To create a freeform puzzle from a list of words select New from the File menu and click on the Freeform/Vocabulary button. The vocabulary puzzle builder inserts blocks (black squares) automatically in unused squares. If you want to fill in words around a given pattern of blocks, use the Fill Grid feature instead.
Select Create vocabulary puzzle option on the Words menu to fit words into an existing grid. For example, you may wish to design a particular shaped puzzle, or seed the grid with a few words before filling in the rest.
The tabs along the top of the Create vocabulary puzzle window give you different ways to specify the words that you want to use:
Use Words
Type in some words to use, click Generate List, or select an existing Theme List and click on Build Puzzle. You can write or generate clues for the words that are used later on. This saves you writing clues for words that end up not being used.
Use Words with Clues
Type in words with clues, or select a clue database that you've made before, and click on Build Puzzle. This saves you having to do any extra work after you've built the puzzle. However, you can't take advantage of the advanced features of the Clue Editor if you do this.
Use Word List
Select one of the main Word Lists to use and click on Build Puzzle. You can write the clues later.
An example: say you wanted to create a 6x6 puzzle containing names of common metals. In the create vocabulary puzzle window you would select the Use Words button and type in, say,
iron
gold
tin
lead
copper
silver
nickel
zinc
Click on the Build Puzzle button and the computer will automatically generate the puzzle:
To accept this puzzle press the Accept button. If you don't press Accept the computer will continue to search for puzzles that contain more of the given words. Press Accept whenever you are happy with the result produced.
If you don't like the puzzle, and the computer is not finding any more fills, you can press the Next button to randomly start generating a different new grid. You can press the < button to view previous fills, and Accept to decide which one you wish to use.
You can cancel the fill at any time by pressing the Cancel button. This will let you edit your word list and re-start the fill, or cancel entirely.
If you find that not enough of your words are used then try a bigger puzzle - change the puzzle size by clicking on the Size button. If the words fit easily and there is too much blank space you may also want to try decreasing the puzzle size. When you press the Size button there are options to increase or decrease the size by two squares, or change to any size you like. [This option is only available if the starting grid is blank.]
Now for some more details on the various options:
If you select the Use Words option you can save your list of words as a theme list by clicking on Save As on the Action button. You can then use your words just like any of the other theme lists. Other useful functions are also on the Action button, for example to clear the word list or load words from a text file.
If you select a Theme List to use you can edit or add words to the list. Click the Save changes button if you want these changes to be automatically saved in the Theme List. You can also use the Save button on the Action menu to save changes at any time.
Type in your words in the left column and the clue on the right. Use the Action button menu items to delete everything and start again, or to save, sort or load from an external file. To use a clue database select one of the available databases in the Use Database drop down list.
The available main word lists are listed - just click on the one you want to use. Set the Minimum word length to a number higher than two if you want to avoid short words. Set the Minimum word score to avoid words with scores less than the given value.
There are various options available to customize how the process works. Select the Options button at the top of the window to change them. The options you can change are as follows:
Surrounding squares
This setting determined what the computer puts in the squares in which there are no words. Select Blocks to create puzzles like those above, or select Voids to create a freeform outline puzzle. With Voids selected the puzzle above would look like this:
Allow adjacent parallel words
This option determines whether junctions like
are allowed or not. Here OPEN and NEAT count as adjacent parallel words, as do TEN and NEAR. With large word lists disallowing this kind of junction will make the fill significantly faster.
Equivalent letters
Many puzzles show letters in upper case with accents removed, so letters can intersect irrespective of case or accents. If you want to preserve accents or case, change the setting here. This may be particularly useful for educational/language-training puzzles, or if using a language where accented characters are regarded as separate letters. This setting only affects theme lists and directly entered words; word lists have their own letter mapping settings.
Avoid word and sub-word
This option prevents similar word forms being used. For example if your word list contains Britain and Great Britain this would prevent both being used. Similarly, only one of cat and cats would be used.
Avoid duplicating substrings
This option is similar to the above, but can be used to avoid more general repetitions of word substrings. For example 'Freeboarding' and 'Surfboard' have the five-letter substring 'board' in common; using this option with a length of five or less would ensure that only one of these two words is used. This option cannot however avoid irregular derived words that are similar, for example think and thought.
Clue database usage and avoiding repeats
If you use Use words with Clues and save the words and clues as a Clue Database, you can get the database to track which words are used and avoid repeating them in the future. Select the Tag used clues with date option to mark all clues used in the current puzzle with a date (by default, today's date). To avoid repeating words, select the Avoid date tagged clues box; by default this will avoid all clues that have previously been date stamped. Alternatively, you can select a Later than date, to only avoid clues used more recently than the specified date.
Save your settings
You can save the settings in the window by clicking the Save options button so that they will be automatically selected next time you start up the program.
Notes
If you have made a puzzle and saved it, but later realize you made a typo, you can select Create Vocabulary Puzzle on the Words menu to get an option to extract the words and clues, edit them, then rebuild the puzzle.
Note that when you create a vocabulary puzzle the grid symmetry is automatically changed to None.
If you have a word list or list of words and clues, and you want to make several puzzles using as many of your entries as possible, follow these steps:
