Quote Works - Help


February 2005

Contents




Goal

Quote Works is a game of solving scrambled phrases.
Phrases include quotations, proverbs, sayings, facts, trivia, insults, humour and news headlines, as well as computer-generated sentences.

Your goal in Quote Works is to reconstitute intelligible phrases from scrambled letters. The computer will randomly select a phrase and scramble it into a grid composed of cells. Each cell contains a single letter from a word. Words are formed horizontally only and words will cross rows. To solve the puzzle, you must vertically align the letters into words by returning the misaligned letters to their original locations. Elevate letters using the up and down "elevator" buttons while locking letters in their correct positions to prevent them from being shifted.

Red letters are moveable. Green letters are locked. Blue words have been completed.



Modes

Five modes of phrase solving are available: In Classic mode, a phrase is randomly selected from the currently-selected standard phrase category (select via Options).
In Random Classic mode, a phrase is randomly selected from ALL standard phrases.
In Computer-Generated mode, pick a category of phrases to generate.
In Actual News Headlines mode, a live news headline is grabbed from the current on-line RSS news source you have selected.
In "Super-Phrase", attempt to solve an expert-level phrase that is posted daily and, if successful, become the "Phrazer of the Day".


Aligning Words

At the start of a game, words are scrambled into vertical columns. Letters only belong to the column in which they are found, but are usually located in the wrong place. Using the arrows, align the letters into their correct words. If the Auto-Lock Letters option is active, when you click and lock a letter in the correct position, it will turn blue and become permanently locked. This will cost extra "move" points.


Locking Letters and Words

Lock letters to prevent them from being moved when you click an arrow.
Red letters are unlocked and will be moved when the corresponding column is shifted.
Green letters are locked and cannot be shifted.
Blue letters show a letter in its final correct location.

To lock a letter, simply click on a red letter to change it to green.
Unlock a red letter by clicking it again.

Special Lock: To lock all correct letters, move your mouse over the letters while pressing the right mouse key.

Automatic Locking
There are two Automatic Locking Modes: letter lock and word lock. Control both modes by clicking the locks at the bottom of the screen or select either locking mode via the Options menu.

With Auto-Lock Letters active, when you click a letter or do a Special Lock, letters in the correct position turn blue. With Auto-Lock Words active, after a shift, any correctly-completed words turn blue.

Use Auto-Lock strategically and sparingly as it uses extra move points.


Tips

  • Start by locking common short words like "the", "and".
  • Experiment with locking letters and shifting columns.
  • Change colours of the tiles, letters and other controls.
  • Starting with Easy mode gives you the minimum of 3 or 4 rows to shift.
  • Using Automatic Locking reduces your number of moves substantially, so use at beginning only.
  • Lock any letters that are the only ones in their columns
  • "T" or "S" usually follows an apostrophe.
  • Start with Easy Difficulty Level and analyze columns that contain the fewest number of letters.
  • When you have a partial sentence, look for common phrases like "for the", "if you", "as well as".
  • Click [F11] to get clues, but don't use too many as they decrease your remaining moves.


    Settings

    The Options menu allows you to enable a variety of settings:

  • Phrase List: pick the group of phrases to use in Classic Mode.
  • Quick Settings: sets an overall level of difficulty.
  • Handicap: how easy or hard the game will be (see below).
  • Game Size: adjusts the cell sizes to fit different screen resolutions.
  • Timed Game: activates a timer that is controlled by several factors
  • Uppercase: displays phrase in uppercase (added level of difficulty).
  • Auto-Lock Letters: letters in correct position are permanently locked (blue) at a higher cost in remaining moves.
  • Auto-Lock Words: words in the correct position are permanently locked (blue) at a higher cost.
  • Number of Letters: select the approximate number of letters in the puzzle.
  • Rows to Solve: select the approximate number of rows in the puzzle.
  • Locked Letters: lets you start a game with a certain number of letters in their correct position.
  • Blanks are Invisible: blank tiles are not displayed.
  • Remove Completed: completed phrases are deleted from their phrase file.
  • Difficulty: a graph shows you how difficult puzzles with this combination of options will be to complete.



    • Scoring - Your Performance Rating

    Quote Works uses a rating system to give each game you complete a performance rating. Your performance rating is optimized so that it takes all of your game settings into account. This is basically an index of how much "pressure" you were under. The more pressure, the greater the rating, but the less chances you have of completing the phrase without time or moves running out. When you set your options, the system generates and displays a difficulty index that is used in the performance rating.

    Upon completion of a game, you will get your performance rating. This rating, along with the highest global rating for the phrase category will be displayed. Place your mouse cursor over the highest web rating to see "who, where and when" information.

    The performance rating takes these factors into account:

    • difficulty factor
    • number of rows in the phrase
    • number of letters in the phrase
    • handicap level
    • number of moves remaining
    • amount of time remaining
    • if the phrase was all uppercase
    • number of pre-locked letters.
    Performance ratings can also be broadcast to a global web database on the K-Probe website. When you select your options, a difficulty index is displayed. This index is in generating your the performance rating.


    Global Performance Statistics

    Use the Web > Check Global Ratings menu function to query our global database. The rating for your current phrase category will be displayed. Use Options to change categories.

    Place your mouse cursor over the highest web rating to see "who, where and when" information. Use Global Ratings to challenge you to be the top contender in a category.

    In the future, we may provide statistics by more criteria such as key phrases, and special challenges.




    Phrazer of the Day.

    Compete daily to be the "Phrazer of the Day". Each day, a new "super-phrase" will be available for solving by all users. All completed scores will be posted to a website for review by all interested players. The person with highest performance rating so far that day is displayed. This shows the person's name or alias, his/her location and how long it took to complete the puzzle. The last 3 recorded attempts will also be displayed. Place your mouse cursor over any rating to see more information.

    To keep everyone on an even keel, all game settings are preset (you cannot change them) and you are allowed only one attempt per day to become "Phrazer of the Day" (no cheating allowed).


    Statistics

    Use the File > Statistics menu function to plot your game statistics.
    Plot your statistics by selecting "Show By" and filter using Handicap and Options selections.
    • GREEN shows completed games
    • RED shows uncompleted games

    Show By:

    • Level: left to right shows each level, vertically shows number of games played at that level.
    • # Letters: left to right shows # letters, vertically shows number of games played with that many letters.
    • Score: left to right shows 1-100%, vertically shows number of games played with that score.

    By Handicap:

      View games played at the three handicap levels.

    By Options:

      View games played at different games settings.



    Handicap Level

    The handicap level influences several factors:
    • cost of a movement
    • cost of clues
    • cost of locking letters and words
    • length of a timed game
    • how long before the timer starts



    Printable Puzzles

    The Generate Printables menu option lets you take pencil puzzles with you on the road or solve away from the computer. Set the current mode and phrase list, then use the menu option to generate the desired number of puzzles. The puzzles will appear in a browser window. Use the browser's print command to print off your puzzles.




    Menu Commands

    Details for selected menu commands:
    • File > Download New Phrases: From time-to-time, we provide additional phrases and quotations. Registered users may download these into the game.
    • File > Who: Create or change your on-line identity that is used when you record high scores.
    • Mode > Classic: Starts a new game using a random phrase from the selected phrase list.
    • Mode > Random Classic: Starts a new game using a random phrase from a randomly-selected phrase list.
    • Mode > Computer-Generated: Starts a new game with a computer-generated phrase from the genre selected.
    • Mode > Today's News Headlines: Starts a new game using an actual random news headline from the selected RSS news source.
    • Mode > Super-Phrase: Obtains the current day's "Super-Phrase" and starts a new game - only one high score per day is allowed.
    • Game > New [F2]: Starts a new game using the current mode and selected phrase list.
    • Clue [F11]: Locks a letter by shifting a random column. Cost varies with handicap. Number of clues left is updated.
    • Banners: Toggle the assistance banner on or off. Banner displays at the bottom of your screen.
    • Hover Hints: Turns help hints for options and controls on/off.
    • Generate Samples: Displays 10 computer-generated phrases.
    • Web > Phrazer of the Day: Displays today's phrazer info.
    • Web > Record on Web: When checked, your performance ratings are recorded to the web.
    • Web > Check for Updates: When checked, the program will check for updates to itself, news and new phrases.
    • Email Last Quote: Lets you email a funny or interesting quote to a friend (also lets you cheat).



    Style

    The Style menu allows you to change:

    • Cell Border: select any of 21 border styles for cells
    • Red: sets the color of a letter in the wrong position
    • Green: sets the color of a letter in the correct position
    • Blue: sets the color of a completed word
    • BG Color: sets a background color
    • Background: pick a background for the game
    • Tile Font: change letter font type and size
    • Tile Color: change letter font color.

    When picking backgrounds, an abundance of JPEG background files are found in the Textures subfolder.

    Another way of changing colors is to click on the game controls while holding the [Shift] or [Ctrl] keys. Shift+click sets the background color, while Ctrl+click sets the font color.
    Eligible game controls are the counter and progress boxes at the bottom left and the game background.
    Ctrl+Game sets the arrow colors.


    Phrase Editor

    The editor allows you to manage phrase lists, load new lists and create new computer-generated phrase templates. Although you can view the phrases, saving your changes is not available in the Trial Version.





    Phrase Downloads

    Registered users can expand their phrase lists from those stored at our website. Click File > Download Phrases to obtain the latest updates. (An internet connection must be active.)

    You should also load phrases when you've exhausted a list and need to reload it. Lists are exhausted when you have the "Remove Complete" setting active.

    Proxy Settings for the internet are set via the KPI_VQ.INI file if you need a proxy:
    ProxyServer=
    ProxyPort=
    ProxyPassword=
    ProxyUserName=



    Trial Mode

    Quote Works is a shareware program. It is provided to you in trial mode, whereby you may use Quote Works in a limited manner. This includes a limited number of demo phrases and randomly-selected options. You may view the full set of phrases, but cannot use them in the game until purchased.

    If you decide to purchase the program, it will be unlocked for use on your computer with all options enabled, giving you access to all phrases, sayings and quotations, as well as internet access to our phrases collections.


    Support

    If you discover a problem with the product, please email us for a prompt reply.



    Copyright © 2005 Knowledge Probe Inc.