Siamese Word Ladder Help?

[Scott Heiner]

I swear, I've searched high and low for an answer to the strange problem plaguing me, and haven't the faintest what I'm doing wrong. (It's probably something really simple).

I'm attempting to make a Siamese Word Ladder, where you have to type the full 6 letter combination of two smaller words. I've got it such that the extra column shows up when the answer comes through, but I don't know how to ensure the first three letter word appears in the answer column without allowing it as an answer.

i.e. If the rung was GEM|GUY, I have my answer stored as GEM/GEMGUY. If the user types GUY, it wouldn't register, but it would for GEM. I only want it to work for the full GEMGUY. And I don't know what option needs to be checked, or whether I need to do something fancier on the data side. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

-Scott

[PLKphoto]

I've seen different approaches to this problem. 

I got away from the whole issue in this word ladder by having the hints for each column on either side with both words in the "answer" column.

It sounds like you're trying to clue both words in the hint column and have the two ladders show up separately, one in the "answer" and one in the "extra" column. I played around with this and I think that what you need to do is have an invisible character in the first answer that people won't type. A special format space on either side, for example. I recommend using the ideographic space (　) you can probably copy/paste the space from between the parentheses, or you can find it here. Paste a space like that on either side of the answer you want to display, then type your alternate answer: 　GEM　/GEMGUY

Hope that helps… :-)

Cheers,

PLK

[Scott (VeritasUnae)]

Thanks PLK. This worked perfectly.

[Probo11]

@PLK I liked this solution so much I used it for my own quiz. Hope you don't mind (imitation is the highest form of flattery). You can play it if you're interested, Secretary of state.

[PLKphoto]

That's okay… I stole it from the Beatles: