main Menu

        Welcome to the Word Search Designer Help system.



                {[00402,7,5]           Using the Help system          }

                {[02984,7,5]     Basic instructions for this program  }

                {[01887,7,5]         About WordPuz Pro       }

        {[14697,7,5]  About Installing or moving the program  }

        {[19083,7,5]        Licenced and future updates       }
Using Help

     Welcome to the WordPuz Pro Help System.

Everything you need to know  about the program is available from here.
So if you get stuck,help will only be a key press away!

You call up the Help by clicking on the 'Help' icon, this is always present
on the main control bar.
When  the  Help  button  has been clicked on and is 'down' you then need to
click  on  an area of the screen that you need help with.  You'll know that
help is available when the mouse pointer starts to animate - this indicates
you  are  over a zone which has help available.  Once you've clicked on the
zone for help the Help display file will be loaded from disc and a
screen will appear detailing the Help you requested.

Clicking on the control panel without an animating pointer will bring up the
main menu.

If  the Help text is longer than the Help window you can move through it by
clicking on the arrow icons locate at the top right of the Help window.
To move through the text quicker, just drag the slider bar on the right
border of the window.

Across the top of the Help window there are four icons:

1 The small icon at the extreme top left closes the help window and returns
you to the main program. Help is still active though until you press the help
button again.

2 Prev.Menu reverts you back to the help screen you had just been viewing.

3 Main Menu takes you to the main help menu.

4 Print creates a hardcopy of the current help text onto paper for
  future reference.

About WordPuz Pro

The WordPuz Pro was made by me, Raymond Smith in 1994.
This program was made as the result of a local football club asking me to
copy and print out a hand written word Search. This then inspired me to
write this program.
    If there are any bugs or suggestions you would like to tell me about
then please write to me.

Please remember that this program is Shareware. The football club to which
I gave this program to on completion paid me £60. This then allowed them to
put a Word Search competition to raise funds, very quickly and easily into
the local community each month.
All I ask from you is a mere £10, for which you will receive an enhanced
version of the WordPuz Pro and a few other programs written by me.
You will also receive a demo version of a very advanced Resource Designer
for AMOS Professional.

        {[15666,7,5]      Information on Resource Designer       }

Please send your £10 cheques or Postal orders to the following address.

                Raymond Smith
                12 Somerville Road
                Leven
                Fife
                Scotland
                KY8 4EB
The Programs Main Screen

The  main  screen  of WordPuz Pro contains the main options
which enable you to design your puzzles quickly and easily.

The screen is split into two main sections. On loading the program there is
a control panel at the top and a large section at the bottom, an empty grid
is drawn in the bottom section. The screen is manipulated by you as you use
all the controls. From now on we will refer to this part of the screen as
the main screen.
The control panel actually 'floats' on top of the main screen and can be
moved to any position on your TV by clicking and dragging on the message
bar (to the right of the quit button).
The Main screen is also much larger than the TV screen and can be moved
using the two 'Up','Down' buttons on the extreme right of the control
panel, or pressing the up/down keys on the keyboard.
This feature is actually essential to positioning anything on parts
of the main screen which are hidden from view.

You will notice that as the pointer passes over the grid that a small red
square ,or black if in Crossword mode, follows the pointer.
These are the individual spaces in the grid which hold a single letter.
The size of these spaces can be changed from the preferences panel.

In word search design mode.
    If you click the left mouse button as a square is highlighted you will
be allowed to change this square manually. The square will turn green and
the pointer will disappear. Type your letter and it will be put into the
grid.
        Note: This is only allowed if the current space isn't occupied by
        part of a word which has been inserted from the word editor.

If you would like to put letters in continuously then toggle the 'Type
continuously' button.

                   {[09080,7,5] Instructions on Type Continuously }
Preferences button

This button takes you to the preferences panel.

                   {[04924,7,5] View Preferences panel help }
Preferences setup panel

From  this  panel you can choose a pattern for the border of the grid.
Change the thickness of this border.
Change the spacing of the letters in the grid (the size of the square
each letter is in.),
Change the font used by the grid
( please note that only font heights under 17 are allowed.).

You can change the font used by the words column ( if you wish to print it)
and change the amount of columns you wish to split the words into.

You can choose the highlighting mode.

Obviously it's up to you to make sure that everything is positioned correctly
and the right font is chosen to make a sensible looking screen.

Quit

Click  on this icon to end using the program.

A requester will ask you to confirm your actions.

Load a file

This button invokes a file requester to allow a puzzle file to be loaded
from disk. If you are currently editing a puzzle then you are asked to
confirm.
Please note that only files with the suffix '.puz' are acceptable.

Save a puzzle file

This button invokes a file requester to allow a puzzle file to be saved
to disk. You are asked to name this file so please make sure you add
'.puz' to the end of your filename.

Print a puzzle file

This button sends a graphic dump of your main screen to the printer using
the settings from the workbench prefs file.
It makes sense to check that everything is positioned as you want it
before you do this.
The program prints black and white only.

Note: You will be warned by the program if all the words in the words list
have not been placed into the grid. It's up to you to make sure that
everything is placed as you want it and that all words have been inserted
before committing to paper.
Remember that whats on the screen is what you'll get on paper.

        *************IMPORTANT**************

It is important to know that the WordPuz Pro only caters for A4
sized print outs. A feature may be added in future updates to cater for
different sizes.

Search for a word

On pressing this button a requester appears, waiting for you to enter a
word into its edit zone. On pressing the enter key, an attempt is made to
find this word in the grid. If successful then this word is highlighted
and a report is made.
Because the same word can exist as part of another word then you are asked
if you want to search again.

This feature can be used to solve word searches, if you have the patience.
Toggle the 'Insert continuously' button and carefully copy the puzzle
(not easy) from your mag, book etc., and use the search feature to find the
words. I've found that copying a puzzle is made much easier by placing a
ruler under the line that you are copying. Also make sure to set the
correct number of columns.

Fill grid

This feature toggles all blank spaces in the grid to a random letter, or
a blank space if there is already a letter there which doesn't form part of
a word.

Only use this feature to fill the blank spaces after you have entered all
the words from the word list.

Clear all

This button clears everything and leaves you with a clean slate.
A requester asks you to confirm this if your file has changed.

Move elements

This button allows you to position  everything as you want it on the main
screen. Click on the arrowed icon which appears on the top left corner
of the grid and drag it to your desired position. Be sure that the grids
border is drawn inside the main screen or it will be missing when printed.
    The words column is dragged by clicking on the words 'MOVE TEXT' which
appears on the first word position. Use the arrow keys to choose the
column you wish to move.
    The amount of words for each column is entered into the edit zone
which appears in the main control panel. If you wish to remove the column
then enter 0 into the zone. The columns before and after the deleted
column will be joined together.
    When you are happy with the positions then press the right mouse
button.
Use the screen position buttons on the right of the control panel to
position anywhere on screen.

All text blocks are moved from the text editor panel.

           {[13679,7,5] View Text Editor panel help }

Type continuously

This button toggles your ability to type continuously as you manually insert
letters into the grid. After typing in a letter, the square to the right
will then become highlighted, or moved down one and moved to xcolumn one if
there are none to the right. Three things will stop you typing.

1: The next highlighted square is already occupied by part of a word.
2: You press the Enter key.
3: You have just entered into the last square. (Bottom right square.)

Note: It makes sense to be careful when typing in manually so as not to
make up words which are already in the word list.

    {[02984,7,5]   Instructions for typing manually into grid     }

Note: This feature is handy for copying word search puzzles from magazines
and then using the search mode for finding the words.

        {[06900h,7,5]  Instructions for search mode     }

Resize Grid

This button allows the resizing of the grid as

'Grid size= Xcolumn (letters across) x Ycolumn (letters high)'

Note: This feature is disabled in the Shareware version of this program.

Most puzzles in mags and books are 18 Xcolumns x 18 Ycolumns. This
therefore is the size of the standard grid on starting the program.
    Note: You will only be allowed to change the size of the grid if it is
completely empty.

Minimum Xcolumns is 8 : Maximum Xcolumns is 40
Minimum Ycolumns is 8 : Maximum Ycolumns is 40

Note: It makes sense to choose a small font for the grid if a large number
of ycolumns are used.
Also if the grid is wide then you may have to put any text or word columns
underneath the grid.
Remember to split the word column into two or three seperate columns to make
them fit.

Text Editor

This button summons up the Text editor Panel.

                        {[13679,7,5] View Text Editor panel help }

Draw Column

This is a toggle button which draws (or not) the words  at the
position defined by you. There are three different ways to do a puzzle
though, and these are as follows.

If the 'Write words' toggle in the preferences panel is set, then all words
are numbered, printed and underlined in the amount of columns defined in
preferences.

If not set then a number and a line are printed only.

The third way to do a puzzle is to switch off the 'Draw words' feature
altogether and use the text editor to make  cryptic clues or whatever.

Words Editor

This button summons up the powerful words editor, which allows editing and
insertion of your words.

        {[12760,7,5] View Words Editor panel help }

Save Screen

This button allows you to save the main screen as a black and white .iff
file.
This feature has been added for four reasons.

1: You may want to print the puzzle using a printout enhancer program.

2: It allows (some) compatibility with other computer formats.
(The TIMES might use this program to complement their D.T.P Mac)....Not!

3: More usefully, you can load the file into your art programs and tart it
up with clip art or your own drawings. You can even colour it in if you like.

4: It allows you to transport the file to somebody elses printer if you
don't have one.

Highlight words

On clicking this button, all words which have been entered from the words
editor are highlighted in the grid

This feature has been added to let you print solutions to your puzzles.

There are three modes of highlighting and they are set from the preferences
panel.
These are;

    1: Circled;    Each letter of each word is circled.
    2: Lined;    A line is drawn through each word.
    3: Boxed;    Each letter of each word is boxed.

File Info

This button shows some information about the current puzzle file and
the origins and author of this program.

Using the Words editor

The word list can be positioned to any part of the screen if you
drag the bar at the top of the panel.
This position is remembered for the duration of the program.

From here you insert words by clicking on a space in the words list.
On doing this a message is printed in the space (message bar) at the
top left of the control panel saying which word number you are
editing. Enter your word into the edit zone and press enter.All the
usual editing features are at your disposal. i.e. Backspace to delete
to left of cursor and delete key  to delete to right of cursor. If you
wish to change any word then just click on the chosen word in the
list and it will appear in the edit zone for editing.

In the main panel there are a bank of buttons for manipulating the grid.
These buttons have help available if you activate help mode.
    Click on 'EXIT' to go back to the main program.


Text editor panel

This panel is for changing the font and style of any text.

On the left of the panel is the style toggle flags of underlined, bold
or italics. These flags can be set at any time.

In the middle is a font requester. Click on your desired font for the
current text.

At the top is a small edit zone with an arrow either side of it.
Use the buttons to move through your texts to the string you wish to edit
one at a time or type a number into the edit zone and press return.

Underneath this is a large text edit zone.
This is where you type in your text.
All the usuall editing features apply.

On pressing return the panel disappears and a box of the size
of your text will follow the pointer. Use the box as a guideline for
positioning your text and press the left mouse button when you are happy
with the position.
Press the right mouse button if you wish to cancel this action.

Squared Grid Mode

This button toggles a feature which draws (or not) a box around each letter
space in the grid.

Installing or moving the program

It is important to mention that if you wish to install this program to
Hard Disk or move it to another disk that you move some other files as well.

If you want this instruction file to be available to the main program then
please put the file named 'WSD_HELP.txt' into the 's directory'of your
'system' drive/directory.

The actual program and its icon can be anywhere you like but please make
sure that a 'FONTS' drawer is available.
Also, the Crossword designer needs the dictionary in WFdict to be on the
Sys or assigned disk.

Redrawing the screen

This button redraws everything on screen.
It is recommended that you use this before printing or saveing the screen.

This feature is also usefull to refresh the screen if graphics have
corrupted the display through badly placed text etc.

In Crossword mode this is essential to number the possible
Acrosses and downs in readiness for entering the answers into the grid.

Information on Resource Designer (Appendage)

    If you own AMOS Professional then this program is for you.

'Appendage' as this program likes to be called, is an accessory for helping
to write and design the interface strings for your programs.



When run as an accessory the program grabs your programs interface
resource bank(s) and allows easy manipulation of the banks.
Appendage is NOT a rewritten resource designer as supplied with AMOS Pro.
Appendage is for helping to write the actual interface, not for
grabbing the graphics as the supplied program does.

There are two main modes and these are;

A normal text editor geared for writing interface strings direct.
No 'A$=A$+interface string' as you do directly into your listing.

This editor has cut, paste, clear, clone, print and many other features.
Each interface program is edited individually as is each sub routine
and User Instruction.
At the press of a button the interface program is tested and is run.
This takes place in the second (graphical) mode of operation.
Any mistakes are immediately detected, and if so the edit mode is entered
again with the the cursor at the offending instruction. (just like the
main Amos Editor.)
The beauty of this is that each program panel is available for your
inspection to see that everything works and is in the right position.

In graphic mode there is a control panel with about 50 buttons.
Most buttons access a powerful console for automatic interface string
writing.

ALL interface graphic commands and some optional user commands
can be drawn using the mouse.

Text commands with full intuitive style, font and colour control are
available.
Choose from the resource message list.

Buttons control panel with many different types to choose, all chosen,
placed and linked with the mouse.

Look and choose an interface graphic instantly from the Resource Graphic
browser.
The default resource graphics are available if none are in your bank.

All XB,YB,XA,YA,SX,SY etc. instructions can be inserted automatically
with any graphic or button instruction.

Active or Inactive Lists can be added with sliders and buttons attached
with one key press.

Any kind of edit zone can be added with a varied choice of borders with
one key press.

Remember that all colour and pattern parameters etc.are added to each
command automatically. These are taken from a permanently on screen palette
bar, which has a pattern requester available.

All sizes and positions (including LIne,BOx etc.) are defined using the
mouse.

All of the above and many more, are writing the interface string for you, but
remember that the conventional editing mode is available for writing more
complex strings as well as direct editing.

There are much more features, (to many to go into detail) including
Hyper Text. (I'me working on a Hyper Text file editor)

A full help system (like this one) is available to all features.

This program is huge and thus a lot of work has been put into its development.
At the moment, Appendage is undergoing some improvements (It's already a very
capable and useful program). Obviously I'm not going to give away over 8
months of work so I expect a small fee for this program.

Please send £10 cheques or postal orders to the address in the
'About this program' help file for a full working version of Appendage.

          {[01887,7,5]         Go Back to About WordPuz Pro       }

What to expect in future (Licenced) updates

    There are a few extra features available in the licenced version of
The WordPuz Pro. On paying your licence fee you will receive updates
as and when they are finished free of charge. (As well as renabled features.)

Extra features in the current version (1.00) are as follows:

Splittable word column. The words column can be split into a maximum of 12
separate chunks all at different coordinates and all different sizes.

        User definable border patterns.


What to expect in future:

Suggest mode will eventually have an option to place whole word lists into
the puzzle.

If enough people register for WordPuz Pro, then I will endeavour
to enhance the program even further.
I need your response and support to do this so please send me your
suggestions, ideas and bug reports.

Inserting words into the grid

The direction is always set 'left to right' on starting this feature.

To insert a word, click on the chosen word, the word is shown in the
message bar and the the words list disappears.

Click on your desired direction button and place the pointer in the grid.

If the word fits from the start square which is at the pointers position
in the grid then it is highlighted.

The  first square is coloured to let you know the start square
(first letter).
If the word fits then the coloured square is green for go.
If the word passes through an already placed word and the letter(s) it
passes through is (are) different then it is red for no way.

If you are determined to place a word at your desired position then
you will have to remove the existing word(s) from the grid.
(explained later)

When you are happy with your position press the left mouse button.
If you wish to go back to the words editor without placing then press
the right mouse button.

    When you go back to words editor you will notice that the word
has been highlighted in the words list with a '*' character. This is
your assurance that the word is in the grid.

Remove a word from the grid

    This button toggles remove mode. When the button is down
and you click on a word in the list and the word is highlighted (*),
the word will be removed from the grid.

Highlighting a word in the grid

This button is 'Find in grid'. This simply finds and highlights
the word chosen from the list.

Clearing the grid

    This button is Clear grid. It clears the grid completely but
keeps the word list intact.

Clearing everything

    This button is clear all. This clears the word list.If you
clear the word list then it is obvious that the grid has to be cleared
as well.

Removing a word from the list

This button removes a word from the list. All words above it in the
list are moved down a space.
Note: You will only be allowed to do this if the word HAS NOT been
put into the grid.

Suggesting a space for a word

This button has three actions. On the first press it searches the grid
for ALL possible locations for the word. It finishes by placing the
pointer at the best place with the appropriate direction set. The best
place is the one which uses the most already placed letters.
Further pressing of the suggest button will find the next best
position until it finally suggests the places which have only spaces.
It does this in order it finds them from the start of the grid.
(Top left working left to right.)
NOTE: When in the third action 'all spaces' then it is also highlighting
used letter positions as well.

Designing the pattern of your crossword

This button is a toggle button which allows you to toggle each space
in the grid to either a black square or a blank square.
When the screen is redrawn, all the downs and acrosses will be numbered
correctly in the grid and marked for your entry when in the Clues
and answers editor.


Columns editor

This button envokes a small requester to allow you to manually enter the
position of each clues column.
Remember you can still go into the 'move elements' mode to move everything
with the mouse.
In crossword mode, columns 1-6 are the allowable Across clues columns, and
7 to 12 being the down columns.
The size edit zone is used to size each column.
For instance if there were 23 Across entries in the puzzle you could enter
6 into columns 1-3 and 5 into column 4 to get the size of the columns as
you wish. Same goes for all the downs useing 7-12.


Show Crossword Answers

This button toggles the showing of all the entries into the grid. This
feature has been added to let you show solutions to your puzzle.


When in the editor for the first time, the
'ACROSS' answers will be active, as indicated by the 'ACROSS' button being
depressed. The first ACROSS will be ready for entry.
To move about the ACROSS entrys you can press the arrow buttons
either side of the zone. They go to the next valid ACROSS entry in the
list (if there is one to go to).
If you press the button below this zone with the question mark in it,
an ACROSS answers list will appear. You can move through this list to
choose the clue number you wish to edit. (just click on it) Do exactly
the same for the DOWNS with the DOWN button depressed.

To edit an answer, click into the answer zone. Type your answer and
press enter. To place the answer into the grid, press the first button
in the bank of buttons. The pointer will automatically be placed
at the relevent number in the grid.
As long as the first square is green you can place. If the square is red
then you have moved the  pointer from the correct place,
made the word too big to fit or the word passes through incompatible
letters.

You can cancel place mode by pressing the right mouse button.

Multiple word answers are allowed.
Put a space between each word to let WORDPUZ PRO recognize this.

You can now enter the clue if you like but you may have to change your
answer later to allow other words to fit. As long as you remember
PRESS ENTER TO PUT YOUR ENTRIES INTO MEMORY.
This goes for ALL edit zones.

I usually put my clues in AFTER all my answers are placed into the grid.
This way you'll know that you wont have to change anything.

You can remove an already placed word by pressing the 'pincers' button.

You can clear a whole entry by press the 'clr' button.

You can clear the grid  by pressing the 'cross' button.

You can clear the grid AND the clues and answers by pressing the
'double cross' button.


There is a small 'to back' gadget at the end of the button bar.
Use this to hide the main panel to allow you to study the grid. Press any
mouse button to go back.


Find word mode

This feature allows access to WordPuz Pro's dictionary to aid you in
designing Crosswords.

When designing crosswords you may need some help to think of a word to
not only fit a space , but to fit a space AND fit through already
placed words. WORDPUZ PRO has a powerful feature which does all the
thinking for you.
If you wish help for a particular entry, go to it as explained
earlier, but you can use this feature at any time.
Press the 'FIND' button. The 'FIND WORD' panel will appear.
On the left of the panel is an edit zone. This edit zone will
initially be filled with the relevent amount of letter spaces for the
current answer. The pointer will be placed in the grid at the relevent
place for the current answer. You can move it as you wish though. If
you move it , you will notice the edit zone being updated with the
relevent spaces and letters.
The edit zone is filled with question marks for the spaces, and any
letters which are passed through are automatically inserted.

When you want the word finder to do its stuff, press the left mouse
button on the square in the grid you wish help from.
(Just press the mouse button when the pointer is
automatically placed to get a word for the current entry.)
If you wish to filter out some suggestions then you can edit the zone
directly using the normal editing keys. Say the edit zone has the
following in it. '???d?' If you wish to get the words to fit that
pattern but only those begginning with 'A' then simply change the
first question mark with an 'A' and PRESS ENTER.

Note: If you delete any question marks or change the letters then you
obviously won't be allowed to use the suggestions in the current entry.

The find feature now goes through a database of about 65000 words to
find ALL matching words. The search feature will stop when all three
columns are full. Press more when you ready to see more. You can leave
the panel without choosing by pressing the small close button on the
extreme top left.

To choose a word simply click on it.
If you had launched this feature from the current entries placing in
the grid, then the chosen word will automatically be put into the
current entry. You will still have to place it though.


HINTS AND TIPS

As you are designing your Crossword, use the 'to back' gadget to look
for answers that are part filled with letters.
Go to the relevent answers and use the 'find words' feature to fill them.
This way you wont be asking the 'Find word' feature to match with too
little possibilities.