Overview

Into the Create Room you can get from the Store Room when clicking New Puzzle in the main menu of the Store Room. In the Create Room you can create your puzzles from pictures or movies placed in your computer or on the Internet. To cut them you can use regular patterns, prepared templates or arbitrary net of lines drawn by your hand! A puzzle can be accompanied with music and notes displayed before and/or after solving the puzzle. Your every single puzzle is a unique original. There are no limitations of your fantasy with __PRODUCT_NAME__.

Every puzzle is described by: image, music, cutting lines, texts and settings. Some of them are optional and you do not have to set them. Let's explain them:

_related_topics:

How to create a puzzle, Main menu

Main menu

Mode...

Switches the Standard and the Advanced mode. For more, see Switching the Standard and the Advanced modes.

Image

Open...

Opens a picture or a movie. For more, see Opening a picture or a movie.

Edit URL...

Allows you to edit parameters of an image placed on the Internet. For more, see Download from Internet dialog.

Edit...

Allows you to edit an image as a component of a puzzle. For more, see Editing an image.

Set Preview...

Allows you to set a preview when using a movie from  your computer or an image from the Internet. For more, see Set Preview dialog.

Test...

Plays an image.

Music

Open...

Opens music. For more, see Opening music.

Close

Removes music from a puzzle.

Test...

Plays music.

Forever

When checked it plays music in a loop forever.

View

Allows you to change the look of the Create Room.

Mode Tools

Switches on and off the display of  the Standard Tools panel or the Advanced Tools panel.

Properties

Switches on and off the display of  the Properties panel.

Info

Switches on and off the display of  the Info panel.

Picture Opacity

Allows you to set a picture transparence. You can see cutting lines better then.

Help

Displays this help.

Back

Returns you back to the Store Room. A puzzle is created and placed in the Store Room.

Opening a picture or a movie

When creating a puzzle it is necessary to open an image first. Click Image->Open... and in the appeared Open Image from dialog find your picture or movie.

Note: If you enter the Create Room then the Open Image from dialog is opened automatically.

Open Image from dialog

In this dialog you choose where an image comes from. There are three options:

This dialog can be later re-opened by Image->Open... in the room main menu.

_related_topics:

Supported formats, Set Preview dialog, Download from Internet dialog, Select Source dialog

Set Preview dialog

It is necessary to set a preview when an image is a stream of pictures. A preview is a picture representing the entire image. A preview is used in the Store Room or when making a wallpaper or a picture in the gallery or when printing a puzzle.

  1. Define a preview. To set the preview play an image in the left half of the dialog. When a frame you wish to use as a preview appears, click the Set Preview button.
  2. You can repeat former procedure until you find the most suitable preview.
  3. Click the OK button.

A preview can be set later when re-opening the dialog by Image->Set Preview...in room main menu

Download from Internet dialog

  1. Set Universal Resource Locator (URL) link of an image placed on the Internet. The image is downloaded and used from this link. __PRODUCT_NAME__ supports protocols HTTP and FTP. Specify the kind of protocol in the web address (http:// or ftp://). If the specification is not set, http:// protocol is used automatically.
  2. Choose between:
    1. Download once
      Downloads the image only when entering the Play Room for the first time. While solving the puzzle you are using this image and new download is carried out after scattering the puzzle.
    2. Download periodically
      Downloads the image regularly with a period set in the Period parameter. Be careful with setting this parameter in case of a higher data capacity or a slow Internet connection.

URL can be set later when re-opening the dialog by Image->Edit URL... in the room main menu.

After specifying the source of the image you need to set a preview.

_related_topics:

Set Preview dialog, Supported formats

Select Source dialog

  1. From the list choose a device from which you wish to obtain a picture. If the list is empty there are no devices available on the computer or the devices controls are not compatible with TWAIN. If your digital camera works as a separate disk after connection to your computer (similarly to USB Flash Disk) use the Local option described above and look for the pictures on this disk.
  2. Click OK and start scanning or transferring the picture.

Editing an image

If an image is not a stream of pictures (Local or Scan option in the Open Image From dialog), you can crop it, adjust colours or modify it in any other way in the Retouch Room. You and your picture can move to this room by choosing Image->Edit in the room main menu.

In case you change the size of the picture in the Retouch Room, the Create Room will fit cutting lines to the new size. It is possible that some pieces are made smaller insofar that they may be discarded later.

_related_topics:

Retouch Room, Minimal size of pieces, Number of pieces

Opening music

Every puzzle can contain background music played during solving a puzzle. To open music choose Music->Open... in the room main menu.

_related_topics:

Supported formats

Cutting lines

The Create Room provides two modes in which you can create cutting lines. These lines will be used in the Play Room for cutting an image into pieces.

When entering the Create Room you are automatically situated in the Standard mode.

_related_topics:

Switching the Standard and the Advanced mode, Minimal size of pieces, Number of pieces

Switching the Standard and the Advanced mode

To switch the modes choose Mode... in the room main menu.

Standard -> Advanced

When switching from the Standard mode to the Advanced mode you can bring the standard cutting of a puzzle into the Advanced mode. You can modify the lines again.

Advanced -> Standard

When switching from the Advanced mode to the Standard mode you cannot bring the standard cutting into the Standard mode, only the number of pieces is used and the puzzle is cut according to this number.

_related_topics:

Cutting lines

Standard tools panel

This panel contains all tools for creating cutting lines in the Standard mode. If you cannot see the panel you are not in the Standard mode or the display of the mode is turned off. You can turn it on by View->Mode Tools in the room main menu.

Random

Generates random cutting. Clicking the button repeatedly you can choose such a shape of pieces you wish to have.

Pieces num

Sets the number of pieces.

Chaos

Sets the degree of curvature of pieces.

Shape

Allows you to vary the shape of pieces.

Created pieces are not examined. Please, do not combine a very small size of pieces with a high curvature and complicated cuts.

Advanced tools panel

This panel contains all tools for creating cutting lines in the Advanced mode. If you cannot see the panel you are not in the Advanced mode or the display of the mode is turned off. You can turn it on by View->Mode Tools in the room main menu.

Pen

Allows you to draw pieces by hand. While holding the left mouse button you can draw cutting lines.

Line

Allows you to draw a pointed abscissa: place the cursor at the beginning of the intended abscissa and click then move the cursor to the end of the intended abscissa and click again. You can repeat the procedure and draw as many lines as you wish to have. To finish drawing click the right mouse button.

Eraser

Removes lines between two cutting lines intersection. Simply click the left mouse button on the line you wish to delete.

Hole

Allows you to select pieces which will not be used in the Play Room. With this tool you can create a holey puzzle. To make a hole in a puzzle click the Hole tool and then the piece(s) you wish to be missing in the puzzle. If you want to use the selected piece again, click it again.

Select

Allows you to choose a part of  the net of cutting lines you wish to work further with. With the selection you can:

More operations are available in the context menu of selection.

Template

Opens a template from the disk and copies to a clipboard. Paste command is executed simultaneously. The template appears in the center and is selected. You can carry out all the operations connected with selection - putting by Drop command and so on. If you wish to use the template repeatedly, you do not need to open it from the disk again but you can just insert it by Paste command.

A template is a kind of a form. With it you can cut a few pieces or the all puzzle according to the prepared shapes. Your puzzle will become more original and funnier.

Copy

Copies the selection into a clipboard.

Paste

Places the clipboard content to the left corner.

Select All

Selects all puzzle.

Test

Colours pieces used/not used for creating a puzzle, for example too small pieces, isolated pieces, holes.

Context menu of selection

This menu is displayed when clicking the right mouse button inside the selection.

Drop

Inserts the selection on the room desktop.

Hot key: Enter.

Copy

Copies the selection into a clipboard.

Delete

Deletes the selection.

Hot key: Delete.

Cancel

Cancels the selection.

Hot key: Esc.

Rotate left

Rotates the selection counterclockwise by a quarter-turn.

Rotate right

Rotates the selection clockwise by a quarter-turn.

Flip horizontal

Flips the selection horizontally, along the vertical axis.

Flip vertical

Flips the selection vertically, along the horizontal axis.

Fit to image

Fits the selection to the image.

Properties panel

The panel allows you to set various attributes of a puzzle. If you do not see the panel you can switch it on it by View->Properties in the room main menu.

Rotate

Sets the rotation of pieces. When checked every piece will be rotated at  random. This option makes solving the puzzle more difficult.

Surprise

Sets a puzzle as a surprise.

Text Settings

Allows you to specify following texts which are a component of a puzzle:

Info panel

This panel provides basic information about a created puzzle. If you cannot see the panel you can switch it on by View->Info in the room main menu. If there are some information unnecessary on the panel or if you wish to have more information, you can switch it off or on by Options in the main menu of the Store Room.

Name

Displays the name of the puzzle. If you are in the Create Room it is the name of the puzzle being created. If you are in the Modify Room it is the name of the puzzle being modified. In both cases you can change the name in the Store Room.

Pieces

Displays the presumptive number of pieces.

Mode

Indicates whether the puzzle is created in the standard or the advanced mode.

Image

Indicates the placement of  the image a puzzle is made from.

Music

Indicates the placement of music used with a puzzle.

Description

Displays the description of the puzzle.