What this is

This is a CrossWord Creator: application to create and export crosswords that are programmatically filled searching words and definitions in a local database.

splash screen

Project

A crossword is a project and projects can be saved and loaded. The extension of the project file is .cwc that is a zipped directory. Almost all settings are saved within the project to make it easier to "continue" when loaded.

Worflow

• Create a crossword or open a project
• Eventually modify the white/black cells (if not yet finalized)
• Click on "Finalyze"
• Edit/auto fill the crossword
• If needed, edit/add the words and definitions
• If complete, export the crossword

NOTE: single white cells surrounded by black cells and/or borders are invalid and marked as red. The crossword cannot be finalized if it contains red cells.

autofilling crossword

Features

• words can be added and removed
• definitions can be added, removed, modified and searched locally and in the web
• crosswords can be manually edited and programmatically filled
• crosswords can be exported, actually only in pdf but plugins can be easily added to extend the formats
• the language of the application and of the database can be changed in run time
• the application has 2 modes (light and dark) and 3 styles (thanks to TKinterModernThemes - RobertJN64):
  • azure
  • sun-valley
  • park
• black cells can be generated in 3 ways:
  • random: giving a % and a max word length
  • manually: clicking on the cells
  • template: defining a pattern and a margin. Templates can be saved

create panel

templates panel

Languages

CWC is multilanguage. Actually Italian and English are supported but a new language can be added extending the file cwc_globals.__TRANSLATIONS_FILENAME

{
    "word" : [
        {"it" : "Parola"},
        {"en" : "Word"},
        {"add here the new ISO_639-1 language code" : "add here the new translation"}

Adding a new words/definitions language database is a bit more complex, especially finding the definitions :) I suggest to copy/paste a present db in a new ISO_639-1 language code directory, clear the db, reset the sequences and fill it. I thought to implement an utility inside the application to add a new language db but there's no standard format for the words and, especially the definitions (if available somewhere).

settings panel

Highlighintg and editing

The words in the crossword (in the left panel) and the definitions (in the right panel) are mutually highlighted. If the mouse hovers the first cell of a word, it's relative definition is highlighted and viceversa. In case of a cell that is the start of 2 words (horizontal and vertical), hovering on the left part of the cell highlights the horizontal definition, on right part the vertical one. Clicking on the upper part of a cell with a number (means the start of a word), navigates and opens it's definition. Again, in case of 2 words, left is horizontal and right is vertical. Clicking on a cell makes it selected (orange) and a letter can be inserted typing it. Clicking on a cell that starts a word, will trigger (if enabled) an automatic moving by words: typing a letter will insert the letter and move to the next char of the word, according to current direction. When a word is complete, it's definition will be searched and the next word will be ready to be edited and it's first letter selected.

Definitions

Once a word has been added to the crossword, the relative definition panel can be:

• red: the word was not found in the db
• yellow: the word was found in the db but not the definitions (or a definition has not been automatically selected)
• green: the word is complete, means found and a definition selected Once all the words are complete, the crossword can be exported Clicking on a definition panel, a panel is activated and the following actions might be executed, depending on the defintion state:
• Reload the definitions from the db (if the word was found)
• Search the current word in the web (the search engine can be defined in the Settings panel)
• Search locally in the db (there are some type of searches like anagrams, starts_with, etc
• Add the word to the db (if the word was not found)
• Add definitions (if the word was found). One can add definitions to the word using a panel If enabled, a random definition will be automatically selected when the defintions are found. If enabled, a definition panel that has a selected definition will be hidden.

definitions search example

Exporter Plugins

To add an exporter plugin, one has to add:

• a file <type>_exporter.py (type is lowercase) in GlobalData.PLUGINS_DIR
• in that file, a class <type>Exporter (type is capitalized)
• in that class, a public method def export(self, filename) has to be implemented

Notes

Tested only on Windows 11 A create_exe.bat will create a cwc.exe in the <root>/dist/cwc directory

Contributing

You are welcome to contribute to the project or just to use it. In that case, a support would be nice :)

Acknowledgements

CWC is based on:

• TKinterModernThemes (c) RobertJN64, MIT License
• CustomTkinter (c) Tom Schimansky, MIT License
• tkinter-tooltip (c) gnikit, MIT License

Issues

• If the project .cwc file is renamed, the loading fails (it seems that fixed paths are stored in the zip archive).
• In case of very large crosswords and long words, the auto filling might never end.
• The del_exclude_word_always is still not implemented (exclude always the selected word - best way would be to add a bool column "excluded" in the word table).
• Still an installer is missing.
• ToolTips need to be added
• The english db does not have many definitions as the italian one
• The english definitions need to be cut, they come from a sort of encyclopedia.
• It's not fully and intensively tested so other bugs might be present.

License

MIT License