Sudoku Players' Forum (clone)

New to Sudoku and this forum, please bear with me.

How do I go about laying out a puzzle grid in one of these messages so that it is easily readable by others and they can respond to my questions?

Silver Surfer wrote:How do I go about laying out a puzzle grid in one of these messages so that it is easily readable by others and they can respond to my questions?

Cut and past the blank grid below into Notepad. Replace relevant dots/periods with numbers and then paste the grid back into the forum embeded in "code" tags (which forces fixed width characters).

Code: Select all

... ... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...
-----------
... ... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...
-----------
... ... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...

Examples:

Embedded in 'code' blocks:

Code: Select all

.4. 6.. ..9
8.. 7.. .5.
..1 9.8 2..
-----------
... .9. 4.8
2.. .4. ..6
5.4 .6. ...
-----------
..8 2.9 7..
.6. ..1 ..4
9.. ..6 .3.

Without code blocks:
.4. 6.. ..9
8.. 7.. .5.
..1 9.8 2..
-----------
... .9. 4.8
2.. .4. ..6
5.4 .6. ...
-----------
..8 2.9 7..
.6. ..1 ..4
9.. ..6 .3.

Finally, if you want it to look pretty:

Code: Select all

 *-----------*
 |.4.|6..|..9|
 |8..|7..|.5.|
 |..1|9.8|2..|
 |---+---+---|
 |...|.9.|4.8|
 |2..|.4.|..6|
 |5.4|.6.|...|
 |---+---+---|
 |..8|2.9|7..|
 |.6.|..1|..4|
 |9..|..6|.3.|
 *-----------*

One good way is to type it (or copy/paste it directly from software) into a text editor or word processor set to a fixed-width font (e.g. Courier New), making sure it appears as desired(*), then copy/paste it into the posting window, select (highlight) it, and click Code. Preview it before submitting.

(*) If your question is about what the desired layout is, rather than how to accomplish it, I think the following form is readable by most solvers, or easily adusted to be so:

Code: Select all

 . . . | . . . | . . .
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 ------+-------+------
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 ------+-------+------
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 . . . | . . . | . . .
 . . . | . . . | . . .

Note added after our nearly simultaneous replies:

angusj,
To take your example, I think this form (which appears to be readable by your program and also the Susser, as well as rubylips' program) is much prettier for humans ...

Code: Select all

 . 4 . | 6 . . | . . 9
 8 . . | 7 . . | . 5 .
 . . 1 | 9 . 8 | 2 . .
 ------+-------+------
 . . . | . 9 . | 4 . 8
 2 . . | . 4 . | . . 6
 5 . 4 | . 6 . | . . .
 ------+-------+------
 . . 8 | 2 . 9 | 7 . .
 . 6 . | . . 1 | . . 4
 9 . . | . . 6 | . 3 .

Thanks to both of you. You provided exactly the information I needed.

And on the same sort of topic, how do you include images?

The FAQ is deeply unhelpful as it doesn't provide info on the embedded code and I'm unclear about where I can and cannot hold the image. Is it like what you have to wrap around the URL when you put your own image into an eBay item description - the FAQ suggests it's different? I have an allocation of webspace via my ISP - will that do?

Can I just paste the image into the text editor like Word or Wordpad and copy the whole lot over into the box?

First of all, the picture needs to be on the Internet, not on your hard drive. If you need to put it on the Internet, imageshack.us is a good place to go. One you've uploaded the image, I think it will gove you some code you can paste directly into the reply box. If not, you need to find the URL of the picture (http://www.website.com/picture.jpg or whatever), and then the code to put it in a post looks like this:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.website.com/picture.jpg[/img]

In case it is being missed ...
After opening a posting window by clicking the "Quote", "New Topic", or "Post Reply" button, look in the lower left corner -- the word "BBCode" is a link to a page that explains much of what is being discussed, and more.