#1: doreen (doreenfanning) on Jan 29, 2008

I have a question about solving large puzzles. They don't fit on my computer screen, and I keep having to scroll up and down or side to side and often can't remember the numbers after I've scrolled and then have to do it again. And then, often, when the puzzle is done I can't really see it all at once.

So my question is this: Is there some simple technological solution to this problem that anyone knows of?

If I change my screen size it will make the puzzle squares so small I can't see them.

I have solved many of the smaller puzzles, but am puzzled about solving the larger ones. Any help than anyone can be would be appreciated.

Doreen

There isn't much you can do beyond making your screen resolution smaller. I run my screen at 1280 x 1024 and there are still a couple puzzles that I have to scroll. I don't know how big your monitor is, but if you haven't upgraded it in a while that might be a solution as well. The bigger the monitor, the smaller you can make the resolution and still be able to read the screen.

One thing that helps a bit is if you tell your browser to get rid of some of the toolbars at the top and the status bar at the bottom. With firefox there are options for this on the "View" menu. This gives you a bit more vertical space, which can make a difference for some puzzles. Horizontal space isn't a problem so often, but you can get rid of webpbn's sidebar menu too.

I've thought about some software things that might help with this, like having an option to show the clues both at the top and the bottom, but none of those are close to happening.

I think having a really big monitor helps.

I've usually done the toolbar-losing thing. Helps a lot. Only about a few dozen puzzles (or even less) have been a bit too big that way (and I have done more than a thousand puzzles)

Ok, I will try losing the toolbar (Jan, thanks for the info on how to do that -- I am using firefox) and see how much that might help. My next computer will just have to be one with a very big monitor -- no two ways about that!! :-)

Thanks!

Hi doreen.

Someone in here told about [F11] long time ago.
Try that button. It's very usefull ;o)

Ps:donnow if it works in firefox.

My solution is to skip them! I'm just not patient enough most days! ;)

lol

F11 works in Firefox :)

I usually open puzzles in a new tab, but sometimes opening in a new window gives me enough room. Sometimes not *shrugs*

what exactly does F11 do? I am on a Mac, so maybe that makes a difference. When I hit F11, the screen leaves completely, until I lift up on F11. Then it comes back. And, of course, I don't see how that is any help at all for doing large puzzles.

it gets rid of everything above this site (except the location bar) & everything off the bottom & right side

Yeah Doreen, on macs it is a shortcut to get to your desktop. It's different on PCs.

Is there anyway to change the size of the paper in the print puzzle mode? (PDF file)I would like to print these very large ones but when I do (8x11 paper size)I can't read the numbers, even with a magnifying glass. I guess my eyes aren't what they used to be! I have tried everything I could think of.
Also if I try to print the puzzle (from the solve puzzle mode) it prints only part of the puzzle & prints thick black lines going through the entire puzzle blocking out both rows & columns, I've had this problem for quite some time
ANYBODY have any suggestions?

Great topic. I love the very large puzzles and have resigned myself to sitting hunched by the computer scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. My kids can play music from the computer on the XBOX360. I have dreams of myself playing pbn from the computer through the XBOX360 on the TV screen...sitting in the lazy boy....but then I realize that the numbers would still be so small I couldn't see them and if they were big enough it wouldn't fit on the screen no matter how big the screen. The ones I really avoid are "?" they drive me crazy.

I probably could make the paper size adjustable. It's currently oriented toward US letter sized paper. Does your printer actually handle any other size? Of course, lots of users probably have A4 paper instead of US letter. Supporting lots of paper sizes could be hard because currently PDFs are cached, using megabytes of disk space, and caching multiple copies would use even more disk space.

I'd have to experment with acrobat a bit, to see if it can scale a PDF. Maybe what's needed is a way to split big puzzles over multiple pages, which you'd have to cut and paste together to make a single puzzle.

I've often wondered why you can't change a PDF file page size..My printer can handle most sizes, I mostly use the letter & legal size paper. Splitting the puzzles would be wonderful, probably the best solution! I'll be waiting to see what you can come up with. Thank you for considering my plea :)

F11 works in IE7 as well. Discovered that by accident just yesterday as I was wiping some dust of the keys I never use. LOL. Its a toggle so hitting it again returns the screen to the previous state.
I was going to suggest the printing alternative as well - then transposing your solution back on the screen grid when you're done.
Most PDF print drivers allow for scaling the image too as far as fitting the paper goes ...

sorry about making the largest puzzle. Thank you all for the screen size tips, I didn't know any of them before, especially F11.

Today my 22 month old did something to the keyboard while I was working on a large puzzle. Somehow the number clues that had been on top of the puzzle where on the bottom.

Can someone tell me how this happened? I would love to do this again as it would really help. Also, does anyone know if there is a way to move the side clues to the opposide side?

The arrow keys.
Topic #185 - http://webpbn.com/read.cgi?type=T&id=185&what=allrep

It's been quite a while since I last visited this site. I'm kind of re-discovering pbn. How can I get rid of the webpbn menu bar? I vaguely remember that I could remove it but I don't remember how. Thanks.

Place cursor on edge of this page and drag it to the left, I guess. I can drag it, and cover up the menu, but I'll have to check and see what happens with a puzzle.

Hey, it worked. Now I can do some of the wider ones that were giving me problems because I would get lost sliding back and forth and eventually give up.

You can place the cursor on the edge of the grey and the white. If it turns into a double arrow ( <--> ) then you can drag the edge to make the menu thinner or wider. This works in Firefox, Chrome and IE, but not Safari.

Also, when you click on a puzzle, if you right click and choose "open in new tab", it will open in that new tab without a menu. (You can also just middle-click in some browsers to open a link in a new tab.)

It worked. Thanks a lot.

My helpful tip was already listed in several comments, :)

Learn something new every day. Didn't know about opening in a new tab and didn't know about F11. Larger puzzles here I come!

watch out large puzzles!! ...can't say the woman didn't warn ya!

:) David

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