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Trouble setting up a puzzle cache description


Ain'tWastin'Time

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I am trying to setup a puzzle cache using symbols I found online for the last 3 digits of the coordinates. I cut & pasted the symbols into word to make the mystery coordinates. When I copied it to the cache description the symbols didn't transfer. For example:

 

Word Document N 41 45.SSS W 086 31.SSS S = symbol

Copied Document N 41 45. W 086 31.

 

Can someone give me advice on how to set up the coordinates?

Edited by Ain'tWastin'Time
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One way you could do it is, for example if the symbols were "ABCDEF", upload individual small image files of "A" thru "F", six "GIF" or "JPG" files uploaded to the cache page's image gallery. Then set up the coordinates so the images show up in the coordinates as "N 41 45.ABC W 086 31.DEF". You use HTML in the cache description. It's a little technical, but not too difficult once you get started on that. You'll have to do some tweaking of font sizes, and not all browsers handle text the same way. But it might work out OK. And you could have just two image files if one was "ABC" and the other was "DEF".

 

A simpler solution is to take a screen shot of the entire "N 41 45.ABC W 086 31.DEF" coordinates as you see them in Word itself. You could place those coords on a cool image of your choosing. Then crop and upload that one image (the screen shot of the coords and the backdrop together), symbols and all. You could refer to the "Image Gallery" where cachers will see the code, or you could insert that single image into the cache description using HTML.

 

In either case, a little extra information about what cachers should see, would be helpful. Someone using a handheld GPSr that displays the text of cache pages, may not see an image.

Edited by kunarion
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I can't find the actual cache, but - I recall seeing a mystery cache where the puzzle was hand-drawn and photographed, then that photo was uploaded to the cache description. This may not be needed for your puzzle, since you already have your symbols in MS Word, but wanted to let you know of such an option in case you do another puzzle with odd/unusual shapes that can't be created in a standard program.

 

As kunarion mentioned, it would be nice to put something in the cache description like "Solve the puzzle in this photo to find the hiding place". Although I doubt many cachers solve puzzles from their GPSr's, rather than solve them online and then load the solved coords into their GPSr's.

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As kunarion mentioned, it would be nice to put something in the cache description like "Solve the puzzle in this photo to find the hiding place". Although I doubt many cachers solve puzzles from their GPSr's, rather than solve them online and then load the solved coords into their GPSr's.

Even text may be confusing, on some displays. I got brave and worked a Multi from my Garmin Oregon screen, one time. It had a formula like "A*B2", which shows in the text on screen as "A*B2".

Yeah, I didn't find it that day. :anicute:

Edited by kunarion
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3579eb82-d482-4a5f-8735-d18720d1729f_l.jpg

 

Umm... Create in Word or Excel. Control prt scr. Copy into Microsoft Digital Imaging (or other such program). Crop image. Save as .jpg file. Upload to cache page. Copy the image into the cache page. Works for me. Will show up on the cache page. Won't show up on a GPS, but it will on the cache page. (From one of my archived mystery caches.)

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I am trying to setup a puzzle cache using symbols I found online for the last 3 digits of the coordinates. I cut & pasted the symbols into word to make the mystery coordinates. When I copied it to the cache description the symbols didn't transfer. For example:

 

Word Document N 41 45.SSS W 086 31.SSS S = symbol

Copied Document N 41 45. W 086 31.

 

Can someone give me advice on how to set up the coordinates?

 

Cutting and pasting to/from Word is just asking for trouble. It often includes huge amounts of html markup for formatting

 

Your best best would be to make sure that your caches listing is using "Use HTML Markup" then create the symbols using html entities. This page has a full list of symbols that can be displayed using html entiies:

 

Click on the "try it" button to see how to display each can be displayed using the decimal or hex value.

 

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