# The &kanagram; Handbook

Danny
Allen

    danny@dannyallen.co.uk

2005
Danny Allen
&FDLNotice;
2005-09-04
1.0

&kanagram; brings fun anagram puzzles to &kde;.

KDE
kdeedu
Kanagram
game
child
anagram
words
jumble

## 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 amount 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 onto, 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 allows the user to quickly change the active vocabulary by clicking on it: the &LMB; advances to the next vocabulary, with the &RMB; allowing you to return to the previously-played vocabulary.

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

3. When the Hint button is clicked, a short sentence will appear, describing the current word puzzle.

4. The Reveal Word button solves the current word puzzle.

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

6. The Enter button lets you check if your answer is correct. This function is also provided by the Enter key.

7. This is the Next Word button, and allows you to advance to the next anagram puzzle.

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), the About &kanagram; and the About &kde; dialogs:

   The 3 different states of the Help button &kanagram; screenshot

10. The Quit button closes the application.

### Playing a game

Now that you are familiar with the 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 it into the Entry Box below the blackboard. Either press the Enter key, or click on the Enter button to the right of the Entry Box to check your answer: it will change green on a correct answer, and red on an incorrect attempt:

   answer highlighted
   answer highlighted

3. If you were correct, try and guess the next word! Alternatively, you can attempt one of the many other vocabularies bundled with &kanagram;.

## 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 (&eg; 5 seconds), or you can leave it as default (Do not auto-hide hints).

- 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 Get Chalk Font button will be visible if you do not have the chalk-styled font installed on your system. Pressing this button will download the font from the Internet, which &kanagram; will then use after the application has been restarted.

  Once you have the chalk-styled font installed, the Use standard fonts checkbox becomes active. If checked, &kanagram; will display the blackboard text in a standard, rather than chalk-styled font. This should aid readability of the text:

  &kanagram; standard font
  &kanagram; standard font

- The Use sounds checkbox allows you to either allow or suppress the &kanagram; sound effects.

  You need to have aRts support in kdelibs to hear the sounds.

### 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.

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

- The Delete button allows you to delete vocabularies that you have created or downloaded.

- 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 on your vocabulary name, providing your 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, focussed set of words for a single subject. Try to write at least 20 words for your vocabulary, so that it will not be quickly finished by the user.

- The Delete 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, whilst increasing the knowledge of the vocabulary subject for your user. Also ensure that your hints are fairly short (under 40 characters in length).

- The Save button saves your 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 vocabulary.

### New Stuff

The New Stuff configuration page allows you to obtain new vocabulary files from the Internet:

&kanagram; new stuff settings
&kanagram; newstuff settings

Click the Download New Vocabularies button to browse the available online content:

&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.

## Credits and License

&kanagram;

Program copyright 2005 Joshua Keel joshuakeel@gmail.com and Danny Allen danny@dannyallen.co.uk

Contributors:

- Sound effects: Artemio fillme

Documentation copyright 2005 Danny Allen danny@dannyallen.co.uk

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kanagram;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Compilation and installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;