New Features in Word Splash Pro 8.0

Interface Enhancements

1. New Toolbar Look
   The main toolbar now has a Windows XP styled look.
   
   
2. Toolbar Menus
   Many of the main toolbar buttons now include drop down menus to give you quick access to more options.
   
   
3. Text Paragraph Formatting
   The text paragraphs are now entered using a full featured word processor. You can change the text size, color, bold, underline, italic, create tables, add color to the background or to the text, justify, import graphics, etc..
   
   
4. Revert Puzzle
   The Revert Puzzle feature lets you revert back to the last generated puzzle. Similar to an Undo, this lets you recover your last generated puzzle if you accidentally change something that clears your puzzle grid, or even if your computer crashes due to a power outage.
   
   
5. Instant Spell Checking
   The spell checker can optionally highlight incorrectly spelled words right in the word list or text paragraph editing areas. You can quickly correct these using the right mouse button to select suggested words or access the spell checker interface.
   
   
6. New Mask Toolbar
   The mask tool sets can now be rearranged and moved around in the new tools area. A new FILL tool has been added that will flood-fill any area with the selected mode or colors. Easy access to the Key Typer utility allows typing special characters into the mask.
   
   
7. Word List Trimmer
   When a word list is loaded containing a large number of words, a Word List Trimmer window can now automatically appear, allowing easily narrowing the word list down. The number of words required to automatically show this window can be set under the General Options window. This feature can also be directly accessed under the Process menu. Five methods are built in to help trim words from the list.
   
   
8. Word List Editor Updates
   The word list will now show hidden words as gray and sentence lines as bold. The lines are also now numbered. At the top left is the word list status display. If the center of the status display is red then there are words highlighted in the word list because they are spelled incorrectly. If the outer part of the word list is dark then the word list has been changed.
   
   
9. Font Settings Moved To Page Layout Window
   The fonts window has been removed and the functionality moved to the Page Layout window. This makes it easier to adjust puzzle looks from the print preview and Java applet notes preview.
   
   
10. Internet Update Reminder
    If you answer "No" when asked if you want to check for updates, the update process will now reset itself and not ask you again until the specified time period has elapsed.
    
    
11. Preview Refresh Button
    A refresh button on the Page Layout and Text Paragraph windows will update the view of the Print Preview or Java Applet Note displays without closing the windows.
    
    
12. Automation Restore
    Automated processes, like the Automated Puzzle Generator, will now restore the previous puzzle instead of clearing it when done.
    
    
13. Word List Buttons
    To avoid confusion the save and load buttons have been removed from the word list editing area. Instead, the Save and Load drop down menus on the toolbar can be used as short cuts to these options. A sort button and word list status area was added to the word list in their place.
    
    
14. Utilities Menu
    The Utilities menu item has created to hold many of the special utilities available with Word Splash Pro.
    
    
15. Puzzle Info Enhancements
    The puzzle information display is now fully formatted. It includes the user name and date of when the puzzle was created and last generated. If the noise fill feature was used the fill text will be listed. It also mentions if duplicate word chaecking was done for the puzzle.
    
    
16. New On-Line Help
    The on-line help has been rewritten to fully desribe the new features and cover the advanced features of Word Splash Pro 8.0

This is the new Text Paragraph entry window.

Puzzle Enhancements

17. Highlighter Only Solution
    You can now specify to not include outer lines when circling a word on solution output. When the lines are turned off the solution will be shown as if marked with a highlighting marker. Access this setting on the "Answer Print" tab page of the Page Layout window.
    
    
18. Set Solution Highlight Size
    A "Highlight Size" value can now be assigned on the "Answer" tab page of the Page Layout window. This allows specifying the height of the solution word highlighting as a percentage of the puzzle grid height.
    
    
19. New Solution Highlighting
    The solution word highlighting has been changed to use new mathematically generated graphics that will import better when exported as Windows MetaFiles. These formulas also accept the Highlight Size value for a consistently sized word highlight no matter what direction the word is facing.
    
    
20. Ignore Mask Back Colors
    When set the mask background colors will be ignored when the puzzle is exported or printed.
    
    
21. Box Around Page
    "Box Around Page" settings can be found on the Page Layout window "Basic" tab. When set it will draw a box around the entire page. Three values can be assigned: line thickness, color and spacing from the margins.
    
    
22. Box Around Grid
    "Box Around Grid" settings can be found on the Page Layout window "Puzzle Grid" tab. When set it will draw a box around the puzzle grid. Two values can be assigned: line thickness and color.
    

This is the new main export window. Note the Adbobe Acrobat and all the Full Puzzle exports.

Export Enhancements

23. Adobe Acrobat PDF Export
    Adobe Acrobat PDF file exporting is now supported. This file format is a great way to distribute finished puzzles in emails and on web pages.
    
    
24. New Bitmap Full Puzzle Exports
    You can now export fully formatted puzzles and/or solutions in PDF, WMF, BMP, JPG, PNG or TIF formats.
    
    
25. New Export Selection Window
    The export process now uses an easy to use export selection window. The export options have been grouped by full puzzle and puzzle grid only. Moving the mouse over the various export buttons will display help text that explains how that file format is typically used. The help text can be turned on and off using a check box at the bottom of the window.
    
    
26. Export Answer and Puzzle Grid
    When exporting the puzzle grid only you may now choose to export both the Puzzle and Answer at the same time.
    

This is the new HTML Publisher. The main tab page lets you automatically create linked puzzles generated using template files you can edit with your own look. Many other new features have also been added.

Publish HTML Enhancements

27. New Publish HTML File Selection Tab Page
    A new easy to use main tab page lets you choose which files to generate. Automatically generate printable puzzles, answer pages, playable puzzles, alternate print pages and PDF files.
    
    
28. HTML Templates
    Templates allow you to prepare the look of the HTML puzzle pages that Word Splash Pro will create. You can define your own templates and edit them in any web page editing program you choose. Use templates to generate puzzles that look like your web site.
    
    
29. Generate Fully Formated JPG Web Pages
    When generating standard printable web pages you can choose to build HTML web pages or fully formatted JPG image web pages.
    
    
30. Generate "Simple Compact" HTML
    When choosing to build HTML web pages you can now select to create your puzzles with the text compact or spaced. "Compact" will allow a larger puzzle to fit on the printed page. "Spaced" will have more space between the grid characters and words in the list.
    
    
31. New Alternate Print Page Logic
    Alternate Print Pages are HTML files that will be sent to the printer when a web page is printed. These allow the printed page to be without menus and hyperlinks. They are now automatically generated for all pages by simply clicking the "Generate Alternate Print Page" check box.
    
    
32. Generate Adobe Acrobat PDF File for Web Page
    Adobe Acrobat PDF files can now be generated, and automatically linked to, from your web pages. This allows you to distribute your puzzle using high quality printable documents.
    
    
33. Automatic HTML Page Linking
    The web page templates now support adding predefined links between the various pages generated for a puzzle. This allows creating a series of fully linked pages for a puzzle: It can automatically link the applet page, printable page, solution page and a PDF file. You can also create your own links in a template by using commands that insert the HTML page names when the pages are generated.
    
    
34. Generate Solution Page
    You can now specify to generate a solution page. The templates will automatically link the puzzle page to the solution page.
    
    
35. Java Applet Look Selector
    The applet look can now be quickly selected from a drop-down list of all available looks.
    
    
36. Home Link
    A HOME link can be specified with your templates. Use this link to automatically create links on your puzzle pages back to an "index" page or to your home page.
    
    
37. Handle AOL
    If AOL is your default web browser then Internet Explorer will be used when previewing your web pages. This is due to problems with AOL when viewing pages without being connected.
    
    
38. Assign HTML Editing and Browsing Programs
    The programs that will be used to preview and edit your HTML pages can now be assigned under the General Options window.

Java Applet Enhancements

39. Select the Graphic that Displays on a Win
    A larger set of Win images is included with Word Splash Pro. These images are displayed over the puzzle when the puzzle is won. You can also select any graphic, so you can make your own using any graphics software that exports GIF files.
    
    
40. Correct for Latest Java Plug-in Problem
    The latest Java Plug-in used in many newer browsers has a bug which causes the Java applet to think it is corrupt because certain files can not longer be read. A work around has been fully implemented in version 8.0 that handles this issue for you automatically.
    
    
41. Show Hidden Noise Fill Text
    When a puzzle has a sentence hidden in the noise characters, placed there using the Text Fill option, the Java applet will now circle all of the sentence characters on the grid as soon as all of the words have been found. This makes it easier to find the non-word characters on a busy puzzle. To complete the puzzle you need to type in the sentence into a text box with proper spacing.
    
    
42. Mouse Click Redraw
    All mouse clicks will repaint the entire puzzle. This was added due to some browsers not painting the screen correctly after a page scroll.
    
    
43. Circle words using Highlight Only
    Word circling now only uses the highlight method when actively circling a word. The outline lines have been removed. This is more efficient and avoids leaving any line trails in browsers with poorly implemented Java drawing engines.
    
    
44. Correct Pointer Redraw
    When a word line was marked with the pointer in the word list, and the word was then found in the puzzle, a box where the pointer was located would sometimes remain. This has been corrected.
    
    
45. Improved Shutdown
    Upon leaving the web page the web browser was not always shutting the applet down. This has been changed to shut the puzzle down as soon as you jump to a new page.
    
    
46. Message Text Replacement
    The message text displayed from the applet can be included as a parameter and passed into the applet.

Changes In 8.1.0.0 - September 28, 2002

1. Noise Character Entry
   Noise characters can now be changed using the keyboard.
   
   
2. Automatic Noise Censor
   When the Auto Check Grid Noise option is set, the grid noise will be automatically checked for both duplicate words and censored words. These words will be corrected by the software. It will change one of the noise characters to remove the word from the grid. No user interaction is required. Since this does not change the word list, this auto-correction will happen even of the censor mode is set to None.
   
   
3. Automatic Noise Fill Adjustment
   If Auto Generate Puzzles is not set, then when the grid size is increased the newly created grid cells will be assigned noise characters. This maintains a proper puzzle grid which would have otherwise been left with blank cells in the grid where new rows and columns were created.
   
   
4. Adjusted Mask Character Typing
   When characters are typed into a mask the current generated puzzle grid will only be cleared if a word exists in the position of the character.
   
   
5. No Longer Scrambles Sentences
   When the words in the list are scrambled the software will no longer also scramble sentence lines.
   
   
6. Adjusted Invalid Word Check
   The logic that checks for invalid words in the word list will no longer check sentence lines. This allows for blank lines to be entered as sentence lines without having to turn on the Allow All Characters setting.
   
   
7. Mask Box Drawing Adjusted
   The mask box drawing tool's center has been corrected so the center of the cursor is used instead of the top left. This makes the tool easier to use.
   
   
8. Open Passed Puzzles
   Puzzle files opened from the Windows RUN command line, or using the Windows File Explorer (My Computer) will now be loaded when Word Splash Pro starts.
   
   
9. Convert Fonts To Black Adjusted
   The Convert Fonts To Black feature will no longer convert the font of the Java Applet grid. This allow the setting to be used to adjust printed and exported puzzles only when the mask colors only look good in color on the computer screen, but not when printed in black and white.
   
   
10. Corporate Power Pack
    Support has been added for easy registration of the new Corporate Power Pack features including the new CD generation and Puzzle Pack generation process

Changes In 8.2.0.0 - January 17th, 2003

1. Play Puzzle Button
   A Play button allows loading the current puzzle in the Word Splash Puzzle Player software. This allows playing the current puzzle without having to save it and load it again in the player.
   
   
2. Exact Match Only for Censor
   The word censor feature now allows assigning a Word Handling setting. You can choose Found Within Words to have the censor check for words within other words forwards and backwards. Choose Exact Word Match Only to only check the word list for the exact words, but not for the word within other words.
   
   
3. Mask Color Mode Shows Words
   The mask coloring mode now will show the puzzle grid characters when a puzzle exists.
   
   
4. Rotate Words with Mouse Button
   When moving a word with the mouse in the Answer mode you can now use the right mouse button to rotate the word. Also, when the right mouse button is pressed the grid popup menu will no longer display.
   
   
5. Removed Beep During Puzzle Load
   The software will no longer beep when a puzzle is loaded.
   
   
6. Correct Help Display
   Sometimes the on-line help would stop displaying. This has been corrected.
   
   
7. Correct Display of Dates in Puzzle Information Report
   The create and generate dates will now display correctly if the long year is set to display on the computer.
   
   
8. Options Window Help Note
   After the third use of the software if the General Options window was never been displayed it will display automatically and show a note about being able to change settings.
   
   
9. Unregistered Version Restrictions
   Some features of the software are now restricted when the software has never been registered on the computer. Previously registered users will not have these restrictions on their same computer even when running a new version of the software they are not yet licensed to use.

Changes In 8.3.0.0 - February 5nd, 2003

1. Removed Registration Form
   The built-in registration form has been removed due to lack of use.
   
   
2. Unregistered Upgrade Assist
   The unregistered screen has been updated to assist with upgrading from a previous version. This screen only displays if the software has not been purchased yet, or if a new major version of the software was downloaded from the web site and installed and new registration data is required. Clicking on the provided link will display the Upgrade web page which now includes a list of all free upgrades and any upgrade costs to move to the latest release.
   

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