Usage guide

GUI

Assuming you have opened the GUI with crossword-ctk, here is a general guide on how to operate it.

Home Screen

• Configuring global settings

1. Click on the down arrow next to a dropdown

2. Find your desired option and click on it.

• Viewing crosswords

1. Click View crosswords

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 Load crossword.
5. Open the crossword in your browser by pressing Open web app. This may take a bit if your browser isn't open already. If you have issues, visit Troubleshooting.

Crossword Game

• Controls

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
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.
ArrowUp, ArrowDown, ...	Move your cell focus, skipping over void cells if possible to reach an available cell.
ESC	Remove word focus and/or zoom
Spacebar	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+ArrowUp	Move to the next word (or move to the first word if have the last word selected).
Shift+ArrowDown	Move to the previous word (or move to the last word if you have the first word selected).

• Special operations - accessed through dropdowns/keybinds

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

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).

• 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.