Are you the kind of person who - immediately after grabbing the morning newspaper - turns to the Entertainment section to fill in the crossword puzzle? Or are you the type of person who wants
to do the crossword puzzle but can't, because your significant other does it, or someone at work always gets to it first?
I'm personally like the second. At a job I used to have, there was one employee who - right after getting to work - would grab the crossword puzzle and then hover over it for maybe ten minutes. When he finally stood back up, the puzzle was done. Now, I'm not so into crossword puzzles that I wanted to throttle him or anything, but I have to say that it took a lot of "fun" out of the day!
Thankfully, a software program exists called Black Ink. Black Ink is a new shareware program for Mac users (costing $24.95 for a license, which I feel is maybe a bit on the expensive side, in spite of how well the program works), that allows users to fill in crossword puzzles, and a whole lot more.
First of all, Black Ink has a great interface. There isn't necessarily a whole lot you need to think about with a crossword puzzle application, but Black Ink gives me a resizable puzzle (wonderful for those with bad eyesight or those who just want a bigger view than is provided by default), and a list of clues off to the side, just the way I like it. It's not exactly the same as a newspaper, obviously, but it's pretty similar, and the differences aren't bad at all.
To fill in an answer, you can either click on a square in the word. Black Ink, by default, assume you want to fill in the horizontal word. To fill in a vertical answer, simply click again, and the vertical word that intersects the square you're clicking in will be filled in. Now just start typing, and Black Ink will automatically advance one square after you type in each letter.
You can also highlight the word you want to fill in by clicking on the clue itself. This, for some people, will be much easier, as you only need to move the mouse a bit at a time, assuming you are able to fill in the clues sequentially.
I'm personally like the second. At a job I used to have, there was one employee who - right after getting to work - would grab the crossword puzzle and then hover over it for maybe ten minutes. When he finally stood back up, the puzzle was done. Now, I'm not so into crossword puzzles that I wanted to throttle him or anything, but I have to say that it took a lot of "fun" out of the day!
Thankfully, a software program exists called Black Ink. Black Ink is a new shareware program for Mac users (costing $24.95 for a license, which I feel is maybe a bit on the expensive side, in spite of how well the program works), that allows users to fill in crossword puzzles, and a whole lot more.
First of all, Black Ink has a great interface. There isn't necessarily a whole lot you need to think about with a crossword puzzle application, but Black Ink gives me a resizable puzzle (wonderful for those with bad eyesight or those who just want a bigger view than is provided by default), and a list of clues off to the side, just the way I like it. It's not exactly the same as a newspaper, obviously, but it's pretty similar, and the differences aren't bad at all.
To fill in an answer, you can either click on a square in the word. Black Ink, by default, assume you want to fill in the horizontal word. To fill in a vertical answer, simply click again, and the vertical word that intersects the square you're clicking in will be filled in. Now just start typing, and Black Ink will automatically advance one square after you type in each letter.
You can also highlight the word you want to fill in by clicking on the clue itself. This, for some people, will be much easier, as you only need to move the mouse a bit at a time, assuming you are able to fill in the clues sequentially.
Type in Your Comments Below