21st Jigsaw Puzzle Overview
Introduction: starting a game and playing
To start a game run the 21st Jigsaw Puzzle program. In the
preview screen, select one puzzle by clicking an image, then
press the "Play" button.
Move a piece on screen by clicking and dragging it to the
destination you want. If a piece is already connected with
other pieces (for traditional rules), clicking and dragging
will move the entire group.
To move more pieces on screen click on the window background
where there is no puzzle piece. Hold your left mouse button
pressed and drag to extend the rubber band. After you release
the button all the pieces in the rectangular area included
in the rubber band are selected. Clicking and dragging one
of the pieces included in the selected area will move all
the selected pieces in the rectangular area.
If you place a piece near a matching piece, those pieces
will snap and they will be moved further just like one single
piece. If many pieces are overlapped on the screen and you
have difficulties in seeing them, use one of the custom arranging
on screen: from menu, select Arrange/Arrange in Rows
or Arrange/Arrange in Frame. If you want more space
to place the pieces, or an assembled part of the puzzles,
use tables. For more information on tables see Tables
chapter.
If the pieces are too large and you have difficulties moving
them, you should resize the pieces to a smaller size. To do
that go to menu, select Options/Piece Size. The current
scaling factor is displayed on screen. Reduce this factor
with the amount you like, press OK button and continue playing.
You can save a puzzle any time you want and continue playing
later: just click on Save icon and type a name for the saved
file. You can load it later from New Puzzle window.
Game Features and Options
Arranging and Sorting Options
There are three modes of placing pieces on the game screen:
- Arranging in rows will place the pieces aligned and with
equal distances between tiles (see below picture), covering
the whole screen, starting from the left upper corner.
- Arranging in frame will place the pieces near the margins,
so the middle of the screen will be uncovered. The pieces
placing starts from the left upper corner.
- Randomly arranging will shuffle the free pieces and will
place them randomly on screen
The sorting options are used together with arranging options.
When you arrange pieces in one way or another, the current
sort option is used. The current selected sort option has
a checkmark in Arrange menu.
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Arrange in Rows
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Arrange in Frame
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Sort options are:
- Sort by Shape starts the custom arranging placing
the edge pieces first
- Sort by Color place the tiles starting with the darkest
pieces and finishing with the lightest
- Sort by Shape than Color combines the previous two
sortings
- Unsort uses no sorting when the pieces are placed
on screen
Note: Arrange in Rows, Arrange in Frame and Sort options
are available for traditional rules only.
Arranging options are available for the pieces stored in a
table (select the Arrange options from the table menu which
is launched by clicking the table with the right mouse button).
Arranging options affect only pieces which are not assembled
already.
Rotation
If you want to increase the game difficulty you can play
with rotated pieces. To enable/disable rotation go to menu
and select Arrange/Rotating pieces. If this option
is displayed without a checkmark, then the rotation is disabled.
Also you can enable/disable the rotation you can click the
Rotate icon on toolbar.
To work with rotated pieces you need to rotate individual
pieces or assembled parts in order to snap them. To rotate
a piece or group, use the popup menu which is launched by
clicking a piece with the right mouse button. Click on Rotate
Left or Rotate Right until the piece is rotated
in the desired position. Use the Unrotate option from
the piece popup menu to put it in the correct unrotated position.
Unrotate option from game menu (Arrange/Unrotate)
will unrotate all pieces.
Note: Rotation options are available for traditional rules
only.
Shapes
The game includes ten puzzle shapes, as they are shown below.
To select a shape from menu select Options/Shape, click on
desired shape and press OK. You can also select the shape
from the New Puzzle window, by clicking Shape button.
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| Classical |
Butterfly |
Scroll |
Square |
Curves |
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| Pointy |
Flag |
Orchid |
Thistle |
Daffodil |
Note: Shapes options are available for traditional rules
only.
Rules
21st Jigsaw Puzzle program includes two type of rules: traditional
jigsaw and slider.
In Traditional Puzzle the image is cut in different shapes
pieces, and the pieces are placed randomly on the screen area.
To complete a puzzle the player needs to snap matching pieces
and groups until the whole original image is assembled.
The slider puzzle cuts the image in rectangular pieces, and
each piece is placed in a slot. The slots are placed in a
rectangular area, which has the same size with the image to
recover. In order to complete the puzzle the player needs
to exchange the pieces until the original image is discovered.
Hint (Cheating) Options
- Show matching piece: right click on a piece and select
Show Matching Piece from the piece popup menu. The matching
piece will be highlighted (for traditional rules only).
- Match piece: right click on a piece and select Match Piece
from the piece popup menu. A piece will be snapped with the
selected piece (for traditional rules only).
- Hint: from menu, select Solve/Hint. Two matching
pieces will be highlighted. If the slider rule is selected,
only one of the highlighted pieces is correctly placed.
- Autosolve: from menu, select Solve/Auttosolve. The
puzzle will be solved by the computer, unless you will stop
it by pressing the Stop button.
All this cheating options can be disabled by unchecking Enable
Cheating option from Solve menu.
Snap Distance
You may set the distance to snap two matching pieces (for
traditional rules only). From menu select Options/Snap Distance.
Choose between Huge, Large, Normal, Small and Tiny, then click
OK button.
Puzzle Picture
To preview a picture of the puzzle while you're playing,
click on the Picture button on toolbar. The picture is displayed
in the upper left corner on screen/ You may also zoom the
picture. From menu, select View/Zoom picture, and click on
the desired size. There are six zoom factors available: 25%,
50%, 75%, 100%, 150%, 200%.
You may also preview the puzzle image on full screen. From
the menu select View/Full Screen Picture. Click on
the image to return to game.
Outlines
The puzzle pieces can optionally have outlines, in order
to make them easy to distinguish from background. See the
picture below for the difference between a puzzle piece with
outline and another without.
To enable/disable outlines go to menu and select Options/Outlines.
If the option is checked, then the outlines are on.
Shadows
The selected pieces or groups may have a black shadow in
order to distinguish them from the other pieces. See the picture
below for a shadowed puzzle piece.
To enable/disable shadows go to menu and select Options/Shadows.
If the option is checked, then the shadows are active.
Tables
The tables are windows used to store pieces or parts from
the puzzle. They can be resized, minimized, labeled and colored.
The most important feature of tables is that they can help
to make more room to assemble the puzzle. For more information,
see Tables chapter.
Demo
Use the demo to see how the computer is solving puzzles.
When you want to stop the demo, click on New Puzzle icon in
toolbar.
Saving/Loading a game
To save a game to play it later, click on the Save button on
toolbar and type a name for the saved file. To load the saved
game, click on New Puzzle icon on toolbar to start the new puzzle
window. In the New Puzzle window, check the Saved Game
radio button under browser control, then select the saved game
by clicking on one of the thumbnail images at the top of the
window. After selected the desired saved puzzle, just click
on "Play" button. Warning: if you saved the
game to a different folder than the program directory, you will
need to go to that folder using the folder browser on the left.
Save as Gift
You may save a puzzle as gift file, so you can share it with
your friend. The gift file is a puzzle program containing
a single puzzle. For more information, go to Sending a
Gift section.
Restart a game
To restart a game go to the program menu, select File/Restart
Game. This will unassemble all pieces and will shuffle
them.
View options
If you want to make more room on screen, you can disable the
toolbar, the table bar and the status bar.
To disable/enable the toolbar go to the menu, select View/Tool
bar.
To disable/enable the status bar go to the menu, select View/Status
bar.
To disable/enable the table bar go to the menu, select View/Table
bar.
You can also disable the timer, the solved pieces number and
the guide display in the status bar. To enable/disable these
options just click the Show Timer, Show Solved Number
or Show Guide options from the View menu.
Board Color
You may choose the background color to be similar to the
puzzle color, contrasting with the puzzle color, as default
value, or you can choose a custom color. Click on the background
with the right mouse button on a free area. From the background
menu select board color and the preferred option.
Note: Matching color is a similar color to the puzzle image
colors mean.
Contrasting color is a opposite color to the puzzle image
colors mean.
Timing Options
You can set a deadline to solve a puzzle and to have an alarm
sound played when the time expired. Go to Options menu and
click on Timer Options. In the next window, click on Enable
Alarm options and set the deadline to a number of minutes
you like. Then click OK button. The timer is displayed at
the bottom of the screen, on the status bar. If you don't
see the timer, go to the View menu and make sure that
Show Timer and Show Status Bar are both checked.
To disable the alarm, open the Timer Options window
(see under Options menu), uncheck the Enable Alarm
option and click OK button.
If you set an alarm and you would like to interrupt a game,
select Pause under Options menu. While the game
is paused, the puzzle image is displayed on screen. When you
want to continue playing, just click on screen.
Game Toolbar
Game Toolbar options are explained below ( check for each
icon number)
1 - Open/New Puzzle will open a preview window to select
a puzzle to play, to make a puzzle from a custom image or
to load a saved game
2 - Save the game to play later
3 - Picture - preview the puzzle image while playing
4 - Music on/off
5 - Sounds on/off
6 - Resize puzzle (available for traditional rules only)
7 - Sort - arrange pieces in rows
8 - Background color (set the color as matching/contrasting/custom/default)
9 - New table - create a new table (available for traditional
rules only)
10 - Hint - shows two matching pieces
11 - Rotate - enables/disables pieces rotation (available
for traditional rules only)
12 - Rules - set traditional or slider rules
New Puzzle Window Overview
In the upper part of the window there are 8 image thumbnails
currently displayed. Use the arrows or move the scroll bar
to see more images. Clicking on an image will display a larger
thumbnail and more information. To play the selected puzzle
just click the "Play" button on the right, or just
press ENTER key.
To change the puzzle folder use the left folder browser control.
Scroll to the folder you want, then click the folder. If the
folder contains images of specified type, the thumbnail images
will be retrieved.
The current image type can be chosen between: jigsaw, saved
games, custom images and old format jigsaws.
Puzzle images can be played directly, just select one puzzle
by clicking it, then press the "Play" button.
Saved puzzles can be loaded by selecting the desired save
(click on thumbnail image), then press the "Play"
button.
Custom images: if you have an image that you would like to
make a puzzle out of it, go to that image folder, check "Custom
images" radio option, select the image than press Play.
In the next window select the number of pieces and oddness
variation (between 0 and 10) and then click Update Puzzle
button. To save the image as puzzle click on Save Puzzle button
and provide a name for the new puzzle. To play the new created
puzzle you need to return to the "New Puzzle Window"
and make sure the "Jigsaws" radio button is currently
checked. The supported images formats for custom images are
: jpg, png and bmp.
Old jigsaws: if you own a previous version of our jigsaw puzzle
software you need to convert the old puzzles to the new format.
To do that check the "old jigsaws" radio button,
select the puzzle you want to convert by clicking on the thumbnail
image then press "Play button". In the next window
press the "Save puzzle" button, then
give a name for that puzzle. You need to do that conversion
only once for each old puzzle, then the new converted puzzles
will be stored on your harddrive and you can open them as
the ordinary jigsaws included in the program.
Additional options:
- Number of pieces: type the number of pieces you
want to play in the edit box under the text "selected
pieces number" or move the slider above the text.
- Selected size: the puzzle pieces can be resized between
20% and 300%. Choose the desired zoom factor by moving the
slider above the text "selected size".
If the puzzle image you want to open is too large, or if the
zoom factor is too large, the current selected percent will
be displayed in red. In this case it is recommended to reduce
the piece size until the number is displayed with black color.
If the image size or zoom factor is too large, the puzzle
will open but the program could be slow. If an error occurs
and the program cannot open the puzzle with the selected size,
the program will reduce the size to a number that can be supported
by your computer.
Note: for the slider rules the image is always stretched
to fit the screen, so this piece resizing factor is ignored.
- Oddness: choose an oddness factor between 0 and
10, using the slider above. The oddness factor determines
the amount of irregularities used when the puzzle shapes are
generated. An 0 oddness means no irregularity used, while
a value of 10 will add a maximum variation for puzzle pieces.
Note: oddness factor is used only for traditional rules.
- Shape: Click on the arrow buttons to change the current
shape. The selected shape is displayed at the bottom of the
screen.
Note: shapes are available for traditional rules only.
- Rules: Select traditional or slider rules using the
rules radio buttons on the right.
Tables: gain more space to store puzzle pieces
Tables are some additional windows used to store pieces or
assembled parts of puzzles (see below image).
A new table can be created clicking the toolbar icon or
from the menu select Tables/New Table. Clicking on
a table with your right mouse button will launch the table
menu which has some useful options for the table or for the
puzzle pieces stored in it.
Use the table menu to store pieces on a tray or to arrange
them. You can also set a name for a table and a custom color.
For instance if you are working a puzzle with a red flower
and green leaves, you can put the red pieces on a table and
to name the table "Flower". You can also put a big
assembled part of the puzzle on a table and to minimize the
table while working on the rest of the puzzle. See the images
below for samples of tables usage.
If you have opened more trays you can also arrange them (in
rows, columns and cascade). From the Tables menu select
Arrange Tables/Rows, Arrange Tables/Columns or Arrange
Tables/Cascade.You can also hide, close, show hidden tables
from the Tables menu.
You can resize the table by dragging your left mouse button
on the tables corners or sides.
Each table has a button on the table bar at the bottom of
the screen (see the image above). Clicking that button will
minimize/restore the table window. The table button contains
also a line of the table color and the table number, so you
can recognize a table on which you have stored some pieces.
Note: Tables are available for traditional rules only.
When you close or delete a table, the pieces and puzzle parts
from it are placed on the background.
Configuring sounds and music
Sounds
If you would like to change the sounds associated to events
in the game, select from menu Tools/Sounds Selector.
Select an event by clicking it, then press change button and
choose another sound. Use the Listen button to listen
the current selected sound.
If you would like to go back to the original configuration,
just press Set Defaults button.
Music
From the game menu, select Tools/Music Selector to
customize your playlist. You may remove tracks from existing
list and to add more files existing on your harddrive. The
supported music formats are wav, mp3 and mid.
Use Add File button or Add Directory button
to add tracks to the playlist. If you want the playlist to
be shuffled, check the option "Shuffle Play List".
Note: Add Directory adds only the files existing in that
folder, not in the subfolders.
MP3 format is supported for Windows 98 or later.
Sounds and music require an working and properly installed
sound card in your computer.
Creating and sending a gift
If you would like to share a puzzle with a friend, the program
has an option to send the puzzle as a gift. The gift is a
smaller jigsaw puzzle program including a single image. To
send a gift just follow the steps: open a puzzle in the jigsaw
puzzle program, then from the menu, select File/Save as
Gift and provide a name for the gift file. To send the
gift to a friend you only need to attach the gift file to
an e-mail.
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