Playing Jigsaw Puzzles
To solve the puzzle just click on* a piece and drag* the piece (with your computer mouse) to the correct place .

*Click on Using your mouse move the cursor on the computer screen to where you need to click. Then press your mouse button.

Click and drag*. Repeat above except keep your mouse button pressed while you move the cursor on your computer screen.

Missing/duplicate pieces

Clicking "Hint" button will bring the piece covered by other pieces in front.
If you still have a problem scroll down to For problems with graphics/images

How can I see larger images?
Go to the top of the board, and click the small image on the right. A new window will open with a larger image of the puzzle you have to complete.

How can I play with jigsaw pieces ?
Only our new jigsaw puzzle program has jigsaw pieces option, so if you want to play with jigsaw shapes, you should use the upper links like http://www.freejigsawpuzzles.com/beta/daffodil_field_puzzle.htm . The old program links are labeled (old program).

How can I see the puzzle picture while completing the puzzle ?
Clicking on the small puzzle picture in the upper right corner will open the puzzle picture in new browser window. Then resize each window so you can see the picture while completing the puzzle. To resize the browser window double click the title bar. Then adjust the window size by dragging the mouse on the edges.

How Options page works?
Click "Options" button on the top. An "Options" screen will open. Choose the number of pieces, or the shape of puzzle pieces, or even the game difficulty (easy, medium or difficult). Sound on/off option is available, too. After you chose your preferences, click "OK" button to save the options, or "Cancel" button to let the options unchanged. If you choose a different number of pieces, or a different shape, or if you change the difficulty level and you click "OK", it will be a delay of few seconds, due to the fact that a new puzzle game will be build, with your preferences.

How can I change the number of pieces?
Go to the top of the board, and click the "Options" button. An "Options" screen will open. Select the number of pieces, by clicking the number you want, then click "OK" button. A new game will be started with the chosen number of pieces.

How to make puzzle pieces classic pieces/ or squares?
Go to the top of the board, and click the "Options" button. An "Options" screen will open. Select the shape between classical and square, by clicking the shape you want, then click "OK" button. A new game will be started with the chosen shape of pieces.

How to increase or decrease the snap distance?
Go to the top of the board, and click the "Options" button. An "Options" screen will open. Select the difficulty level, between easy, medium and difficult, by clicking the level you want, then click "OK" button. A new game will be started with the chosen difficulty level. The easy level has a large snap distance between pieces, making the puzzle easier to play for children, the medium level a medium snap distance, and the difficult level has a tiny snap distance.

How to replay a puzzle?
Go to the top of the board, and click the "Shuffle" button. A new game will be started.

I receive a message that says "Illegal operation"
"Illegal operation" more likely is fault of the browser. Netscape 4 for example often crashes in case of insufficient memory. So sooner or later ( depends on amount of loaded data and total free memory ) it crashes. With Java it need to allocate additional 10-15MB of memory for Java Virtual Machine to run the puzzles, so it crashes more often with java.

I don't see the new puzzles
Right click on the home page (http://FreeJigsawPuzzles.com)   then select "refresh" from the pop-up menu, or hold down the shift key while selecting refresh.

AOL PC users can force a refresh by holding down the CONTROL key on their keyboard and mouse clicking on the AOL browser reload icon. The latter will completely clear all items in history

Problems solving puzzles
Each puzzle has a border on at least two sides (left side and top). Begin by placing these two rows in the correct order. Next try to complete the image(s) in the picture. If you have completed the puzzle correctly a win page will open, if not  move two pieces that look similar. Look closely at the picture to see minor differences in pieces. Examine the color in the pieces, do they look like they fit together. If two pieces are identical, move the two pieces to find the correct position. We recommend starting with the simple puzzles, the fractals are very difficult.

I put the puzzle together and no win window opens
Close all your open internet browsers, EXCEPT the jigsaw puzzle window. When you complete a puzzle the congratulations webpage will open in a new window.

Problem with game loading
The games will not work if you have WebTV or Windows 3

If a game takes more than 2 minutes to start there maybe Internet congestion or heavy game activity. If after 2 minutes the game has not started click on the refresh button on your internet browser and wait for the game to load. 

Continued problems maybe be a result of an incompatible browser, a browser without Java support or Java is not turned on.

We recommend that you use the latest versions of your internet browser. Below are free download links.
Download the current Internet Explorer PC click here  Mac click here
Download the current Netscape Browser for PC or Mac click here
Download the AOL 6.0 click here

Turn on Java feature (I do not get the games to come up)
Make sure your firewall program allows java access.

Open your browser.If other solutions do not work or you have Windows XP on your computer you will need to download to the Sun Java 2 Plugin, see below.

Internet Explorer, go to tools/Internet Options. Click on advanced options, scroll down to Java, click the check box which is next to Java Console enables
Netscape: To change access privileges: Open the Security Info window by clicking the padlock icon, the select Java/JavaScript. Select a certificate, and click Edit Privileges. The Java Security Target Details Dialog Box appears. It provides detailed information about the kind of access a Java applet or JavaScript has or is requesting. You can choose the privileges you want to grant for this session or future sessions.

Still having a problem. Try the following.
1. Internet Explorer: Open Explorer program, not internet explorer. Go to C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 click on the folder. Delete all the files. Netscape: Open Explorer program, not internet explorer. Go to C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\ click on the folder under Users, then open Cache folder. Delete all the files except fat.db.
2. Holding down the shift key press the reload button on your browser

Downloading the Sun Java 2 Plugin to update your Java VM, even if you have recently downloaded the Microsoft Java VM update. Here's how to download the Java Plugin from Sun Microsystems:

Go to the following URL:
http://java.sun.com/getjava/download.html

1. On the Sun Java Download page, click the purple 'Download' button under #1 in the instructions.
2. A new webpage will load to signify that the download has begun (it happens in the background). Please allow up to 15-30 minutes (56K) for the download to complete. (the file is approximately 9 MB)
3. Once the download is complete, a graphic of a steaming cup of 'java' will load on the right side of the page. This is how you'll know when the installation is complete.
You should clear your browser cache before playing again, just to prevent problems with older cached applets.This is important. If you have problems click on the my computer icon on your desktop. If C is your hard drive, right click the c icon, scroll to properties, click on disk cleanup, make sure temporary internet files has a x in the box, then click ok.

For problems with graphics/images
If pieces are duplicated you may have a low computer resources problems
Close all running programs, relaunch your browser and try again
then
Checking your system resources open windows explorer (not internet explorer) click on help/about windows. Displayed is your available system resources.

If the problem is with our Web Site e-mail support  Please include the name of the game and a description of the problem. Include the Java console information in your email, along with your browsers version number (to see click on help/about) and your operating system (example Win 98). Send this info together with a brief description of the problem and the name of the game.

Error messages can be found in Java console. When e-mailing support include a copy of this log. To find log see instructions below. 
Netscape - Go to communicator/tool/Java console. Copy the content.

Internet Explorer - Go to tools/internet options, then click on advanced and check "Java console enabled". This will enable the Java console. After a restart of your browser you can select View / Java console from the menu then copy the content. You will first need to repeat the problem.

Game does not fit my screen
Windows: To change your monitor setting, click on the start button in the lower left part of our computer window, scroll to settings, scroll to control panel, then click on display image, click on setting button at top of new window, increase the screen area
MAC: From the pull down Apple menu, (top left corner of the screen) pull down Control Panels, choose Monitors and select "options" increase the resolution setting.

Still problems. Windows 95 and Windows 98 comes with Microsoft Internet Explorer "built in", or integrated in with your system. 1. Launch Microsoft Internet Explorer. 2.. Look up at the top toolbar, click on 'view', then click on 'internet options'. When the new window pops up, click on the 'advanced' tab. Scroll down in the new window until you see "Java VM", CHECK all boxes in that category!! After you have checked all the boxes, you will have to re-start your computer. When it is up and going, you should have the ability to view any and all games. 

I'm connected to America Online while playing a games and get disconnected. Why?
If you're not directly using one of AOL's services, and happen to be off surfing the Net, playing Classic Games or the like, AOL will send out an "You have been idle..." message after a period of time. If you don't respond, they'll automatically disconnect you from the Internet.

I can't play games through AOL!

Verify your AOL configuration.

Clearing your cache and other settings will ensure that you get the best performance out of our games. Follow the steps below to optimize your settings for our games:
1) Open AOL.
2) Go to AOL Preferences; the easiest way to do this is by using the Keyword "preferences".
3) Click on "Internet Properties".
4a) If you are using AOL 5.0 or 6.0, click the [Delete Files] button in the center of the screen.
4b) If you are using AOL 4.0, click the [Advanced]tab at the top of the screen, then click the [Clear Cache] button.
5) Click the [Security ] tab at the top of the screen.
6) Verify that the browser is set to "Medium". If it is set to "Custom" or "High", click the [Default Level] button.
7) Click the [Web Graphics] tab at the top of the screen.
8) Click the "Never compress graphics" option.
9) Click [OK].
10) Close and restart AOL.