Create Playable Puzzle Page

Export an interactive Java based puzzle to place on a web page.  Web visitors can play and solve the puzzle online. Note: For best results, create the puzzle using a horizontal page layout. This will minimize or do away with the need for the user to scroll up and down in the browser to solve the puzzle.

Puzzle Preview > Save Web > Playable button

Web Page Title

Type in the name of the web page in this field. This does not show up on the actual page that users will see. This is the field that search engines will typically search on.

Puzzle Author

You can include the name of the person who created the puzzle in this field or just leave the field blank.

First Header/Second Header
Type text, up to 1,000 characters per field, into the two header fields provided. These can be used for whatever purpose you choose. You can elect to utilize all, none or some of these fields. Click on the Font button to select font type, color, size, etc. Keep in mind that not all font types will display in .htm format. Click on the check box to have the headers centered on the page. If you are familiar with HTML commands, you can embed them within the header fields.
 

Puzzle Options

The default settings for all of the puzzle options, except the Center Puzzle Horizontally option, are defined in the Puzzle Player preference panel.

Center Puzzle Horizontally

This option places the puzzle image in the center of the page. When a user widens or shrinks their browser window, the puzzle image remains in the center - left to right.

Show the 'Check Puzzle' Button

This button lets you know if the highlighted word in the puzzle has been entered correctly or not. A red X is displayed over top of any incorrect letters. Correct entries are left untouched.

Show the 'I Give Up' Button

Click on this button to display all of the answers for the puzzle.

Show the game timer

A timer starts once the page is opened, displaying how long it takes to solve the puzzle. The timer stops when the puzzle is solved, showing the number of minutes and seconds required to solve the puzzle. Select this option to display the timer.

Disable sound effects

By default the program plays back various sound effects for different actions taken during the solving of the interactive puzzle. The actions are described below in the Sounds section of this help topic. Check this box to disable all sound effects for the puzzle.

Width of puzzle image (in pixels)

Set the size of the puzzle image that will display on the web page. The default setting is 640 pixels wide.  

Sounds

If the sound effects are not turned off, the following sound types may be used during the playback of the puzzle. The default sound settings are defined in the Puzzle Player preference panel.

Winner Sound

When the puzzle has been solved correctly the winner sound plays back.

Did not Win Sound

If the puzzle was not solved completely and the I Give Up button is clicked, then the Did not Win .wav file plays.

Right Answer Sound

When the user clicks on the Check Puzzle button and there are no errors in the entries, the right answer sound file plays.

Wrong Answer Sound

When a word is entered incorrectly and the user clicks on the Check Puzzle button, the selected wrong answer sound file plays.

Click on the drop down list to select a sound. Choose to have the program randomly play back one of the sounds available. Or select no sound, the built-in sound or choose another sound from the drop down menu. Click on the button next to the sound to listen to that sound.

First Footer/Second Footer

Type text, up to 1,000 characters per field, into the two footer fields provided. These can be used for whatever purpose you choose. You can elect to utilize all, none or some of these fields. Click on the Font button to select font type, color, size, etc. Keep in mind that not all font types will display in .htm format. Click on the check box to have the footers centered on the page. If you are familiar with HTML commands, you can embed them within the footer fields.
 

Playable

Click on the Playable button to toggle between the options to create a static puzzle web page or a playable puzzle web page.

Printable

Click on the Printable button to toggle between the options to create a static puzzle web page or a playable puzzle web page.

Template

View the .htm template for the puzzle. The template may be edited in the Template Editor.

Create Page

After selecting headers, footers and other settings, click on the Create Page button.  The template file determines what the Printable Puzzle web page looks like.  Information about the puzzle, such as the title, headers, footers and the puzzle itself, are merged with the template file to create the main .htm web page file.  Several files are created. The number and type of files created will vary depending on the options you choose.  All files, such as the ones listed below, must be uploaded to your web server for the puzzle page to work correctly.

·puzzle.htm – This is the main HTML puzzle file.

·puzzle.cw3 – This file contains the crossword puzzle. It has the same filename as the main HTML puzzle file but has a different file extension.

·crossword.jar – This java applet is called by the main HTML puzzle file, displays the puzzle and allows for puzzle interaction.

·sound.wav – One or more files containing the sounds used by the puzzle may be included.

·image.png – Images used in the puzzle layout are copied as separate image files.

Note: The file names listed above are generic names. They will differ depending on the puzzle name selected, sounds chosen, and images used.

In order for the puzzle to work correctly on the web site, we recommend that you upload all of these files to the same directory. If you choose to put the files in different directories you will need to update the file paths. The paths must be relative to the main .htm puzzle page.

When ‘Surprise me’ is selected for a sound, the program chooses an appropriate sound when the Playable Puzzle Page is created. The sounds used do not change once the puzzle has been created and uploaded to your website.

Java is required on the end user's computer to solve a puzzle.
 

View Page

After creating the page, click on the View Page button to open your default browser and view the .htm page just created. Note: For testing purposes, the applet will not work on the local machine if it is located in a folder that contains spaces in the folder name.

Close 
Click on the Close button to exit the window and not save any changes.