User Guide

GUI

How to operate the GUI once you have opened it with xpuz-ctk.

Home Screen

Configuring global settings

1. Click on the down arrow next to a dropdown
2. Find your desired option and click on it.

View/edit crosswords

1. Click Browser or Editor, respectively.

Crossword Browser

Play a crossword

1. Click View on whichever category you like (e.g. Geography).
2. Select a crossword by clicking on the box next to Select. You can scroll using your scroll wheel.
3. Select a word count. The Maximum option is selected by default, but you can select the Custom option, click on the dropdown and select however many words you want to see in your crossword.
4. Load the crossword by pressing Create.
5. Once it is loaded, open the crossword in your browser by pressing Play. This may take a bit if your browser isn't open already. If you have issues, visit Troubleshooting

Changing crossword game view

1. Follow steps 1 to 4 for Play a crossword.
2. Choose a view option from the Game view option menu.
3. Press Play.

Export a crossword to ipuz or PDF

1. Follow steps 1 to 4 for Play a crossword.
2. Choose an export option from the Export as option menu.
3. Press the download button on the right of the option menu and choose a destination to save your crossword. Ensure it is a valid OS path with no illegal characters.

Crossword Editor

Make a new crossword

1. Press + in the bottom right of the first preview panel.
2. Give your crossword a name, symbol, and change the difficulty if you wish.
3. Press Add.

Edit a crossword

1. Select a crossword under Your crosswords by pressing the box button next to its name.
2. Update your crossword's name, symbol or difficulty.
3. Press Save.

Making/editing a crossword's words

1. Select a crossword and the right pane for word editing will be enabled. The processes of editing and creating words is identical to the steps explained in the prior information blocks.

Export your crosswords to a single file in JSON format

1. Ensure you have at least one crossword in your user crosswords.
2. Press the button with the downwards pointing arrow.
3. Choose a destination and press save.
4. Share it around!

Import crosswords from *.JSON

1. Press the button with the upward pointing arrow.
2. Find and select a valid JSON file that was exported through xpuz's editor.
3. All the valid crossword entries will be imported. If there are any crosswords with an identical name and difficulty, they will not be imported and a message box will display the conflicting crosswords in question.

Crossword Game

controls for interacting with a crossword

Key/Keybind/Action	What it does
Click on cell	Select the cell
Click on empty space	Unzoom
Click twice at intersecting point	Alternate direction
Click on word definition	Select the corresponding word
Click on dropdown	Open dropdown
Click on dropdown button	Perform relevant dropdown action
Click on toggle	Enable toggle feature
Click on Compound or Shift+1	Toggle compound input for your current cell
Any Key	Enter a value into the grid (if it is a language character) and move your focus.
Backspace	Delete the value in your current cell and shift your focus back if possible.
Up, Down, etc.	Move your cell focus, skipping over void cells if possible to reach an available cell.
Esc	Remove word focus and/or zoom
Space	Alternate your typing direction if you are at an intersection.
Tab and Shift+Tab	Cycle your element focus forward or backward.
Enter	Press whatever you are focused on with Tab. Otherwise, check the current word.
Shift+Enter	Reveal the current word
Shift+Backspace	Delete the current word
Shift+Down	Move to the next word (or move to the first word if have the last word selected).
Shift+Up	Move to the previous word (or move to the last word if you have the first word selected).

special operations accessed through dropdowns

Operation	What it does
Reveal	Reveal the current cell, word or the grid. It will then become green and uneditable.
Check	Check the current cell, word or the grid. If it is correct, it will become green and uneditable. If it is incorrect, it will become red and it will retain its ability to be deleted.
Clear	Clear the current word or the grid. Alternatively, you can clear all unrevealed cells, meaning those that aren't green.

toggles to enable/disable special features

Toggle	What it does
Auto-skip	Automatically skip over filled cells when typing.
Auto-word	Automatically move to the next word. There are many ways this feature can be activated, but its functionality has been fine-tuned to only occur when you have most likely finished typing a word.
Auto-check	Automatically check if your input if correct/wrong. If it is wrong, the cell text becomes red and can be deleted. If it is correct, the cell text becomes green and can no longer be modified.
Zoom	Automatically zooms into a grid cell if when clicking on it or invoking a word definition with Tab focus. Automatically zooms into a word definition if you click on it. To unzoom, either click on the zoomed element or click on something that cannot be interacted with in any way (like a void cell or the background).

inclusivity features to improve your experience

• Compound input

If your language requires you to merge two or more characters into one, you can activate compound input to do this. When you are done, press enter, and the leftmost character you typed will be inserted into your current cell.

• Tab accessibility

Simply press tab to focus on different elements. If you are on the element you want to interact with, simply press Enter to invoke it. Grid zooming will activate if you have it enabled by tabbing to and invoking a word's definition.