Crossword

Put crosswords on your website. You type the answers and clues, the grid is laid out for you, and visitors race the clock to a leaderboard. Crossword is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

• You write words and clues; it builds the grid. The preview updates as you type. Not happy with the shape? Another layout tries a different arrangement of the same words. Any word that will not cross the others is listed so you can change it.
• Phrases are fine. "New York" shows as (3,4) and "well-being" as (4-5) in the clue.
• Timing kept by the server, from the moment the crossword is started to the moment it is solved.
• Check marks the wrong squares, at a time penalty you choose (30 seconds unless you change it). You can switch checking off.
• Submitting a wrong grid costs a smaller penalty (10 seconds unless you change it), so guessing is not free. Empty squares are pointed out and cost nothing.
• Leaderboards of the fastest solvers for today, this week, this month and all time, best go per name.
• The answers never reach the visitor's browser until they have solved it.
• Optional overall time limit, opening and closing times, and a limit on goes per name.

Getting started

1. Switch Crossword on in Tools.
2. Open Tools > Games > Crossword and choose New crossword.
3. Add at least two answers with their clues. Ten to twenty words make a good grid.
4. Press Test and solve it yourself (see below).
5. Set the status to Open and save.
6. Put it on any page:

[crossword id="sea-life" /]

Testing a crossword

Test (in the editor, on each crossword in the list, and on its Plays screen) opens the crossword right there in the admin, exactly as your players will see it: the same grid, clock, checks and penalties.

• It plays the version you last saved. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test, and saves first.
• It works whatever the status, so you can try a draft before anyone can see it.
• A test go is never saved to the leaderboard. It is not in the Plays list, it does not count towards the goes each name is allowed, and it does not raise a notification. When you solve it, it tells you where you would have come.
• Each new test clears away the one before.

Moving crosswords between sites

Export a crossword from its menu in the list (right-click it, or ⋮), or from the download button at the top of its editor. Export all at the top of the list puts every crossword in one file. The file holds the answers, clues, layout number and settings - never who played them.

Import… at the top of the list adds the crosswords in such a file to this site:

• Each arrives as a draft. Test it, then set it to Open.
• The grid is laid out again from the words and the layout number, so it comes out the same as on the site it came from.
• Nothing already here is changed. A crossword whose short name is taken gets one of its own (sea-life-2), so check the shortcode before putting it on a page.
• Importing the same file twice makes copies. One that is not valid is skipped, and the message says which and why.
• Up to 50 crosswords at a time. A quiz file belongs in Quiz.

A leaderboard on its own

[crossword-leaderboard id="sea-life" period="all" limit="10" title="Fastest solvers" /]

Board or no board

The [crossword] shortcode shows the crossword and, below it, its leaderboard. board changes that:

• board="hide" - the crossword on its own.
• board="only" - just the leaderboard, where the crossword would be.

The leaderboard's period

Leaderboard shows (under Rules and leaderboard) picks the period a board opens on - today, this week, this month or all time - wherever it appears. A shortcode's period wins over it.

Every Game's leaderboards on one page

[games-leaderboards /]

shows the leaderboards of every Game on the site that has one (Quiz, Crossword, Word Search, Daily Word), grouped by Game. games="quiz,crossword" keeps it to some of them, and period and limit work as above.

Hints

Switch on Let players have hints to give each player a few (Hints a play, 3 unless you change it). A hint fills in the next letter of the word the player is on that no hint has shown yet; it is locked in, because it is right. Every hint adds Seconds added for each hint (15 unless you change it) to the player's time, so the leaderboard stays fair - and it marks plays that used hints with a small H and the number. The Plays screen shows them beside the name. Test goes can use hints too.

Animations

Animations (under Rules and leaderboard, on unless you switch it off): the grid pops in, a word bubbles along when a check finds it right and every word does when the grid is solved, a hinted letter pops, and the finished screen and leaderboard rows pop in. Visitors who have asked their device for less motion, or switched motion off in the site's footer, never see them. They never slow the game or its clock.

The finished screen

Players see their time, where they came, their personal best under that name ("New personal best!" when they beat it) and a Share button that copies a summary - the crossword and the time, never a letter of it.

Playing

Click a square, or a clue, and type. Typing moves along the word. Arrow keys move around, clicking the same square again or pressing Space turns between across and down, Tab jumps to the next clue, and Backspace clears. Letters are remembered if the page is reloaded.

Looking after the board

Open a crossword's Plays to see every go (your own test goes are not shown). You can hide a play from the leaderboard, delete it, or reset the leaderboard.