Word Search in Tamil - 'Word Finder' Puzzle Game - Azhagi's

Word Finder (One of its kind*)
- This tool was developed based on the Divine inspiration provided by a user-wellwisher. I don't know him personally, to this date (25-May-2025). I have not talked to him and do not know wherefrom he is. The following correspondence (on 12-Sep-2023) between the user-wellwisher and myself will help you understand how it all started, with regard to this tool.
- Note: The Divine book (shiva_t.pdf) shared by the user-wellwisher in his email mentioned above is here. It has been shared in Azhagi Facebook Group's 'FILES' section too.
- Having written all the above, I have to tell that 'Word Finder' was anyway a dream tool for me itself, personally. Because, I have always been a lover of puzzles and words, right from my young age (around 5th std. itself). I used to be joyfully fond of anagrams. I used to solve jumbled words in 'The Hindu' with great interest. And, once I joined college (REC Calicut, in 1985), I took a special liking to solve the daily crosswords in 'The Hindu' which was a delight, esp. in those days when physical dictionary was the only aid for solving the clues. I had the 'Chambers 20th Century' dictionary, one of the very best. No words can explain howwww much the time spent in such word puzzles helped me in enriching my English vocabulary (to whatever levels it is, now). Actually, I used to solve such puzzles, esp. Crossword (the daily one in 'The Hindu' esp.), even until 2015 or so (as far as I can remember), sometimes daily (for some days together), sometimes now and then.
- And, since 2000 or so, after seeing WordWeb (and later on 'The Sage') application, I have always been desirous of having such software (with all the beautiful features they provide) for Tamil too. "I AM That Word" provides quite a few tools seen in them, already.
- Much like the way just one word has been used in the "shiva_t.pdf" for the whole word search, you can too have just one word to be searched in the whole puzzle.
- You can have the same word hidden in 10 different places too in the grid.
- Coming to the 'Yours' (i.e. your own words) option, your pasted text can be any text, even intermixed with English or any other languages. The Tamil words alone in it will be picked 'automatically' and the first 10 of them alone will be used. If there are less than 10 Tamil words, the same will be used. This is a very special feature and of great advantage since you need not take the strain to arrange the words in order, linewise. Please see screenshot below.
- The above 'very special feature' also means that you can create categorized puzzles easily. Just visit an article in the net (say a wikipedia article on விவசாயம்), select any text of your choice therein (even if there are English words intermixed in it) and paste it in the text box provided on the right top. Your agriculture-based puzzle is ready in a jiffy. The top 10 words in the pasted text (excl. the English words) will be selected.
- Like our Beloved Shri. Abdul Kalam Ji, I always feel that children are the backbone of this country. And, this tool is tailor-made for them; to be of benefit to them in very many ways.
- Linguists and Tamil enthusiasts will love this tool too, greatly.
- For the sincere Teachers and Students, this is a great boon to enrich their Tamil vocabulary and thus enrich our Mother Tamil itself, for the posterity.
- In fact, for anybody who wishes to enrich his/her vocabulary in Tamil, 'Word Finder' is an excellent aid.
- Traditionally, 'Word Search' is the term used for these kinds of puzzles but then I had already provided a tool named 'Word Searcher' in 'I AM' app. So, I came up with the idea of naming this tool as 'Word Finder' (introduced first in the preview version 11 of 'I AM').
- Actually, if we look upon it well, 'Word Finder' seems to be the ideal choice as a name for these kinds of puzzles. Because, the words are already given and known to you. You are just locating (finding) them in the assorted letters in the grid.
- The tool starts with displaying (rather than hiding) 10 Tamil words in the grid. These are the default words and give you an idea of how the puzzle/tool works.
- The 'Show the Hidden Words', 'Show the Paths', 'Same Color', 'Show Numbers' options are self-explanatory. Just tick/untick them and you can see what happens.
- To generate a random puzzle, click on 'Random' option.
- In 'Random' option, you can click on the 'Generate' button to generate as many 'random' puzzles you want. You can see the 10 words of any of those puzzles in the top right box.
- During the 'Random' option, you have the choice to tell whether the words should start or end with a particular letter and of a particular length.
- The more the words you add to the database, less are the chances of words ending in ottrezhuththukkal (க், ச், ப், etc.) during 'Random' option.
- Actually, if you are reasonably tech-savvy, then you have the choice to have the grid's words in a preset manner too, completely in the way you want them. You need to use the 'File->Load from File' option for the same. The name of the file has to be 'WordsFinder-PresetWords.txt' and it has to be located in "Atman\I AM\inps\" directory of your installation folder. A sample for the contents of the file is as hereunder:
  
  சாய்ராம் 1a-1d
  ராமகிருஷ்ணர் 1c-7c
  ஓம்நமசிவாய 8a-14a
  நம்பிக்கை 10a-10e
  கைலாயம் 10e-7h
  ஆத்மா 3e-5g
  மனிதன் 12g-15g
  என்பவன் 15f-15j
  தெய்வம் 10k-13k
  ஆகலாம் 14l-14o
  
  The numbers above represent the rows and the letters above represent the columns. To facilitate you in creating the above text file, you can first arrange them in an excel file. A sample screenshot is give below.
- After finding out a word (in a grid as seen below, where the words are hidden), you can press the mouse down in the starting letter of the found word, and drag it to the last letter of the word and then leave the mouse free without pressing. If you selected your word correctly, then 'Word Finder' will inform you so with a message and also a music playing (for a very few seconds) simultaneously. If you selected wrongly, the same will be informed to you with a message. As you drag the mouse, a highlighter will keep highlighting the area where you are dragging the mouse so that you clearly know which letters you are selecting and whether you are selecting them correctly.
- (*) I think so, as far as my knowledge goes. So, in case you are aware of any other Windows desktop software already existing, doing ALL that 'Word Finder' is doing, please let me know. I mean, kindly please do not suggest me already existing apps (if any) which do basic stuff in Tamil 'Word Search'. Because, if that is the case, then I would humbly continue to consider 'Word Finder' unique only.

Azhagi's "Word Finder" Puzzle Game - 'Word Search' in Tamil - One of its kind

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