Quotes

• "Lisa: Guess what, mom? I'm a cruciverbalist!
  Marge: Oh, Lisa, another religion? You know, you'll just drop the whole thing at college when you get a Jewish boyfriend." ~The Simpsons
• "crosswordese: the undefined vocabulary of puzzlemaking that, according to some constructors, always appears in puzzles made by other people. When the same vocabulary appears in their own puzzles, it is referred to as 'fill' and is therefore justified." ~Elizabeth C. Gorski
• "There is a formal poetry only in form, all dressed up and nowhere to go. The number of syllables, the designated and required stresses of accent, the rhymes if wanted -- they all come off with the skill of a solved crossword puzzle." ~Carl Sandberg
• "Complexity can be a trap. You can have a ball developing a phrase, inverting it, playing it in different keys and times and all. But it's really more introspective than communicative. Like a crossword puzzle compared to a poem." ~Paul Desmond, musician

Simplified Authoring Process

This section on authoring (or construction) will briefly introduce general approaches and resources. Crossword: discussion of "The Crucibervalist"; Rex Parker 2/22/2009

1. choose overall theme or list of words
2. pick a grid size, shape and layout
3. fill in main words
4. fill in other words
5. create clues
6. add title, author, copyright
7. publish in various formats, e.g., Java, .puz, .pdf

The sites/applications highlighted in this section:

• websites: armoredpenguin, emogic
• application: Crossword Compiler

Paper

• graph paper, pencil, dictionary & thesaurus, ...
• + great flexibility
• - time consuming

Web Sites

• web browser with form to specify parameters, words, clues
• + simple to use
• + free, inexpensive
• - limited options: free-form style, output formats

A few web sites (alphabetical), many oriented toward teachers, for creating simple puzzles.
Sample entry:clue list to upload into armoredpenguin (from demo Crossword Compiler gallery entries);
other free-form sites may require different separator character, or entry and clue copied/pasted into separate fields
we'll also demo Emogic's Infinite Crossword Generator.

• abcteach $; armoredpenguin; crosswordpuzzlegames; custompuzzles
• discoveryeducation; edhelper; Emogic's Infinite Crossword Generator
• kidcrosswords; ProProfs; theteacherscorner; varietygames

Applications

• desktop apps to generate puzzles
• + grid generation, clue numbering
• + dictionary for reference or auto-fill-in
• + output in variety of formats: web page, .puz, .pdf, ...
• + various platforms, i.e., Windows (Win), Macintosh (Mac), Linux (Lnx)
• - learning curve
• - cost

A draft alphabetical list of selected desktop authoring applications and lists appears in the next section.