Crosswords are easier on Monday and become gradually more difficult through to Saturday, but what makes a crossword difficult? Some answer words might be more appropriate for a later-week puzzle. When you enter a word, as opposed to a pattern, in the Finder Page, you see a graph showing usage over time, and a new… Continue reading Crossword Difficulty
Tag: Finder
30 Million Finds
The XWI Finder hits an awesome milestone.
Odd Characters
TL:DR: Click the “More…” button on the XWord Info Finder page to see new “Words with digits” and “Words with symbols” buttons. In a recent Crossword Fiend post, blogger (and constructor) Zachary David Levy (not necessarily an odd character himself) mistakenly insisted that, while ampersands were used in several pre-Shortz puzzles, they had never appeared… Continue reading Odd Characters
OneLook pattern search
OneLook pattern search now displays results by popularity.
Finder Philosophy
What’s the difference between the different Search buttons on the XWord Info Finder page? And why is my RegEx search timing out?
Finder Page Video Tutorial
The most useful feature on XWord Info is the Finder Page. It’s easy to use for straightforward searches, but there are many deeper capabilities. This video helps you get started. The tutorial barely scratches the surface of what’s possible. To keep it to 15 minutes, I don’t even mention using $c and $v for consonants… Continue reading Finder Page Video Tutorial