| PRINT | CLOSE |
The clue highlighted in gray is the active word and the blue square is the active square; typed letters will go there. Delete a letter by using the backspace or delete key. Click on a square and the relevant clues (both across and down) will automatically be highlighted next to the grid. If you are uncertain of a letter, you can mark that square with shift-M to remind you to check it again before submitting your puzzle.
Using the key board: the down or up arrow at the right of letter keys will make the direction down, and using the left or right arrow will change it across. Hitting the Enter key (or Return key, on a Mac) will skip to the next word. Shift-arrow will move you to the next word, either across or down.
Using the mouse: click in a square to make that the active word. Click again in the active square to change direction.
Scoring is the same as at the Crossword Tournament in Stamford:
All major browsers are supported on Windows and Mac OS X. On Mac OS 9, Internet Explorer is supported; other browsers may cause problems.
Your standing is shown by default. If you would like to see someone else's standing, click the magnifying glass icon at the bottom, type the name in the box, and hit your Enter key (Return key, on a Mac). Now all results will point to the new name. You can use the small arrows to scroll through the entire list.
You can also look up your ranking per puzzle (see below), so even if you did not win the tournament, you may have won one particular puzzle!
The Recent tab shows in chronological order everyone who submitted a puzzle, even if no points were scored. The points are for that particular puzzle only.
The Top tab shows the ranking based on the total points puzzlers scored. You need to score at least 1 point to be ranked here.
The Stats tab shows your or someone else's results per puzzle:
| TAB | Explanation |
|---|---|
| P | number of the puzzle |
| WRDS | words correct/total number of words |
| LW | number of letters wrong |
| MNTS | minutes left/time limit for this puzzle |
| PNTS | total points for this puzzle |
| RANK | your rank for this particular puzzle/total number of puzzlers ranked for this puzzle |
At the bottom are your cumulative results for all puzzles combined.
Once the puzzle is on your screen, the clock starts ticking on our server. If you disconnect, and connect again 15 minutes later, the clock will have advanced 15 minutes! So in case you disconnect (which you can do), be sure to return before the time limit is reached. Otherwise, you will not submit the puzzle in time and will score no points at all.
Suppose the time for a puzzle is 45 minutes. Ten seconds before this time, the timer above the grid will start to flicker. When time is up, the program will submit your solution automatically, whether you click "I'm done!" or not. You can still solve the puzzle and check your solution, but you cannot score points anymore.
This crossword software uses the Java language, which may not be present or working properly on your computer. It has been thoroughly tested on pc's and Macs, old and new. If you are experiencing difficulties, it may be due to Java-related bugs in your browser or your version of Java. This can be fixed by installing the latest version of Java. For a free download of the latest version, please see below.