Copyright: Copyright Antony Lewis 1998


Creating new word lists

To create a new word list, open the Word List Manager and click on the New... button. Enter a name for your new word list and press Create. Your new word list will now appear in the Available Word Lists box, and it will be empty. You can type in a description of the list below the list of word lists, and press the Change Info button to store it permanently.

When you've made the new list you can add words to it directly, or add words from another word list.


Adding and removing words from word lists

To add or remove words from any of the existing word lists, first open the Word List Manager and select the list that you want to change.

Adding words

Either press the Add... button or select Add Words form the Word List menu. After you've typed in a word press Enter, and it will appear in the box below with the score specified in the Score number box. Keep typing in words, pressing enter after each one, until you've typed in all the words you want to add, and then press the Add All button, which will add them to the word list.

If you make a mistake you can change the word by double clicking on it, correcting it, and pressing Enter.

Removing words

Select Remove words... from the Word List menu and just type in the words you want to remove. Press Enter after each word to start a new line. When you've finished either press Alt+O or press the OK button. The words will then be removed from the selected word list.

If you come across a word that you want to remove when using Autofind or Find Word, just select the word in the dialog box and press delete. You can also delete a word in a crossword grid by placing the cursor in the word, changing its direction to the direction of the word (by pressing TAB), and pressing Ctrl+D.


Viewing and Editing lists

You can view and edit the contents of a word list using the Word List Manager. Select the list that you want to view and edit, and click on the View button. Words in the list will now appear on the right hand side, with their corresponding scores.

If it is a large word list the words will only be displayed one starting letter at a time. You can change which starting letter to view by clicking on the alphabet to the side. Starting letters not in the range A - Z can all be view at once by selecting the ... entry.

To edit a word, just click on it with the mouse, and change the text that appears in the Edit input box at the bottom. You can also change the word's score. When you change to another word list or close the Word List Manager the word list will be updated to reflect the changes that you've made.


Adding plain text word lists

It's possible to add plain text word lists to Crossword Compiler lists using the Word List Manager. The plain text list must have one word per line, like this:

 First

 Second

 Third

Punctuation, capitalisation and word order are not important. To add the list open the Word List Manager and select the word list to which you want to add it. Then select Add text file... from the Word List menu, and select the file that you want to add. You will then be prompted for what scores you want to give the added words.

If your plain text list is in UNIX format (e.g. maybe if you downloaded it from the Internet) you will be prompted to automatically convert it.


Changing word list scores

Each of the words in a word list has an associated score. You can change the score of individual words by viewing and editing words directly, or change all the scores in a list by selecting Change scores... from the Word List Manager's Word List menu.

To the scores in a word list, open the Word List Manager and select the word list whose scores you want to change. The select Change scores from the Word List menu. You can either change all the scores to a certain value, or change all the scores by a certain amount (which is usually what you want as it preserves the score ordering), or change scores of a certain value to another value.

If you just want to change the scores of the words that you have used in a puzzle, use the Change scores of words in puzzle command.


Converting word lists

Crossword Compiler word lists are in a special format that cannot be used by other programs. However it is possible to convert to and from the Crossword Compiler format by using the commands on the Convert menu of the Word List Manager.

Converting a Crossword Compiler list to plain text

Select the word list you want to convert in the Word List Manager and then select List to plain text... from the Convert menu. Type in the name you want to save the converted file as and press Save. The list will be saved with one word on each line of the text file (the word scores are ignored).

Converting a plain text list to a Crossword Compiler list

You can convert any plain text word list file containing one word per line (as for adding plain text word lists to existing Crossword Compiler lists). Select Plain text to list... from the Convert menu, and select the list that you want to convert. You will then be prompted for a name for the converted word list, and what score you want to give its words.

Converting words in a clue database to a word list

You may wish to use only words for which you have clues written, in which case it is useful to have a word list containing only words for which there are clues in the clue database.

Converting old Crossword Compiler word lists

The word lists used with previous versions of Crossword Compiler are not compatible with this version's. You can however convert them by selecting Old Crossword Compiler list... from the Convert menu, and selecting the list to convert. You will then be prompted for a name for the converted list, the score to give the words in the list, and whether you want to delete the old Crossword Compiler list once it has been converted successfully.


Character sets

Crossword Compiler can be used in many different languages, including ones that don't use the standard ANSI character set that is used for most West European languages. For instance Russian uses the Cyrillic character set and Hungarian uses the East European set.

Each Crossword Compiler word list has an associated character set, which ensures that the words in the word list. are always displayed using the correct characters. This way it is possible to create Russian crosswords even if you are using the English version of Windows.

To make use of multiple character sets you must have support for them installed. You can do this by selecting Add/Remove Programs from the Windows Control Panel, selecting Windows Setup and clicking on the Multilanguage Support option. Click OK and Windows will install the necessary fonts.

You can change the character set used in the crossword grid by selecting Font... from the Grid menu, and changing the Script setting. Likewise for the clues by selecting Clue Properties... from the Clue menu, clicking on the Font... button and changing the script. You will probably want to use the same character set for the grid and the clues, but if you want to create, say, a Russian-English translation practise crossword, you may not!

You can change the character set associated with a word list in the Word List Manager. Select the word list that you want to change, and the select Character Set... from the Word List menu. Then click on the set that you want to use. If you check the Save as default box each new word list that you create will automatically use the character set that you have selected.

It's a good idea to make sure that the grid and the word lists that you are using with it have the same character set, otherwise the words that appear in the word list won't be displayed correctly in the grid.


Word Lists

Crossword Compiler word lists are collections of words that you can use for word finding, finding anagrams and filling in grids. You can have many different word lists, and use different ones with different crosswords, and easily change between them when you're looking for words.

The program comes supplied with one word list, but there are many optional ones that you can also use. You can also create your own using the Word List Manager.

Things aren't that simple however! Each word in the word list also has an associated score, which Crossword Compiler uses to find good fits when grid filling. You probably don't need to worry too much about the word scores, but you can change them if you like using the Word List Manager.

Each word list also has an associated character set, which gives them powerful multilanguage capabilities.

Word lists are stored as files of the LST file type. However you should never need to deal with the word files directly unless you wish to copy the file (for instance for a backup).


Word scoring in word lists

Each word in a Crossword Compiler word list has an associated score. The value of the score can be anything between 0 and 100. The scores are used to optimise grid filling, and to allow you to cut off words with too low a score when you're finding words or looking for anagrams.

For example, in the default word list most words either have a score of 25 or 50. The words with 50 are rather more common, and are generally root words (i.e. not many -ing, -ed, endings, etc.). When you do grid filling, Crossword Compiler can use this information to make sure that you get far more of the better words in your crosswords. You could also hide all the words with a score of only 25 by setting the cut-off minimum score for word finding, anagram finding or grid filling to, say, 30. You can change the cut-off scores in the List Usage box.

The absolute magnitude of the word scores is not very important. Mostly what matters is the relative scores, with a word higher than another being used much more frequently (in grid filling).

In detail, the scoring of the default word list is as follows:

 Fairly common words	50

 Less common words and word derivatives	25

 Vulgar words likely to be unsuitable for crosswords	10

if you installed for British English then

 Fairly common American English words	3

 Less common American English words	2

or if you installed for American English

 Fairly common British English words	3

 Less common British English words	2

Hence the default cut-off score of 5 will avoid all words that aren't used in your preferred variety of English.

You can change scores in a word list by selecting Change Scores in the Word List Manager


Merging and removing word lists

You can add other word lists to a o word list, and remove the words in one list from another list using the Word List Manager.

Adding other word lists

First select the list that you want to add the other lists to, then select Add other lists... from the Word List menu. Select the word lists that you want to add and change the score settings as desired. When you press the OK button the lists will be added, and you'll be shown a summary of the changes that have been made.

Removing words from another list

Select the list that you want to remove words from. Then select Remove words from... from the Word List menu and select the list whose words you want to remove. When you press OK the words will be removed, and you'll be shown a summary of the changes made.

If you want to modify a list but keep a copy of the original you can use the Duplicate list command on the Word List menu, which creates a copy of a word list with a name you specify.


Word List Manager

You can use the Word List Manager to view, edit, change and create word lists. To open the manager select Word List Manager... from the Words menu.

The box on the left shows all the word lists that you have at the moment. Below that there is a panel which gives information about the selected list. To view a list just click on its name, and then press the View button at the bottom. To change the list information just type in some new text and press the Change Info button.

You can create and delete word lists by pressing the buttons at the bottom of the window, or for more advanced functions select one of the options from the Word List or Convert menus. For example, to rename a word list select Rename list from the Word List menu.

See the following for more information:

Viewing and editing lists

Creating new lists

Adding and removing words

Merging word lists together

Adding plain text word lists

Changing word list scores

Converting word lists

Character sets


Crossword Templates

Whenever you start a new crossword you are given the choice of various templates to choose from. These are just Crossword Compiler files, with settings information, which you can re-use to make new crosswords. Having different templates saves the bother of changing the settings each time you do a crossword, and you can have different templates with wildly different settings for the different types of puzzle you create.

Templates can also contain the pattern in the grid. For instance you may wish to make templates with various standard pattern layouts. When you create a new puzzle using a template that has a pattern already, the new puzzle will also contain the pattern if the size you select for the new puzzle is the same as the original size of the template.

Creating a new template

All you have to do is start a new crossword with one of the existing templates, change any settings that you want changed, and select Save as template... from the File menu. Enter a name for the new template and press OK. Your new template will now be added to the list of available templates when you create a new crossword.

Changing an existing template

You may wish to do this to customise some of the default templates, or just to change the settings in an existing template. Just open a new puzzle using the existing template, make the changes, and select Save as template... from the File menu. You can now select the template's name from the drop-down list, or just type in the name of the template. You will be prompted to make sure you want to replace the template, and then the change will be made.

Opening a puzzle with settings from a different template

Each crossword file has its own settings information. However, you can open a puzzle with a different set of settings by selecting one of the existing templates when you open a crossword file. This could be very useful if someone sends you a Crossword Compiler file and you don't share their taste for puzzles with lime green squares and bright red lines!


Autofind

Use Autofind to find words to fit in the puzzle. Select Autofind from the Words menu, or click the right mouse button on a square in the word slot that you want to fill. Words are found to fit in the current type direction, but if there is only one possible word through the cursor's square, words are found to fit in that direction.

For example if you had a puzzle that looked like this:

You may want to find a word to fit down the middle. Click with the right mouse button on one of the squares, for example, above the 'D', to pop up a list of words that fit. Simply scroll through and select the word you want and press Insert. If you selected the word  ADMIRAL then the puzzle would look like this:

Note that compound words in the word list are not punctuated, e.g. 'OUT OF DATE' appears as 'OUTOFDATE', as it will in the puzzle.

If Autofind doesn't immediately come up with a suitable word you can search in any of the other word lists you have set up by clicking on the tabs at the top of the Autofind dialog box. The word list that is used by default, and the word lists that are displayed, can be changed by selecting Change list usage... from the Words menu.

To find words matching a certain pattern use the Find Word... command on the Words menu. To find a fit for whole sections of the puzzle (rather than just one word at a time), use the Autofill command on the Words menu.

If you want to find words of various lengths that would fit in the grid you can use Shift+Alt+A, or Ctrl+Right Mouse to bring up the Find Word dialog box set with the word pattern at the current cursor position.

AutoFind can also show only words which, when inserted into the grid, will not cause impossible letter combinations. To show only words compatible with their intersecting words click the button at the bottom left corner of the AutoFind box. The word that is compatible with the most intersecting words in the default word list will be selected. You can show only compatible words by default by changing the setting under Change list usage. To show all the words that will fit regardless of the intersecting word slots just press the button again.

If your search comes up with a word that you want to remove from the word list just select the word and press Delete. It will be removed form the word list in which it was found.


Grid symmetry

You can automatically create a symmetric pattern by selecting one of the symmetry options from the Pattern menu. You can have normal S-Symmetry, Dual-Symmetry (Dual-Symmetry only works if you have a square puzzle), left/right and top/bottom symmetries.

This pattern shows Dual-Symmetry:	Whereas this one only has S-Symmetry:


Find Words

If you want to find words that match a specific pattern you can use the Find Word... command on the Words menu.

Enter a pattern as the search word and it will find words that match, e.g.

T???SH	finds THRASH, THRESH and THRUSH

AP*X	finds APEX, APPENDIX and APTERYX

?*Q*P	finds ACQUAINTANCESHIP, EQUIP and REEQUIP

Use * to stand for any number of letters, and ? for one unknown letter. You can also use groups of alternative letters, just include the group within quare brackets. Use @ to stand for any vowel and # to stand for a consonant. Use ^ as “not” before a letter or group. e.g.

[QZ]*[QZ]	finds QUARTZ, QUIZ, and ZIZZ

#######	finds RYTHMS

P@#@#?LLY	finds PITIFULLY and PIVOTALLY

Q^U*^S	finds QATAR, QINTAR, and QOPH

CO*^[LN]ESS	finds COMPRESS, CONFESS, CONGRESS, and COUNTESS

* can stand for any number of letters, including no letters. If you wish to find a word starting with an L and ending in an N at least two letters behind the L, you can enter *L??*N. This will find, for example, ALIEN which has two letters between the L and N, and ALLERGEN which has many letters between them. *L*N would include words like KILN in the list, where the L and N follow each other.

You can set the minimum and maximum word lengths of words to find by changing the settings in the relevant box.  Once you have entered a search pattern you can look in any of the available word lists by clicking on the tabs with the word list names.

To change the letters which are counted as vowels (the @ symbol), right click anywhere in the Find Words window except on the list box, and click the Set vowels...  menu item. Enter the letters that you want. Consonants are defined as non-vowels (e.g. # equals ^@).

If you select one of the found words you can press the Copy button to copy it to the clipboard, or if you used Find Word with the cursor in a suitable slot in the grid you can Insert the word directly. If you copy a word with the Clue Editor open you can then paste it into the Clue Editor as part of a clue.

If you want to find words to fit in the puzzle it is easier to use the Autofind facility.

You can use '-'  instead of '?' if you like (it's a bit quicker to type).

You can save the found words to a text file by right clicking on the list, selecting Save found words..., and entering a name for the file to save them to.

If your search comes up with a word that you want to remove from the word list just select the word and press Delete. It will be removed form the word list in which it was found.


Block filling

British-style puzzles, in which words are linked every alternate letter, have a regular pattern of blocks. You can quickly fill in the basic pattern by choosing Fill Blocks from the Grid menu.

Block filling fills in every alternate block on alternate rows. There are four choices of starting position - just select the button for the one you want.

Note that fill from (2,1) and (1,2) is not compatible with dual-symmetry.


Puzzle flipping

You can flip a puzzle to its mirror image by selecting Flip Pattern from the Grid menu. This has no effect other than the numbering and order of the clues, and the appearance of the puzzle. You can undo a flip by doing another flip. Here is a puzzle, one before and one after a flip:

You can't flip a puzzle that contains linked clues or clue squares.


Grid Font

You may change the font used to display and print the grid and clues by selecting Font... from the Grid menu. You are recommended to choose scalable fonts like True Type fonts for best results. To set the size of the font in the grid change the Size % of squares setting in the Grid Properties dialog box.

The font used for the clues is set separately in the Clue Properties dialog box.

It's a good idea to make sure that the character set of the word list that you are going to use with the grid is the same as the grid font's character set, otherwise some characters may not display correctly.


Anagrams

You can search for multiple word anagrams of a given word, either from the Clue Editor or by choosing Anagram... from the Words menu.

If you click the anagram button in the Clue Editor the word you are clueing will be selected automatically. If you choose Anagram... from the menu you can type in a word and press Enter or click the Find button to start the search.

Partial Words: Click this tab to find all the words in the word list that can be made using only some of the letters in the search word. The remaining letters are shown in brackets after each word.

Contained in: Click this tab to find words that the search word is contained in. For example if the clue word is 'remain', it will find 'cremation', which is 'remain' plus the letters in 'cot'. The remaining letters are shown in brackets after each word. The words are sorted so that ones where the remaining letters form an anagram (like 'cto' which anagrams to 'cot'), and the letters are in order (as the letters of 'remain' are in 'cremation'), appear first.

The anagram feature finds all the multiple word anagrams of the given word up to a certain maximum number of component words. You can specify the maximum number of words in the List Usage dialog box, along with the word list that is used. If you choose a large number the search is slower as there will be a lot of different anagrams. Specifying a small number also makes it easier to find a suitable anagram in the list.

Anagrams are displayed as they are found. The words in multi-word anagrams are not sorted, but anagrams are found in order of word length, so you should get all the straight anagrams before the multi-word ones.

You can abort the Search at any time by doing another search of pressing OK. The program adds anagrams to the bottom of the list as it finds them. If there are a lot of possible anagrams they may not all be found, but you should always get at least the first thousand or so. The finder will work in the background as you edit other clues or whatever. To bring the window to the top just click on it. You can leave the anagram window open. It will be reset with a new word whenever you click the anagram button in the clue editor.

If you select an anagram in the list and press the Copy button it will be copied into the Clue Editor if it is open, or to the clipboard if not.

You can save all the anagrams or partial words to a text file by right clicking on the list box, selecting Save to file..., and typing in a file name.


Editing the grid

Whenever you start a New puzzle, or Open an existing one, the puzzle is displayed in the window with a cursor in the top left hand corner.

You enter letters from the current cursor position by typing as normal. Insert black squares (blocks) by pressing the space bar. In the puzzle there are usually words going in two directions; to change the direction of typing press tab, or click on the direction icon on the Toolbar. The cursor changes to show the type direction:

     To type Horizontally

     To type Vertically

You can use the cursors to move round the puzzle, or click with the left mouse button to move to a certain square. You can also insert blocks by double clicking with the left mouse button.

For a full list of keyboard commands see Keyboard.

You can fill in some of the pattern by using the Fill Blocks command on the Grid menu (this is not very useful for American style puzzles).

To automatically insert blocks in symmetrical positions select one of the Symmetry options on the Grid menu.

You can create irregular puzzles by removing unwanted squares from the puzzle. Press Ctrl+Delete with the cursor on the square to be removed. To remove all blank squares from the puzzle, select the Remove Blanks command from the Grid menu. This makes the puzzle only have lines around the squares with letters or blocks in, so giving it an irregular outline.

You can Undo editing by pressing Alt + Backspace. This moves the cursor to the end of the last editing action and then undoes the action. You can repeat undo a large number of times to undo whole chunks of the puzzle. Undo does not remove interlocking letters, so your intersecting words are left intact. Undo is particularly useful with Autofind to test words in certain positions and then undo them if necessary.


Print headers

Select Headers... from the File menu to specify the headers to use when you Print a puzzle.

You can have left and right headers, and below that a header that goes right across the page. The left and right headers are half a page wide, and useful if you want to have text at the left and right at the same distance down the page.

You can if you wish you can have two different headers - you could then use a different header depending on what you are printing out. Just uncheck the Both headers the same check box, and click on the Header A or Header B tabs to edit the corresponding headers. You can then select which header you want to use when you Print the puzzle.

Select justification and font styles within each header by using the buttons on the toolbar.

When you have finished editing the headers press OK to associate the headers with the current crossword. Click the Save as default headers button to store your headers for use with all puzzles that don't specify their own headers. If you want to use the default headers with a particular crossword just click the Set default headers button. If you want to use non-default headers for some types of crossword then you can save your puzzle (with its headers) as a templates for use when you create new puzzles.

You may customise headers to provide constant text (such as your name and address) or variable data (such as puzzle details or date). To supply constant text, simply type that text in one of the header boxes. To supply variable text, use one or more of these control codes each beginning with a '%'.

%T	Puzzle title	%A	Puzzle author
%C	Puzzle copyright	%I	Puzzle description
%D	Day of the month	%W	Puzzle width
%M	Month of the year	%H	Puzzle height
%Y	Year (abbreviated. E.g. '95')	%N	Number of words in puzzle
%%	The percent sign '%'	%B	Number of blocks and clue squares
%P	Puzzle's path and filename	%F	Puzzle's file name
%G	Number of the page being printed

You can also insert the control codes by clicking on the book icon at the far left of the toolbar. When the puzzle is printed the control code is replaced with the text it represent, in the font and style that you have used for the control code.

Some examples:

What you want the header be	What you type
12 x 15 puzzle: Sample puzzle	%W x %H puzzle: %T
Antony Lewis 10/5/96	%A %D/%M/%Y
File Name: DEMOPUZ.CWD	File Name:%F

The puzzle title, author, copyright and description are set in the puzzle information box. Codes are particularly useful in conjunction with these settings as they allow you to set the headers only once, and then just change the title, author, etc., every time you create a new puzzle.

Multiple headers is a feature new in Crossword Compiler 4.1. If a puzzle created in version 4.1 is opened with version 4.0x the headers will be lost, but otherwise the file will open correctly. If you open in version 4.1 puzzles created with version 4.0 the puzzle will have the default headers.


Puzzle Information

Select Information... from the File menu to view information about the puzzle title, author, copyright and description.

The information can be used when printing (with Headers) to give information about the puzzle. Crossword templates can contain default information, so that, for example, every puzzle you create automatically has your name as the author.

See also puzzle statistics.


Copying to the Clipboard

You can copy the puzzle, clues, solution or answers to the clipboard for use with other Windows programs. Select Copy to Clipboard from the File menu, and select what you want copied from the submenu. You can also copy to the clipboard using the Export... command on the File menu.

For more information see Exporting puzzles


Exporting puzzles

Select Export... from the File menu for a range of options for exporting puzzles to the clipboard or to a file.

Select the format you want to use for export from the tabs at the top of the Export dialog box, and select the relevant options. Most formats can be exported to the clipboard or to a file. To export to a file just click the Export File... button and enter the filename you want to save as.

To save you selecting sets of settings each time you export a puzzle you can click on the Save options as default button to save them for the next time you export a puzzle.

You can export in the following formats for use with other programs:

Rich Text Format (RTF)

This is probably the most useful if you want to use your puzzles in other Windows programs. Most Windows (and some Macintosh) word-processors and DTP programs can read Rich Text Format, which gives full formatting information for the text and can contain embedded pictures of the puzzle or solution.

If you don't want your clues on separate lines but would prefer them all in one paragraph then click the Clues in one paragraph box. This will export in the form:

 1 Clue one – 2 Clue two – 3 Clue three...

You can customise the clue font, space between clues and the space between the clue number and clue in the Clue Properties dialogue box. If you include the puzzle or solution it will be embedded as a picture, see below.

If you find that the clues do not copy correctly then try increasing the Number/Clue space or not having the clue numbers right aligned (see Clue Properties).

Picture

You can export the puzzle or solution as a scaleable picture or as a bitmap. There are four options.

Metafile: This produces a scaleable Windows picture, and is probably best for most applications since they will resize without loss of quality.

Bitmap and Monochrome bitmap: These describe the grid as an array of pixels, and hence have a fixed resolution.

Encapsulated Postscript (EPS): This produces a scaleable picture that can be printed to PostScript printers.

You can use the picture in many graphics, word-processing and DTP programs. Pictures are exported at the size specified in the Grid Properties dialog box, but can then be resized in the host application. Bitmaps are only recommended if the crossword is going to be displayed on a screen (e.g. for use on web pages), not a printer. If metafiles are shown on a low resolution device like a screen the grid lines may appear uneven (though they should print correctly). With bitmaps the lines will always look correct if the bitmap is shown at its natural size. You should not usually resize bitmaps.

EPS is preferred by some publishers and is probably the best format for exporting for use on a Macintosh computer. Crossword Compiler automatically selects a PostScript font similar to the one you have selected as the grid font. You can however select from a range of fonts, or type in the name of a different font (advanced users only).

You can also save as a "gif" file, for example for use on a web page. Select bitmap, click on the Export File button and select GIF picture in the Save as type box.

Plain Text

Plain text can be used by virtually any program on any machine, and is the most portable way to export the clues and answers. However plain text does not contain any formatting information, so most of the formatting options you have selected for the clues will be lost.

You can also export the solution as plain text. This is most inelegant, but useful as a very

reliable way of transferring grid information. Various Internet applications take in grids in this plain text format. The character that is used to represent blocks can be set in the Block Char input line.

Across™ Format

Use this option to convert puzzles to Across format PUZ files. (tm)Across is a puzzle solving package available on the Internet from http://www.litsoft.com.

The Restrict Solution option does not put the solution letters into the file, so the solution is absolutely secure (useful for competition puzzles). The Scramble solution option merely encodes the letters, and can be revealed using the code number given once you have converted the puzzle.

Maestro format

Use this option to convert puzzles to Crossword Maestro format .CMO files. Crossword Maestro is a solving program, more information is on the Internet at http://www.genius2000.com. Please mention Crossword Compiler if you purchase the program.

The Restrict Solution option doesn't include the solution letters in the file, so people can solve the puzzle without being able to cheat. Select Cryptic crossword to make Crossword Maestro's clue solver work in cryptic mode. Select Barred crossword to flag the puzzle as being barred.

Others

Crossdown is a solving and compiling program. Crossdown only supports a limited number of square grid sizes.

Java. This format is for use with a Java crossword applet written by Andrei Grigoriev. For information about his applet and how to use it from your Web pages see http://www.clearlight.com/~vivi/xw.


Reviewing and Editing clues

You can view and edit clues by selecting Review Clues... from the Clue menu. The clues are shown in a scrollable list, with the clue number at the left, and the solution to the right.

You can edit the clues in-place, moving down the clues by pressing Tab or moving up by pressing Shift+Tab. For more powerful editing features double-click on a clue and the Clue Editor will appear.

If there are incomplete words in the puzzle the solution appears with question marks for the missing letters.

You can spell-check the clues by pressing F7 or clicking the tick button on the tool bar. For each word that the spell-check finds you can either type in a replacement, ignore it or add it to the word list. Set the word list to use for spell checking in the List Usage box, which you can view by clicking the Options... button on the spell-check window.

It is a good idea to review the clues before you Print them to check you haven't missed any clues, or that any words are incomplete. It also makes a convenient way quickly to edit the clues if you don't need all the features of the clue editor.

You can resize the Review Clues window to better fit your screen by dragging the bottom right hand corner with the mouse.


Keyboard control and shortcuts

Keyboard controls when editing puzzle:

Cursors	Move the cursor
Shift+Cursors	Select squares
Ctrl+Cursors	Skip to next or previous word start
Alt+Cursors	Insert/remove a bar on a side of the square
Tab	Toggle the direction in which you want to type
Enter	Move to left or top of next line
Spacebar	Insert a default Block
Delete	Delete letter/block at cursor
Ctrl+Delete	Remove square from puzzle
Shift+Delete	Delete word. Doesn't affect intersecting words
Alt+Delete	Delete letters, but not blocks, in current selection
Alt+Backspace	Undo
Alt+Enter	Edit a square's properties
Alt+A	Autofind
Shift+Alt+A	Find word  to fit in word slot
Alt+E	Edit Clue
Ctrl+W	Show WordWeb with the current word slot's word (if you have WordWeb installed).
F1	Help Contents
Ctrl+S	Save

See Mouse for mouse combinations and the Toolbar topic


Mouse

Left Button	Move cursor to square clicked on

Ctrl+Left Button	Select more squares without loosing current selection

Double Left Button

 On a square	Insert default block in square clicked on

 On a line	Insert a bar

Alt+ Double Left	Insert the alternate block type

Right Button

 On a letter square	Autofind words to fit in slot clicked on

 On a block square	Show the square properties

 On a clue square	Edit the clue square

 On a picture	Show the picture's properties

Ctrl+Right button	On a letter square: Find Word to fit in word slot

The default block type is set in the Advanced page of the Grid Properties dialog box. It can either be a normal block or a clue square, in which case the alternate block type is the other one.

You can also disallow double left-clicks from making bars or blocks in the Grid Properties dialog box. This is sometimes useful as it can be hard work aiming exactly at a narrow line!

See Keyboard for keyboard shortcuts, and the Toolbar topic.


About Crossword Compiler

Selecting About... from the Help menu brings up a dialogue box showing copyright and version information. The most reliable way of finding out exactly which version of the program you are using.


Opening an existing file

You can open an existing crossword file by selecting Open... from the File menu.

Enter the name of the file to open, or select the folder and file from the list boxes and press Open.

You can also open a puzzle using the settings from a crossword template.

Open files made using previous versions of Crossword Compiler by changing the Files of Type entry. You can also open puzzles in "Across"  PUZ format and “Crossword Maestro” CMO format.

Files that you have edited recently can be reopened by clicking on their file names at the bottom of the File menu.

If you wish to open a puzzle just to print it out for solving purposes you can hold down the Shift key when you open a puzzle. This shows the crossword in puzzle view so that you cannot accidentally see any of the solution words.

You can also hold down the Ctrl key when opening a puzzle in order to test-solve the puzzle on screen. This replaces the letters in the grid with question marks, so you can view the clues without seeing the solution.


Starting a new crossword

You can start a new crossword with a blank grid by selecting New from the File menu.

Select one of the crossword templates. You can change the default size of the puzzle by changing the numbers in the Width and Height boxes. If you change the size of a template you will lose any pattern that was in the original template.

If you want to create a vocabulary puzzle (one using as many words as possible from a short list of words) then click the Create vocab puzzle button. This will open a puzzle of the size you have selected, set symmetry to none, and display the Create vocabulary puzzle dialog box.

To change the default settings in the New dialog box click the Save as default checkbox when you start a new crossword.


Save As

You can give a puzzle a name, or save under a new name by selecting Save As... from the File menu. Enter the name for the puzzle and press OK. You can select a different folder or save to a different disk as you like.

You can save a puzzle with its current name by pressing Ctrl+S or selecting Save from the File menu.

To save a puzzle for use with other programs use the Export feature.


Save

Select Save from the file menu or press Ctrl+S to save the puzzle with its present name. If the puzzle is untitled the Save As dialogue box will open for you to choose a name.


Printer Setup

Select Printer Setup... from the File menu to select and setup a printer for Printing. Select the printer you want from the drop down list. You can press the Properties... button to set other options for the printer selected. You can also change the printer setup from the Print dialog box.


The main toolbar

The toolbar is the array of icons at the top of the program window. By clicking on them with the mouse you can quickly invoke the command they represent. You can hold the mouse cursor over a button for a short time to pop up a hint that tells you what the button does. Use this feature if you are unsure what any button does.

Here is a complete description of all the buttons:

		Get Help
		Open an existing file
		Save the crossword
		Invoke Autofind
		Fill Automatically from cursor
		Toggle the typing direction
		Undo last change. Can be used multiple times.
		Edit Clue
		Edit Square properties

See Editing the Puzzle for more information on undoing and type directions.


The Clue Editor

To edit the clue for a particular word in a puzzle press Alt+E with the cursor on the word for the clue you want to edit. You can also use the Edit tool on the Toolbar. If there are two words through the letter at the cursor, it will select the word in the current type direction. A dialog box will pop up in which you enter the clue. Once you have finished the clue press Enter to close the dialog box, or Alt+> to edit the next clue. The clue number is displayed in the title bar of the dialog box and the clue word is displayed below that. There is a large input box for entering the clue and input lines for entering the format and explanation/citation for the clue.

For cryptic puzzles, use "Explanation/citation" to explain the clue's wordplay--for example, '2 defs'. For non-cryptic puzzles, use "Explanation/citation" as necessary to tell someone else (an editor, perhaps) where to verify either an unusual answer or its definition.

Here's a summary of the clue editor commands. You can also call most of  them by clicking with the mouse on the buttons at the top of the dialog box:

	Enter	Close editor, saving changes
	ESC	Close editor without saving changes
	Alt+> or Ctrl+N	Move to next clue, saving changes
	Alt+<  or Ctrl+P	Move to previous clue, saving changes
	Ctrl+D	Delete the clue
	Ctrl+K	Link the clue
	Ctrl+A	Find Anagrams
	Ctrl+F	Find Word
	Alt+U	Use the clue found in the Clue Database
	Ctrl+L	Display list of  Letter Indicators
	Ctrl+G	Display list of  Anagram Indicators
	F1	Bring up this help screen
	Ctrl+W	Show WordWeb Pro (if you have it)

I suggest that you complete the puzzle network before starting to write clues. You can then systematically write each clue in order so there's no chance of missing a clue or writing a clue for a word that you will change later. Once you have finished you can review the clues by selecting Review/Edit Clues from the Clue menu. Alternatively you can write the clues quickly using Review/Edit Clues as long as you don't want to use any of the advanced features of the clue editor.

Editing the Clue

To edit the clue, or write a new one, simply type the clue in the Clue editor box. The editor word-wraps the clue as you type. You can use bold, italic and underline in a clue by pressing respectively Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I and Ctrl+U, or using the buttons on the toolbar.

You can also insert various special symbols into the clue by right clicking, selecting the Insert option and then Symbol. Just select the symbol you want inserted.

You can change the format of the solution by entering the format in the Word Format input line.

Editing order

You can change the order in which you edit clues in the global preferences dialog box.


Word Format - Automatic word length

Do not include the length, or format, of the clue in the clue editor, but in the Word Format input line. By default this is just the number of letters in the word, which is entered automatically. However if the 'word' is hyphenated, or more than one word, you can enter the format here. Just type the number of letters in each word, or hyphenated half word, and a comma to indicate a new word or a hyphen to indicate a hyphen. The format is then automatically included in brackets at the end of the clue you print it. The word is also correctly formatted in the dialog box and when you print the answers.

For example if the word is displayed as ONTOPOFTHEWORLD (On top of the world), then type '2,3,2,3,5' in the format line. On pressing tab the correctly formatted word will appear at the top of the dialog box. If the clue is linked then enter the format for the linked solution.

You can select to either add the format to the end of the clue or not by selecting the Print solution lengths in the clue properties dialog box. Most British cryptics do have the format, most American non-cryptics don't.


Printing a puzzle

Select Print... from the File menu to print the crossword. A dialog box is displayed showing the various print options. Check the check boxes for what you want printed.

Headers

This prints the headers you have selected in the Headers dialog box, with the relevant information about the current puzzle inserted. You can select the Header A or Header B to choose which header to use if you have multiple headers available.

Puzzle, solution and numbered solution

Self explanatory. The numbered solution has the solution letters and the grid numbers. Select Print on separate page to print the solution after the puzzle and clues on a separate page.

Clues and clues with answers

You can choose to print just the clues, in which case they are printed in two columns, or you can print the clues with answers — clue on the left and the solutions on the right (as when you review the clues). Extra formatting options for printing clues can be set in the Clue Properties box.

Code grid and Code solution

These are only available if you have a coded grid (numbered by letter). These options print out a blank and completed grid of letter-number relationships.

Headers on each page prints the headers at the top of every page printed, not just the first

Separate pages prints each item you have selected on a separate page

Use hashed blocks can be useful if you want to speed up printing on a dot matrix, or stop the paper getting soggy on an InkJet.

Print to file

Select this option if you want to save the print output to a file for printing later or sending to someone else. If you select this option you will be prompted for a file name when you start printing.

Collate will collate the pages and is only available with some printers

Copies determines how many copies of each page are printed. With some printers it's advisable not to print too many at once or you may find your memory and disk filling up.

Printer Setup show the Print Setup dialog box.

If you try to print the clues before you have written any, the program will print out the clue numbers with a blank space next to it. This is useful if you like to work to a hard copy when writing clues. You can then type in the clues when you are satisfied with them.

Note that very large puzzles may not fit on A4 paper. You will be asked whether the square sizes should be shrunk to make it fit if the puzzle doesn't fit. To change the margins choose the Page Setup... command  from the File menu. You can change the printer by selecting Printer Setup... on the File menu.

You can save your settings for printing by pressing the Save options button. The settings will be saved for the next time you print out a puzzle.

Printing the puzzle uses all the settings set in the various property dialog boxes.

See Grid Properties , Font and  Clue Properties for more information.


Word List Usage

Select Word List Usage... from the Words menu to set and change the way the word lists are used in the current crossword. There are four pages of options, click on the tabs at the top of the dialog box for the page you want.

Select word lists

The available word lists are shown on the left, and the ones to used for word finding with this crossword on the right. If you select the Use all check-box, all the available lists will be used. The word lists shown on the right are the ones you will see when you find words or invoke Autofind.. Unless you have a very large number of word lists you will probably find the Use all option the most useful.

Anagrams

Select the word list you want to use for finding anagrams in the List to use combo-box. The anagram finder will not use words with a score less than that specified in the Minimum word score entry. The Maximum number of words in anagram option lets you put a limit on the type of multi-word anagrams that are found.

Word Finding

Use this page to set further options for word finding, based on the word lists you have selected in the Select word lists page. The word finding features will not find words with score less than that specified under Minimum word score. Change the Maximum number of words to find to prevent the program spending ages finding thousands and thousands of matches for an un-restricting search. Select the last check box if you want AutoFind to show only words that will allow you to find words that fit in the intersecting word slots. This is useful as it ensures that a word you find using AutoFind will not immediately generate a letter combination in the grid which no words will fit.

Spelling

Select the word list to use for spell-checking clues in the Review/edit clues box, and for checking the words in the grid (listed in the puzzle statistics box). Words with scores less than the Minimum word score will be counted as mistakes. You can choose to Ignore words shorter than  a certain length, ignore words starting will a capital (except ones at the beginning of clues), or words that are in uppercase.

You can change which word lists are used for AutoFill in the Fill Grid dialog box.


Linking clues

It is possible that you have two or more words in the crossword for which you wish to write a combined clue. For example, if somewhere in the puzzle there are the two words PREGNANT and PAUSE you may wish to write one clue for the phrase 'PREGNANT PAUSE' rather than two separate clues. To do this use the Link Clues dialog box.

You can show the Link Clues dialog box by selecting Link Clues... from the Clue menu, or by pressing the Link Clues button in the Clue Editor. If you use the clue editor and the word you are clueing is already linked you must first clear the current links before making a new set.

The Link Clues dialog box

The left-hand side list-box shows all the words in the crossword which aren't currently linked. Select the first word in the phrase you want to link and press the > button. Then the next one, and so on. The words you are linking are shown on the right, in the order you linked them. The linked word is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.

To change the order of a word in the linked phrase, select the word and click on the arrows are the right of the dialog box to move it up or down

The linked word is shown using the format in the Word Format input-line. You can change this to correct the punctuation of the linked phrase.

The Clue number text entry is automatically set every time you add a word to the linked phrase. Once you have the phrase linked as you want you can change this entry as you link. The clue number text is the text used for the clue number when printing, e.g.

By default it might be

2/3/6/7D   This is the clue

and you could change '2/3/5/7D' to '2,3,5 & 7 Down' to make it appear as

2,3,5 & 7 Down   This is the clue

Once you are satisfied with all the setting you can close the dialog box, or, to set another set of links, press the Set links and select new set button.

To delete a set of links, put the cursor on one of the linked words, bring up the clue editor and click the Link Clues button ( [image]). You will be prompted to clear the link.


Puzzle statistics
Crossword statistics and checking for similar words

Select statistics from the File menu to show statistical information about the current crossword. You can also select Words and word statistics from the Words menu to show the Words page of statistics directly. There are three pages of information:

General

This shows various self-explanatory statistics.

The program calculates whether the grid is pangrammatic (containing all letters of the alphabet) using the alphabet selected under Clue Properties . It is not classed as pangrammatic if any of the letters are missing or the grid contains letters not in the alphabet.

Words

The left list box shows an alphabetical list of all the words in the puzzle. Click on any word to select it in the grid. The right list box shows a graph of word length frequencies - click on any line to select words in the grid that are of that length.

Click the Select words not in spelling list button to highlight words which aren't in the word list you've set up for spell-checking. The word list is set in the List Usage box. If some of the words are incomplete (i.e. show up with “?” in place of some letters) the program will highlight the words which have no matches in the spelling list.

Similar words

The list box shows any words in the grid which contain common groups of letters. The common group of letters is coloured in red, and words with the most number of common sequential letters are listed first. This is useful for checking that you are not using words which a too similar, even though they're not exactly identical. Click on any line to select in the grid the words listed on that line.


Removing Blanks

To remove all squares in the puzzle with no letter or block in, select the Remove Blanks  item on the Grid menu.

Removing blanks gives the puzzle an outline that goes round every filled square, allowing you to create free-form puzzles. You can toggle a square between being removed and blank by pressing Ctrl+Delete with the cursor on the square. Here is an example of a puzzle before and after removing the blanks:


Clearing letters

Select Clear Letters from the Grid menu to clear all the letters in the grid leaving a blank grid. If you have written some clues for the words you are clearing they will also be deleted. If you choose to clear the clues they will be lost for ever, however you can replace the letters you cleared by using the undo button on the Toolbar.

You can use Clear Letters to extract a blank grid from a puzzle you or someone else has already written, saving you the trouble of creating a new grid.


Page Setup

Select Page Setup... from the File menu to change the margins used when the puzzle is printed.

All measurements are in centimetres.


Using Autofill to fill a crossword

You can fill in complete puzzles, or sections of puzzles from a word list using the Autofill command on the Words menu. You can also click on the AutoFill icon in the Toolbar or press Alt+A.

Autofill fills in the grids with the default settings in the Fill Grid dialog box, and doesn't prompt you for acceptance once the fill has completed.

For more information about grid filling see Filling words in a crossword grid .


Filling words in a crossword grid

Select Fill Grid... from the Words menu to bring up the Fill Grid dialog box with options for filling in the word slots in a grid. If you just want to fill the grid using the default options use the Autofill command.

The grid filler attempts to fill in all non-complete words connected with the word the cursor is in. Place the cursor in a square in the section you want to fill, or place it in a blank square at the top of the grid to fill a blank puzzle. You need to have your array of blocks finalised before invoking the filler, which then fills around the blocks. Duplicate words will be avoided. If you want to create a freeform vocabulary puzzle from a short list of words then use the Create vocabulary puzzle feature instead.

The Base word list

Select the word list that you want to use in the Base Word List list box. The words in this list that will be used for filling the grid (but see 'using theme words' below).

Optimisation

Each of the words in a word list has an associated score. By using the optimisation options you can vary the number of 'good' and 'bad' words filled into the crossword. Weak optimisation is quite fast, and will give you a significantly higher average score than using no optimisation. Strong optimisation will give you a significantly higher average score than weak optimisation if your word list contains only a few highly scored words. Set optimisation to Theme Words if you want to create a thematic crossword. Select Fill reliability if you have a particularly hard grid to fill. This makes the fill progresses more slowly, but with difficult grids the fill should finish sooner that with the other optimisation options.

Change the Minimum word score setting to avoid words with scores less then this score.

Using theme words

The grid filler can try to maximise the number of theme words that are filled into a grid. Set the Optimisation option to Theme Words, and select the word list that you want to use for your theme in the Use theme words from drop-down list.

The filling program will use as many of the theme words as it can, but when it can't use a theme word it uses a word from the Base Word List. This is a good way of creating a themed crossword when the theme word list contains too few words to fill the grid directly.

Select Weak theme only to use fewer of the theme words. Selecting this option will make the fill significantly faster. The default thematic fill can be slow getting started: typically 5-30 seconds.

Pangrammatic fill

Select this option to ensure that the filled grid contains every letter of the alphabet. The alphabet used is set in the Clue Properties dialog box. The filler will only use words containing letters of the alphabet, and each letter will appear at least once in the completed grid.

Save as default and Autofill

Select this option to save the dialog box's settings as those used for Autofill and as the default settings for the dialog box. You can then save the default settings to a template for use with crosswords you create in the future.

Filling the grid

Once you have set the options press the Fill button, and the fill will begin. You can cancel at any time by pressing the Cancel button, or stop the fill, keeping the filled letters, by pressing Stop.  If you wish to fill more than one grid simultaneously you can change the relative priorities of the two fills by dragging the bar marked Fill priority. If you want to carry out a difficult fill whilst doing something else you may also want to lower the priority to make sure that whatever you are working on is more responsive.

If a fill seems to get stuck in one part of the grid you may like to press Cancel and refill. Often the second fill will work relatively quickly.

Once the fill is complete you can either press the Accept button to accept the fill, Cancel to abandon the fill or Refill to cancel the fill and redisplay the Fill Grid dialog box. Where there is a choice of equally good words that will fit, one is chosen at random. You may be able to produce many different fits by repeatedly re-filling the grid.

An example

If you had a crossword that looked like this:

you could place the cursor next to the 'E' in 'STICKER', and invoke AutoFill or Fill Grid, to get a complete crossword. For example

For maximum control over which words are used in the grid you may prefer to use AutoFind repeatedly, and choose exactly which word you want in each word slot yourself.


Clue Databases

Clue databases allow you to database clues from puzzles that you have written, or to store your flashes of inspiration until the word comes up in a crossword. You can open a clue database, or create a new one, by selecting Open/create Database... from the Clue database submenu of the Clue menu.

You can add clues from puzzles to the database using the Add clues from puzzle command. This will add all the clues in the current crossword to the database, though any formatting information in a clue will be lost (e.g. bold, italic).

You can view the clues in the database and add and delete clues from the database using the Database Manager.

When you edit a clue using the Clue Editor you can insert clues from the database. The default clue displayed in the Clue Editor is determined by the Default Database Clue setting in the Preferences dialog box. It can either be the most recently added clue, the oldest clue, or one chosen at random.

You can add clues from one database to another database using the Merge Databases... command. This should save you from re-entering all the clues if you already have a database on computer (databases from previous versions of Crossword Compiler are 100% compatible).

The database used with a given crossword is saved with the crossword. To save your database settings for future crosswords, save the current crossword as a template.

Crossword Compiler clue database files have the .CDB extension, and are in the format of keyword in capitals, space, then the clue. Each entry like this is on a separate line, with the oldest clues for a given word being listed first. E.g.

 WORD Oldest clue

 WORD Newest clue (Format) \(Explanation)


The Clue Database Manager

Select Database Manager... from the Clue Database submenu of the Clue menu to display the manager for the currently selected clue database.

To view clues in the database select the starting letters of the word whose clues you want to view. Then select the word, and the clues in the database will be displayed in the bottom panel. You can delete a clue by pressing Delete, or edit a clue by double clicking on it or pressing the Edit Clue button.

To add a clue to the database select the Add button. Type in the word you want to write a clue for, tab down to the clue box and type in the clue. You can also add an explanation and clue format. Press OK to save the clue, or New to save the clue and enter another one.

When you have finished viewing and editing the database click OK to save the changes you have made or Cancel to abandon them. If you click OK updating the database may take a while if it is very large — please be patient.


Merging clue databases

You can merge clue databases together by using the Merge Databases... command on the Clue database submenu of the Clue menu. Just select a database whose clues you wish to add to currently selected one. The currently selected database is set in the Open/create database dialog box.

If the database you are merging in was not created by Crossword Compiler you should check that the database is in the following format:

   WORD Clue after a space

Each clue should be on a separate line, and they must be in strict alphabetical order. You cannot merge in non-Crossword Compiler databases if they contain non-English characters in the databased words.


Introduction to Cryptics
Introduction to Cryptic Crosswords

Cryptic clues are very popular in Britain, and have a following in North America. In cryptics, unlike 'quick' or American crosswords, the clue has a cryptic part in addition to a definition part. This makes them harder to solve, but there should be no ambiguity about whether an answer is correct or not. The cryptic part of the clue consists of some instructions on how to put together the answer from its letters, a play on words, or some other quirk. Here is an explanation of some of the more common clue types, though in practice many clues will be a combination of these simple types:

Double Definition

Here the clue consists of two parts, both of which are synonyms or definitions of the word. E.g.

  Calling charge (6)

=CAREER, calling (meaning job) and charge (as in to charge round) both mean career, though not in the meaning first implied by the clue.

Likewise

 Money-lust (3) = YEN	Cook fish (3) = FRY

Anagram

This consists of two parts, an anagram of the word and a definition. Often the anagram is indicated by some Anagram Indicator, meaning 'mixed up', 'shuffled' or whatever. E.g.

  Platter to cook waffle (6)

=PRATTLE, anagram of 'platter', meaning to waffle. 'To cook' indicates the anagram, though more properly 'to cook' would be before the anagram. However misplaced indicators, or completely omitted indicators, are quite common.

Likewise

 Rioted to get control of news! (6)

 = EDITOR, an anagram of  'rioted'. The anagram indicator here is 'rioted', which is also the word to be anagrammed, hence the exclamation mark that usually indicates some overlap in the clue.

Reversal clues are special cases of anagram clues, where the anagram happens to be just the word backwards. In this case it would be indicated by some word such as 'back' or 'rising'.

Hidden Word

Here you can find the word in the middle of the clue. It is normally indicated by some word like 'inside'. E.g.

 Uncover a veneer, inside is black (5)

=RAVEN, meaning black. The word is hidden in 'UncoveR A VENeer' .

Homophone

This is where the cryptic part of the clue leads to a word that is pronounced the same as the answer but spelled differently. It is usually indicated by some word or phrase like 'we hear' or 'reportedly'. E.g.

 Heard the branch bend (3)

=BOW, meaning 'bend', a homophone of 'bough' (meaning 'branch'). These type of clues can turn into more of a pun, where the clue is followed by a question mark:

  Poem heard from soprano pigeon? (5)

=HAIKU, a Japanese poem, pronounced roughly as 'high-coo'.

Charade

The clue spells out the parts of the word. E.g.

 Failed English dandy (4)

=DUDE, meaning dandy. Failed=DUD, English=E (this is a standard letter indicator for the letter E), hence DUD+E=DUDE.

Often these have more than two parts.

Container

The clue instructs you to place some letters inside others, producing the word. E.g.

 Complain when club admits the French (5)

=BLEAT, meaning complain. Club=BAT, the French=LE (using foreign words like this is another standard trick), admit 'LE' to the middle of 'BAT' and you get 'BLEAT'.

? clues

The '?' is used to indicate some pun or weirdness in the clue. It can be used on almost any clue that doesn't follow the usual forms of clue. E.g.

 Meeting needed to make pear juice? (5,10)

=PRESS CONFERENCE, you need to press conference pears in order to make pear juice.

 Park? (6,4)

=COMMON NOUN, 'park' can mean a common, and is also a common noun.

It is used in 'backwards clues', where the answer to the clue could be a clue itself, e.g.

  Wot, wot ?(3,4)

= TWO FOLD, if you take 'two' and 'fold'  it you get 'wot' . 'Wot' occurs two fold in the clue. Likewise

  Draw? (8)

=BACKWARD, 'draw' ='ward'  back(wards). These clues do not have a definition part. This is usually only acceptable if the clue has some other particular merit.

'!'  clues

Like the '?', the exclamation mark is sometimes used to indicate something unusual. However usually it indicates some overlap in the clue, where say the word to be anagrammed also forms part of the definition. An example is

  It's in hearing! (3)

=EAR, 'ear'  occurs in 'hEARing'  and if you are in hearing your ear certainly is!

or how about

 Damn! (9,4)

=CROSSWORD CLUE (it's a cross-word clue!).

The exclamation mark is also used very occasionally in ultra-short clues, e.g.

  L! (4,3) = TAIL END 	or 	J!(4,5) = JUMP START

The clues lack any definition part, and the '!'  could equally well be replaced by a question mark. Clues without any definition are frowned upon my some crossworders.

Indirect Anagram

These clues are like anagram clues except that the anagram is not given explicitly and must be deduced from a synonym or whatever. This type of clue is very difficult unless the word is very short, and is frowned upon in many circles. E.g.

  Find hole in tangled string (4)

=PORE, meaning 'hole', an anagram of 'rope' which is itself a synonym of 'string'

  Must go round garden (4)

=NEED, anagram of 'EDEN', a garden.

Others

There are numerous other varieties of clue, most of which are used in special crosswords where the solver is told about the type of clue used. For example in misprint clues, where a part of the clue has been misspelled, the misspelling must be corrected before the clue can be solved. E.g. the definition part of the clue may be 'harp', but it would appear in the clue as 'hard'. This makes everything much trickier!

Further reading

See the bibliography


Crossword Jargon
Crossword Glossary

Afrit's Law	The injunction for Ximinean cryptic clues that 'you need not say what you mean, but you must mean what you say'
Barred grid	A grid in which thickened lines, as opposed to blocks, mark the end of words
Crosswordese	Words excavated from obscure dictionaries that are only ever seen in crossword grids.
Cruciverbalism	Crossword study or general wordsmithism
Light	A word in a puzzle which is to be clued
Pangrammatic	Pertaining to grids which contain every letter of the alphabet
Unch	A letter in a light that does not intersect with another light—an unchecked letter.
&Lit	A cryptic clue where the entire clue is also a 'literal' definition of the light.
Ximinean	Pertaining to a type of 'square dealing' cryptic clue containing a definition and secondary cryptic definition which can be decoded by an exact interpretation of the grammar in the clue.


Bibliography and further reading

There are many good books on solving crosswords, so I shall just mention two book related to crossword compiling that are still in print.

Random House puzzle maker's handbook by Mel Rosen & Stan Kurzban

ISBN 0-8129-2544-0

This is an excellent all round study of crosswords, from solving quick definition crosswords to constructing cryptic clues. It also covers many of the variants like acrostic and diagramless puzzles. The book has a slight American bias but it is not a real problem. American readers may find the guide to marketing invaluable.

Chambers Crossword Manual by Don Manley

ISBN 0-550-19034-1

This book is dedicated entirely to cryptic clues and covers everything from the simplest cryptics right up to the (in my opinion!) completely unsolvable advanced cryptics. It has a strong British bias in places, and a lot of the book is taken up with example puzzles. There is lots of useful advice and clue criticism, but you might like to take his harsher strictures with a pinch of salt.

If you have an Internet connection you may find the rec.puzzles.crosswords newsgroup of interest. There are regular clueing competitions, and general discussions of anything relating to crosswords.


Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to Bob Gregory and Mel Rosen for their many ideas, suggestions and bug reports during the development of this and earlier versions of Crossword Compiler. Thanks to Bryant McGill of Lionheart Productions for the Crossword Compiler graphic. Also thanks to the following for their help and ideas:

Peter Allen

Jim MacBrayne

Richard Browne

Darryl Collins

Harry Göransson

Terry Hall

Nigel Inwood

James Lundon

Gerry Lutwich

Anthony Matthews

Rich Norris

Kevin McCann

Stephen Owen

Tom Rayfield

Philip Rice

David Stickley

David Tuller

William Tunstall-Pedoe

Mr. West

Please forgive me if I've forgotten you. I am always keen to hear any suggestions, and they are gratefully received by e-mail to ccw@netword.demon.co.uk.


Customer support and upgrades

Contacts for customer support:

 E-Mail:	ccw@netword.demon.co.uk

 Post: 	Antony Lewis, 16 Townley Rd, London SE22 8SR, UK.

The Crossword Compiler users' page on the World Wide Web is at http://www.netword.demon.co.uk/users.html. Minor upgrades are also available for download on the same page.

Information about WordWeb is available on the Internet at http://www.netword.demon.co.uk/wordweb/.


Changing the scores of words in a puzzle

If you regularly create puzzles using the same word list you might like to avoid words that you have used before. You can do this by changing the scores of the words in the word list each time you have made a puzzle. Alternatively you might want to add words in a puzzle to a word list.

To do these things select Change scores of words in puzzle from the Words menu and select the word lists that you want to change. You can either change the scores by a certain amount, or set the scores to a specific value.

By setting a fixed low score for the words' scores you can cut them out of future grid fills completely by setting the minimum cut-off score to above the score which you have given the words.

By just decreasing the scores by some amount you can ensure that Autofill and Fill Grid give a low priority to words that you have used most often before.

Click the Add words not in list box to add words to the list as well as changing the scores of words that are already in the list. If you just want to add words without changing the scores of words already in the list you can set the Change scores by setting to zero.


Deleting blocks

Select Remove all blocks from the Grid menu to delete all the blocks in the puzzle.


Puzzle Views

When you edit a grid as much information is shown as possible as regards square colours and settings, but no clue numbers. Select View from the Grid menu to preview what the puzzle and solution will actually look like.

Some square properties depend on whether it is the solution or puzzle that is being viewed, so it is a good idea to use the view feature to make sure everything works correctly in both views.


Close

Select Close from the File menu to close the current puzzle. You can have many puzzles open at once, and Close only closes the topmost one.


Exit

Select Exit from the File menu to close Crossword Compiler. You will be prompted to save any changed crosswords that are open.


Adding images to a puzzle

It is possible to place pictures in various positions in the crossword grid. Select Paste image... from the Edit menu to insert an image from the clipboard, or Insert image file... to insert an image from a file. You can insert either a bitmap or a Windows picture (metafile). You will be prompted for some options for pasting the image.

The Left Square and Top Square options determine the co-ordinate of the top-left of the image in the crossword grid. Set the Squares Wide and Squares High to the width and height (in grid squares) you want the image to have. It must cover an integral number of squares.

The Display mode determines how the image is displayed on screen. When the grid is printed the mode used is always Stretch to make the image completely fill the squares.

Check the Add Border box to have a line around the image.

The Arrow settings allow you to add a little arrow coming from the image, useful in conjunction with a clue squares crossword. Grid X sets the left square that you want to have the arrow, Grid Y sets the right square. You can choose which direction you want the arrow to point in.

You can change the image's properties once it is in the grid by right clicking on it with the mouse. You can also delete the image this way.

You cannot undo adding and removing images.


Grid Properties

Select Grid Properties from the Grid menu to change various settings for how the grid is displayed and edited. The dialog box displayed has two pages of settings, standard and advanced. When you have changed some properties you can see the effect by clicking on the Apply button.

Default square colours

Change these settings to affect every block and clue square in the grid that has default colour settings. Use the Square Properties dialog box to change the colours of individual squares.

Grid lines

You can change the Line colour, which is used for the grid lines and bars. Check the Thick puzzle border box to make the outside border of the crossword thicker (the thickness of a bar).

Square Numbering

Change this setting for how all the squares in the grid are numbered. Normal is the standard clue numbering scheme. Sequentially numbers each square left to right then top to bottom. By Letter is useful for coded-crosswords where each square is given a number depending on the letter in the square. None leaves the square numberless.

If you select By Letter  the program will automatically create a code at random. To force the program to create a new code select Generate new code from the Grid menu. You can also select the Use sequential code item on the Grid menu if you prefer the code to be generated based on the order of appearance of the letters in the grid.

You will generally wish to make this setting tally with a corresponding clue numbering scheme in the Clue Properties dialog box.

Square Sizes

The puzzle and solution sizes are given in millimetres. The grid is displayed on screen at the puzzle size, modified by the Zoom setting. Due to the low resolution of computer screens small changes in sizes may not show up on screen, but they will when you print the grid.

Size % of squares

Change these settings to modify the relative sizes of the lines, bars, numbers and letters in each square.

Advanced properties

Double Clicks

This setting determines what happens when you double click on a square or line in the grid. If Allow Bars is not selected bars will never be inserted, regardless of how close to a line you click. If Allow Blocks is not selected you can insert bars by clicking only very approximately on the grid line. This is useful if you find it difficult aiming for a narrow grid line when you want to insert a bar using the mouse.

Default block type

This determines whether a clue square or a normal block is inserted when you double click or press Spacebar on a square.

Number sizes of grid

Select this option to number the top and left sides of the grid, outsize of the grid.

Grid side numbering

This determines whether Roman numerals, letters, or numbers are used for the numbering. These settings are also used if you select clue numbering by position in the Clue Properties dialog box.


Square Properties

You can change the propertied of a square in the grid by moving the cursor onto the square and pressing Alt+Enter or clicking on the properties icon on the toolbar. You can change the properties of many squares at once by first selecting a number of squares in the grid.

The left hand side of the dialog box shows a preview of what the square looks like in the puzzle and in the solution.

Colours

Change these settings to determine the background and letter colour of the square. The options available depend on the type of square whose properties you are changing. The default colour for blocks is set in the Grid Properties dialog box, change this if you want to change the colour of all the blocks. Similarly the default foreground colour is set in the Font dialog box.

Square Type

This shows the type of the square. Click on one of the buttons to change the square type.

Letter visible in puzzle

Check this option to make any letter in the square appear both in the puzzle and the solution. This is useful if you want to give some of the square in the puzzle as a starting hint.

Blank in puzzle

Select this option to hide all contents of the square in the puzzle. This is useful for creating skeleton crosswords where people have to fill in the blocks and numbers as well as solve the clues.

Formats in solution

This option determines whether the colours and bold/italic setting you have selected are used in the solution as well as the puzzle.

Don't number

Select this if you don't what the square to be numbered in the puzzle. This differs from Blank in puzzle in that it changes the following numbers as well as hiding the number for that square.

Bold and italic

Click these buttons to change the font used for the letter in the square. You need to have Formats in solution selected to see the effect in the solution.


Clue Properties

Select Clue Properties... from the Clue menu to change the way in which the clues are arranged and printed. There are three pages of settings, Format, which has general settings, Language specifics, which is useful if you want to create non-English crosswords, and Printout, where you can change how the clues are spaced on the page when you print them.

Select the Font... button at the bottom of the dialog to specify the font used for the clues.

Spacings

The Number-clue space is the distance between the clue number and the clue itself. The Between clues space is the vertical separation between clues. A separation of zero will have the effect that the space between clue lines is the same as the space between clues.

Number format

Check the boxes here to specify how you want the clue numbers to appear.

Clue Headings

The Across and Down boxes contain the text which will head the across and down clues. You might want to change these so that they are in capital letters, or to translate them to a different language. You can also specify some option for how the heading is formatted.

Clue Numbering

This setting determines the method used for numbering the clues. Normal is the standard numbering scheme. By first letter gives the clues sorted alphabetically by the starting letter of the clue word, with each clue 'numbered' by the starting letter. By position numbers the clues by row and column. If there is more than one clue on a row or column the clues are placed next to each other on the same line. Random order sorts the clues randomly, and gives each clue an alphabetical letter instead of a number.

Solution lengths after clues

Check this box if you want to automatically add the word format in brackets at the end of the clue.

Language Specifics

Alphabet

List here the alphabet of whichever language you want to use. The setting is used for various Crossword Compiler features, for instance for pangrammatic grid filling , clue numbering by first letter (above) and grid side numbering.

Linked clue text

This text appears when a word for a given clue is linked to another word. For example if 1 across is linked to 10 across, the clue for 10 across would read 'See 1', or whatever text you use instead of 'See'.

Text for fill-in words

This is used for heading the words in the crossword when you print the words in the crossword by word length for fill-in puzzles. Use %u as a placeholder for the number of letters in the word, and put brackets around any letter that should only occur if there is more than one word of that word length. E.g. '%u letter word(s)'.

Single letter Across and Down

Select a letter that is used in clue linking to stand for across and down.

Printout

Change the clue spacings to effect how the clues are printed out. These spacings are used when printing any crosswords that you create. You can use them every time you start the program by clicking the Save these settings as default box. The spacings are given as a percentage of the total width, that is the width between the left and right margins.


Letter Indicators

Letter indicators are words used in cryptic crosswords to represent a certain letter, for example England represents the letter E. To see a list of indicators press Ctrl+L in the Clue Editor. You can customise the list if you like. See the Lookup Lists topic for more information.


Lookup Lists

When you press the book button on the Clue Editor toolbar a menu pops up with a list of available look-ups which are available. By default there are Letter Indicators and Anagram Indicators. When you select an option another menu pops up with the available words. Selecting the word on the menu pastes it into the clue editor.

You can edit the letter and anagram indicators displayed by editing the ANAGINDS and LETIND files supplied with Crossword Compiler. Edit them using Notepad. The format of the file is

 MENU <Menu caption>

 First on submenu

 Second on submenu

 MENU <Second menu caption>

 First on second submenu

etc...

The menu captions can contain the '&' character, the letter following the character can be used as a Ctrl+ shortcut.

You can add another lookup list by selecting the Custom Lookups page from the Preferences dialog box.


Anagram Indicators

Anagram indicators are used in cryptic crosswords to signal an anagram. To see a list of indicators, sorted by first letter, press Ctrl+G in the Clue Editor. A menu will pop up and you can paste an indicator into the clue by selecting a menu item. You can customise the list if you like. See the Lookup Lists topic for more information.


WordWeb

WordWeb is an English thesaurus/dictionary add-on for Crossword Compiler. Once you have it installed you can use it from the Clue Editor to look up words, or from the Words menu. To look up a word (or a letter pattern) in the grid just press Ctrl+W. For more information on using WordWeb select Help from the WordWeb window's menu.

Information about WordWeb is available on the Internet at http://www.netword.demon.co.uk/wordweb/.


Preferences

You can customise various aspects of how Crossword Compiler behaves by selecting Preferences... from the Options menu. There are four pages of settings that you can change. The settings are global to all your crosswords, and you can save the settings as the default for each time you run Crossword Compiler by clicking the Save as default box at the bottom of the dialog box.

Opening and Saving

Select Create backup files to save the old file with a .BAK extension each time you save a file. Select the Show information on open option to show the Information dialog box whenever you open an existing crossword.

Autofind on complete word

This setting determines what Autofind will do when invoked on a complete word. Select See if word is in list to just spell check the word—the word either will or wont be in the word list, and either will or wont be displayed. Select Find alternative words that would fit to find all the other words that could replace the word in the grid without affecting the letters that are part of intersecting words.

Colors

You can change the colour used for the grid cursor (when it's on a letter square), and for selected squares.

Clue Editing

Editing order

Using the Clue Editor you can either edit clues in the order of their clue numbers, or you can edit all the across words first, then the down words.

Default database clue

This option determined which clue in the clue database is displayed in the clue editor when you edit a clue. You can view the rest of the clues in the database by clicking on the down button at the side of the Database entry.

Use WordWeb for automatic clue formatting

This option is available if you have WordWeb installed. If selected it will automatically use the WordWeb database to correctly punctuate words that are being clued.

Clue text when there is no clue

This text is printed when you print a clue before you've written it.

Custom Lookups

You can add files and delete files that are used for lookup lists by clicking the Add and Delete buttons.

Dictionaries

Select this page to add support for third party dictionaries to the Clue Editor. An extra button will appear on the clue editor's tool bar for each dictionary you add. Check the Save as Default box if you want to use these dictionaries every time you use Crossword Compiler.

This is an advanced setting and using it requires more than average computer know-how. The Crossword Compiler installation program should have set up most of your dictionaries correctly. You should only need to change the settings yourself if you obtain a new dictionary after installing Crossword Compiler.

To add a dictionary select the Add... button, and type the name of the dictionary (this should generally be the text that appears in the dictionary's window title when you run it). Type in the name of the application file in the Exe name input line, including the full path (e.g. C:\Chambers\Chambers'). If the program has command line parameters include these here too. To include the name of a look-up word in a command line parameter use the '%s' placeholder. E.g. for MS Encarta the Exe name might be

c:\encarta\enc9632.exe /i "%s".

If the dictionary supports DDE (it should say so somewhere in its documentation) you can then enter text in to the Service, Topic and Command input lines. The Command entry can contain the '%s' placeholder to stand for the word being looked up. If the Command entry is blank the command will just be the word being looked up. If these lines are filled in correctly the clue editor button will bring up the dictionary entry for the word that is being clued, if not it will merely activate the dictionary program and you will have to type in the word yourself. These are the entries you need for some common programs (most of them will be set up for you automatically when you install Crossword Compiler):

	Service	Topic	Command
Chambers	CompLex	WinWord	None
Oxford	Oxford	WinWord	None
Collins	DIC	Dictionary: COED Thesaurus: CTAZ	LOOKUP %s
RH Webster's	DIC	Unabridged: RHUD College: RHCD Thesaurus: RHCT	LOOKUP %s

OED doesn't support DDE. Run the program to find out what the window title is, either 'Oxford English Dictionary  Second Edition' (note two spaces between Dictionary and Second). or 'Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition)'. Set the name equal to whichever title your version has.

The programs that you add buttons for don't of course have to be dictionaries. You can create an icon for anything. Say you wanted to be able to start notepad easily. You could add a 'dictionary' called 'Notepad', file name 'c:\windows\notepad.exe' and leave the other entries blank.


Clue Squares

Clue squares are squares in the puzzle grid that contain short clues for surrounding words.

You can insert a clue square into the grid by double clicking, or double-clicking and pressing Alt (depending on the setting in Grid Properties) To edit the clues in the square, and to change the arrows which come out of the square, place the cursor on the clue square and press Alt+E or click on the Edit Clue button on the Toolbar.

The Clue Square Editor

You can enter the clue or clues, up to five lines, in the central square of the dialog box. Press Enter to end a line, and use a hyphen, alone on a line, for a horizontal line.

Click on the arrow buttons at the size of the square for the arrows that you want. When you press an arrow button the word in the direction of the arrow is displayed and any clues in the database for that word are also displayed. You can only have one arrow coming out of each side of the square.

To use a clue from the database press the Use clue button. To lookup a word that you haven't just clicked the arrow for, double click on the word itself.

Click the check boxes at the bottom of the dialog box to raise or lower the left or right arrows. This is useful to align the arrows with the position of the corresponding clue in the square.

When you have finished editing the clues press Enter, and you will see your clues appear in the square in the grid. Be careful to make sure that you don't write more than one clue for a given word, and that each word in the grid has a clue square with the arrow pointing in the correct direction.


Linking word slots to make one snaking word

You may wish to have one long word or phrase in a grid that snakes around. You can do this by placing the cursor in the word slot that starts the snake, setting the typing direction to the direction of the word, and selecting Continue word down or Continue word across from the Edit menu. An arrow will be added at the end of the word to indicate the direction in which the word continues. You can undo the link by repeating the above sequence.


Types of puzzle and how to make them

It's possible to make many different types of puzzle with Crossword Compiler. This help topic shows a few example grids and clues, and tells you how you should go about making them for yourself.

To make a new puzzle select New from the File menu, select a grid size you want and a template to use, and press OK.

Grid Types

Standard crossword	Template to use: Default or American Blocks (black squares) are inserted by double clicking or pressing the spacebar. Once you've put the blocks where you want them you can fill the grid using Autofill., fill the grid semi-automatically using Autofind or type in letters directly. Grid Properties, square numbering is set to Normal.
Freeform vocabulary  or theme puzzle	Template to use: Default or American Use Create vocabulary puzzle to automatically generate this kind of puzzle from a list of words. Alternatively select New from the File menu and press the Create vocab puzzle... button. To do it manually set Symmetry to None and remove the grid lines from squares by pressing Ctrl+Delete or using Remove Blanks.
Coded crossword	Template to use: Coded Each letter in the grid is assigned a different number. The idea is to fill in the grid just from the pattern of numbers. Code grids show the code solution and are generated automatically by Crossword Compiler. Grid Properties, square numbering is set to By Letter. Make a hint letter visible in the puzzle by changing the square properties.
French style puzzle	Template to use: French style Individual squares are not numbered, instead clues are referenced by their grid positions. Grid Properties, Advanced, Number sides of grid is selected. Square numbering is set to None.
Clues-in-squares puzzle	Template to use: Clues in squares Clues are not written separately, but short clues are written into 'clue squares', which have arrows pointing to the clued word. Double-click to insert a clue square, and press the edit button to bring up the clue square editor.
Barred grid	Template to use: Barred Bars instead of blocks separate words. Insert bars by pressing Alt+Cursor keys, or double clicking on a line with the mouse.
Skeleton puzzles, and hint-letters	Template to use: Any To make the 'R' visible select the square and open Square Properties. Select the Letter visible in puzzle box. By selecting all the rest of the squares except the one numbered '5', selecting square properties, and clicking on Blank in puzzle you can make any evidence of the other squares disappear.
Colored squares, letters and lines	Template to use: Any Change grid line and block colors under Grid Properties. Use Square Properties to set the colors of individual squares.

Clue Types

Standard clue numbering Across  1 Aged (3) 3 Some (3) 4 Vase (3) 5 Utilize (3)  Down  1 Burden (4) 2 Greek harp (4)	Template to use: Default, American or Barred. Clues as shown have the clue length after the clue. This can be disabled by deselecting Solution lengths after clues in the Clue Properties dialog box. Clue Properties Clue Numbering is set to Normal.
French-style clue numbering Across  1 Aged 2 Some 3 Vase 4 Utilize Down  II Burden III Greek harp	Template to use: French style Clues are numbered by their position in the grid. If there is more than one clue on a given row or column then the clues are juxtaposed under the same number. Clue Properties Clue Numbering is set to By Position.
Un-numbered clues A Some (3) B Greek harp (4) C Burden (4) D Vase (3) E Utilize (3) F Aged (3)	Template to use: Any Clues are displayed in random order, each is assigned a letter in order of listing. Clue Properties Clue Numbering is set to Random order.
Fill-in words 3 letter words  ANY  OLD  URN  USE  4 letter words  LYRE  ONUS	Template to use: Any In these puzzles there are no clues and the idea is to try and fit the words into the grid. Just create any type of puzzle and then print out or export Fill-in words. The grids for this type of puzzle usually would have Square Numbering set to None.


Desktop publishing

Once you have created a puzzle with Crossword Compiler you may wish to send it to a publisher, or to use it in one of your own publishing programs.

If you have a Windows publisher program, or word processor, the easiest thing is to copy what you want to the clipboard and then paste it into the publisher program. You can export puzzles in more formats and with more options using the Export feature.

What you need to do when sending puzzles to a publisher will depend on who the publisher is, and what formats they can accept. Rich Text Format produced by the Export feature is generally good for clues, but some publishers cannot use it for grids. For those that don't like Rich Text Format for grids your best bet is probably Encapsulated Postscript (EPS).

See the Export topic for details of the formats available for exporting puzzles.


Advanced DTP Features

For the advanced Desktop publisher Crossword Compiler supports DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). This allows you to write macros or programs to quickly create publications based on Crossword Compiler files. For instance your macro or program could go through a list of files, for each one copying the puzzle and clues to the clipboard, arranging them in the publishing program, creating a new page, and then opening the next crossword and repeating.

The DDE topic to use is control; the application name is ccw4. Crossword Compiler can accept macro strings in the following format:

 [Command1(Params1)][Command2(Params2)][.....

The commands and parameters available are:

Command	Parameters	Example
Open	“Filename” (must be in quotes)	[Open(“C:\CCW\My Crossword”)]
Close	None	[Close()]
Quit	None	[Quit()]
Print	None	[Print()]
Export	None Number 0-8	[Export()] [Export(2)]

Open opens the specified file.

Close closes the active crossword

Quit closes Crossword Compiler

Print shows the Print dialog box for the active crossword.

Export with no parameters shows the Export dialog box.

Export with a parameter copies the active crossword to the clipboard, according to the following parameter mappings:

 	0 – Puzzle

 	1 – Solution

2 – Numbered solution

3 – Code Grid (in coded puzzles)

4 – Code Solution (in coded puzzles)

5 – Clues

6 – Answers

7 – Explanations

8 – Fill-in words

Puzzle, solution and numbered solution, code grid and code solution are copied as a picture (metafile), the rest are copied as Rich Text Format.


Tiling and cascading windows

You can have several crosswords open at once in Crossword Compiler, each one in a separate window. Select Tile side by side or Tile top to bottom from the Windows menu to size the windows and arrange them so that you can see them all at once. Select Cascade from the Windows menu to show all the windows fairly large and overlapping so that you can see each one's title.


Creating Vocabulary Puzzles

To create a freeform non-symmetric puzzle using words from a short list select the Create vocabulary puzzle option on the Words menu. Alternatively create a new puzzle by selecting New from the File menu and clicking on the Create vocab puzzle button. This will display a window showing the various options for puzzle creation. This feature inserts the blocks (black squares) automatically; if you want to fill in words around a given pattern of blocks use the Fill Grid feature instead.

An example: say you wanted to create a 6x6 puzzle containing names of common metals. You would select the Use these words check box and type in, say,

iron

gold

tin

lead

copper

silver

nickel

zinc

Click on the Create button and the computer will automatically generate the puzzle:

To accept this puzzle press the Stop button. If you don't press Stop the computer will continue to search for puzzles that contain more of the given words. In general you should press Stop whenever you are happy with the result produced. If you stop the fill but prefer one of the solutions found earlier you can Undo (Alt+Backspace) repeatedly to see the previous fills. You can cancel the fill at any time by pressing the Cancel button.

You can create puzzles from a wordlist by clicking the Use word list check box and then selecting a word list. For instance, selecting the word list Music with the above 6x6 grid the computer might come up with

Select the Use clue database option to use the words in a clue database. and automatically insert clues from the database once the grid is completed.  Select the database to use from the drop-down list, or click the Use different database button to open a different database.

If you select Use these words you can load and save the list of words you've typed in by pressing the Load... and Save... buttons. To delete the words you've typed in press the Clear button.

There are various options available to customise how the process works. Select the Fill options tab at the top of the window to change them. The options you can change are as follows:

Surrounding squares

This setting determined what the computer puts in the squares in which there are no words. Select Blocks to create puzzles like those above, or select Voids to create a freeform outline puzzle. With Voids selected the puzzle above would look like this:

Allow adjacent parallel words

This option determines whether junctions like

are allowed or not. Here OPEN and NEAT count as adjacent parallel words, as do TEN and NEAR. With large word lists disallowing this kind of junction will make the fill significantly faster.

Word list settings

These are used when you select a word list for creating the puzzle. Set the Minimum word length to a number higher than two if you want to avoid short words. Set the Minimum word score to avoid words with scores less than the given value.

You can save the settings in the window by clicking the Save options button so that they will be automatically selected next time you start up the program.

If you wish to generate more than one grid simultaneously you can change the relative priorities of the two fills by dragging the bar marked Fill priority during the filling process. It is also useful to lower the priority if you want to leave the filler running in the background for a long time whilst you do something else. Lowering the priority makes whatever you are doing in the foreground run faster.


Ordering Crossword Compiler in N. America
See also ordering in the UK, Australia and elsewhere

The full licensed version can create puzzles up to 50x50 squares and all the features are enabled. Order it now!

Crossword Compiler 4.12	$45
Two sets of additional word lists (see below)	$25
WordWeb Pro thesaurus/dictionary	$25
Languages word list: French, German, Italian and Spanish	$12.50
UK word list: UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary	$12.50
Crossword Compiler CD-ROM (includes all of the above)	$89

All prices are in US dollars.

ORDERING ONLINE

You can pay by credit card and download the licensed program immediately over the Internet. Follow the links from http://www.x-word.com/ordering.html.

CREDIT CARD ORDERS

You can order with MC, Visa, Amex, or Discover from Public (software)

Library (PsL) in the following ways:

Online: Follow the links from http://www.x-word.com/ordering.html.

FAX:  To 713-524-6398 ask for product #11992 and please type or block print very plainly.

Email: To PsL at 11992@pslweb.com

Mail: To PsL at P.O.Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705.

Phone: 800-242-4775 Ext.11992  or  713-524-6394 Ext.11992

PsL's operators are available from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Please make clear when ordering that you want version 4.12 for Windows 95/98/NT rather than the Windows 3.1 version of the program.

THE ABOVE NUMBERS ARE FOR ORDERS ONLY.

Please e-mail any questions to ordering@x-word.com. Up to date information about the program can also be found on the Internet at http://www.x-word.com.

ORDERING BY CHECK

Please see the topic entitled Ordering Elsewhere

Additional word lists.

There is a bundle of two disks of additional word lists that you can order. The lists are:

174000+ Unusual words and variant spellings

233000+ Words from Webster's second edition

75000+ Expressions from Webster's second

Medical, legal and ethnic words. Lists of names, cities and UK and US place names. Words relating to literature, food, the Old Testament, IATA, photography, school chemistry and the Olympics.


Ordering Crossword Compiler in the UK
See also ordering in N. America, Australia and elsewhere

Crossword Compiler is British software and in the UK can be purchased directly from the author. The prices are as follows:

Crossword Compiler 4.12	£28
WordWeb Pro thesaurus/dictionary	£15
Crossword Compiler CD-ROM    (includes WordWeb Pro and all the word lists)	£55
There are also a number of additional word list disks at £6 each:

Disk 1	Medical, legal and ethnic words. Lists of names, cities and UK places. Words relating to literature, food, the Old Testament, IATA, photography, school chemistry and the Olympics. Large list of unusual words and variant spellings.
Disk 2	Words and expressions from Webster's second edition. US place names.
Disk 3	German, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin.
Disk 4	Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish
Disk 5	UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary (200000+ words). RAF words

ORDERING BY CHEQUE or Postal Order.

Cheques should be payable to Antony Lewis and mailed to

Antony Lewis, 16 Townley Rd, London SE22 8SR, UK.

Click here to print out an order form that you can fill in.

ORDERING BY CREDIT CARD OVER THE INTERNET

This is not recommended for UK residents, but you can order the program (for $45 US) and download it immediately by following the link from http://www.netword.demon.co.uk/ordering.html.


WordWeb Pro

WordWeb is a comprehensive thesaurus/dictionary that can be used directly from Crossword Compiler or run as a separate program. It's also a handy tool for solving puzzles.

Powerful thesaurus/dictionary

•	Definitions and synonyms

•	Over 100,000 synonym sets, 120,000 root words and 160,000 word forms

•	Related words: antonyms, words for parts and types, etc.

•	Includes many proper nouns

•	Filter synonyms by sense and part of speech

Pattern matching word find

•	Fast search through huge 160,000 word list

•	Use vowel/consonant and letter group placeholders

•	Punctuation sensitive searches

Anagram finding

•	Find straight and multi-word anagrams

•	Anagram word order changed to make multi-word anagrams more grammatical

•	Find partial anagrams: e.g. How many words can you make using the letters in …?

Edit and add to the database

•	Edit individual definitions and synonym sets

•	Add new words and definitions

Use WordWeb Pro with Crossword Compiler

•	Use the word list containing 160,000 words for grid filling/word finding

•	Lookup words in the grid or in the clue editor

•	Automatically paste synonyms from WordWeb into the clue editor

MS Word 95/97 macro to display WordWeb from MS Word

Up-to-date information about WordWeb is available on the Internet at http://www.netword.demon.co.uk/wordweb/.

If you have any questions or would like more information please E-Mail WordWeb@netword.demon.co.uk.


Ordering in Australia
Ordering in Australia and New Zealand
See also ordering in the UK, N. America, and elsewhere

Crossword Compiler is available in Australia/New Zealand from our local distributor Shareware-Australia.

The following are available (prices in Australian dollars):

Crossword Compiler 4.12	$79
Two sets of additional word lists (see below)	$39
WordWeb Pro thesaurus/dictionary	$39
Languages word list: French, German, Italian and Spanish	$20
UK word list: UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary	$20
Crossword Compiler CD-ROM (includes all of the above)	$149
You can order by phone, fax, email, postal mail or online.

Fax your order to 	(02) 9565-2362

Phone your order to 	(02) 9565-2339

Email your order to	sales@shareware-australia.com

Order online at	http://www.x-word.com/aus.html

Mail your order to:	Shareware-Australia, PO Box 1075, Maroubra NSW 2035

Payment can be made by Cheque, Money Order, Bankcard, Mastercard, Visacard, or American Express.

There is an order form that you can print out and send.

Additional word lists.

The two sets of additional word lists consist of:

174000+ Unusual words and variant spellings

233000+ Words from Webster's second edition

75000+ Expressions from Webster's second

Medical, legal and ethnic words. Lists of names, cities and UK and US place names. Words relating to literature, food, the Old Testament, IATA, photography, school chemistry and the Olympics.


Crossword Compiler Order Form
Crossword Compiler 4.12 Order Form

Select Print Topic... from the File menu and fill in the form to order by post. Alternatively see the other ways of ordering

Name:

Address:

E-Mail:

Where did you get your evaluation copy of Crossword Compiler from?

Please send me a licence for the following (put an 'X' for any you want):

__ Crossword Compiler 4.12	£28
__ WordWeb Pro 1.6	£15
__ Crossword Compiler CD-ROM             (includes WordWeb Pro and all word lists)	£55

and the following additional word list sets for Crossword Compiler at £6 each

__  Disk 1:	Medical, legal, ethnic, names, food, US places, UK places, cities, literature, Old Testament, IATA, Olympic, school chemistry, large list of unusual words and variant spellings.
__  Disk 2:	Words from Webster's second edition, expressions from Webster's second.
__  Disk 3:	German, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin.
__  Disk 4:	Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.
__  Disk 5:	UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary: 210000+ words.

I enclose a cheque, Eurocheque or PO/International Money Order for a total of  _______

(please add £2 P&P if you are outside the EU and £4 if you wish to pay in another currency)

Signed: _____________________________________

Please make cheques payable to Antony Lewis and mail to:

Antony Lewis, 16 Townley Rd, London SE22 8SR, UK.


Ordering Elswhere
See also ordering in the UK, N. America, and Australia

Credit card orders

This is probably the easiest option. Follow the instructions under Ordering in N. America.

Payment in Euros

At the time of writing the Euro doesn't exist. Please see http://www.x-word.com/ordering.html for the latest ordering information. Otherwise see the next section.

Other orders

The prices, in Pounds Sterling, are as follows

Crossword Compiler 4.12	£28
WordWeb Pro thesaurus/dictionary	£15
Crossword Compiler CD-ROM    (includes WordWeb Pro and all the word lists)	£55
There are also a number of additional word list disks at £6 each:

Disk 1	Medical, legal and ethnic words. Lists of names, cities and UK places. Words relating to literature, food, the Old Testament, IATA, photography, school chemistry and the Olympics. Large list of unusual words and variant spellings.
Disk 2	Words and expressions from Webster's second edition. US place names.
Disk 3	German, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin.
Disk 4	Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish
Disk 5	UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary (200000+ words). RAF words

CHEQUES and EUROCHEQUES

You can pay by Eurocheque or get your bank to make out a Sterling cheque. Alternatively I can accept cheques made out in any convertible currency. Please calculate the total amount payable in pounds, add £4 (to cover the bank charge for accepting foreign cheques), and work out how much that is in your local currency.

ORDERING BY CASH

This is not recommended but I can accept payment in cash. I accept no responsibilty if the money gets lost in the post - please pack it well.

OTHER METHODS OF PAYMENT

You can also pay by electronic transfer and possibly by non-Sterling cash. Please e-mail compiler@x-word.com for details.

Cheques should be payable to Antony Lewis. Mail orders to

Antony Lewis

16 Townley Rd

London SE22 8SR

UK.

Click here to print out an order form that you can fill in.


Ordering Crossword Compiler

This is an evaluation version of Crossword Compiler that can only make small puzzles up to 10x10 squares. The full version can create puzzles up to 50x50 squares and has all the features enabled. Order it now!

Please select an ordering location:

Ordering in N. America

Ordering in the UK

Ordering in Australia and New Zealand

Ordering elsewhere

You can also order online at http://www.x-word.com/ordering.html

Online ordering is by credit card, debited in US or Australian dollars. You can either download the program immediately or get postal delivery.


Crossword Compiler Order Form

Select Print Topic from the file menu, fill in the form and mail your

order to:

Shareware-Australia, PO Box 1075, Maroubra NSW 2035, Australia

Payment can be made by Cheque, Money Order, Bankcard, Mastercard,

Visacard, or American Express.

Name:___________________________________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________________________

         _______________________________________________________________

Phone: ____________Fax: ____________ Email: ____________________________

Paid by Cheque/Money Order [ ]  Credit Card [ ]

Credit Card No. _________________________________________________________

Expiry Date: __________  Signature: _____________________________________

Please supply

__ copies of Crossword Compiler @ AU$ 79.00 each	$______
__ copies of set of additional word lists  @ AU$ 39.00 each	$______
__ copies of UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary @ AU$ 20.00 each	$______
__ copies of Foreign Language lists @ AU$ 20.00 each    (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin)	$______
__ copies of WordWeb Pro @ AU$ 39.00 each	$______
__ copies of Crossword Compiler CD-ROM @ AU$ 149.00 each     (Includes all of the above)	$______
Postage & Handling FREE
Total	$______

Deliver by Post [ ]   e-mail [  ]

E-mail delivery is not available for WordWeb Pro or the CD-ROM.