The Assistant - Supported Browsers

The new Indigo Puzzles Assistants have been re-designed from the ground up to be fully interactive javascript puzzle players.

This allows us to do rapid development - changing the Assistants, fixing problems and adding features very quickly. Plus, it lets us draw the board in a less 'lopsided' way - no more big fat rectangles in these square puzzles! And it makes it possible to lay the screen out better, meaning it will work on smaller screens.

So it's good news for everyone - hooray! Well... not quite. Because it is Javascript there are a couple of problems you may have when running for the first time. If so, this troubleshooting list may help you out:

Javascript
The Assistant is now entirely Javascript-driven. Most browsers have Javascript switched on by default but you can switch it off. If you've switched Javascript off, you will have to switch it back on again to use the Assistants.
Browser Support
You do need a fairly new and well-supported browser to use it. This isn't so bad - we're talking about Internet Explorer 5 or higher, Firefox 1.5 or higher (Firefix 1.07 also works for the most part), Safari, Opera and Mozilla. (Konquerer may work).

If you have an older version of one of the supported browsers, it may or may not work - but you should definitely think about upgrading anyway. Most browser upgrades these days are to improve online security and you should stay up to date.
Popup Blockers
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.
Firefox
Finally, there is 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 should go away.
Cookies? 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!

It's still not working!

If you think you have an up to date browser, and you think it's supported, then get in touch - we'd love to hear about any issues (well, I mean obviously we wouldn't, we'd rather love to hear how wonderful we are - but we should probably hear about the problems).

Get in touch and we'll do our best to help.