WordSmith is a word game played kind of like solitaire. The goal is to use up all your tiles by spelling words. The longer the word, the more points you receive.
A new game starts by giving you fifteen columns of randomly-selected tiles (the pile) with up to seven tiles in each column. The tiles are randomly selected from a “bag” containing all the tiles. There are more of some letters than others in the bag. For instance there may be ten E's but only one Z.
You move one tile at a time to the rack by dragging or double-clicking. Words must be a minimum of three letters and there is a maximum of nine slots on the rack. You may only move the top tile of each column. If there is an open column, you may move a top tile into that postion.
When you have finished spelling your word, click on the “Accept” button and the dictionary will check the word. If the word is in the dictionary, your points will be added to your score. If the word is not in the dictionary, you will be given the option of overriding the dictionary. You will also be given the option of adding the word to the user dictionary.
Points are awarded based on the length of the word.
length points
------ ------
3 10
4 20
5 40
6 80
7 160
8 320
9 640
You may take tiles off the rack, but it will cost you ten points a tile. You may take off the last tile placed or clear the whole rack at once. To clear the whole rack, simple click on the “Clear” button. To drag a tile off the rack, just drag the tile anywhere off the rack and let go.
To find all the tiles of a certain letter, hold down that key on your keyboard and the letters will be hilighted.
The sound and animation options refer to the placing of tiles. With these options on, you will hear and see the tiles being placed.
