Table of Contents

Puzzle File Name.
A file name for the puzzle which is about to be constructed should be entered into this field. Type in the file name, using a maximum of 63 characters in the case of Windows, and 27 characters in the case of Macintosh. If you type in a name which already exists, you will receive a warning. If you ignore this warning, then the old puzzle will be destroyed when the new one is saved to disk. If you are editing the Puzzle Description of an existing puzzle, then there is no point in changing this field, as any changes you make to it will be ignored.

Puzzle Title.
This is an optional field. Up to 30 characters may be entered to serve as the Title for this puzzle. The title will appear on the output of any Smart Print operation which you may perform, and will also appear in Custom Print output if you define a Puz Title area in the Custom Print Layout.

Puzzle Author.
This is an optional field. If you are producing crossword puzzles for publication, you may like to attach your name, or that of your company to the puzzle. It will be printed in a single line immediately below the Puzzle Title. A maximum of 30 characters can be entered.

Copyright Notice.
This is an optional field, and if present will be printed immediately below, and to the left of the puzzle grid. Up to 30 characters of copyright information can be entered.

Puzzle Number.
This is an optional field, and if present will be printed immediately below and to the right of the puzzle grid. You can use it for any purpose which suits your needs, but if you leave it blank, the letters CWE will be inserted by the program. Up to 15 characters can be entered.

Puzzle Notes.
This is an optional field, and can contain up to 250 characters of background information concerning the puzzle. If present, it will be printed centrally, just below the puzzle grid.

Disable Peek feature.
Checking this box will result in the inability to peek when using the Solve function. This would be appropriate when using the program in a classroom situation.

Disable Show Error Function.
Checking this box will disable the Show Error feature when using the Solve function. This would be appropriate when using the program in a classroom situation.

Scramble Puzzle.
Checking this box will result in the puzzle being saved in a scrambled format. This is to prevent computer wise students from peeking at the solution by looking into the actual puzzle file.

Make a single puzzle
This is the default and constructs a single puzzle. You can name the puzzle and save it to disk.

Save multiple puzzles
This option constructs a series of puzzles and saves them to disk. The number of puzzles made is specified under How many Puzzles. The puzzles are named by taking the first four letters of "Puzzle Name" and adding an ascending sequence of four digits starting from 0001.

Print multiple puzzles
This is similar to "Save multiple puzzles" above, but the puzzles are sent to the printer as they are made, rather than to the disk. The solution, the blank grid, and the clues are printed. The positioning of these items on the paper is determined by a series of options available via the Print Crossword screen.

How many puzzles?
When you are Saving or Printing multiple puzzles, you must specify the number of puzzles you wish to make. Use this option to type in the number of puzzles required up to a maximum of 9999.

Using all words
By default, this option is off, and Crossword Express will not use any words which have been locked out by the Word Lockout function on the Miscellaneous Functions screen. It is recommended that this option be on if you are making very large or complex puzzles.

Show letters?
When Crossword Express is making a new puzzle, it lets you know how far it has progressed, by displaying the letters it has inserted into the puzzle. This is the default condition, and can be quite entertaining to watch, but it is not recommended if you are making a puzzle that you plan to solve yourself. You can turn off this option so the cells are shaded light gray whenever a letter is inserted. This option also controls the appearance of the Print Puzzle screen.

Random Make?
During the MAKE operation, the program defaults to a situation where the words are always entered into the grid in a fixed order, starting generally from the top left hand corner of the puzzle. The random nature of the word selection process ensures that a different puzzle will result every time. If you would like to introduce an even greater degree of randomness into your puzzles you can turn on the Random Make checkbox which will result in puzzle construction commencing from a randomly chosen location within the puzzle.

Simply mouse-click into the required cell, and type the wanted letter.

A complete word can be entered, or you can use the Suggest button to have Crossword Express show you a list of suitable words from which you can select.

This function allows you to solve a crossword puzzle in the traditional way using clues. The clues which are presented to you at any given time are the ones for the Across and Down words which pass through the red focus cell.",

Any character which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into the focus cell, and the focus cell will automatically move forward to the next character of the focus word which is coloured pale yellow.

The location of the focus cell and its corresponding word may be shifted by pointing and clicking with the mouse, or by means of the cursor control keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End). Other keys which provide useful functions during the solution process are Space bar, Back Space, Delete and Return.

You can check your progress at any time by means of the Show Errors button. Incorrect letters will remain highlighted until such time as you move the mouse cursor from over the Show Errors button. There is also a barometer style indicator to show your progress.

If you have difficulty at any point in the solution, you can get some help by using the Peek 1 Letter button, or by pressing the ? key. There is no limit to the number of times you can do this but remember that the program will keep a count of the number of times you use the option.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

In this type of puzzle, you are given the complete set of words required to fill the puzzle. They are presented in a scrollable list to the left of the puzzle.

Any character which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into the red focus cell, and the focus cell will automatically move forward to the next character of the focus word which is coloured pale yellow.

The location of the focus cell and its corresponding word may be shifted by pointing and clicking with the mouse, or by means of the cursor control keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End). Other keys which provide useful functions during the solution process are Space bar, Back Space, Delete and Return.

As you type each word directly into the puzzle, it is removed from the list, regardless of whether or not you have entered it into the correct location.

You can check your progress by means of the Show Errors button. Incorrect letters will be highlighted until such time as you move the mouse cursor from over the Show Errors button. There is also a barometer style indicator to show your progress.

If you have difficulty getting started with the solution, you can get some help by using the Peek 1 Letter button or by pressing the ? key. The program will only allow you three chances at this, so use them wisely.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

This style of puzzle is also commonly called a Clueless Puzzle. The letters of the puzzle are replaced by numbers...one number for each different letter used in the puzzle. Your task in solving such a puzzle is to discover which letter is represented by each number.

The solution process is assisted by a Code Panel to the left of the Puzzle. The red cursor within this panel may be moved around by pointing and clicking with the mouse, or by means of the cursor control keys. Clicking within the puzzle will also move the cursor to the corresponding location in the Code Panel.

Any character which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into the red focus cell of the Code Panel, as well as into each appropriately numbered cell within the puzzle.

A list of all of the letters used in the puzzle is displayed below the Code Panel. As each letter is added to the puzzle, its color in the list is changed to remind you that it has been used.

You can check your progress by means of the Show Errors button. Incorrect letters will be highlighted until such time as you move the mouse cursor from over the Show Errors button. There is also a barometer style indicator to show your progress.

If you have difficulty getting started with the solution, you can get some help by using the Peek 1 Letter button, or by pressing the ? key. The program will only allow you three chances at this, so use them wisely.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

In this puzzle you are presented with two letters already placed in each cell of the puzzle. Your task is simply to decide which of them is the correct one.

Any character which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into the red focus cell, and the focus cell will automatically move forward to the next character of the focus word which is coloured pale yellow.

The location of the focus cell and its corresponding word may be shifted by pointing and clicking with the mouse, or by means of the cursor control keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End). Other keys which provide useful functions during the solution process are Space bar, Back Space, Delete and Return.

You can check your progress at any time by means of the Show Errors button. Incorrect letters will remain highlighted until such time as you move the mouse cursor from over the Show Errors button. There is also a barometer style indicator to show your progress.

If you have difficulty at any point in the solution, you can get some help by using the Peek 1 Letter button, or by pressing the ? key. There is no limit to the number of times you can do this but remember that the program will keep a count of the number of times you use the option.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

This is similar to a jigsaw puzzle. The crossword is broken into a number of rectangular pieces which are displayed in the left hand half of the screen.

To solve the puzzle you must re-assemble these fragments into the space provided in the right hand half of the screen.

This is done by mouse clicking onto the fragment of your choice and dragging it to what you think is it’s correct location in the solution. It snaps into position when you release the mouse, and its original location in the fragment area is rendered in a light gray color to remind you that it has been used.

Clicking on the grayed out image will remove the fragment from the solution if you decide that you have made an incorrect placement.

You can check your progress at any time by means of the Show Errors button. Incorrect letters will remain highlighted until such time as you move the mouse cursor from over the Show Errors button.

The size of the fragments can be controlled by means of a dialog accessed via the Set Fragment Size button. The size can be set between the limits of 3x3 to 10x10.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

All of the words in the scrollable list to the left of the screen are hidden in the matrix of letters to right of the screen.

Your task is to identify each word by holding down the mouse on the first letter of a word, and dragging to the last letter. When you release the mouse button, the word will be struck-out in the letter matrix, and will also be removed from the list.

You can also do this by pointing to the last letter and dragging toward the first letter.

You can ask for a hint at any time by clicking the Show Hints button. The first letter of each word not yet found will remain highlighted while the mouse cursor remains over the Show Hints button.

Clicking the Peek One Word button will reveal the first word in the list of words not yet found. Such words will be struck-out in a different highlight colour.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

The clue which is displayed at any point applies to that word in the word list which currently contains the focus cell. This cell may be either red or pale blue.

Any character which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into both the red and pale blue focus cells, and the red focus cell will automatically move forward to the next character of the word in which it is located. The pale blue focus cell will be relocated to the cell which has the same identifying number as the red focus cell.

The location of the red focus cell may be shifted by pointing and clicking with the mouse, or by means of the cursor control keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End). Each time the red cursor cell is moved, the pale blue cursor will also be relocated to the cell containing the same identifying number. Other keys which provide useful functions during the solution process are Space bar, Back Space, Delete and Return.

You can check your progress at any time by clicking the Show Errors button. Incorrect letters will remain highlighted while the mouse cursor remains over the Show Errors button. There is also a barometer style indicator to show your progress.

If you have difficulty at any point in the solution, you can get some help by using the Peek 1 Letter button, or by pressing the ? key. There is no limit to the number of times you can do this but remember that the program will keep a count of the number of times you use the option.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

Crossword Express Sudoku puzzles may contain any printable character (Symbol). The set of Symbols used in the current puzzle are always displayed in a panel above the puzzle.

Any character which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into the red focus cell, provided that it is a member of the Symbol Set for this puzzle.

The location of the red focus cell may be shifted by means of the cursor control keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End).

Under default conditions, the program displays in each unsolved cell, the set of candidate symbols which might legally be placed into that cell. Whenever a solution symbol is placed into one of the cells, the list of candidate symbols in other cells is automatically updated.

If you are familiar with some of the more advanced Sudoku solving techniques (X wing, Swordfish etc), you may see that certain of the listed candidate symbols cannot possibly be a solution for the cell in which they are shown. Such candidates may be removed by pointing and clicking with the mouse.

If you prefer to solve Sudoku puzzles without the help of these candidate symbols in the unsolved cells, clicking the Assist button will disable this behaviour.

The Undo button will undo any and all changes you have made in strict reverse of the order in which they were made.

With some very difficult puzzles, you may reach a point where you can see no way of proceeding further. At this point you can make a guess for one of the unsolved cells, and then continue with the solution until either the puzzle is solved, or you find a cell for which no candidate symbols are listed. If this happens, use the Undo button to return to the point where you made your guess, and then make a different guess.

If the puzzle contains a Hidden Message then there will be a series of colored cells distributed across the puzzle. As the solution of the puzzle proceeds, the message will gradually appear in these cells.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

Crossword Express Kakuro puzzles are similar to crossword puzzles in that they are built on standard crossword grids, but instead of using letters, the digits 1 to 9 are used.

The clue for each word of these puzzles is the number which results from adding the digits of the word. There is also a less common variant of the puzzle in which the clue is formed by multiplying the digits of the word.

By tradition, the clues are displayed within the puzzle, inside either the normal black pattern cells, or in a set of special black cells wich run across the top of the puzzle and down the left hand side.

When first displayed, each active cell contains an array of the complete set of nine possible digits. Solving the puzzle consists of determining which of these digits cannot possibly fit into the cell, and removing them by pointing and clicking with the mouse. Clicking the Undo button will restore the digit most recently removed in this way from the current red focus cell. When only a single digit remains, this becomes the solution for that cell.

Any digit which is typed at the keyboard will be placed into the red focus cell to become part of the solution. The Space Bar or the Delete key may be used to remove any characters entered in error.

The location of the red focus cell may be shifted by pointing and clicking with the mouse, or by means of the cursor control keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End).

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

Crossword Express GrandTour puzzles are normally built on a rectangular grid (although other shapes are possible). The grid is defined by an array of dots which represent the corners of the cells within the grid. Some of the cells in this grid contain a single digit number between 0 and 3 inclusive. The remaining cells are blank.

The task of the solver is to join selected dots with horizontal and vertical lines so that a single loop is formed which does not cross over itself. If a cell contains a number, then that number of sides of the cell must be included within the loop.

Interactive GrandTour puzzles normally have faint grey guide-lines joining the dots. These guide-lines can be converted to full lines by pointing to an area near the middle of the line and clicking the mouse. A second click will remove the line altogether, and a third click will restore the faint grey line.

Use logical reasoning to determine which of the guide-lines should be converted to full lines, and which ones should be removed. Each time you add or remove a line, it will open up new possibilities for you to exploit.

Clicking the Show Errors button will display in red any line segments which have been entered or cleared in error. This highlight will remain until the mouse cursor is moved outside of the Show Errors button.

The puzzles have unique solutions, and no guessing is required to complete the solution.

The Select Dictionary and Select Puzzle buttons allow you to choose your puzzle from among the entire set of puzzles currently available in your Crossword Express system.

Units of measurement
Many of the print options involve measurements which control the positioning and size of the printed elements. You can select English (Imperial) or Metric units. Note that the units of measurement are in inches or cms respectively.

Adjusting the Layout

• When you first enter the Custom Print Dialog, the puzzle layout displayed will conform to the currently selected Custom Print Layout. If you are using Custom Print for the first time, then what you see will be the default Layout provided by the program. The Layout consists of 20 items or segments which you can adjust separately in terms of both size and location. These segments are listed near the top of the Dialog, and may be selected by means of an associated Radio Button. Normally, only a small number of the segments will be included in a Layout.

• When you select a segment, it will be highlighted in the display by means of a blue outline, having handles in the top left and bottom right corners. If you select a segment which is not currently included in the layout, the handles will appear in the top left corner of the white printable area of the dialog. You can drag these handles to a new location within the dialog in order to change the size and location of the segment.

• Dragging these handles is good for setting up a rough layout. For fine adjustments of the layout use of the - and + controls associated with the top, left, bottom and right locations is recommended.

• Having created a layout which meets your requirements, you may well find that you haven't got it centred correctly within the printable area. This can quickly and easily be corrected by means of the Up, Down, Left and Right Relocate buttons.

• Finally, if you decide that one of the segments in the layout is not required, it can be removed from the layout by clicking the Delete Item button when the segment is selected and highlighted.

Selecting a Custom Print Layout
As you make more use of the Custom Print function, you will gradually accumulate a collection of your favourite Custom Print Layouts by saving them using the SaveAs button. When faced with the need to print a newly created puzzle, clicking the Select button will provide you with a list box containing all of the Custom Print Layouts currently available. Mouse click on the one you want, and click OK to proceed.

Saving a Custom Print Layout

• If you make some small adjustment to a Custom Print Layout, and would like this change to remain effective during subsequent uses of the program, then clicking the Save button will save the changes into the currently selected Custom Print Layout.

• However, if you make significant changes, perhaps creating a completely new puzzle layout, you will naturally want to save this Layout, without overwriting the currently selected one. The SaveAs button provides you with an opportunity to enter a name to be used for your new Custom Print Layout.

Solution Puzzle
The Select Solution button will provide you with a list box containing a list of all of the puzzles which are available for inclusion as solutions in the printout. If you do not select a Solution Puzzle, then naturally, no solution will be included in your printout.

Preview, Print and Export These three buttons allow you to control the sending of the formatted puzzle to three different destinations.

• Preview The format normally displayed in the Custom Print Dialog is replaced by an image of the puzzle, formatted according to the rules specified by the current Custom Print Format.

• Print The formatted puzzle is sent to the printer.

• Export The formatted puzzle is sent to the Clipboard, from where it can be pasted into any Word Processor or Desk Top Publishing application.

This method of printing provides an interesting variation to the familiar tabular method of presenting the clues of a puzzle.

The clues are incorporated into the puzzle itself, and are printed in the puzzle cells which would otherwise have been black pattern cells.

The clue for any word in the crossword puzzle can only be placed into a pattern cell which is either horizontally or vertically adjacent to either the first or the last cell occupied by the word. If a puzzle has one or more words which do not have pattern cells adjacent to the first or last cells, then naturally the layout process cannot be completed. Fortunately, it is quite a simple matter to recognise this situation within a grid design.

Crossword Express will fit a maximum of three clues into a single pattern cell. It is relatively easy to design a grid in which there are four words, all of which must have their clue inserted into the same pattern cell. If this happens, them the Layout cannot be completed, but once again, this is a situation which can easily be recognised by observation.

The overall size of the puzzle printout can be increased to create more space for the clues.

The length of the clue can be reduced. This can most easily be done using the Add Clue function on the Manual Construction screen. Although this function is primarily intended for adding clues to a manually constructed puzzle, it can also be used to edit an existing clue.

Some people like to make their puzzles more difficult to solve by omitting the index numbers from the puzzle grid, and from the clues, which are printed in random order. Solving the puzzle then becomes similar to a Fill-In puzzle where the words which result from the clues as you solve them must be fitted together in the puzzle.

This option uses the Custom Print standard to do the printing, and automatically takes care of the details involved with leaving out the numbering.

Fonts and Colours When a puzzle is printed, there are a total of nine different entities for which font and colour information may be specified. The names of these entities are shown on the set of nine buttons which are used to set the font. When a Puzzle Layout is saved, the font specifications are saved in the layout, but the colour definitions are not.

WordSearch Print Options

• When printing a WordSearch solution, the locations of the words within the puzzle are indicated graphically by means of lines drawn through or around the words. Three strikeout modes are available for this process, and are displayed graphically in the dialog. You can select the one you want to use by means of the three radio buttons.

• The width of the lines used in striking out the words can be controlled by clicking the - and + buttons of the Strikeout Width control. The width is expressed as a percentage of the width of a notional square surrounding a single letter within the puzzle.

• Similarly, clicking the Colour button will lead you to a Colour Picker dialog where you can select a colour to be used for the strikeout lines.

• Normally, when a WordSearch puzzle is printed, a list of the words hidden within it are printed along with the puzzle. A Use Clues, not Words checkbox is provided so that you can specify that clues should be listed rather than the words.

Print Labels

• If you make puzzles in languages other than English, you will want to change the default wording used for certain of the labels used in printing the puzzle.

• The labels concerned are the ACROSS and DOWN labels which are attached to the clues of a standard crossword puzzle, the default Letters label which is used in the word-length headings of Fill-In and WordSearch puzzles, and the default Clues label used when printing Acrostic and MorphWord puzzles.

• Up to 30 characters can be input here for each of the labels.

Clue in Puzzle Options

• The arows drawn within a Clue-In-Puzzle printout may be drawn in any one of six different styles. Use the associated radio buttons to select the style you would like to use.

• Clue Cells. Use this to control the background colour of the cells in which the clues are to be printed. The default colour is white. Control of the colour of the clue text is covered under Fonts and Colours.

• Arrows. These would normally be the same colour as the Grid Lines of the puzzle, but any colour can be selected.

• Omit Direction Arrows. It is perhaps unlikely that you would want to do this, but the feature has been requested and is included accordingly.

• L-R and DN arrows only. By default, the layout of clues into a Clue-In-Puzzle printout can require that the direction arrows point in any of the four directions UP, DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT. Selecting this checkbox will ensure that only RIGHT and DOWN directions will be used. Note that such a choice will often make it impossible for Crossword Express to find a suitable allocation of clues for the puzzle to be printed. If so, it will issue an error message to this effect.

Colour Selection

• Pattern Cells. Traditionally, the pattern cells within a crossword puzzle are rendered in black. Use of this option, allows you to choose a different colour. If you choose pure white, the puzzle will be printed in a pleasing shadow box style.

• Acrostic Hi-light. In an Acrostic puzzle, the first letters of the list of Key-words spell out a word of their own, and you can elect for the cells containing these letters to be hi-lighted. This option allows you to select what the colour of that hi-light should be.

• Morph Hi-light. Similarly, the anchor words of a MorphWord puzzle may be hi-lighted, and you can use this option to select the colour of that hi-light.

Grid Line Options

• Grid Line Width. The width of the line used to print the puzzle grid is expressed as a percentage of the width of a puzzle cell. This setting may be varied between 0% and 10%. A setting of 0% results in the lines not being drawn at all. There may be circumstances where you find this useful.

• Grid Line Colour. The default colour for the Grid lines is black, but you can change it to any colour you choose.

Puzzle Border Options. If you elect to have a border printed around your puzzle, you can use the following options to control the appearance of that border:-

• Border Width. The width of the border is expressed in terms of the Measurement Units which you selected from the Print Dialog. Naturally, setting the width to zero will result in a border not being printed.

• Border Gap. This control specifies how much clearance should be left between the border and the printed elements of the puzzle. It is expressed in the same units as the Border Width.

• Border Colour. The colour of the border can be selected using this control.

If you are going to send the puzzle to a printer, be sure to arrange your print layout so that there is sufficient space for the border to be printed without overflowing the edge of the paper.

Bits 'n' Pieces Puzzles. The single option available here involves Fragment Size. You can independently control the number of cells across and the number of cells down. If you enter a number outside of the range 3 to 10, Crossword Express will adjust the value so that it fits within this range.

Dictionary Name This name must be restricted to 63 characters for Windows and 27 characters for Macintosh. If you are creating a Special Interest dictionary, then you should start its name with the special character '$', so that it can be correctly identified. Note that no extension is required.

Word Font If you are making a specialized dictionary which uses an alphabet other than the Latin alphabet, then you will need to attach a specific font to the words on a permanent basis. If a font is selected, it will override the font selected under Print Options for all situations where Words are displayed or printed. If no special font is required, then leave the selection at the default value of "Default Font".

Clue Font As above, but select a font for the clues. It is quite OK to select a font for Words, but go with the default for clues, or vice versa. Also, you could select a Cyrillic Font for the words, and a Greek Font for the clues, if you were interested in making a Russian- Greek dictionary.

Right to Left Mode Control

• When using languages such as Arabic or Hebrew, there is a requirement for both the words and clues to be presented in a Right to Left mode during editing operations, and for the entire puzzle to be flipped about a vertical axis before it is printed. Also the clues must start from the right hand edge of the column in which they are being printed. Two check boxes control the application of this program behaviour.

• Process words in R to L mode Setting this checkbox will result in word editing and puzzle printing both being done in the R to L mode.

• Process clues in R to L mode Setting this checkbox will result in both clue editing and clue printing being done in the R to L mode. Providing separate checkboxes in this way allows for the possibility of puzzles in which the words are represented by a language which requires the L to R mode, while the clues are represented by a language requiring the R to L mode. Thus English / Hebrew puzzles can readily be made and printed.

• At this stage of development, Right to Left printing can only be used in conjunction with the Clipboard Export function and the Custom Print function.

• The Right to Left mode is a property of the dictionary, and can be applied to a dictionary at the time of its creation using the New Dictionary function, or it can be attached to an existing dictionary using the Properties button on the Dictionary Maintenance screen.

Maintain Case Sensitivity Under default conditions, when you are importing a Word List, or a Document into a dictionary, or adding words to a dictionary in the Dictionary Edit function, the characters in the word will be converted to Upper Case. If you require that the case of your imported or entered words be maintained, you can achieve this by checking the Maintain Case Sensitivity checkbox. Case Sensitivity is a property of the dictionary, and can be applied to a dictionary at the time of its creation using the New Dictionary function, or it can be attached to an existing dictionary using the Properties button on the Dictionary Maintenance screen.

Word Length Control

• Many crossword compilers like to include a word length specification in brackets at the end of the clue.

• Crossword Express can reduce the work involved in adding these specifications by calculating them for you when you enter a word into the Dictionary Edit window. The specification will be entered into the Clue edit box immediately after the input cursor.

• When entering a multi-word Word (for example Romeo and Juliet) be sure to separate the sub-words by one or more spaces so that Crossword Express can calculate the lengths of these sub-words. Sub-words may also be separated by means of hyphens, in which case the word length specification will record the presence of the hyphen. The spaces and hyphens will be removed automatically, immediately the sub-word lengths have been calculated. You can have the word length specification included for every word, or you can choose to have it included for multi-word Words only. Naturally, there is also an option under which they are not included at all.

• Word length specifications will also be applied to dictionary input which is being imported from a WordList file. Normally, the first space in the input line is taken as the separation point between the Word and the Clue, but if you want to import a multi-word Word, then you need to place a single ^ character in the input line between the end of the WORD and the beginning of the CLUE to tell the program where the break between word and clue is located.

• Program behaviour with regard to Word Lengths is a property of the dictionary, and can be applied to a dictionary at the time of its creation using the New Dictionary function, or it can be attached to an existing dictionary using the Properties button on the Dictionary Maintenance screen.

Navigating the Dictionary
Moving around the dictionary is a simple matter using the Scroll bar associated with the list in the left-hand side of the dialog box. If you want to jump to a very precise location in the dictionary, you can press the Enter key, and type into the word edit box the word that you want to jump to and then press the Enter key again. If the word happens to be already in the dictionary, its clue will be displayed, and you will have the opportunity of editing that clue. If the word is not in the dictionary, the clue edit box will be empty, and you can type in a clue if you wish. Otherwise you can continue scanning through the dictionary using the Scroll bar control.

• Adding Words.
  Pressing the Enter key will move the cursor to the Word edit box, and allow you to type in the new word. When you have done so, pressing the Enter key again will move the cursor to the Clue edit box where you can type in your clue. When finished you can move to a new location in the dictionary by means of the scroll bar, or you can add another word as before. In either case, the changes you have made will be saved to memory, and a counter will be updated to show you how many editing changes you have made during this editing session. As with any editing function, you should save your work at regular intervals.

• Deleting Words.
  Clicking the Delete this Word button will remove the current word and its clue from the Edit Screen. It will be deleted from the dictionary the next time you do a Save operation.

• Editing Clues
  Up to 2000 characters may be typed into each clue. Thus, you can use very long clues in your puzzles, or if you prefer, you can enter a number of clues for each word. The individual sub-clues must be separated by a single * character.
  Individual portions of a clue may be highlighted as either Bold or Italic. This is done by placing "tags" into the clue in a way which will be quite farmiliar to people who maintain their own web page using HTML. Inclusion of the tag <b> at any point in the clue will result in the text being rendered in Bold type face until such time as a </b> tag is encountered, at which time, the Bold type face will be discontinued. Similarly, <i> will turn on Italic type face, and </i> will turn it off.
  If you make any change at all to the clue of the current word, this will be recorded in memory, and the Dictionary will be updated when you do the next Save operation.

• Select All, Copy, Cut and Paste.
  Select All, Copy, Cut and Paste operations are supported during Dictionary Editing in both the Windows and Macintosh versions of Crossword Express.

• Entering Clueless Words.
  Normally, if you fail to enter a clue for a word, that word will not actually be saved into the dictionary. However, if you check the Permit Clueless Words checkbox, then a word will be saved, even if no clue has been entered.

Total number of words contained in the dictionary. Separate subtotals are also shown for the number of words with and without clues.

The number of words of each length from a minimum of two through to a maximum of 47.

Use this feature if you want to add words to your dictionary using a text editor. The words and clues are exported into a file whose format conforms to the WORD LIST description. The dialog box that appears suggests the name WORDS.LST as a default name for the resulting file, but you can enter any name you like. The file will be created in the main Crossword Express directory, but if you include a complete path name, you can create the file anywhere on your computer. After you have finished editing it, you can recreate it as a dictionary using the import feature of the Dictionary Create function.

Grid Name. Enter a distinctive grid name having a maximum of 63 characters in the case of Windows, or 27 characters in the case of Macintosh. If you are planning to construct a new Crozzle Template, then you must start its name with the $ character, otherwise it will not be recognized by the Template selection function.

1. The cell adjacent to the bar in a bar cell must be either an active cell or another bar cell. ie. It must be a cell into which a letter can be entered.

2. The mouth of a tunnel cell must open onto a cell which contains a letter, or it can open onto the mouth of another tunnel cell.

It is constructed from a very limited set of words.

It is constructed on a blank grid (up to 30 x 30 squares), with the program inserting black squares as required, so that the end result does not in general exhibit any symmetry.

The degree of interlinking of words is quite low; less than fifty percent of letters interlink.

• Squares Across. Insert a value in the range 3 to 30 to specify the number of columns of squares in the finished puzzle.

• Squares Down. Insert a value in the range 3 to 30 to specify the number of rows of squares in the finished puzzle.

• Note. These values are treated as maximum values only. If Crossword Express can fit all of the words contained in your list into a smaller area, then it will do so.

The name must commence with the $ character.

The remainder of the name can have a maximum of 62 characters in the case of Windows, and 26 for Macintosh.

The name will not be accepted if it is the same as an existing dictionary.

Select. This activates a dialog box which allows you to select a dictionary for the associated priority slot. If there is already a dictionary in the slot concerned, then it will be replaced by your new selection.

Clear If you want to eliminate a dictionary from one of the priority slots, then clicking the associated Clear button will achieve the desired result. Note that this does not clear the contents of the dictionary. It just removes it from your list.

Individual letters and words can be typed directly into the puzzle grid before Crossword Express makes the puzzle.

Simply mouse-click into the required cell, and type the wanted letter.

A complete word can be entered, or you can use the Suggest button to have Crossword Express show you a list of suitable words from which you can select.

Use the Select Dictionary button to choose the dictionary you want to use to make the puzzle.

To start building a new puzzle, you should use the New button. This will present you with a Puzzle Description dialog which allows you to specify a file name for the puzzle, as well as some optional additional pieces of information to be stored with the puzzle.

Having done this the currently selected grid will be displayed for you to begin your design. Use the Select Grid button if you want to start with a different grid.

If instead you want to continue with the design of an incomplete puzzle, using the Old button will allow you to select the puzzle you require.

The manual construction process is guided by a cursor cell (coloured red) and a current word (coloured pale yellow). You can easily move these to any location in the puzzle by means of the arrow keys, or by pointing and clicking with the mouse.

Any editing action you take will occur at the cursor cell.

You can type in any legal keyboard character, or you can enter any of the 12 CWE pattern cells by clicking the appropriate Cell Selection button.

The Suggest and Add Clue buttons provide essential services to assist you with your puzzle building.

If you have made some changes to a puzzle, you can save it at any time using the Save button. If you have made significant changes and you want to save the puzzle without overwriting the existing puzzle, then use of the SaveAs button will give you an opportunity to enter a new file name to be used for the puzzle.

If you enter any new words or clues during the Manual Construction process, then when you save the puzzle, you will receive a prompt asking you if you would like to save these changes to the current dictionary.

Selecting a word in the puzzle (by using the arrow keys or by clicking with the mouse) and clicking the Add Clue button, will display the clue, if one exists.

If no clue exists for the word, then you can use the Clue edit box to type in a suitable clue.

Three buttons are provided to asist people who like to compose cryptic clues or similar for use in their puzzles:-

• Find Anagrams This button will display a list of all possible Anagrams of the word. These may be single words or they may be groups of two, three or even more words, depending on the length of the subject Word.

• Find Contained Words A list of all of the single words which can be made from the letters contained within the subject word will be displayed.

• Find Container Words A list of all of the single words which contain all of the letters of the subject word will be displayed.

The behaviour of the Anagram and Contained Words functions can be modified by typing a number into the Shortest Word input field. The length of the words which appear in the list for these two functions will be limited to the value that you specify here.

The behaviour of the Contained Words and Container Words functions can be modified by means of the Include Sundry letters check box. The default situation is to have these letters included in parenthesis after the word, but you can remove them by unchecking this box.

A WordSearch puzzle is defined primarily by the number of cells Across, and the number of cells Down. You can set these to values up to a maximum of 47x47.

A Template is a special type of Grid which normally contains no black pattern cells, but does contain a number of Null cells which are used to change the shape of the grid to something other than a square or rectangle. If you select a Template, then you can make your WordSearch puzzle in any shape you choose. If the selection of Templates supplied with the program doesn't contain something to your liking, you can use the Grid Maintenance function to create an unlimited number of new Templates.

This dialog also contains a field into which you can enter a Hidden Message which is to be used to fill those spaces in the puzzle which are not occupied by any of the words.

Select Dictionary - Naturally you can use any of your Standard Dictionaries to make the puzzle, and this button allows you to select the one you want.

Puzzle Definition - This button leads to a dialog containing two input fields where you can specify the number of rows in the puzzle (1 to 20 ..it is unlikely that you will ever succeed in making a puzzle of 20 rows, but you can have some fun trying), and the number of letters in the short Key words (2 to 5).

Start New Puzzle - This leads to the same dialog used when a new crossword puzzle is to be built. It allows you to enter the file name, Puzzle Titl