SOLVING A LETTERDROP PUZZLE

Magnum Opus LETTERDROP puzzles consist of upper and lower sections which are more or less rectangular in shape. In each column of the puzzle, there are a number of vacant cells in the top section, and a corresponding number of letters in the cells of the lower section.

To solve such a puzzle, the solver must place the given letters into the vacant cells in the top section of the puzzle to reveal a message which will normally be a well known literary quotation.

Spaces in the quotation appear as black cells in the upper section, and any punctuation characters in the message will already appear in the upper section in their correct locations.

Solving the puzzle
The process of solving a LETTERDROP puzzle is controlled by the current location of a cursor cell. This cell may be moved around freely within the top half of the puzzle by means of a mouse click in the destination cell, or it may be shifted using the cursor control keys.

If the cursor cell is indicating a vacant cell, then a solution character may be placed into that cell by means of one of the following:-

  • Type a character from the keyboard. This character will only be accepted if it matches one of the remaining characters in the hopper for the column in question. If it is accepted, the character will be removed from the hopper, and the cursor will advance to the next cell of the puzzle.

  • Clicking onto one of the letters in the hopper will remove that letter from the hopper and place it into the cursor cell. Again, the cursor will advance to the next cell of the puzzle.

Menu Functions
  • File Menu
    • Load a Puzzle
      Use this option to choose the puzzle you want to solve from the pool of LETTERDROP puzzles currently available on your computer.

    • Quit Solving
      Returns you to either the LETTERDROP Build screen or the Magnum Opus opening screen.

  • View Menu
    • Display Options
      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.

  • Tasks Menu
    • Reveal One Letter
      If you need a little help to get started, this option will place the correct letter into the current focus cell.

    • Reveal Errors
      If you think you may have made errors, this option will show you where they are by highlighting them for a period of 1.5 seconds.

    • Reveal Solution
      The entire solution can be seen by selecting this option.

    • Begin Again
      You can restart the entire solution process at any time by selecting this option.

  • Help Menu
    • Letterdrop Help
      Displays the Help screen which you are now reading.