Extended Description: ------ CrossWord Publisher Software CrossWord Publisher is a desktop publishing program enabling novice crossword constructors to produce perfectly professional puzzles as well as experienced constructors to do their jobs smarter. Lexicon Contents Has a 200,000 word lexicon, consisting of the most useful words for creating puzzles. Among the words are all commonly used words, plus lots of uncommon words, and even a lot of words that are hardly ever used except in crossword puzzles. The lexicon also has PHRASES: "forget-me-not", "I'm OK, you're OK", etc. ABBREVIATIONS: orgs., gov't agencies, contractions ("don't," "P.D.Q."). FOREIGN WORDS: German, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, etc. FAMOUS NAMES: movie stars, politicians, authors, etc. QUOTES: "to be or not to be", etc.; a diverse collection. GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES: rivers, lakes, cities, Irish counties, English towns, ... CHARACTERISTIC PUZZLE WORDS: "ibid.", "Erie", "sera", "etc.", etc. A United Kingdom-English lexicon is available in addition to our original lexicon. Users cannot add words to the lexicon. The lexicon is so large that there shouldn't be the need to add words, particularly because the lexicon already contains all the crucially important short words. Longer words are less important to constructors, since words over seven letters long should be "thematic" (related to the theme of the puzzle) anyway, but just to make sure we have included over 90,000 words longer than 7 letters. Of course, you can create puzzles containing words that aren't in the lexicon. To compensate for the inability to add words, we offer a lexicon- building tool. If you have a large collection of words that define your acceptable vocabulary, you can build a custom lexicon. This capability presents new possibilities for thematic crosswords. For example, one user has constructed 15 x 15 puzzles consisting entirely of words from the Bible. Wow! Word Lister Select a spot, partially filled by letters, and the Word Lister will tell you all words that fit. You can double-click a word from the list to transfer it to the grid. The Word Lister is handy for "scouting" the words most likely to make a puzzle fit together. Tight Spot Finder The most efficient way to construct a puzzle is to work first on the most tightly-constrained spots. This way, if the puzzle is actually unworkable you find out as quickly as possible, rather than after hours of labor. The Tight-Spot Finder is CrossWord Publisher's tool for identifying tight spots. This tool lists the hardest spots and shows the words that fit. Using this tool gives you a global overview of the puzzle, allowing you to know right away if previous choices conflict. Corner Filler Here is a feature "to die for." Select a region of interlocking answers, and this feature generates all ways to fill the region. Just select the one you want to use in your puzzle. Regions containing as many as 35 words can be filled. This feature fundamentally changes how puzzles are created. In the old days, constructors labored many hours trying to fill corners or long diagonal stretches. Even after an initial composition was completed, the puzzle needed many more hours of "polishing." The Corner Filler changes all that. With CrossWord Publisher, a designer thinks a lot about his thematic material: which themes, which phrases, and how to put them into the grid. During this phase, the designer uses the Tight-Spot Finder to verify that the grid is flexible enough to allow many ways to fill most spots. Having a flexible grid virtually guarantees that the Corner Filler will be able to complete the grid. The designer just selects the regions to fill, and picks the possibilities he likes best. The time-consuming "polishing" phase is eliminated, and the labor spent on generating solutions is greatly reduced. Using CrossWord Publisher, a novice constructor can build his first puzzle in a day. After a little practice, he can crank out puzzles at a staggering rate: several per day. But the productivity advantages are not limited to quantity. Quality goes up as well. Quality goes up because the designer need not enumerate solutions, so he can concentrate on evaluating them. In just a few minutes the Corner Filler can produce more solutions than a person could generate in a day. And a few simple controls tell the Corner Filler how to find the solutions the designer likes best. The result: the designer can review a larger, higher-quality set of options for each region of the grid. In fact, puzzles produced by CrossWord Publisher are indistinguishable from those produced by the best human composers. Readers and editors of crossword magazines cannot tell whether a puzzle was composed on CrossWord Publisher or whether it was a work of genius. Criss-Cross Generator The "criss-cross generator" searches for ways to pack the grid with crisscrossing thematic material. This feature is especially appreciated by educators, who like to use it to make informal crosswords for their students. Puzzle Editor CrossWord Publisher's puzzle editor supports entry of clues and grids (3 to 49 squares per side), including renumbering clues as black squares are changed. Grids do not have to be square; rectangular grids are supported. Non-rectangular puzzles are possible, by making a rectangle enclosing the puzzle, and using black squares to eliminate the part of the rectangle you don't want. The puzzle editor supports automatic symmetry in the placement of black squares. The symmetry in black square placement is optional (user's choice). Symmetric grids are standard in conventional puzzles. You can develop "diagramless" puzzles; the only distinction from the program's perspective is that you do not want to print the grid when you are done. You can create cryptic puzzles (known as "English style" in the States because of their popularity in the UK). CrossWord Publisher does not specifically support "rebuses" (puzzles containing non-alphabetic symbols), though it does not prevent you from creating them. You can use CrossWord Publisher to develop "Find-A-Word" puzzles, although there is no specific support for this. Some users want to create puzzles larger than 25x25. The software has this ability, though it is infrequently needed since few people want to publish such puzzles, nor solve them. A Sunday New York Times or Boston Globe puzzle is 21x21. Nevertheless, one user really did have an application requiring a 49x49 puzzle. He wanted to make a picture frame out of a crossword puzzle, leaving a 29x29 black hole in the middle of the puzzle for the picture. Nowadays he could make a 49x49 puzzle, but in those days the software was limited to 25x25. He composed 4 puzzles, each 25x25, each having a 15x15 section entirely black in one corner (a different corner for each of the 4). He stitched these together to make his 49x49 puzzle. Where there's a will, there's a way. Rules Checker The Rules Checker verifies that a puzzle meets a short list of standards commonly applied to published puzzles. For example, the puzzle should be symmetric, with shortest word at least 3 letters long, without misspelled words, with at least a quota of thematic material (depending on the puzzle's dimensions), at most a certain number of answers, etc. The Rules Checker is a handy feature for editors who want to verify that the puzzle conforms to their standards. It is also handy for composers who want to get their puzzles published. The Rules Checker does not prevent users from building creative puzzles that are outside of conventional rules. The rule checker only alerts you to potential problems. In CrossWord Publisher, the user is the final authority. The Rules Checker is at its best when examining the puzzle for problems that otherwise require a dictionary search. For example, the program alerts the user to words that are not in its lexicon. Another big time-saver is the rule detecting "using an answer in a clue;" you don't want a clue to contain the word that should go in the puzzle, which happens surprisingly often. "Repeating answers" happen when an answer occurs twice within the same puzzle. For example, if 1 Across is LIGHT and 15 Down is LIGHTNESS, the repeating answer warning arises. Detecting this without the Rules Checker would require alphabetically listing all the words in the puzzle. Clues CrossWord Publisher contains a clues editor that maintains the correspondence between your clues and the answers, even as black squares are added or deleted. CrossWord Publisher contains a clues database. We currently have definitions for about 12,000 words--not a large number perhaps, but most useful crossword puzzle words are covered. The database is user-extendible. In addition to the database, the software has some algorithmically generated clues. Two such capabilities are in the program now. One is to search for phrases that contain the word, for a "fill-in-the-blanks" clue. The second is to generate anagrams, for composers of Puns and Anagram or Cryptic puzzles. Upgrades If you need features not currently available in CrossWord Publisher, please write us with your upgrade suggestions or needs. Our upgrades are based on customer feedback. Printing Grid and clues come out on a single page, with a grid in the upper right and the clues in columns. The Print command allows users to preview their work on paper while it is being developed. Serious publishers prefer to use the Export command, described below. Supports all Macintosh printers, including, but not limited to, Laser, Laser Jets, Image Writers, Personal Laser, PostScript, and Quick Draw. Export CrossWord Publisher exports the grid into an Encapsulated Postscript file and the clues into a text file for import into your favorite page layout program. This is the serious publisher's method of choice, since it gives the user complete control over fonts, line widths, etc. Comparison to Alternative Products Alternative products lack key features needed by serious composers and serious publishers. Often missing is the complete dictionary. Some products supply "abridged" word lists, rather than the full 200,000 word dictionary provided with CrossWord Publisher. And CrossWord Publisher is the only product that includes a full suite of tools. Most programs have lexicon-search capability, but don't go beyond that. Some products include the ability to generate "Criss Cross" type puzzles, but lack the ability to fill corners. Some programs can fill corners, but do not give the user any way to influence the words used. CrossWord Publisher's clue database is also a big time saver. Competing products usually omit this resource, since it is time-consuming to develop. Professional publishing tools are missing from alternative products. If you want professional output, you need CrossWord Publisher's Export command. Alternative programs include only simple printing, which doesn't meet professional standards. Using the Export command, you can produce professional output in just a few minutes, compared to hours using a drawing program. The cost saving from the Export command is tremendous. CrossWord Publisher is also the only product that includes tools for the editor. For example, the Rules Checker is a big time-saver for editors, as it quickly locates problems that the editor would have to search for "by eye." Hardware Requirements CrossWord Publisher runs on any Macintosh computer using System 6 or 7. Supported systems include, but are not limited to: Centris, Quadra, Performa, LC, II, SE, Plus, Classic, Powerbook, Portable, Duo, Duo Dock, and Power PC (through emulation). 2 megabytes of disk space. 2 megabytes of RAM. References "As a full-time constructor, I rely heavily on CrossWord Publisher's feature-rich suite of tools. An early prototype was so good that I bought a Macintosh computer just to run it. Thanks to CrossWord Publisher, pencil-and-paper construction is ancient history to me." Terry Hall, Founder of Media Industries. Ordering CrossWord Publisher CrossWord Publisher used to be available only to high-end publishers at a price of close to five hundred dollars. But we are changed the pricing to target the broader marketplace. The product is now available at the incredibly low price of just $79 plus $5 for shipping and handling. Send check or money order in U.S.A. funds to: SHEPPARD COMPANY, INC. 60 Thoreau St., #187 Concord, MA 01742-9116. Check or money order should be made payable to SHEPPARD COMPANY, INC. Include your name, mailing information, telephone number, and product you are ordering. Call for more information: (508) 287-0055, or e-mail SheppardCo@aol.com.