X2 Online Crosswords - Advanced Design Options

X2 User Guide

• Home

• Quick Start
  How to get your online crossword up and running right away

• Advanced Design
  How to make your crossword tie in with your site design

• Trouble-Shooting
  Help with any niggly file problems

• Glossary
  A complete, illustrated guide to what all the parameters in X2 do

X2 gives you complete control over how the crossword looks on your web site. You can specify everything from the main background and border colours, to the colour of the letters and grid lines. You can add a logo to the title, and choose which buttons to show, and which ones to hide. Our aim is to help you get an interactive crossword that blends seamlessly with your web site.

First of all, here is a diagram that lists the main sections of an X2 Crossword :

Title Bar : Contains the Title text, a Tag line (eg copyright notice, which can also be an active link), and can contain a small image, such as a logo.

Background Colour : Specified as a single hex colour. The lighter tint which is used in the Title background and other text areas is calculated automatically from the base background colour.

Crossword : The crossword has many editable parameters, from the colour of the grid lines and numbers, to the size of cells and colour of the 'outs' (black squares).

Active Letter & Word : The colours of the active letter cell and word are an important part of your crossword design. Make sure the colours aren't too strong, overpowering the letters. Also be aware that up to 10% of men have red-green colour-blindness, so avoid combinations such as green letters on a red highlight (which would be a jarring combination in any case!).

Clue List : This is the text area which displays all the clues for the crossword. The arrows allow the user to scroll up and down through the list. The list will also scroll as necessary when words are highlighted in the crossword grid. Many aspects of the Clue List can be edited, including the colour of the text and the width of the clue list area.

Prompt Bar & Clue : The Prompt Bar displays the Prompt Clue, which is simply a repetition of the active clue. It can be used instead of the Clue List, however keep in mind that long clues will not wrap in the Prompt Bar. The Prompt Bar is also required for crosswords with picture clues. Any congratulatory message you want displayed when the crossword is complete can be included here. The Prompt Bar can be displayed at the top or bottom of a crossword.

Tool Area : This is the panel which displays the 5 available buttons. It can also contain a prompt clue. Any congratulatory message you want displayed when the crossword is complete can be included here.

Buttons : There are 5 buttons, although you're most likely to only display 3 or 4. Tidy will remove incorrect letters and incomplete words in the grid. Letter reveals the highlighted letter (ie a cheat). Word reveals the entire highlighted word. Reset clears the entire grid. The fifth button is mainly useful to you as a diagnostic tool - All will reveal the entire crossword at once, and is useful if you want to see how the crossword looks on completion.

Remember that you can also adjust the size of the crossword, by specifying the Cell Size and Spacing parameters. The letters will be automatically scaled to fit smaller or larger grids. You will need to mess around with the crossword height and width parameters in the APPLET tag, though.

The Title, Crossword, Prompt and Tool Bars are all aligned to the left margin.

Crossword Layout Variations

The following three examples of crossword layout all use the identical crossword file (x2-mini.xrd). The only thing that is altered here are the applet parameters within this HTML page.

The fourth crossword is an example of a Picture Puzzle with illustrated clues.