Introduction

This is not a unique program. There are many word search creator programs in existence. So why did I write another one? Well I had never written a program in Pascal, had never written a program for the Mac, felt sure I could produce a working program which was at least as good as those around and I was BORED.

The program does exactly what the title says - It creates word searches from a list of words and phrases.

NOTE
Throughout the remainder of this document reference to 'words' should be read as reference to 'words and phrases'.

Overview

The program allows words  to be entered into a list by typing them in at the keyboard. The words in the list can then be used in the construction of a word search. The word search can then be printed direct from the program or exported as a text file for importing into your favourite word processor.

System Requirements

The program will only run on system 7 or later.

It requires a minimum of 200kb of RAM and 80kb of disk space.

The screen display for the grid and the printer output requires a monospaced font so that the letters will line up under each other. The font used by the program is 'Courier'. This font is supplied with all Apple Mac computers so should be available.If it is not in your system file then you must install it before using this program.

In addition to the courier font the program makes use of two special fonts for printing coded wordsearches and cheat sheets. These fonts are supplied as separate fonts which must also be put into your system file.

The fonts can be found on the disk in the 'Wordsearch Fonts' suitcase. Simply drag the suitcase onto your system folder to install them.

Limitations of program

Maximum Number of Words

The maximum number of words in a list is 100. This should be enough for any application but if you would like this extended write and let me know and I'll see what I can do. (If you are not a registered user then don't write!!.) 

Maximum Search Size

The maximum size of search available depends on the size of display being used. If the display is the small 9" screen on the Plus or Classic then the maximum size of search is 24 x 24 but larger screens will allow up to 30 x 30.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to all the alpha and beta testers

Marie Jo Brown
John Bell
George Gallagher
Jim Cattigan

Thanks also to George Gallagher who provided the idea of the coded words and who listened to me, patiently, while I described yet another bug. Usually George could suggest a possible reason for these.