Puzzamatic 1.0 is a Java
applet which will generate a variety of word puzzles. It contains the following:
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Word search.
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A wide variety of cloze tests.
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Matching of split words or lines.
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Several puzzles based on over 1000
Prefixes, suffixes, and roots based on Greek, Roman, Old English, German,
and French origins.
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Mix a quote in with list of words.
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Also, a variety of buttons are available
to alter selected text:
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find all unique words.
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sort by word length, by how much of
the word is covered by prefixes, roots, and suffixes (keys), and alphabetically.
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select only top X% or top X number
of sorted words.
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display the word keys found.
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I also have put together a variety
of word, text and educational game sources . I have attempted to only
include those links which contain immediately useful resources which can
be obtained with the minimum of clicking and searching around.
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Also check out The
Mediator, a conflict resolution applet I have written.
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Terms of use: If you use and like the
program and come up with new ideas or find a bug you will mail comments
and suggestions to rsurratt@mcn.org
Brief instructions:
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Wait for the program to download. It
will create a window.
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Copy some text from any application
(on the PC highlight some text and press Ctrl-c)
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Paste it into the Puzzle Text Area
(not the answer text area)
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mouse click in the text area
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on the PC press Ctrl-v
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Select the text you are interested
in by dragging the mouse around.
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All the buttons in the bottom row just
alter the selection in some way (find the unique words, sort it 3 ways,
etc.)
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The buttons on the top each make a
different kind of puzzle from the selected text and places it in the puzzle
text area. At the same time the answer is put in the answer text area.
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To switch between the questions and
answers press the Puzzles/Answers button.
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To create an extra copy of Puzzamatic
press the New! button.
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To make a puzzle, select some text
and use the buttons on the top. Most of it is fairly self explanatory.
The rest you will have to figure out until I can get some more documentation
done.
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For now, to print you must copy the
questions and answers to a word processor and print from there.
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Here is a short tutorial to get the
hang of how you might use it:
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1) copy some
text from somewhere like a web page
(on PC highlight some text say from some webpage (by dragging the mouse
with the left button depressed,
and then press ctrl-c [hold down the ctrl(control) key and press
the letter c] )
2) go to Puzzamatic,
(click the mouse in the lower text area)
3) paste the
copied text there. (on PC: press ctrl-v)
now you are
ready to play
4) select all
the text you entered (press the 'all' button)
5) separate
out the words (press the 'words' button)
just for fun:
6) sort the words
alphabetically (press the 'By alpha' button')
7) sort the words
by how long they are (press the 'By size' button')
8) get rid of
the shortest words (press the 'Top' button and the top 50 % will
be saved and the rest junked)
9) sort the
words by how much of the word is made up of roots, prefixes,
etc... (press 'By Key Coverage')
10a) get rid
of the words with few roots,etc (press the 'Top' button)
10b) keep doing
10a) until happy with how many are left
11) keep a copy
of these words for later (highlight the words, then pressctrl-c)
12) finally....
make,say, a word search puzzle
(make sure the words are highlighted then press the 'WordSearch'
button).
13) show the
explanation for the words:
paste the words back in (press ctrl-v)
highlight the words
press 'explain'
14) make another
puzzle or show info:
paste the words back in (press ctrl-v)
highlight the words
make a puzzle (press Halves, Mix, Cloze etc)
or
do something else (press Key explain, Key find, Key Match,
etc)
15) try to figure
out what the other buttons do
If you come up
with puzzles, I would like to put them on the site.
Hope this helps.
Ron