The Puzzle Window

The Puzzle Window displays a puzzle. The list of words (and clues) is displayed in the scrolling list at the left, sorted alphabetically. Double-clicking on a word in the list highlights it in the grid in red. Previously highlighted words are marked in black. Words are entered in the edit field below the list. You may <Command>-Click on a word in the list to edit it in place. The two spinners below the list control the size and spacing of the text in the puzzle.

The 'Create' button attempts to build a new puzzle using the word list and other settings. The 'Nudge' button refills the spaces between the words with different letters. A progress bar at the bottom of the window indicates how far the program has got.

The first tab in the tab panel has two spinners for setting the height and width of the puzzle in letters, and a compass square of check boxes for setting the directions in which words are allowed to appear in the puzzle.

The window-splitter in the middle of the window allows the relative sizes of the list and puzzle display areas to be adjusted.

The second tab panel sets the case and length of the words in the puzzle. Changing case works immediately on the present display, but changing the lengths first changes the list, so it is necessary to create a new puzzle to see the result.

The third and fourth tab panel set miscellaneous other options. The 'Fill with letters used' option fills the spaces only with characters used in the list. If this is unchecked, all allowed characters are used.

The 'Check for duplicates' check box controls whether the puzzle is checked for duplicate words. Duplicate words are shown marked in red, and the software beeps.

'Show solution' displays the solution in the display area, with the words outlined in black.

The 'Print Header' option controls printing of this item. The 'Header' edit field contains the text to print in the header.

The black square, when clicked, brings up a color picker that allows the color of the text in the puzzle to be selected. The square changes color to match the color selected.

The 'Print Guidance' check box controls whether the list of words is printed along with the puzzle. If 'Print Clues' is checked as well, then the clues are printed instead of the words.

The 'Use Instructions' check box controls whether the instructions are printed along with the puzzle.

If the 'Use Phrase' check box is checked, then the hidden phrase entered in the edit phrase dialog will appear hidden between the letters of the puzzle.

The 'List below' check box controls whether the words (or clues) are printed above or below the puzzle.

If the 'Use Locked' check box is checked, then the locked text entered in the edit locked dialog will appear in the puzzle.