# The &kanagram; Handbook

## Introduction

&kanagram; is a game based on anagrams of words: the puzzle is solved when the letters of the scrambled word are put back in the correct order. There is no limit on either time taken, or the number of attempts to solve the word. Included with &kanagram; are several vocabularies ready to play, with many more available from the Internet.

## Using &kanagram;

Here is the screen that is presented on startup of &kanagram;, showing the main interface to the application. Much of the window is taken up by the blackboard, where the puzzles are written, with the filing cabinet on the right containing application controls.

Here is the screen that is presented on startup of &kanagram; &kanagram; screenshot

1. The Vocabulary Switcher (&PgUp; / &PgDn;) allows the user to quickly change the active vocabulary by clicking with the &LMB; on the arrows to advance to the next vocabulary or to return to the previously-played vocabulary.

2. In the center of the blackboard is the anagram puzzle to be solved.

3. This is the Start Timer (&Ctrl;S) button, and allows you to start or stop the scoring timer.

4. When the Hint (&Ctrl;H) button is clicked, a short sentence will appear, describing the current word puzzle.

5. The Reveal Word (&Ctrl;R) button solves the current word puzzle.

6. The Entry Box allows you to input your attempts to solve the current word puzzle.

7. The Next Anagram (&Ctrl;N) button lets you switch to the next guess.

8. This is the Configure button, which opens the Configure &kanagram; dialog.

9. The Help button is special, in that it reveals 3 sub-buttons. These buttons are shown when the Help button is hovered over, and provide access to the &kanagram; Handbook (this document), and the About &kanagram; and About &kde; dialogs: The 3 different states of the Help button &kanagram; screenshot

10. Use the Change mode button to switch between 1 and 2 player mode.

11. The Quit button closes the application.

### Playing a game

Now that you are familiar with the user interface of &kanagram;, lets play a game!

1. Using the Vocabulary Switcher, select the vocabulary theme that you would like to attempt. A word from this vocabulary will then be presented in the middle of the blackboard. Now, try and guess what word the jumble of letters represents.

   If you cannot guess what the word is, press the Hint button to get some friendly advice from your friend in the filing cabinet:

   &kanagram; hint &kanagram; hint

2. Once you think you know the correct answer, type the letters into the Entry Box below the blackboard, or click them with the &LMB; and the letters will move down to the entry box. If you are correct, the next anagram appears, otherwise all the letters jump back onto the blackboard.

## Configuring &kanagram;

The Configure dialog is opened by clicking on the Configure button:

&kanagram; general settings &kanagram; general settings

- The Auto-hide hints after: drop down box allows you to specify how hints are presented to you. Here, you can set the hint box to disappear after a certain amount of seconds (⪚ 5 seconds), or you can leave it as default (Do Not Auto-Hide Hints).

- Use the Time for resolving the anagram: drop down box to specify the time you have to resolve each puzzle. By default there is No time limit.

- The Play Using: drop down box allows you to play &kanagram; using vocabularies of a different language. For this feature to work, you must have vocabularies of a separate language installed.

- The Set timer for scoring purpose: drop down box allows you to set in seconds the time interval of the scoring timer.

- The Score Point Settings checkbox can be used to reveal or hide options to configure scoring of answers.

- The Use sounds check box allows you to either allow or suppress sound effects.

- The Only uppercase letters check box allows you to switch &kanagram; to the uppercase only mode for words on the blackboard.

- The Say correct words check box allows you to turn pronunciations on or off. The audio files of the pronunciations should be included in the vocabulary being played, or else you should install and configure &jovie; for this option to work.

### Vocabularies

The Vocabularies configuration page allows you to manage your installed vocabularies. Using this dialog, you can edit and remove downloaded vocabularies, as well as create your very own:

&kanagram; vocabulary settings &kanagram; vocabulary settings

- The Create New button opens the Vocabulary Editor dialog so that you can author your own vocabularies which you can then play with.

- The Edit button allows you to make changes to vocabularies that you have either created or downloaded off the Internet.

- You can select which vocabulary you would like to apply these actions to by using the list of vocabularies.

#### Vocabulary Editor

The Vocabulary Editor allows you to create your own vocabularies, which &kanagram; can then test you with:

&kanagram; Vocabulary Editor &kanagram; Vocabulary Editor

- The Vocabulary Name: field lets you name your vocabulary.

- The Description: field enables you to expand your vocabulary name, providing the user with more details of the content of your vocabulary.

  Try to keep both the name and description fields as short as possible. Effective vocabularies cover a narrow, focused set of words for a single subject. Try to write at least 20 words for your vocabulary, so that it will not be finished too quickly.

- The Remove Word button lets you remove words from your vocabulary.

- The New Word button creates a new word entry in your vocabulary, ready for you to expand.

- The Word: field lets you write word values into your vocabulary.

- The Hint field allows you to write hints to accompany your words.

  Good hints clearly yet subtly describe the word, while also increasing the knowledge of the user. Also ensure that your hints are fairly short (under 40 characters in length).

- The Save button saves your new vocabulary content, and enables its use directly in &kanagram; (it will immediately become available within the application, selectable via. the Vocabulary Selector).

- The Close button closes the Vocabulary Editor dialog without saving the content of your new or modified vocabulary.

### New Stuff

The Download new vocabulary button on the Vocabularies configuration page allows you to obtain new vocabulary files from the Internet:

&kanagram; new stuff dialog &kanagram; new stuff dialog

To install a vocabulary from the Internet, click on the vocabulary item in the list, then press the Install button to install to your system. The downloaded vocabulary will then be available to play immediately.

If you have already downloaded a vocabulary this button will change to Uninstall which allows you to remove a vocabulary.

To get more information about a vocabulary like the author, a description about the content, and the changelog, press the Details button.

## Credits and License

&kanagram;

Program copyright 2007 Jeremy Whiting jpwhiting@kde.org 2005 Joshua Keel joshuakeel@gmail.com and &Danny.Allen; &Danny.Allen.mail;

Contributors:

- Sound effects: Artemio fillme

Documentation copyright 2005 &Danny.Allen; &Danny.Allen.mail;

&underFDL; &underGPL;
&documentation.index;