Copyright: Copyright © 1997 by Sam Bellotto Jr.


Enigmacross
ENIGMACROSS™ DEMO for Windows

Presenting REAL acrostic puzzles on your Windows computer! Enigmacross for Windows brings all the challenge and enjoyment of solving acrostics exactly like the ones found in the daily or Sunday newspapers to the Microsoft Windows environment in a format that is easy-to-use and hours of fun. Comprehensive on-line help and multimedia enhancements add to the enjoyment.

You can make your own puzzles with Enigmacross, too! In fact, Enigmacross’ most exciting feature is its powerful, professional puzzle construction mode, used and recommended by many top constructors. Complex acrostic puzzle numbering is done for you by the computer, eliminating time-wasting mistakes. Enigmacross’ Autoclue feature guides you effortlessly through the cluing process so that no clues are overlooked or omitted.

You may use this fully-functional Demonstration version of Enigmacross for Windows up to a period of 30 days for evaluation purposes only. After that, you are obligated to either register by purchasing the complete version or Game Edition, or you must remove Enigmacross for Windows from your computer.


Construction Overview
Getting Started: Construction

From the Main Menu, select Puzzle. Select Construct. If you are going to construct a brand new puzzle, select New. Select Open to work on a puzzle that has already been created and previously saved.

To construct a New puzzle, select Construct | New from the Puzzle menu. From the “New puzzle for constructing dialog box,” type in a name for the new puzzle or accept UNTITLED as the default. You may change directories if you wish. Click on Save.

The “Quotation Entry window” opens. Type in the source Quotation and Author-Title line for the puzzle, then click on OK.

To Open an existing puzzle, from the “Open puzzle for constructing dialog box,” select the puzzle to work on. Change directories if necessary. Click on Open.

Crossdown supports the Windows 95 “docu-centric” model. To learn how to open a puzzle by clicking on the puzzle icon from Explorer, see Associating Puzzles.

On the Main Window, you have ready access to the Main Menu and all the task buttons necessary to construct a professional crossword puzzle. Click on the Squares Button to make subtle editing changes to the quotation grid. Click on the Acrostic Button to place the words in the grid. Click on the Spill Button to return all letters of an existing acrostic word to the quotation. Click on the Letters Distribution button to update a tally of unassigned letters remaining. At anytime you can also click on the Autoclue Button to write the clues, however it is recommended that you fully complete the puzzle before using Autoclue.

At any time you can save the puzzle by selecting Save from the Puzzle menu. To print your puzzle, select Print from the Puzzle menu. Quit Crossdown by selecting Exit from the Puzzle menu.


Quotation Input

From the Puzzle menu, select Construct and then select New... From the “New puzzle for constructing dialog box,” type in a name for the new puzzle or accept UNTITLED as the default. You may change directories if you wish. Click on Save. The “Quotation and Author-Title entry window” opens.

With this Demo version, you are limited to a quotation size of 150 letters, including spaces. The registered version of Enigmacross permits you to input quotations of up to 372 letters in length and grids can be constructed either automatically or manually!

The Quotation Count panel, on the right, maintains a continually updated total of  only letters and spaces as you type.

Enter the acrostic quotation in the upper quotation entry box. To make input easier, you can enter the quotation exactly as it appears in the original source material, using upper and lower case letters, punctuation marks, symbols and so forth. Enigmacross automatically strips the quotation of any illegal characters and converts all letters to upper case when it creates the finished grid.

Enter the author-title line in the author-title entry box below. An Enigmacross acrostic is limited to an author-title line of 30 characters, which should be more than enough for most acrostics.

After the quotation and the author-title line have been input to your satisfaction, click on OK.

 Enigmacross always selects out letters at random from the quotation to make the author-title line when creating a new puzzle. In most cases, you will want the software to do this for you. You can always change the first letter selection manually from Letter mode.


Copying Puzzles

This feature has been disabled on the Demo version. You can easily make copies of acrostic puzzles with the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


Copying to Clipboard

To include copies of acrostic puzzles that you created with Enigmacross into other Windows software such as word processors, first “copy” the puzzle onto the Windows Clipboard and then “paste” into the target application.

From the Special menu, select Grid to Clipboard or Solution to Clipboard or Clues to Clipboard, according to the particular task you wish to accomplish. With the first two selections,  a copy of the numbered grid or the solution grid, respectively, is copied to the Windows Clipboard. The third selection copies a list of puzzle clues to the Windows Clipboard as text.

Then open or switch to the target application. Select Paste from the Edit menu. The Clipboard contents is copied to the target document. You must individually copy and paste each acrostic puzzle element you require (grid, solution, clues) first, and then design the look of the entire page. You will need to re-size the grid once it is on the page to the proper dimensions.


Scratchpad

Puzzle constructors are constantly making notes as they work. You can jot down interesting definitions that might pop into your head, idioms, phrases or even a telephone number. From the Tools menu, click on Scratchpad... This feature has been disabled on the Demo version. The Crossdown Scratchpad plug-in, a separate mini-application, is included with the complete version of Enigmacross. The Scratchpad is scrollable and can hold more than 32k of information. The Scratchpad will keep a record of all your notes indefinitely until you erase it.


Modifying the Grid

You can change the colors of the filled-in squares and the letter squares from the “Preferences dialog box” to suit your own tastes with the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.

On the MainWindow is the Squares Button, as illustrated here. Click on this to make minor modifications to the Quotation Grid. This feature is best used (if necessary) before any construction work has begun.

Click on the Squares Button to make any spelling corrections within the grid itself, or change any of the letters for whatever reasons.

 You cannot alter the design of the grid. If the quotation requires extensive editing, it is much easier to simply start from scratch and overwrite the puzzle!

You can alternate between the Squares Button and the Acrostic Button as much as you like. But when the Squares Button is “on,” you can only edit letters that show in the grid and haven't been assigned to any of the author-title words.


Exporting to Other Formats

With the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows you can export acrostic puzzles to Windows Metafile (WMF), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), or Rich Text Format (RTF) files for use in desktop publishing, word processing or similar page layout applications. This feature has been disabled on the Demo version.


Finding Duplicates
Finding Duplicate Entries

One of the “rules” of a professional acrostic is that each letter of an author-title word must come from a different word in the source quotation. This feature lets you validate the author-title words accordingly. Author-title words that violate this rule are listed. This feature has been disabled on the Demo version.


Foreign Characters

With the complete version of Enigmacross, you can enter letters from the complete set of ASCII Extended Foreign and Symbol Characters in Autoclue. Click on the Foreign Character button. It is the fifth button from the left in the “Autoclue window,” designated by an  Æ  symbol. This feature has been disabled on the Demo version.


Making the Acrostic

You can change the colors of the filled-in squares and the letter squares from the “Preferences dialog box” to suit your own tastes with the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.

On the MainWindow is the Acrostic Button, as illustrated here. Click on this to construct the acrostic. Because this mode is used most often, it is also the default. Swap letters back and forth between the quotation grid and the acrostic words, gradually constructing the puzzle.

Directly below the “Quotation Grid” is the “Author-Title” window. Click on any letter in the Author-Title window to start building or edit that acrostic word. The selected letter turns yellow. The selected letter also appears under the Author-Title line as the first letter of the corresponding acrostic word. If the acrostic word has not been built, it is the only letter to appear. If the acrostic word has been built, even partially, the other letters also appear.

The initial letter of the acrostic word is highlighted green on the Quotation Grid. Any other letters are highlighted yellow. These color keys enable you to keep track of assigned letters as you work with them.

 In a properly constructed acrostic, each letter of an individual acrostic word must come from a different word in the source quotation.

Click on any available letter in the Quotation Grid to assign it to the current acrostic word. An “available” letter is one that is not highlighted. Highlighted letters are those already used in the current acrostic word. Letters used in other acrostic words are removed from the Quotation Grid—those squares are blank.

Click on any letter in the acrostic word to remove that letter from the acrostic word and return it to the Quotation Grid. The letter disappears from the acrostic word and reappears on the Quotation Grid as an “available” letter.

 You can add or subtract all letters of the acrostic words, including the first letter. But it is highly recommended that you leave the first letter alone.

 You can remove a letter from any position in the acrostic word.

 When you select a letter from the Quotation Grid, that letter is placed in the first available space in the acrostic word, going from left to right. If the acrostic word has no empty spaces, the letter is attached to the end of the word.


Keyboard
Keyboard Input

The keyboard has very limited use in acrostic construction. Type letters from the keyboard to make minor modifications to the grid. The keyboard is enabled only when the Squares Button is “on.” Type normally. You do not need to use the Shift key or the Caps Lock key. All letters are entered in upper case. Furthermore, only the letters A through Z , the Spacebar, the Enter key and the Backspace key are allowed during grid input.

Backspacing. If you make a mistake, use the Backspace key as you would with any word processor. Keep in mind that Enigmacross uses a non-destructive backspace; backspacing moves your position on the puzzle grid in the reverse direction, a square at a time, highlighting backspaced squares in yellow. Filled in squares are not cleared, but they can be overwritten.

Spacebar. Use the Spacebar to erase a filled in square.

Enter key. Hitting the Enter key while entering letters skips that square. If the square is unfilled, it remains unfilled. If the square contains a previously entered letter, that letter remains unchanged.


Spilling
Spilling Acrostic Words

 Sometimes it is necessary to return an entire acrostic word to the Quotation Grid and start over again. This is easily done. Click on the Spill Button from the Main Window, as illustrated here. All letters from the currently selected acrostic word are removed from the acrostic word and made “available” on the Quotation Grid. This feature has been disabled on the Demo version.


Letters Distribution

 When constructing acrostics, it is extremely useful to know the total number of each letter in the whole quotation. Enigmacross calculates this information for you! The Letters Distribution window lists letter counts in alphabetic order. This feature has been disabled in the Demo version.


Mouse

Use the mouse pointing device to construct a puzzle and access Enigmacross’ many features and options. You can use either the left or the right mouse button interchangeably for most functions.


Preferences

From the Options menu select Preferences... The “Preferences window” permits you to customize various aspects of Enigmacross to your personal specifications. There are four separate pages of preferences, each accessible by clicking on the appropriately labeled tab. This feature has been disabled on the Demo version. However, you can still open the “Preferences window” to examine what the complete version has to offer.


Puzzle Statistics

From the Special menu, select Analyze... The “Puzzle Analysis window” for the current acrostic appears. It contains all kinds of useful information about the puzzle, including number of words in the quotation, the quotation itself and the author-title lines, and the average word length. When finished looking at the statistics, click on Close to close the window.


Saving Puzzles

You can save a puzzle you are constructing at any time. It is a good idea to do this frequently as Enigmacross does not automatically save puzzles in Construction Mode. From the Puzzle menu, select Save. You can also press the Ctrl-S key combination from the keyboard.


Status Window
Specifications

At the bottom of the Main Window is the Specifications panel. It displays a useful formula containing the acrostic's letter count, author-title length, and average letter count per word. When constructing, this information is invaluable

For example:

144 ÷ 18 = 8

This means that the puzzle contains 144 letters and the author-title line is 18 letters long. The acrostic words should average 8 letters long each to successfully use up all the letters in the quotation. As can be readily determined, then, an average word length of 10 or more would be an extremely hard acrostic to construct. Less than 7 letters per word would be easy. A good average word length to shoot for is 7, insuring an acrostic that will be fun to construct and enjoyable to solve.


Limitations

While developing Enigmacross for Windows, we have made every effort to provide the most comprehensive set of features for professional acrostic solving and constructing available. However, certain limitations must exist.

The maximum number of Acrostic Words and corresponding clues per any puzzle is 30. Because this number is greater than the maximum number of clues that most acrostics require, it should not be a problem.

The maximum quotation size permitted by the Enigmacross is 150 letters (including the spaces). The registered version of Enigmacross permits quotations of up to 372 letters in length!

The maximum length for clues permitted in Autoclue is 60 letters.

Due to the nature of Enigmacross’ proprietary EMX file format, it is recommended that you fully complete every acrostic before entering puzzle clues through Autoclue. This is the way most constructors work, anyway, and should present no difficulty.

A mouse is required. Many Enigmacross features may be accessed with the keyboard, but the acrostic words can only be built and edited with the mouse.


Writing Clues

After you have successfully assigned all the letters in the quotation grid to words in the author-title line, you are ready to write the clues, or definitions. Click the Autoclue Button on the Main Window, as illustrated here.

It is recommended that you first complete the acrostic before running Autoclue. However, in case you come up with a really terrific definition for a word as you are constructing the puzzle, you can open Autoclue at any time and “store” the definition. Please keep in mind that any subsequent changes to the author-title words will require altering any previously stored definition data.

Click the Autoclue Button to open the “Autoclue window.” The individual author-title line entry and its alphabetic key appear at the top of the Autoclue window in blue. Immediately below is the text input box for typing in or editing definitions. Use the keyboard normally. Beneath the text input box are six buttons. Click on any of the buttons in the diagram above to see what they do.

To define a specific entry, highlight it on the author-title window before clicking on Autoclue. Otherwise, Autoclue always begins with the first acrostic word.

After opening Autoclue, you can position it and keep it on screen. In this way, you can freely move back and forth between the “Autoclue window” and the author-title window. Further, highlighting a word in the author-title window always forces Autoclue to display that word for definition writing, making the cluing process much more flexible.

See Editing Clues.


Editing Clues

You do not have to write all of the definitions, or clues, at one sitting. You can go back to your puzzle as often as you like and use Autoclue to enter additional clues or edit existing ones.

If a clue was previously input, it is displayed in the definition text input box. You can press Enter from the keyboard to accept this clue and go on to the next one, or you can change it by backspacing and entering new data from the keyboard.

Hitting the CTRL-Y combination from the keyboard erases the entire definition from the definition text input box.

To access a specific definition within Autoclue, click on the letter square of that word in the author-title line with the mouse. This can be done before you open Autoclue or anytime after Autoclue is open and on the screen.

If you did not enter all your definitions during a previous Autoclue session, to pick up where you left off, start Autoclue and then click on the Next Blank Button, as illustrated here. This causes Autoclue to “fast forward” to the very next undefined puzzle word. If there are no undefined words, Autoclue jumps to the last word in the puzzle and signals that there are “No More Clues.” This is a good way to scan your puzzle for any words you may have unintentionally left undefined.


Associating Puzzles

You can open any puzzle by associating the EMX file type with Enigmacross and then double-clicking on the filename or icon symbol of that puzzle. Refer to the Windows documentation for help with associating file types. This feature has been disabled on the Demo version.


Revert to Saved

If you make a complete mess of the puzzle, it is easy to put things back to where you began. From the Options menu, select Revert to Saved. This undoes all changes made to the puzzle since the last time it was saved. Before going ahead with this, Enigmacross always asks you to verify the action, so it is relatively safe from accidental usage.

 Remember that in Construction mode, Revert to Saved will also clear any definitions input with Autoclue that have not been saved!


Auto Arrange

In addition to being able to position the Enigmacross puzzle elements anywhere you like on the screen, you can have Enigmacross “remember” one of four basic screen designs. From the Options menu, select Auto Arrange. The Main Window, the Puzzle Quotation Grid and the Clue List Window (when solving a puzzle) snap to the basic screen design that you selected. The Author-Title window always appears below the Quotation Grid. The selected design is also automatically used the first time you open a puzzle in any mode. Auto Arrange can also be invoked with the F9 “hot key.”

The Demo version allows for only the default Auto Arrange design.


Bylines

When solving a puzzle, Enigmacross always displays the puzzle author's byline, if the puzzle file contains one. To include yours (or anyone's) byline with a puzzle, from the Special menu, select Byline... This feature has been disabled on the Demo version. With the regsitered version of Enigmacross, you can input puzzle bylines.


Exiting Enigmacross

From the Puzzle menu, select Exit. If you have any un-saved data in memory, Enigmacross will inform you of this before it closes and ask you if you want to first save the data, discard the data, or cancel the Exit request.


Menu Selections

Click on any of the Menu selections below for additional information. Certain Menu selections are only accessible in either Solve or Construct mode.


Tools

With Enigmacross, you can directly “hot link” a variety of useful external applications such as dictionaries and other reference software, eliminating the need to go searching for them each time with Explorer, the Task Bar and so forth. From the Tools menu, you can “hot link” a dictionary, a thesaurus and three Enigmacross plug-ins. This feature is disabled on the Demo version.

The complete version of Enigmacross also comes with several NEW plug-in tools designed to make crossword construction even easier and more fun.


Printing
Printing Puzzles

From the Puzzle menu, select Print ... The “Print Puzzle window” opens. You have five kinds of Printing Formats from which to choose. You can select one or any combination of these styles:

Manuscript. This option is primarily intended for constructors to output their puzzles in manuscript format. The clue pages are printed double-spaced with the filled-in, keyed answers listed just below the definitions. For example:

. 	Attitude of aloofness from practical matters (2 wds.)

 I_ _V_ _O_ _R_ _Y_ _T_ _O_ _W_ _E_ _R_

 9   90 116 120  52  47 139 174  17 129

 A final page is output of the puzzle grid containing both numbers and the solution.

Manuscript Grid Only. Prints only the final puzzle page of the Manuscript as described above, with both numbers and solution in the grid

Numbered Grid. This option prints out a numbered, blank acrostic grid. Each box in the grid is approximately 5/16-inches square.

Solution Grid. This option prints out the acrostic grid with all the answers filled in. The boxes are not numbered.

Puzzle Page. This option prints out a blank, numbered acrostic grid with the keyed clues on a single page, formatted the same way as you might find in the daily newspaper, ready for solving. You can print out puzzles this way to give to others. With large acrostic puzzles, it isn't always possible to contain the grid and clues on a single page. In such cases, Enigmacross fits as many clues as it can on the first page and prints the rest on a second page.

The Puzzle Title edit box allows you to enter an optional title line for the puzzle. If you do not wish to enter your own title, the puzzle filename is printed as the default title.

Checking Gray Squares prints the grids with the solid squares as a gray tone instead of black. This feature saves ink and produces cleaner output on some printers.


Technical Support

Both registered and unregistered users of Enigmacross are welcome to call Crossdown at (716) 482-8092 during normal business hours, EST, or evenings, generally between the hours of 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., EST, either during the week or on weekends. Letters are answered usually within one to two weeks. Crossdown’s e-mail address is crossdown@compuserve.com. E-mail is responded to almost immediately.

Registered users are entitled to unlimited technical support. Registered users are also invited to suggest features they would like to see incorporated into future releases of Enigmacross . Registered users can also receive free marketing and puzzle construction assistance, within reason.

You may freely duplicate and distribute this Demo version of Enigmacross for Windows. However, Enigmacross, this on-line help and the EMX file format are all copyright © 1997 by Sam Bellotto Jr.

CROSSDOWN
133 Akron Street
Rochester, NY 14609-7618
(716) 482-8092
crossdown@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/crossdown


DEFINITION TEXT INPUT. Type the definition, or clue, for the indicated Author-Title Word here. All foreign characters and symbols are permitted. Hitting the CTRL-Y key combination deletes the entire text.


PREVIOUS DEFINITION. Go back to the previous definition, or clue.


NEXT DEFINITION. Advance to the next definition, or clue.


NEXT BLANK PUZZLE ENTRY. Advance to the very next un-defined puzzle word in the Author-Title line. If there are no more un-defined puzzle words, advance to the last definition and display "NO MORE CLUES" message.


INSERT TEXT. Inserts text from the Windows Clipboard into the Definition Text Input window at the text cursor position.


FOREIGN CHARACTERS. Opens or closes the "Foreign Character window." Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


DEFINITION LIST. Opens or closes the "Definitions window." This window displays all the puzzle definitions, keyed, along with their corresponding author-title words. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


CLOSE. Close Autoclue.


SOLVE. Open an acrostic puzzle for solving.


CONSTRUCT. Select "Open" to open an existing acrostic puzzle for constructing. Select "New" to create a brand new acrostic puzzle.


SAVE. Save the current puzzle. Or hit the CTRL-S key combination.


SAVE AS. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


PRINT. In Construct mode, print current puzzle in a variety of formats. In Solve mode, print out current puzzle clues and numbered grid on one page, ready for traditional solving.


PRINTER SETUP. Open the Windows Printer Configuration dialog box to select a printer and setup printer defaults.


EXIT. Close Enigmacross.


EXPORT METAFILE. Export current puzzle in Windows Metafile (WMF) graphic file format for use in word processors and desktop publishing applications.


EXPORT EPS. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


EXPORT RTF FILE. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


RTF GRID TO CLIPBOARD. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


GRID TO CLIPBOARD. Pastes a numbered grid image of the current puzzle on the Windows Clipboard.


SOLUTION TO CLIPBOARD. Pastes a solution grid image of the current puzzle on the Windows Clipboard.


CLUES TO CLIPBOARD. Copies the current puzzle clues in ANSI text format on the Windows Clipboard.


BYLINE. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


ANALYSIS. Opens the "Puzzle Analysis window" giving a breakdown of current puzzle statistics including average author-title word length, size of quotation and other useful information.


SCORE PUZZLE. In Solve mode, checks the current puzzle to determine if it has been correctly solved. If errors made, shows errors. Otherwise gives choice of erasing puzzle to solve again or deleting puzzle from system.


REVERT TO SAVED. Discard any recent changes made to puzzle and revert to last saved state.


SCAN GRID. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


AUTO ARRANGE. Position Enigmacross elements on screen in one pre-set arrangement. Or hit F9 key. Complete version allows choice of four designs.


PREFERENCES. Open "Preferences window" to configure many of Enigmacross' features, such as screen colors, printing options and sounds.


DICTIONARY. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


THESAURUS. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


CLUEBANK. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


SCRATCHPAD. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


MAILBOT. Available only on the complete version of Enigmacross for Windows.


HELP TOPICS. Open this Help File.


ABOUT. Enigmacross version, date and copyright information.


How to Order
How to Order Enigmacross for Windows 95

All registered users of Enigmacross receive the latest version of the software available at the time of registration, and the next major upgrade at a significant discount, over 50 professionally constructed acrostics, an indexed, lavishly-illustrated on-screen Help system that is only a mouse click away featuring a specially written section on
“How to Construct Acrostic Puzzles,” and unlimited, enhanced product support.

Registration fees make possible further development of Enigmacross software and additional puzzle disks.

With the registered Enigmacross package, you can contruct acrostics from 10×8 up to 31×12 grid sizes. You get access to all the features shown in the Demo, plus many more. And you can even get help with marketing any puzzles you create. The full Enigmacross package costs $39.95 in US funds or $43.95 in Canadian funds ($46.95 overseas in US funds).

Like crossword puzzles? Crossdown for Windows 95 is a brand new product that brings all the challenge and enjoyment of solving and constructing real crossword puzzles to your personal computer. Crossdown for Windows features a scrollable clue list, full sound card support, and a programmable "hot-link" for attaching your favorite digital dictionary, 50 challenging crossword puzzles by some of the best puzzle-makers in the country, an illustrated, indexed on-screen Help system and many other features. The complete edition of Crossdown is only $39.95 in US funds or $43.95 in Canadian funds ($46.95 overseas in US funds).

Just wanna have fun? Not interested in constructing your own puzzles? Both Crossdown for Windows and Enigmacross for Windows are available in “Game Editions.” These solve-only packages are strictly for puzzle solvers. The Crossdown for Windows “Game Edition” includes more than 60 professionally constructed crosswords by some of the top names in the industry. The Enigmacross for Windows “Game Edition” comes with more than 50 challenging acrostics. The “Game Editions” of Crossdown and Enigmacross sell for only $11.95 each ($13.95 in Canadian dollars or $15.95 overseas in U.S. funds).

BY MAIL

Send your check or money order for any of Crossdown's entertaining and educational word game products to:

CROSSDOWN

133 Akron Street

Rochester, NY 14609-7618

Please specify which operating system--Windows 95 or Windows 3.1--you prefer.

BY CREDIT CARD

You can use your credit card to order any of Crossdown's word game products from either of the two following vendor toll-free numbers.

Altus	1-888-282-5887

RegNet 	1-800-999-2734

All major credit cards are accepted. Orders are usually shipped within two to three days after receipt of order.

BY INTERNET

Log onto the Crossdown home page on the World Wide Web at

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/crossdown

From there you can link to a number of sites which permit credit card ordering via secured connection. You can also use your credit card to order any Crossdown product and download it immediately. You can also contact Crossdown by e-mail at crossdown@compuserve.com. For additional information call us at (716) 482-8092.


Ombudsman
ASP Ombudsman Statement

 Enigmacross™ is produced by Sam Bellotto Jr., a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI USA 49442-9427, FAX 616-788-2765, or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.


Uninstalling Enigmacross
Un-installing Enigmacross

After you have given Enigmacross a fair tryout, we hope you will want to order the registered version. In either case, you are obligated to remove the demo from your system. This is very easy to do.

When properly installed, the Enigmacross Demo creates its own un-installer. From the Start menu, click on Settings. Then double click on the Control Panel. Click on Add/Remove programs. Follow the instructions in the dialog box.


How to Solve Acrostics
Getting Started: Solving

From the Puzzle menu, select Solve. To open an existing puzzle for solving, from the “Open puzzle for solving dialog box,” select the puzzle to work on. Change directories if necessary. Click on Open. The unsolved puzzle grid is displayed on screen.

You can Open a puzzle at any time. If you are working on a puzzle and decide to open another one, Enigmacross automatically saves your work on the old puzzle before opening the new one.

On the Main Window, you have ready access to the Main Menu and all the task buttons necessary to enjoy solving real acrostic puzzles right on your computer.

Select a clue from the scrollable Clues List Box or click on any square in the Author-Title window. This opens or updates the Acrostic Clue Entry window. Enter letters with the keyboard. Or select any unfilled square from the quotation grid and enter letters with the keyboard. You can move among these elements as freely and as often as you like. The Cheat Button reveals the puzzle solution.

Enigmacross saves your work automatically but it is a good idea to save the puzzle if you have been working on it for a long time.

When the puzzle has been solved, select Score Puzzle from the Options menu to see if the puzzle is correctly solved.


Cheating

On the Main Window is the Cheat Button, as illustrated here. Hopefully, you won't need to, but, to see the correctly solved puzzle, just click and hold down the Cheat Button. Correct answers are shown in gray. Only unfilled boxes are revealed. Entries you have made to the quotation grid remain. Release the Cheat Button to continue solving the puzzle.

You can also help yourself to a “hint,” letter by letter. When entering letters into the quotation grid or the acrostic clue entry window, simply hit the Plus (+) key. This always enters the correct letter!


Clues List Box

All of the clues for the current acrostic can be browsed and individually selected within the scrollable Clues List Box which you can move and resize. Use the scroll bar to move up and down through the clues. Each clue has a keyed “fill-in” line to the right showing the exact number of letters in the answer.

Click on a clue to highlight it within the Clues List Box and open or update the “Acrostic Clue Entry” window. You do not fill in acrostic answers directly in the Clue List. Open the Acrostic Clue Entry window and type your answers there.

 Everytime you close the “Acrostic Clue Entry” window, the Clues List Box is updated.

 You can also click on the Clues List Update Button from the Main Window, as illustrated here, at any time to update the Clues List Box.


Acrostic Clue Entry Window

Open the Acrostic Clue Entry window to type in answers for any acrostic word by first selecting with the mouse a letter from the “Author-Title” window or a clue from the “Acrostic Clue List.” Select an initial letter from the “Author-Title” window or a keyed clue from the “Clue List” exactly as you would in a printed acrostic.

Fill in the squares of the acrostic clue entry field by typing in your answer from the keyboard.

First click on any square in the window. That square and all subsequent squares are highlighted yellow. Begin entering letters. You can enter only the letters A to Z, Backspace, the Spacebar, Enter or the Plus (+) key. The Backspace is a non-destructive backspace. Hit the Spacebar to erase a letter in a square. Hit Enter to skip a square without erasing it. If you need some help, hitting the Plus (+) key always enters the correct letter in the square. As letters are entered or erased, the Quotation Grid is simultaneously changed.

After some or all of the Acrostic Word squares have been filled in, hit the ESC key or click on the close button in the upper right corner at any time to close the Acrostic Clue Entry window. The input letters are automatically transposed to their proper locations in the Clues List Box as well as the Quotation Grid.

You can also click on the Clues List Update Button at any time from the Main Window at any time to update the Clues List Box.

 You can always go back and change any previous entries you made to the puzzle—a lot easier than you can with a printed puzzle!


Solving the Quotation

The Quotation Grid is filled-in exactly the way you fill-in a diagram of a standard, printed acrostic puzzle.

Position the mouse cursor on any white square within the grid. “Click” the left or right mouse button. The selected square is highlighted yellow. All succeeding squares up to the very next black square are also highlighted yellow. If you erroneously select a black square, nothing happens.

Fill in the yellow highlighted squares by typing in letters from the keyboard.

Quotation Grid input is automatically transposed to the “Author-Title” window but is not automatically transposed to the “Clue List Box.” The latter would require letter-by-letter routines that would significantly slow down the pace of the software. You can update the “Clue List Box” at any time simply by clicking the Clue List Update Button from the Main Window.


Keyboard
Keyboard Input

After selecting (highlighting) an entry from the quotation grid with the mouse, letters can be filled in directly from the keyboard. Type normally. You do not need to use the shift key or the caps lock key. All letters are entered in upper case. Furthermore, only the letters A through Z, the Spacebar, the Enter key, the Backspace key and the Plus (+) key are allowed during grid input.

As letters are entered, the grid squares turn back to white from yellow and are filled in.

Backspacing. If you make a mistake, use the Backspace key as you would with any word processor. Keep in mind that Enigmacross uses a non-destructive backspace; backspacing moves your position on the puzzle grid in the reverse direction, a square at a time, highlighting backspaced squares in yellow. Filled in squares are not cleared, but they can be overwritten.

Spacebar. Use the Spacebar to erase a filled in square.

Enter key. Hitting the Enter key while filling in a word skips that square. If the square is unfilled, it remains unfilled. If the square contains a previously entered letter, that letter remains unchanged.

Plus (+) key. If you absolutely require assistance trying to fill in a word, press the Plus (+) key to reveal the next unfilled square. You can keep on hitting the Plus key to reveal as many letters of a word as you like, but, hopefully, you won't.


Mouse

Use the mouse pointing device to work the quotation grid, select acrostic words from the author-title box, fill them in from the acrostic entry window, and access Enigmacross’s many other features and options. Both the left and right mouse buttons may be used to solve the puzzle. Only the left mouse button is used everywhere else.


Solving Puzzles
How to Solve Acrostic Puzzles

Enigmacross puzzles are solved in virtually the same fashion as printed acrostics. Find the clue corresponding to one of the acrostic squares, read the clue, figure it out, and fill-in the answer. Or fill-in one or more words within the quotation grid. As you work back and forth between the acrostic and the quotation, corresponding letters are filled-in or changed, revealing more and more of the solution.


Saving Puzzles

Your puzzle is saved automatically every time you Exit Enigmacross or Open another puzzle. To save at any other time simply select Save from the Puzzle menu. Or from the keyboard you can also enter the Ctrl-S combination.


Score Solution
Scoring Your Solution

When you believe you have succcessfully solved a acrostic puzzle and want to check your solution, from the Options menu, select Score puzzle. This opens the “official Enigmacross Score Card window.”

If you have made errors, along with a distinctive error signal you will get a message that the puzzle is incorrect. You can then choose to see your errors. Click on the Show Errors Button to have the errors in the grid check-marked in red. Or click on the Cancel Button and attempt to correct your errors without this additional help (good for you!)

But if the puzzle is correctly solved, you will be treated to a short surprise, followed by a “Congratulations” message. Pat youself on the back! The “Score Card window” gives you three choices. Select:

Start Over to “wipe” the grid of all solution information so the puzzle may be re-played by you or someone else.

Delete to remove the puzzle altogether from your computer. Keep in mind that a “deleted” puzzle is only logically deleted from the system. The file extension is changed from EMX to EM! so that Enigmacross no longer recognizes it. (If you are comfortable with basic Windows file commands, you can easily “bring back” a deleted acrostic puzzle.)

Cancel to do nothing. The correctly completed puzzle is saved.


Printing an Acrostic

From the Puzzle menu, select Print... When in Solve mode, Enigmacross prints a single, complete “Puzzle Page” containing a numbered grid and the keyed clues, exactly like the typical pencil-and-paper printed acrostics you are used to seeing.