Hal’s Cryptogram Helper 2.0 |
Scripts on this page
are working. |
Sorry! If this warning didn’t go away, your browser didn’t run the scripts, and this page won’t work. Most browsers support the scripts, but your security settings might block them.
I don’t recommend weakening your security. Instead, you might try saving this Web page and running the saved copy. See the copy permissions.
What you get: The Start link reloads the page, with the contents (if any) of the text area translated into a table showing
When plaintext choices are made, there’s also a text depiction of the working solution, with underscores ( _ ) representing missing selections. (A user suggested this, to facilitate sharing answers. It also supports cryptogram creation, starting with plaintext in the “Cryptogram” space.)
Selection lists behavior:
Clicking any letter in the frequency tables highlights all instances of that letter in the cryptogram. The Clear Highlights button removes these highlights.
If you’ve added an optional Hint, there’s a Hint button to apply and highlight that choice. Of course, the one who entered it already knows the hint, but this allows its inclusion when sharing a puzzle with someone else via the URL.
Grid width: The width setting determines where the cryptogram loader attempts to wrap lines. Font sizes are adjustable, so the optimal width depends on personal preference. A range from 18 to 30 probably suits most users. To maintain integrity of the cryptogram text, lines are only wrapped where spaces occur; words (including hyphenated ones) are not split, and no hyphens are added. Setting grid width to zero restores the default.
Line breaks included in the cryptogram, as entered, are respected; if any breaks are specified, then lines wrapped because of the width setting are indented one space on the continuation. This signals which lines were specifically entered as such (in case someone makes cryptograms of poems, for instance).
This page is inherently visual and script-dependent. If improved accessibility would be useful to anyone, I will welcome suggestions on how to go about it.
Permission is granted to copy this page, either for private use on a personal computer or for inclusion on another website. (I would prefer it not be commercialized with fees, user tracking, or disruptive advertising.) Others have let me know they use this, and I can’t guarantee how long our site will be available, so I am relinquishing control. I’ve eliminated some gratuitous graphics, so the entire page, including stylesheet and Javascript code, is a single file.
If you have your own copy, you can use a text editor to change the default grid width. Search for “gwdeflt” to find the line
var gwdeflt = N; // default grid width
(where N is the current default) and change N to your preferred value.
Sharing cryptograms: When a cryptogram is loaded on the page, its information is coded in the “search” part of the location displayed by the browser. For use with the same copy of the program, just share that location.
For someone using a different copy of the program, give them a copy of the part of the location field starting with the first question mark. They can load their program page, add that copy to the end of the location displayed by the browser, and hit Enter.