Word Solitaire Help

Contents

1. The Games
2. An Overview
3. The Dictionary
4. A Glossary of Terms
5. Frequently Asked Questions

The Games

1. Anti-Gravity
2. Elegance
3. Free Cell
4. Golf
5. Griddle
6. Jodi's Quotes
7. Klondike
8. Loch Ness
9. Pyramid
10. Simple Stacks
11. Walls of Jericho
12. Worm Hole

Anti-Gravity

Objective: To play forever by spelling words with the letters that keep floating up.

Scoring: Points are awarded for every letter used, plus extra points for longer words.

Letter Distribution: Infinite supply of letter tiles, obtained by scrambling randomly selected English words.

Layout: 5 empty stacks, 5 word length indicators, and a field of letter tiles

Difficulty: Moderate

How to Play:

• Try to form words (vertically) on each of the 5 stacks using the letters that float up.
• Maneuver each letter onto the desired stack using the left and right arrow keys.
• Use the spacebar to swap the current letter for the next one.
• Each stack has a minimum word length indicated by the number above it.
• As soon as a sufficiently long word is formed, its letter tiles fall back down.
• The more words you form, the longer the the minimum length becomes (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 letters).
• The BOMB tile will remove all the letters from a single stack.

Strategies:

• Even if you have spot for the current letter, use the spacebar to peek ahead at the next two letters (it goes through through top 3 letters, then repeats, until one of the letters lands on a stack).
• Use the spacebar to save bombs for when you really need them.
• Try to form words that have many possible endings or conjugations, for more flexibility.

Elegance

Objective: To reveal all 28 letters and use them to spell words on all 7 stacks.

Scoring: A fixed score is awarded for using all 28 letters, plus a bonus depending on the amount of time used.

Letter Distribution: 28 tiles randomly selected, using English letter frequency as probability

Layout: 7 stacks of letter tiles, and a letter bin

Difficulty: Hard

How to Play:

• Click and drag with the mouse to transfer tiles from stack to stack.
• Any number of tiles can be moved from stack to stack, as long as the result spells a word (or the beginning of a word) on both stacks.
• A checkmark will appear above each stack indicating that it spells a complete word.
• When all the tiles are uncovered and all the stacks have checkmarks over them, you win!
• But tiles are not removed from play until the game ends; you must find ways to maneuver around them.

Strategies: 

• Try to empty a stack early and then purposefully ignore it until there are only a couple tiles left to uncover.  
• Try to spell words that have many possible endings, for the most flexibility later on.

Free Cell

Objective: To spell out the 4 target words, thereby emptying all 8 stacks of letters.

Scoring: A fixed number of points are awarded for each letter scored, plus bonus points for completing all four words in a short time.

Letter Distribution: 52 letters obtained by shuffling four 13-letter words.

Layout: 8 stacks of letter tiles, 4 free cells (upper left), and 4 target words (upper right)

Difficulty: Easy

How to Play:

• Click and drag with the mouse to transfer a tile from one stack to another, or between a stack and a free cell.
• Only one tile may be moved at a time.
• Any tile may be moved onto an empty free cell.
• To move a tile onto a stack, it must form a complete word at the end of that stack.
• Double-click on a tile to score it (if it's the next letter in one of the target words) or move it to a free cell (if one is available).
• Once a tile is scored, it cannot be retrieved.

Golf

Objective: To clear all 7 stacks by spelling words with their letters.

Scoring: A fixed score is awarded for each letter used, plus a bonus for short time, minus a penalty for each bomb. 

Letter Distribution: 42 tiles randomly selected, using English letter frequency as probability

Layout: player rack (bottom), 7 stacks of letter tiles (middle), a pile of bombs (upper left), and a letter bin (upper right)

Difficulty: Moderate

How to Play:

• Click on a letter tile to move it from its stack down to your rack.
• All the tiles are face-up, but you can only move tiles that are at the bottom of their stacks.
• Try to form a word on your rack by choosing your letters judiciously.
• A checkmark will appear next to your rack as soon as you have formed a word.
• Click on the checkmark to score the word, or click on another letter tile to keep adding on to it. 
• Note that you cannot remove a tile once it has been moved down to your rack.
• Instead, click on the bomb pile to remove the tiles from your rack and start over with new word.
• You cannot move tiles from stack to stack.

Strategies: 

• While working on the current word, plan ahead to make sure you'll have enough vowels available for the next word. 
• Try to keep all of the stacks roughly even in length, so you don't run out of choices near the end.

Griddle

Objective: To clear the entire grid by spelling words with all of its letters.

Scoring: A fixed score is awarded for each letter used, plus a bonus for shorter times.

Letter Distribution: 49 tiles randomly selected, using a common word game probability distribution.

Layout: player rack (bottom), a 7x7 grid of letter tiles (middle), a pile of smart stars (upper left), and a letter bin (upper right)

Difficulty: Hard

How to Play:

• To start your first word, click on any letter tile to move it from the grid down to your rack. 
• Each subsequent tile must be adjacent to the previous one in the grid (up, down, left, right, or diagonally).
• Try to form a word on your rack by carefully choosing a sequence of letters.
• A checkmark will appear next to your rack as soon as you have formed a word.
• Click on the checkmark to score the word, or click on another letter tile to keep adding on to it. 
• After scoring a word, you can choose the first letter of your next word from anywhere in the grid. 
• If you get stuck in the middle of a word, click on a lightning bolt -- it will allow you jump anywhere in the grid.
• You cannot remove a tile once it has been moved down to your rack.
• You cannot move tiles within the grid.

Strategies: 

• Look for clumps of vowels with no consonants (or consonants with no vowels) and take care of these first.
• While working on the current word, plan ahead to make sure you'll have good letters remaining for the next word. 

Jodi's Quotes

Objective: To reconstruct a famous quotation, one word at a time.

Scoring: A fixed score is awarded for each word, plus a time bonus, minus a penalty for each pass through the stock pile.

Letter Distribution: variable number letters, obtained by shuffling a quotation.

Layout: 5 empty stacks, a stock pile and waste pile, and a blanked-out quotation.

Difficulty: Hard

How to Play:

• Before you begin, memorize the famous quotation.
• Then click once anywhere to blank out the quotation and start the game.
• Only one tile can be moved at a time.
• Click on the stock pile (or on the waste pile) to search through its letters.
• Click and drag to move a tile from the pile to a stack.
• Or simply click next to a stack to quickly move the current letter from the stock pile onto that stack.
• You can move any tile onto an empty stack.
• But you can only move a letter onto a non-empty stack if it is the first letter of a word from the quotation, or if it continues a word from the quotation that has already been started.
• As soon as you complete a word, it will automatically fly up and fill in the appropriate blank in the quote.
• If you forget the quotation, you can click and hold on the blanked version (this costs 25 points).
• Note that right-clicking (anywhere in the window) is a shortcut for turning over the next tile from the stock pile. 

Strategies: 

• Don't get fixated on a particular word -- spell whatever you can as soon as you can.
• Scan the quotation for rare letters (like a "Z" or "V") and watch for them as you go through the stock pile.  Unique letters are bottlenecks that can easily block your game.

Klondike

Objective: To spell out the 4 target words, thereby emptying all 7 stacks and both piles.

Scoring: A fixed number of points are awarded for each letter scored, plus bonus points for completing all four words in a short time.

Letter Distribution: 52 letters obtained by shuffling four 13-letter words.

Layout: 7 stacks of letter tiles (bottom), a stock pile and waste pile (upper left), and 4 target words (upper right)

Difficulty: Easy

How to Play:

• Double-click on a tile to score it, as long as it's the next letter in one of the target words.
• Click and drag with the mouse to transfer tiles from one stack to another.
• Any number of tiles may be moved from stack to stack.
• However, at all times, all face-up tiles on a stack must form a complete word.
• Click on the stock pile (or waste pile) to turn over the next letter in the pile.
• Click below a stack to move the top card from the waste pile onto that stack.
• Once a tile is scored, it cannot be retrieved.

Loch Ness

Objective: To clear all 7 stacks by spelling words with their letters.

Scoring: Points are awarded for each word scored, with significantly more points being awarded for longer words, plus a time bonus.

Letter Distribution: 49 tiles randomly selected, using English letter frequency as probability

Layout: player rack (bottom), 7 stacks of letter tiles (middle), a pile of smart stars (upper left), and a letter bin (upper right)

Difficulty: Easy

How to Play:

• Click on a letter tile to move it from its stack down to your rack.
• Try to form a word on your rack by choosing letters carefully.
• You can only move a tile onto your rack if it spells a word (or the beginning of a word) there.
• A checkmark will appear next to your rack as soon as you have formed a complete word.
• Click on the checkmark to score the word, or click on another letter tile to keep adding on to it. 
• You cannot remove a tile once it has been moved down to your rack.
• You cannot move tiles from stack to stack.
• If you find yourself stuck, click on a smart star tile to add another letter.

Strategies: 

• Try not to let one stack stay bigger than the others, or else you'll get stuck with one stack of letters and no choices.
• For a higher score, go ahead and use one or two smart letters whenever it enables you to spell a really long word.

Pyramid

Objective: To clear all 7 stacks by spelling words with their letters.

Scoring: A fixed score is awarded for each letter used, plus a bonus for short time, minus a penalty passing through the stock pile. 

Letter Distribution: 44 tiles randomly selected, using a common word game probability distribution.

Layout: player rack (bottom), a pyramid of 36 letter tiles (middle), a stock pile and waste pile (upper left), and a letter bin (upper right)

Difficulty: Hard

How to Play:

• Click on a letter tile to move it from its stack down to your rack.
• Try to form a word on your rack by choosing letters carefully.
• But you have to use the tiles at the bottom of the pyramid before you can free up the tiles above them.
• A checkmark will appear next to your rack as soon as you have formed a word.
• Click on the checkmark to score the word, or click on another letter tile to keep adding on to it. 
• You cannot remove a tile once it has been moved down to your rack.
• You cannot move tiles from stack to stack.
• If you find yourself stuck, try searching the stock pile to find a helpful letter.

Strategies: 

• To save points, remember the letters in the stock pile during your first pass through
• While working on the current word, plan ahead to make sure you'll have good letters available for the next word. 

Simple Stacks

Objective: To clear all 7 stacks by spelling words on them.

Scoring: Points are awarded for each word scored, with significantly more points being awarded for longer words, plus a time bonus.

Letter Distribution: 49 tiles randomly selected, using English letter frequency as probability

Layout: 7 stacks of letter tiles, and a letter bin

Difficulty: Easy

How to Play:

• Click and drag with the mouse to transfer tiles from stack to stack.
• Any number of tiles can be moved, as long as the result spells a word (or the beginning of a word) on both stacks.
• A checkmark will appear above each stack whenever the stack spells a complete word.
• Click the checkmark at any time to score the word and clear those tiles.

Strategies: 

• Try to maintain a healthy balance between vowels and consonants at all times.
• Once you get down to a dozen tiles or so, make sure you can spell words using ALL of them.

Walls of Jericho

Objective: To tear down the walls by spelling words with all their letters.

Scoring: A fixed score is awarded for each letter used, plus a bonus for short time.

Letter Distribution: 49 tiles randomly selected, using English letter frequency as probability.

Layout: player rack (bottom), a 7x7 grid of letter tiles (middle), a pile of smart stars (upper left), and a letter bin (upper right)

Difficulty: Moderate

How to Play:

• Click on a letter tile to move it from the outer wall down to your rack.
• You must exhaust all the tiles from the outer walls before you can reach the inner ones.
• Try to form a word on your rack by carefully choosing a sequence of letters.
• A checkmark will appear next to your rack as soon as you have formed a word.
• Click on the checkmark to score the word, or click on another letter tile to keep adding on to it. 
• You cannot remove a tile once it has been moved down to your rack.
• You cannot move tiles within the walls.
• If you get stuck, click on a smart star for a free letter that will help you complete your word.

Strategies: 

• While working on the current word, plan ahead to make sure you'll have good letters remaining for the next word. 
• The last letter is usually the hardest, so make sure you can complete a word with it, or reserve enough smart stars to clear it.

Worm Hole

Objective: To eat up the entire apple by spelling words with all of its letters.

Scoring: Points are awarded for each word scored, with significantly more points being awarded for longer words, plus a time bonus.

Letter Distribution: 49 tiles randomly selected, using English letter frequency as probability.

Layout: player rack (bottom), a 7x7 grid of letter tiles (middle), a pile of smart stars (upper left), and a letter bin (upper right)

Difficulty: Easy

How to Play:

• You are the worm in the center of the apple.
• Try to form a word on your rack by carefully choosing a sequence of letters to eat.
• You can only reach letters that are on the edge of your ever-widening worm hole.
• Click on a letter tile to move there and eat it (thus moving the letter tile down to your rack).
• A checkmark will appear next to your rack as soon as you have formed a word.
• Click on the checkmark to score the word, or click on another letter tile to keep adding on to it. 
• You cannot remove a tile once it has been moved down to your rack.
• You cannot move tiles within the apple.
• If you get stuck, click on a smart star for a free letter that will help you complete your word.

Strategies: 

• While working on the current word, plan ahead to make sure you'll have good letters remaining for the next word. 
• The last letter is usually the hardest, so make sure you can complete a word with it, or reserve enough smart stars to clear it.

Overview

Word Solitaire is a collection of twelve original, challenging word games.  They're inspired by solitaire card games, but they're played with wooden letter tiles a la Scrabble (TM).  You'll find that you need to use knowledge and strategies from both types of games in order to succeed at Word Solitaire!

Included in this package are word-based variations of today's most popular solitaire games like Free Cell, Klondike, Golf and Pyramid.  Plus several completely original one-player word games.  

Dictionary

Word Solitaire uses the ENABLE dictionary to check your words for correctness.  ENABLE stands for "Enhanced North American Benchmark LExicon."  It's a carefully researched and meticulously compiled combination of many other dictionaries (such as Merriam Webster 10th Edition and the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), has graciously been made available for public use by its lexicographers.  For more information and a thoroughly annotated history of the ENABLE dictionary, you can visit: http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/.  

For Word Solitaire, the raw ENABLE dictionary data is contained in the file "words.lst" (located in the same folder as the game itself).  If you would like to add or remove words from the dictionary, you can do so by manually editing this file.  Just be sure to: 1) keep it in alphabetical order and 2) use lower case letters only.  

The version of the ENABLE dictionary that is included with Word Solitaire contains American spellings only.  However, by following the instructions at the Word Solitaire web site ( http://www.haversack.com/wordsol ) you can download and install an alternate dictionary with exclusively British or combined American and British spellings.

Glossary of Terms

• Cell - a temporary holding area for a single letter tile.
• Letter Bin - a list of the letters remaining to be played.
• Rack - the place where you spell out your word.
• Smart Star - a special tile that will add a letter to your word, so that it completes it (if possible) or at least continues it (if more than letter is required to finish it).
• Stack - a sequence of letter tiles, some face-up and some face-down.
• Stock Pile - extra letter tiles you can search through and bring into play.
• Target Word - a specific word that you must spell to with the game.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When I run Word Solitaire, I get an error message about my Colors setting.  What's wrong?
A: Word Solitaire relies on full-color graphics for its letter tiles and backgrounds.  If your display is set to less than 24-bit Full Color, the game's graphics cannot be drawn properly.  To fix this, right-click on your Windows desktop, choose "Properties" from the menu, select the "Settings" tab at the top, and finally change your "Colors" setting to "Full Color (24-bit)" or "True Color (32-bit)".

Q: When I run Word Solitaire, I get an error message about "file not found".  What's up?
A: Word Solitaire needs two files in order to function properly: a dictionary and a list of quotations.  These two files are named words.lst and quotes.lst, respectively.  Make sure that they are both present in the same folder as the game itself (wordsol.exe).  If you are missing these files, you can download them from http://www.haversack.com/wordsol.

Q: My copy of Word Solitaire has expired.  How can I keep on playing?
A: Go to http://www.haversack.com/wordsol and register!

Q:  Why should I register my copy of Word Solitaire?
A: Because it's the right thing to do!
A: Because it helps to support this site!
A: Because it helps me improve the game and write others like it!
A: Because it gives you a chance to offer feedback and suggestions for the game!
A: Because it gets rid of the nag dialogs and removes the 100-game limit!
A: Because it supports the shareware game industry, which brings you low-cost, high-quality, non-corporate games like this!
A: Because it's so darn cheap!

Copyright � 2001 Jason Mai and Susan Brooks.  All rights reserved.  Scrabble and the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary are trademarks of Milton Bradley, a division of Hasbro.