Jigsaw365 Support FAQ

Navigating the Calendar

When the game opens, you will arrive at a calendar screen showing the current month. Today's date will have a small highlight.

Navigate to other months by using the month selector located below and to the right of the calendar. Click the selector's right and left arrows to move forward or backwards a month. Click the selector "month" to pop up a menu of all of the months.

Choosing an Image

If the game is in Trial Mode, you may play puzzles using the five Trial Puzzles at the bottom of the calendar. In addition, you may play puzzles using any pictures you have placed in "My Month" (see below). Click the small thumbnail picture to begin a puzzle.

After purchasing the game, you will be prompted to download all 365 pictures and you may play all of the puzzles. Click the small thumbnail of any picture in the calendar to begin a puzzle.

Using Your Own Pictures ("My Month")

There's an extra month smack in between December and January. It's your own personal month! Click a day which displays the message "Add Your Picture Here". A file dialogue will appear. Choose a picture file from your hard drive. Jigsaw365 opens pictures which have been saved in the most popular PC and digital camera formats: .BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PCT, .TIF, .PSD and .PNG.

Once you have chosen a picture, you may zoom in and out, reposition it, choose a square or landscape orientation, and set it just the way you like. And don't worry . . . your original image file is not altered or moved by this game. It works with a copy of your original.

Choosing a Puzzle Style

There are more than 80 different puzzle styles in Jigsaw365! Many are traditional puzzle styles with a rectangular format and normal hook-and-eye pieces. But others styles are circular, have animal shapes or are cut in a special manner (such as a map of the USA).

After selecting a picture, the game displays the screen where you select a puzzle style. There are two slide bars at the bottom-center of the screen. The top slide bar lets you choose the number of pieces in your puzzle (from 12 to 200). Click the slide button on this top bar and drag it left and right. As you do this, the bottom slide bar changes. This bottom slide bar shows you the many style choices for a given numbers of pieces. If you would like to see absolutely every style available, use the keyboard's left and right arrow keys. The arrow keys step you through the styles one-by-one.

When you have selected the style you want to play, click the START button to begin your game.

Setting Options

When you are playing a puzzle, you may control many aspects of the play environment. These are accessed from the MENU button in the game's upper left corner. From this menu, you may:

  • Show Edges Only (hide all middle pieces).
  • Show the puzzle's picture.
  • Arrange the pieces.
  • Move Groups of Pieces.
  • Display a Help screen.
  • Solve the puzzle.
  • Save your puzzle progress.
  • Quit the puzzle and return to the calendar.

Note that sometimes there is a letter to the right of the MENU entry. This letter is the keyboard hot key which will trigger the choice as well.

The first entry in the MENU is OPTIONS. Click OPTIONS to display the special options screen where you may:

  • Choose your preferred background for the play area.*
  • Change the game's sound volume.*
  • Turn on piece rotation.
  • Select how the mouse will work when you click a piece (Regular or Sticky).*
  • Choose whether the clock should be visible.*

For your convenience, the OPTIONS settings with asterisks (*) are stored as your preferences and remembered the next time you start up the program. You may change them at any time.

Saving Puzzles

Although there is an entry in the MENU named SAVE PUZZLE (and you are free to use this at any time), Jigsaw365 will always automatically save the exact state of your puzzle. It does this whenever you have connected at least two pieces of the puzzle.

As you exit the puzzle, you'll see a small Save window display as you return to the calendar. Once the calendar appears, you will notice that there is a small circular pie chart in the date of the puzzle you have played and saved.

This little pie chart shows approximately how much of the puzzle you have completed. When you have completely put together a puzzle, the pie chart disappears.

Buying the Game

Click the BUY NOW button at the bottom of the calendar screen. This window will appear.

Click the BUY NOW" link in the window. Your browser will launch and the secure order page for Jigsaw365 will appear. Place your order. Shortly after you complete your order, you will receive two e-mails. The first e-mail will contain your order number, receipt information and regcode (also known as a Game Key). The second e-mail will have detailed instructions for unlocking your game (pretty much what we are describing here).

Once you have received the e-mails, open the game and once again click the BUY NOW button. When the window appears, enter the e-mail address you used when placing your order and the Game Key which you received in the e-mail. Click the UNLOCK link at the bottom of the window and the game will be fully enabled! And, thank you for your purchase!!

Downloading all 365 Pictures

Once you have purchased and unlocked the game, you may immediately download all of the images for the entire year of puzzles. These images have been assembled into 12 files (one for each month) and you may download these months in any order. The file for each individual month has a file size of approximately 3.5 Mb.

For users with high speed connections, you will probably simply wish to get all of the months in one fell swoop (as this will only take a few moments). For dial-up modem users, you may wish to download a month whenever you run out of puzzles to play. The option is yours.

As you navigate the calendar (after buying the game), a yellow Post-It note will appear in the corner of months you have not yet downloaded. Click this Post-It note to begin your download -- or click any date within that month.

When you are downloading a month's images, the game automatically saves the file to your hard drive. You will not have to perform any special installations on your own.

I Need a Copy of My Game Key

Computers sometimes unpleasantly break (fail, crash, etc.). People sometimes buy new computers. In both cases, our customers sometimes need to reinstall Jigsaw365 and unlock it again.

The first thing we recommend for our games is: print out a hard copy of the e-mail you received which contains the registration code and file it in a safe place. If you have many games on your system, this will save you hours and remove uncertainty from the process of reconstructing your setup. It is simply a good habit to get into.

Nevertheless, you are probably reading this section because you don't have a hard copy of your registration code (Game Key). In this case, please use the form on this page to e-mail our technical support and please provide the following information:

  1. name of the product you purchased,
  2. e-mail address you used when purchasing,
  3. purchaser's full name.

If we find your order in our database, we will send you the Game Key in a timely manner.