) on the Toolbar.To edit the clue for a particular word in a puzzle press Ctrl+E with the cursor on the word for the clue you want to edit. You can also click on the Edit button () on the Toolbar.
If there are two words through the letter at the cursor, it will select the word in the current typing direction (press Tab to change the typing direction). You can only write clues for a complete word, i.e. one terminated by a block, bar, or the edge of the grid. If you create a freeform puzzle by typing in words without blocks or bars use Remove Blanks on the Grid menu before writing clues.
You can write the clue yourself, select a clue from a list of generated possibilities (
or Ctrl+G), or select a clue from a clue database.
Once you have finished writing the clue click OK to close the dialog box, or click on the arrow button to edit the next clue. The clue number is displayed in the title bar of the dialog box and the clue word is displayed below that. There is a large input box for entering the clue and input lines for entering the format and an explanation/citation/URL for the clue.
If the punctuation in the clue word is wrong you, left-click anywhere in the word and correct it. Right-click on the word for options to change the case or capitalize. You can also change the solution independently of the word in the grid; if the solution word is a material mismatch against the word in the grid it will be shown in red to alert you. To edit the clue number text, for example to mark a clue as being special in some way, click on the number above the clue and edit.
For cryptic puzzles, use Explanation/citation/URL to explain the clue's wordplay--for example, '2 defs'. For non-cryptic puzzles, use Explanation/citation/URL as necessary to tell someone else (an editor, perhaps) where to verify either an unusual answer or its definition. You can also use a URL, for example for a web page that contains the information needed to solve the clue. Hint URLs can be clicked-on in the interactive solving applet to help the solver with a clue. Rather than typing in the URL you can also drag and drop from the top left icon of an Internet Explorer window onto the Explanation/citation/URL edit box. You can double-click on the edit box to test-open the URL in your web browser.
The Database box at the bottom of the window lists any clues in the current clue database that you can use. Press the Use clue button to use an existing clue. You can change the database to look in by selecting a different database from the Look in drop-down box. If you want to look up a different word you can type it in the Lookup box and press Go. (This can be useful; for example, if the word you are writing a clue for is plural but the singular form has entries in the database which you may be able to adapt). Right-click on the list of database clues to add, edit or delete a clue in the database. There is also a right-click option to change which database columns are shown, e.g. if you wish to see the citation instead of, or as well as, the clue date.
Clues can be tagged to indicate if the word is a theme word, and add custom tags. For example, you might want to tag all clues of a particular type (e.g. anagrams). Click the tag icon on the far right below the toolbar to set or edit tags. In the pop-up Tags window you can check the Theme entry box if it is a theme word; this will also show the word in the grid and Review/Edit Clues with a distinctive color (set in preferences, Display) to that you can easily identify the theme words. To enter a custom tag, enter it in the Tags box, or select a tag from the drop-down list of tags that you have used before. After closing the tags pop-up window, any custom tags will the displayed to the left of the tag icon in the Clue Editor. You can see the count of words with different clue tags in the Statistics window's Words page.
Here's a summary of the clue editor commands. You can also call most of them by clicking with the mouse on the buttons at the top of the dialog box:
| Enter | Close editor, saving changes | |
| ESC | Close editor without saving changes | |
| Ctrl+V | Paste text, including bold/italic and other formatting | |
| Ctrl+Shift+V | Paste text without formatting | |
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Alt+> or Ctrl+N | Move to next clue, saving changes |
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Alt+< or Ctrl+P | Move to previous clue, saving changes |
|
Ctrl+G | Generate possible clues |
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Ctrl+D | Delete the clue |
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Ctrl+K | Link the clue |
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Alt+A | Find Anagrams |
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Ctrl+F | Find Word |
| Alt+U | Use the clue found in the Clue Database | |
| Ctrl+L | Display list of Letter Indicators | |
| F1 | Bring up this help screen | |
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Ctrl+W | Show WordWeb Pro (if you have it) |
There may also be buttons for looking up the word in third-party dictionaries.
You are advised to finish designing and putting words in the grid before starting to write clues. You can then systematically write each clue in order so there's no chance of missing a clue or writing a clue for a word that you will change later. Once you have finished you can review the clues by selecting Review/Edit Clues from the Clue menu. Alternatively you can write the clues quickly using Review/Edit Clues as long as you don't want to use any of the advanced features of the clue editor.
If a word is changed in the grid after its clue is written, the clue is deleted and moved to a temporary holding area. If the word is restored to the grid during the same editing session (even to another slot in the grid!), the clue is restored as well.
Editing the Clue
To edit the clue, or write a new one, simply type the clue in the Clue editor box. You can use bold, italic and underline in a clue by pressing respectively Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I and Ctrl+U, or using the buttons on the toolbar.
You can also insert various special symbols into the clue by right-clicking, selecting the Insert Symbol option. Just select the symbol you want inserted. To insert a character that is not on your keyboard select the Insert Character option from the right-click menu.
You can change the format of the solution by entering the format in the Word Format input line.
If you click on the Anagram button or one of the dictionary buttons the current clue word will be anagrammatized or looked up in the dictionary. You can also select any portion of the clue word, or part of the clue, and then click on the button. This will then use the selected text instead.
Editing order
You can change the order in which you edit clues in the global preferences dialog box.