icon will change to a downward
arrow. Touching the downward
arrow will change the icon back
to a right arrow and the ACROSS
clue.
If you want to see the clues to a
different word of the puzzle, sim-
ply touch a letter in the word you
choose. The corresponding clues
will be instantly displayed.
Solving letters, words & puzzle
If you’re stumped about a word
on the puzzle you’re working,
you can ask for a specific letter,
word—or even the whole puz-
zle—to be solved. With your sty-
lus, just press
LETTER
,
WORD
or
PUZZLE
under the
SOLVE
heading.
Suppose you touched
WORD
. Your
screen would look like this:
SOLVE WORD?
Y/N
By asking you this question, your
unit is safeguarding against giv-
ing you an answer you do not
want. If we confirm that we want
the answer by tapping “Y” with
our stylus, the word will be
solved. If the right-hand arrow
was displayed before the clue, the
ACROSS word will be solved. If
the downward arrow was dis-
played before the clue, the
DOWN word will be solved.
Deleting or erasing
This function is just like erasing
an answer you’ve made in a
paper-and-pencil crossword.
Place the cursor on the letter you
want to delete, and touch the
DEL
key with the stylus. Three options
will appear on screen: “
DELETE
LETTER
,” “
DELETE WORD
,”
and “
DELETE PUZZLE
.” Simply
touch the option you want with
your stylus. Note: When you
select “
DELETE WORD
,” the
word deleted will be the ACROSS
word when the right arrow
appears to the left of the clue. The
DOWN word will be deleted
when the downward arrow
appears to the left of the clue.
Using the check function
Touch and hold the
CHECK
key
with your stylus to check all your
answers in the puzzle. All of the
incorrect letters will be replaced
by a spell-check icon, alerting
you that you’ve made a mistake,
without giving you the answer.
(Even wrong answers that are
spelled correctly will be indicat-
ed.)
When you release the
CHECK
key,
the spell-check icons will disap-
Choosing the puzzle
When you select a level, the num-
bers of the puzzles corresponding
to your selected level will appear
on the screen. Your display will
look like this:
Touch any of the numbers to dis-
play a puzzle.
This feature allows you to select
favorites, or avoid selecting puz-
zles you’ve already worked. It
also allows you to compete with
others, by seeing who can work
the same puzzle the fastest. (Note:
there are 1,000 puzzles in your
New York Times Touch-Screen
Crossword Puzzle, Deluxe
Edition, so it requires more than
one screen “page” to list the puz-
zles. Touch “
NEXT PAGE
” to
move through the screens. The
screen will display “
LAST
PAGE
” when the final page of
choices has been displayed.
Touch “
PREVIOUS PAGE
” at
the top of the screen to move
backward through the pages.)
Working a puzzle
As soon as you touch a number
with the stylus, your display will
fill with the chosen crossword
puzzle. Naturally, all “boxes”
(each indicating a single letter)
are blank. Blanks between words
are indicated by a solid black
“box,” just as in the puzzles print-
ed in
The New York Times
.
You’ll see the cursor flashing in
the first blank “box” at the top left
of the puzzle. You can move the
cursor to any open square you
want simply by touching that
square. You can’t move the cursor
to a blocked-out (black) square.
You can fill in any blank “box” by
touching one of the letters on your
onscreen QWERTY keyboard.
Viewing clues
Immediately below the onscreen
puzzle you’ve selected, you’ll see
the clue for the word you’ve
selected (by touching the word
with your stylus). The ACROSS
clue will display first. If you want
to see the DOWN clue, just touch
the right arrow displayed before
the clue with your stylus. The
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