Welcome to Indigo Puzzles!
We're delighted to say Hi to everyone who used to visit our sites at sudoku-san.com or kakuro-san.com, and welcome to the new site. As you can see, the Assistants have undergone a bit of a makeover! We've put together these Frequently Asked Questions to help you with these changes.
Q: What's changed in the new site?
A:The main difference is that the Assistants are now Javascript applications. This means they can be more interactive than before - responding to mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts, for example - and we can do more clever things when drawing the page. It's also a lot easier to update which means we can introduce new features (such as proper mouse and keyboard support) and puzzles (such as our new Hitori and Hashi puzzles).
The first thing you may notice is that the 'text boxes' from sudoku-san and kakuro-san are gone; instead when you click on a cell you'll see a popup grid that allows you to click on the numbers with your mouse. Of course, even with the grid open you can still type the numbers in with your keyboard.
Q: I don't like the popup grid! Can't I just type the numbers in like before?
A: Of course! When you click on a cell, the grid pops up so that, if you want to, you can use the mouse. But you don't have to - just use the keys as before. Whenever you enter a number (by clicking with the mouse, or using the keyboard or number pad) it will toggle that value in the cell.
We've also added some keyboard shortcuts, for example: if you're on a square and you press CONTROL+number, all the old values will be cleared from the square and the new one entered instead.
Finally, if you find the grid distrcting then just press 'escape' and it will go away, and you can still enter your values into the cell directly.
Q: I still don't like it. Can't I get the text-boxes back?
A:The old Assistants used text-boxes to enter the values. These had some advantages, but lots of problems - they didn't work properly on many browsers and screen sizes, the puzzle grid had to be short and wide instead of square (which a lot of people found very annoying) and keyboard navigation was impossible. So, sorry - text boxes are gone forever! (probably).
But it's not all bad news! The new Assistants support keyboard and mouse, you can navigate around the puzzles much quicker using the arrow keys, and we've added Keyboard Shortcuts to speed things up. It works and looks ok now on almost all modern web browsers. Plus, on many browsers (for example Firefox and Opera) you can now Zoom the board larger or smaller to suit.
The changes that have gone in make it a lot easier for us to add new features or fix annoying niggles, so if you'd like to suggest improvements then get in touch!
Q: Help - Why doesn't the Assistant show up?
A:The new Assistants use Javascript, and most browsers allow you to switch Javascript off. If you've switched Javascript off, you will have to switch it back on again to see the Assistants.
We've had a report of a user who said the popup blocker they used actually stopped the Assistant from working. We're not sure why this would happen but if you are seeing any problems, try switching the blocker off for a second and see if this helps. If it does we'd be very interested to hear about it so please let us know.
Finally, there does appear to be a bug in Firefox where, if you load too many of the puzzles or load one too many times (hundreds of times, usually) then Firefox stops working and gives you odd messages about server problems instead. In this case try restarting Firefox and the problem goes away.
Q: Do I need to allow Cookies to see the Assistant?
A: The Assistants use cookies - small tokens held on your computer - to keep track of the moves you've made in between saving the board (this is so that if you were playing Sudoku and then went to, say, the help pages, when you came back it wouldn't have lost all your work!).
If you have cookies switched off the Assistant will still work, but it won't be able to remember your moves - so save often!
Q: How do I get in touch?
A: Comments on the new site? Ideas or suggestions for the Assistants? Get in touch!