Puzzle Creation and Management Guide

You can cross refer to one clue from another using the notation $answer$. For example if the puzzle has a clue with the answer "Clooney", another clue with the answer "George" might be: First name of $Clooney$. If the first clue is placed at 3 Down, the second clue is displayed as: "First name of 3 Down". This technique can be used to break up long, multi-word answers into 2 or more clues. However, you should ensure that the layout does not change once these cross-references have been filled in, or you will have to enter them again.

Please see the section above on "Multiple character cells in answers".

Creator warnings

Editing a puzzle

While PuzzleMe will generate a puzzle layout automatically based on your given answers, you may wish to edit the puzzle to improve the density of letters in the grid, refine the clues, etc. You may also need to manually transcribe a printed puzzle by entering it directly into an empty grid. In either case, you can edit the puzzle on the preview screen after logging in.

Here are five ways you can edit a puzzle on the preview page:

1. Edit the grid and enter letters to form new words and improve the puzzle's fill. Try to add words especially in unfilled sectons of the grid to make it look balanced. To add words, choose "Edit Grid". Clicking on a cell allows you to change the letter in it. You can also click on and enter letters directly in the empty cells. While you are editing the grid, the clue area is blurred because the clues and clue numbering may be inconsistent with the words in the grid. Save the grid when done and PuzzleMe will recompute clue numbers and reassign clues for you. Any new words that have been formed in the grid will be initially assigned an empty clue. Note: You will lose any clues for words that are removed due to grid editing, so review your grid carefully before saving. It is also useful to keep a copy of your original clues handy.
2. You can delineate words by assigning right or bottom bars on cells. A horizontal word ends when it meets a cell with a right bar; the next cell begins a new word, even if it is immediately adjacent. Similarly, a vertical word ends when it meets a cell with a bottom bar.

   Using bars can improve the fill of your puzzle because space for an empty cell is not needed between words.

3. You can decorate cells in two ways: marking the cell with a circle or assigning it a background color of your choice. Some puzzle creators use this to mark a few cells with a meta-answer for the puzzle. If you do decorate the cells, be sure to indicate their significance in the puzzle's start message.
4. You can mark a cell as void to indicate that its borders should not be drawn. This can be used to make a rectangular grid appear non-rectangular, or indeed to turn it into any shape. Empty cells that are void are not filled in when the puzzle is drawn. If you have a lot of black cells in your puzzle (especially at the edges), consider using this option to mark some of the cells void. Your grid may look appear prettier, and the number of black cells on the page is reduced. You can mix black and void cells in your puzzle as you wish. However do not mark as void any cells with letters.
5. You can edit the clues. Choose "Edit clues" and click on any clue to change it's text, media URL or related link.

Important: If you have edited the grid, avoid going back to the Q&A screen and changing any of the answers. If you do, an entirely fresh layout may be generated and you will lose your painstakingly entered layout! However, you can go back to the Q&A screen to edit the puzzle metadata, theme options and settings, and then click the "Update Puzzle" button.

Pro Tip: To save a copy of your puzzle before editing, clone the puzzle with Puzzle Menu → Clone and work on the copy. You can always delete versions of puzzles you no longer need from the puzzle dashboard.

A limitation: You currently cannot enter rebus letters, i.e. multiple letters in a single cell, from within the editor.

On the dashboard, you can see all the puzzles that you have created, preview and edit them and see detailed analytics about individual puzzles. You can also delete puzzles that you no longer need.

The dashboard displays one series at a time. If you have multiple series, you will see options to switch to other series. Normal accounts have a single puzzle series. Approved constructors (email us at puzzlemaster@amuselabs.com for approval) can have multiple series under a single account. Multiple series are useful when you want to separately manage and embed a family of puzzles, say, daily puzzles, Sunday puzzles, contests, puzzles by different constructors, etc.

The analytics accessible from the dashboard page include statistics and graphs on number of plays, score distribution, which words were answered/revealed, reference links clicked, etc. This information can provide useful feedback on user engagement. It also lets constructors know how people are solving the puzzle.

For puzzles in contest mode, see the play-by-play analytics for a ranked lists of all puzzle plays and identify the winners.

Once you create a puzzle, you can get an embed code to publish it on your website or blog. You need to login to the dashboard to get the embed code. The embed code is the form of an iframe, similar to how one might embed a Youtube video or a tweet.

Note: You can edit the embed code parameters according to your needs. At the least, the iframe size (width and height) must be set appropriately. The frame can also communicate with the page containing it (for example, to integrate with site advertising). There are many ways to customize the embed code with URL parameters. Contact us for more information.

You can also get an embed code for a series of puzzles. In this case, the embedded frame displays a puzzle picker and allows the user to choose which puzzle to play.

You can access series analytics from the dashboard page to see aggregate performance of all the puzzles in a series by hour, day of week, etc. This will give you a good sense of how users are playing the puzzles in this series.

The embedded puzzle picker only displays puzzles that are past their publish time (set up under the Settings tab in the puzzle creator). If you have embedded a puzzle series embed code in a public website, make sure you set a time in the future for new puzzles that are being edited or that are experimental; otherwise, the puzzles will be immediately visible in the picker on the website.

Pro tip: Do not edit a puzzle after it has become public and some people have played it. Doing so will confuse users, and cause problems for those who have played it partially. It will also make the analytics inconsistent.