A FREEFORM puzzle differs from a standard crossword in the following ways:-
It is constructed from a very limited set of words. The Theme dictionaries are usually used for this purpose, and may have as many as several hundred words, or as few
as 10 words. Such dictionaries usually follow a specific theme such as Football, Surfing, Great Composers, Botany, or any other topic you may care to name.
It is constructed on a blank grid, with the program inserting black squares as required, so that the end result does not in general exhibit any symmetry.
The degree of interlinking of words is quite low, with less than half of the total letters actually interlinking.
Menu Functions
When loading a new puzzle into the Build screen, you begin by selecting the dictionary which was used to build the
FREEFORM puzzle which you want to load.
Then you choose your puzzle from the pool of FREEFORM puzzles currently available in the selected dictionary.
The Theme dictionaries used to build these puzzles are usually quite small, and can be typed in quite quickly. This option allows you
to create a new Theme dictionary, type in a number of words and clues, and to save it for future use.
You can return at any time to a Theme Dictionary created by the previous option, and edit it in any way that suits your needs.
This option allows you to make an exact copy of the current puzzle using a different file name. The copy will be saved in the folder of the
dictionary that was used to construct it. Alternatively, if you don't enter a new name for the puzzle, you can change the Puzzle
Description, or any of the other descriptive items without changing the puzzle name.
Returns you to the Magnum Opus opening screen.
Use this option to select the dictionary which you want to use to build the new FREEFORM puzzle.
This option presents you with a dialog into which you can enter a file name for your new puzzle. You can also enter several other pieces
of information such as a Puzzle Title, Author and Copyright information.
Use this option to access a Build Options dialog where you can set some rules to be followed by the puzzle building function as it builds
your puzzle.
Construction of the puzzle will commence when you select the Start / Stop Building option.
If puzzle building is successful you will receive a message containing the name of the puzzle file, and the location where it was saved.
If it becomes necessary, you can interrupt the building process by selecting this option a second time.
This leads you to a dialog box in which you can change the colors of various elements within the puzzle, and control the fonts which will
be used for the puzzle's text components. You can also decide if printing of the puzzle will be done in black and white or in color.
This will take you to a custom print screen where you can control the details involved with printing your puzzle.
You should only ever attempt to print this style of puzzle using a Free-form crossword generated according to the Gemini criteria as set in
the Build Options. The program will print two versions of the puzzle on consecutive pages. One of these versions has all of the across
words in place, while the other contains all of the down words. Such puzzles are especially useful in language education, and ESL teachers
will find them indespensable. Full instructions on how to make use of them will be found on the puzzle sheets when they are printed.
This will take you to a Solve screen which provides a fully interactive environment for solving the puzzle.
This option will export a set of files which implement a fully working interactive FREEFORM puzzle as a Java Applet. These files can be
uploaded to your web server to enable you to publish interactive puzzles in your own web pages. Read the topic
Exporting an Applet for more details.
Use this option to eliminate unwanted FREEFORM puzzles from your file system.
Displays the Help screen which you are now reading.
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