CREATE THE GRID
- Enter the number of rows and columns at the top.
- Select Create Grid to build a new grid.
- You can create a new grid at any time by clicking Create Grid again.
CHOOSE A WORDLIST
- A default wordlist is loaded automatically on startup.
- You can load your own .txt file using the wordlist button, which will replace the default.
- The file should contain one word per line. The program does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase.
- Single-letter slots are allowed to be filled with A or I, even if those words are not in the wordlist.
SET UP THE GRID
- In SETUP Mode, toggle squares between black and white.
- In either SETUP Mode or SOLVE Mode, add puzzle letters to the grey columns. These can be edited at any time.
- Click Clear Grid Letters at any time to erase all letters from the grid squares (black squares, punctuation, and column letters above are preserved).
SOLVE THE PUZZLE
- In SOLVE Mode, you can add letters or punctuation to the lower grid.
- In SOLVE Mode, click a square to select a word slot. You will be shown the words from the wordlist that can fill that slot. You can click on a word to fill it into the selected slot automatically.
- After typing a letter, the cursor advances automatically to the next available square.
- Squares with punctuation will be ignored when determining potential fill -- that is, _ _ - _ _ _ could fill with HI-HAT or PL-ACE or any other 5-letter entry.
- Letters in the top columns will be crossed out when they are used. When candidate words are sought, crossed-out letters will not be used to fill blank squares.
AUTOMATED SOLVER
- In Solve Mode, click Solve Puzzle to run the automated solver.
- The solver uses backtracking search with forward checking to find a complete solution.
- Slots are tried in order of fewest available words first (most constrained first).
- Click Stop to halt the search and display the best solution found so far.
- Any letters or punctuation already entered in the grid are treated as fixed constraints.