Jigsaw Puzzle Tips

[Laura]

I'm brand new to this site and love it, although my scores are ridiculously low compared to those I've seen. What seems extremely comfortable at this stage are 60-piece puzzles with no rotation. However, I'd like to try more difficult puzzles with rotation, and have found that I can do these only as long as the Preview feature is enabled. (I didn't even notice the Preview ability until yesterday.) Is there a reduction of points with Preview? Have the high scorers managed without it?

I'd appreciate any other tips. Thanks so much!

Best regards,
Laura

[bluenote]

Jigsaw Puzzle Tips

Hi Laura,

You can see by my average time and average score that I am not one of the most skilled players. However, my current circumstances have allowed me to spend a lot of time on the site, so I have built up a high overall score. I’ll tell you what I can. Perhaps others will share better tips.

I don’t know if using the Preview feature affects scoring. I usually do not use it, because I cannot see it well enough.

For solving, I click on “edges” and complete the frame first. Then I sometimes try to assemble something that takes up a fair-sized space. It could be a large object, a group of things (like several trees or several sheep), a distinctive design, or a patch of a particular color. Once such a section is completed, you can work outward from the edges of it. If you assemble 2 or 3 of these sections, you will often see how they join together.

Other times, I work inward from the frame, matching up edges, lines, designs, colors.

If I am really stuck, I sort pieces by shape. That lets me look easily for something like “a purple one with three tabs and only one hole.” Sometimes, just doing that sorting makes me notice a piece: “Oh, I was looking for that one.”

Re puzzle size, the more you solve, the more comfortable you will probably get. Keep on trying puzzles with a larger number of pieces every once in a while and you’ll probably end up doing them more often.

Regards, Bluenote

[Laura]

Hi Bluenote:

Thanks so much for your tips. I ventured into a rotate-enabled puzzle and worked pretty much the same as I've been doing -- putting all of the edge pieces to one side and starting with the frame. I wound up using the Preview option which helped tremendously when figuring out the direction of the edge pieces. I've solved two puzzles that way so far. It took a while but I'm finally seeing scores larger than 40!


Thanks again!

Regards,
Laura

[bluenote]

Jigsaw Puzzle Tips

Hi Laura,

You don't have to move all the edge pieces to one side, in order to work on the frame. Click on the "edges" button at the top of the page and the program will show you only the edge pieces. When you are ready, click on the "all" button and all the pieces will be displayed.

I love this site, too!

Regards, Bluenote

[Laura]

Hi Bluenote:

Thanks so much!! That tip cut my solve time considerably!

Best regards,
Laura

[Laura]

Help!

I've linked 3 pieces together and realize the orientation is wrong. I can't rotate the group but how can I separate the pieces so that I can rotate them? My puzzle is in the Recent Games list and I'd love to finish it before it expires.

Thanks!!

Laura

[Ab12]

Help

You have got it right because once it happened to me to but it was right and i won.

[Laura]

Hi Ab12:

You were right. I went back and tried again and the pieces were correct. Is that why I couldn't separate them?

Thank you so much!

Best regards,
Laura

[Ab12]

Yes

[Ab12]

Tip

Do puzzles that have lots of different colors in them to make it easier. Like if you were going to do 96 pieces puzzle.

[Huganticman]

I've linked 3 pieces together and realize the orientation is wrong. I can't rotate the group but how can I separate the pieces so that I can rotate them? My puzzle is in the Recent Games list and I'd love to finish it before it expires.

Thanks!!

Laura

I don't believe that the 'puzzle engine' will allow you to link pieces that are not in the correct orientation. I have found that if I know two pieces go together (matching the pattern on the pieces, for example) they won't link until I have rotated them individually to the correct orientation.

I hope that makes sense.

[Laura]

Yes it does, thanks, Huganticman!! I've since found that to be true, and am grateful that the puzzle engine doesn't allow us to make such mistakes. It just wastes a lot of time.

Best regards,
Laura