This is the readme file for the sphere clear level editor.

OVERVIEW:
	The sphere clear editor allows you to create .puz files of your own which can be opened and played from the main program.  levels.puz is Sphere Clear's default file which contains all of the game's levels and is opened when Sphere Clear starts. (Note: if the game does not find levels.puz in the levels directory, it will fail to start. Make sure that you do not move, delete, or rename this file.) To use another file, simply select Open from the file menu and locate it. 
	Like levels.puz, the .puz files that you make can contain as many individual puzzles as you wish, and can use all the features that levels.puz has. For now, the next section will tell you how to create a file with just one puzzle, and later sections will tell you how to put additional puzzles into the file.

CREATING A SINGLE PUZZLE:
	When the editor starts, you will see an 8x8 blank puzzle called "untitled". First, save the file by selecting File | Save as... and call it whatever you wish. You will notice that this does not change the title of the puzzle.  This is because what you just named was the entire file. The file can contain multiple puzzles, which can all have seperate names.  To change the name of the puzzle, select Level | Settings. A window will open that allows you to choose the name of the puzzle, and also its size and the number of moves allowed  (Note: if you make a level smaller, you may delete some stuff that is on the right or bottom edges).  Now, to add stuff to the level, click on the appropriate item in the toolbar overhead, then click in the grid where you want it to go. You can continue clicking in the grid to place the same item again somewhere else. The first three buttons are new, open, and save (identical to the file menu options). After that are empty square and wall. The rest should be apparent if you've played the game (To find out what they all do, you can look in the help menu of Sphere Clear). 

CREATING A MULTI-PUZZLE FILE:
	To add more puzzles to the file, simply select Level | Add new level. You will once again see an 8x8 blank grid which you can edit. This second level will automatically come up once the player completes the first one.  You can create a third level, a fourth, and so on, and you can move between them using the left and right arrow keys. To see a list of all the levels in the file, select Level | Level manager. From here, you can add new levels, delete levels, go back to earlier levels, and change the order of the levels. The level manager is easy to use; just click on the level, then click on one of the buttons on the right to perform the specified action to it.  

DIFFICULTY GROUPS:
	By default, the levels in your file can be only be played in order. The next puzzle will be availible only after you've completed the one before it. This can be changed, however, by arranging the levels into difficulty groups. Each group contains as many or as few levels as you wish, and there can be as many groups as you wish. The significance of the groups in the game is that the next group will be availible only after you complete the group before it. Completing a group doesn't necessarily mean completing every level in it, because you can allow a certain number of levels within the group to be skipped. Levels.puz uses a setup of five levels per group, one of which can be skipped.  To use difficulty groups, select Level | difficulty groups, and from there you can add, delete, or edit the groups. If you click on the edit group button, you will be able to change the name of the group, the number of levels in the group, and the number of levels that can be skipped. The group name is for your reference, and also is displayed during the game when the group becomes availible.
	Notes: 
(1) if there are more levels than are contained in all the groups, the extra levels at the 	end must be played sequentially, and there will be no message box that says "new 	group availible" for these extra levels.
(2) if the groups extend beyond the actual levels, the excess will be cut off when you save 	the file.
(3) to make all the levels accessible from the start, make one group and put all the levels 	into it.