CrossMaster 1.1-demo is the demonstration version of the commercial program CrossMaster 1.1. This is a public domain program designed to promote and CrossMaster 1.1 and to allow users to become familiar with the commercial version before commiting to purchase it. Please use this program as much as you like and share it with whomever you wish.
This demonstration program functions almost identically to the commercial program. The major difference is that a few of the features of the commercial version have been either removed or downgraded. These include saving, printing, and automatically generating crossword puzzles.
You may open and modify or solve any of the puzzles that have been included with this program. You may also create new puzzles from scratch. While working with a puzzle, you may access all of its available features such as its page layout, colors, titles, font style and size. However, you may not save any new puzzles you create, and you may not save the changes you make to any puzzles already created. The puzzle save capability has simply been removed from the commercial version.
You may make printouts of the puzzles you open, manually create, or automatically generate. You have full access to all of the printing capabilities including the page setup and the page layout. However, the printout will be stamped with the phrase "CrossMaster Demonstration Printout".
You may use the program's most powerful feature of automatically generating a puzzle from your own list of words and clues. As with the commercial version, you may enter up to 50 words in the list and have CrossMaster arrange them into a puzzle. However, as mentioned above, you cannot save any puzzle with this demonstration program.
This documentation is a brief introduction to using CrossMaster. It is not intended to replace the full documentation of the commercial version of the program. Its purpose is to describe some of the main features of the program and how to use them. You will find that many aspects of CrossMaster are either briefly mentioned or not discussed at all.
If you would like to know how to purchase the commercial version CrossMaster 1.1 or if you have any other questions, please write or call. The cost of the commercial version is $69. Special pricing is available for educators and for school site licenses.
Focus Development Corporation
903 SW 43rd St #202
Fargo, ND 58103
(701) 281-1754
HOW PUZZLES ARE STRUCTURED
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A CrossMaster puzzle contains several parts to hold the clues and the words not unlike any other crossword puzzle.
There is a clue list for the across words and a clue list for the down words. Each of these appears in its own window and may be displayed or removed as is desirable.
There are also two puzzle grids. They both appear in the same window which remains displayed for as long as the puzzle is being used. However, only one is visible at any time. One puzzle grid contains the words in the actual solution for the puzzle, and this is referred to as the author's puzzle grid or author's solution. The other puzzle grid contains the work of the user currently attempting to solve the puzzle, and this is referred to as the player's puzzle grid or player's solution.
You may access a puzzle as either its author or as a player. This is determined by whether you choose to build or solve the puzzle when you first open it. In the build mode, you work as the puzzle's author. In the solve move, you work as a player of the puzzle. You may switch between the two modes while you work with the puzzle.
In the build mode the author's solution is visible in the puzzle grid window. You may display the across and down clue lists, and you may edit their contents. You may change the words in the puzzle grid, and you may change the placement of the shaded squares in the puzzle grid (ie. the placement of the words in the puzzle grid).
In the solve mode the player's solution is visible in the puzzle grid window. You may display the across and down clue lists, but you may not edit their contents. Also, you may change the words in the puzzle grid, but you may not change the placement of the shaded squares in the puzzle grid. These restrictions are only natural as you are only solving the puzzle.
When you open a puzzle, CrossMaster checks a few things about the status of the puzzle and then provides a dialog box asking for the mode with which you wish to work with the puzzle. A puzzle can be complete or incomplete and it may or may not have an attempted player solution. Depending upon these two factors, the dialog box will have options allowing you to continue building the puzzle, solve the puzzle from scratch, or continue solving the puzzle from where the solution was left.
When you create a new puzzle, CrossMaster automatically places you in the build mode.
EDITING WORDS IN A PUZZLE GRID
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A puzzle grid, like that in a crossword puzzle, is organized into rows and columns. The intersection of a row and column is referred to here as a cell. Each cell may contain a letter or shading. Cells that contain letters (and other available characters) are called text cells. They form the words in the puzzle, with a word being any two or more adjacent text cells either horizontally or vertically. Cells that contain shading are referred to as solid cells. They determine the positions of the words in the puzzle and thus the numbering of the clues.
Whether you are working in the build mode or the solve mode, words in the puzzle grid are edited in the same manner. One word may be selected at a time. It will be highlighted and is referred to as the current word. One cell in the current word will be highlighted apart from the rest of the word. This is referred to as the current cell. To change the contents of the current word, just type. Letters will be placed in the current word at the current cell. The current cell will advance as you type.
You may select a word by clicking on any of the cells in the word. The word will become the current word and the cell on which you clicked will become the current cell. If you click on a cell that belongs to both a horizontal and vertical word and the wrong word is selected, just click again on the same cell and the correct word will be selected. You may change the current word whenever you wish simply by clicking on a cell in a new word.
Pressing the <return> or <tab> key will select the next horizontal or vertical word in the puzzle. The direction will be the same as the currently selected word. The first cell in the new word will become the current cell.
If you are displaying the across clue list or the down clue list, the clue associated with the current word will always be selected in its window. When solving a puzzle, this feature alone will save significant time.
EDITING CLUES IN A CLUE LIST
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You may edit the clues for a puzzle only while working in the build mode. You may display the clues in either the build or solve mode by choosing Display Across Clues or Display Down Clues from the Puzzle menu. The only time you may not display the clues is when you are editing the solid cells or the puzzle.
One clue at any time may be selected in one of the clue lists (not both). That clue is referred to as the current clue. You select a clue simply by clicking on it or its number in the list. Whenever you select a clue, its corresponding word in the puzzle grid is also selected.
In addition to being highlighted apart from the rest of the clues, the current clue will also be displayed in the area at the top of the clue window called the clue edit area. You may edit the clue in this area just as you would edit text in a word processor or dialog box. When you press the <return> or <tab> key or select another clue with the mouse, the changes you have made to the current clue take affect.
EDITING SOLID CELLS IN A PUZZLE GRID
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You may edit the solid cells in a puzzle grid only while working in the build mode. To do so, choose Edit Solid Cells from the Configure menu. The cursor will assume a new shape when over the puzzle grid window to indicate that you are now editing the solid cells.
You can change the placement of the solid cells by clicking the mouse. Clicking over a text cell will change it to a solid cell. Clicking over a solid cell will change it to a text cell. You can click and drag to change several cells in one motion.
Two options in the configure menu assist in creating puzzles with a symmetric layout. Horizontal reflection causes any change made on the left side of the puzze to be made also on the right side and vice versa. Vertical reflection causes any change made on the top of the puzzle to be made also on the bottom of the puzzle and vice versa. Both horizontal and vertical reflection can be active at the same time. This would cause a change made in the top-left corner to be made also in the bottom-right corner. This is the symmetry used in most published crossword puzzles.
When you have completed editing the solid cells, choose Reformat Clues from the Configure menu. The clue lists will be reorganized to reflect the changes made the number and placement of words in the puzzle grid. You may not display the clues, print the puzzle, or switch to the solve mode while editing the solid cells.
CHANGING THE SIZE OF A PUZZLE
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You may change the size of a puzzle whenever working in the build mode. To do so, select Resize Puzzle from the Configure menu. A dialog box will appear in which you may enter the new width and height from 5x5 to 50x50.
After you have entered the new dimensions, you will placed in the mode for editing the solid cells of the puzzle just as if you had chosen Edit Solid Cells. You may then change the layout of the solid cells for the new size. Again, you must choose Reformat Clues from the Configure menu to work with the clue lists and the text of the puzzle grid.
If you enlarge the puzzle, the new cells added will be text cells containing blanks. If you shrink the puzzle, the contents of the cells removed will be lost.
AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING A PUZZLE
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This is the most powerful feature of CrossMaster. You may enter a list of words and their associated clues and CrossMaster will organize the words (if possible) into the puzzle grid and place the clues into the across and down clue lists.
You must start with a puzzle, either opened or newly created. Set the puzzle dimensions by choosing Resize Puzzle... from the Configure menu. The puzzle must have at least one dimension as long as the longest word that will be used.
Then you need a word list. This can be created either within CrossMaster or with any word processor or text editor that will save files as TEXT. To create the word list within CrossMaster, choose New Word List from the File menu. To use a word list created by another program or previously created within CrossMaster, choose Open Word List... from the File menu.
To be used with CrossMaster, the word list must follow a specific format. Each entry must be on one line in the list must contain one word and may contain the clue for that word. If there is both a word and its clue, they must be separated by the vertical bar symbol, "|".
Although some have clues and some do not have clues, these would be proper entries in a word list:
Saturn|Planet encircled by thousands of rings
continent|Large land mass "floating" on planet surface
asteroid|Chunk of rock or metal in space
Neptune|Planet that sometimes is farthest from the sun
ocean|Earth has four of this type of massive body of water
moon|Natural satellite of a planet
comet|Orbits the sun and has a long tail
planet|Natural satellite of a star
Uranus|Seventh planet from the sun
Pacific|Largest ocean on the planet Earth
Jupiter|Largest planet in our solar system
core|Center or a planet
Mercury|Closest planet to the sun
meteor|Object that enters a planet's atmosphere
magma|Molten rock beneath the surface of a planet
crust|Outer shell of a planet
Venus|Planet closest to Earth
Mars|Fourth planet from the sun
Asia|Largest continent on the planet Earth
Pluto|Planet usually farthest from the sun
Sol|Name of the star we call the sun
These entries have been placed in a file called "Demo/wl" which you may use to generate a sample crossword puzzle. Simply choose New Puzzle from the File menu then choose Open Word List... from the File menu and open "Demo/wl". Choose Generate Puzzle... from the Puzzle menu to actually generate the puzzle.
Once the word list is entered or opened, simply choose Generate Puzzle... from the Puzzle menu. CrossMaster will check the word list to see that all of the entries are proper and if so will display the generation dialog box. To generate the puzzle from the word list, click on the button Generate A New Puzzle. When the puzzle has been generated, click on Accept Generated Puzzle to retain the puzzle then Cancel Puzzle Generation to terminate the generation process. If you wish, you may choose to Generate A New Puzzle again and again until all possible configurations of the words in the word list have been exhausted.
The newly generated puzzle will be shown in the puzzle grid window, and any clues included will appear in their respective clue list window. From this point on, the puzzle may be used as if it had been manually entered.
MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS IN THE PUZZLE
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There are many additional items associated with a puzzle. Most of them affect how the puzzle is displayed in some form or another. Almost all of them can be edited in both the build and the solve modes.
Font and Style
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The puzzle grid and the clue lists can have separate fonts and type styles. Simply choose the font or style desired from the Font or Style menu when either the puzzle grid window or one of the clue list windows is active. The font or style is changed for all of the text in the window.
Page Layout
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The page layout option in the File menu will display a dialog box with several options affecting how the puzzle printed. This includes the number of columns into which the clues are divided and the position of the puzzle grid on the paper.
Titles
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Four pieces of information can be entered about each puzzle: a title, subtitle, author, and date. Choose Titles... from the Puzzle menu to view these. In the build mode you may edit these. In the solve mode you may only view them. They are printed at the top of the page when the puzzle is printed.
Options
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Choosing Options... from the Puzzle menu will display a dialog box with several general options affecting how the puzzle is displayed and printed. This includes the shade used for the solid cells and whether clue numbers are drawn in the cells.
Colors
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CrossMaster will display or print the puzzle and clues in different colors if you have a color display or a color printer. All of the components of a puzzle may be given one of the eight basic colors of black, white, reg, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Choose Colors... from the Puzzle menu to see a dialog box where you may set the colors for any of these components. Three buttons in the dialog box allow you to view the colors for the puzzle grid, the clue lists, and the printout. You can change colors simply by clicking on the color blocks in the dialog box. A sample of what the screen will look like with the colors is shown in the lower-left corner of the dialog box.
Puzzle Cell Size
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CrossMaster will set the size of the puzzle cells whenever the type font or type style is changed. However, you may manually set the height and width of the cells by choosing Resize Puzzle Cells... from the Puzzle menu. You will see a dialog box in which you may enter a new height an width for the puzzle cells (in pixels).
Print Contents
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Normally, CrossMaster will print the clues and the puzzle grid when you choose to print the puzzle. However, you may choose Print Contents... from the File menu and select to have only the clues or the puzzle grid printed.
You may also choose to have the puzzle printed in a word list format where the words are printed followed by their clues. This is similar to the manner in which a word list for generating a puzzle is printed.
SAMPLE PUZZLES
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You may start right off by automatically generating a puzzle or manually entering one from a newspaper or magazine to become familiar with CrossMaster. However, a few sample puzzles have been included to help you get going (as long as you can bear with the questionable quality of some of these hastily created sample puzzles).
Start with the sample puzzles by opening one of them in the solve mode and attempt to answer some or all of the clues. Once you are comfortable with selecting and editing words and select clues in the puzzle, then switch to the build mode and try to edit some of the clues. You may also wish to resize the puzzle or change the configuration of the solid cells to see what affects these actions have.
Go through all of the options screens including page layout, titles, options, and colors to see what they look like and what affect they have.
Finally, make a printout of the puzzle to see what one will look like on paper. Remember that you may make only one printout per session, so you will have to restart the program to print again.
