Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

There are many regular cruciverbalists here who are very keen to help you, but we need you to supply us with some information in your post. Please try to use the following guidelines when requesting help:

1. State the name (and number) of the puzzle in the thread title.

2. Give the clue and the number of letters. If no number of letters is given in the puzzle then tell us. It also helps to know if the clue is cryptic or general knowledge.

3. Tell us which letters you already have. Try to use "?" rather than "-" or "_" for missing letters as it makes it much easier to read.

Thanks for reading.

I quite agree ! lol ;o)

I agree with the general request for information. The principle is right: give information to help those whom you expect to help you.

However, I strongly disagree with the request to use ???? for the missing letters. A thicket of ???? obscures and makes it extremely difficult to "see" the overall shape and pattern of the letters and the word. I am one of those who go a lot by visual image, shape, pattern and feel. (Also, they are awkward to type as you have to shift to do them.)

???? are used in some crossword databases and work fine there because the computer is not relying on looking, as we are. Every time someone posts using ????, I have the urge to go "Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhhh! No! Don't do it! Dashes, please!" Plain dashes(and with spaces between), I mean, not dropped ones which are the devil's own invention, hopeless for seeing the word and also require a shift to type.

D - S - E -. Plain and clear!

Bet nobody takes a blind bit of notice. Oh, well, never mind.

Happy New Year to everyone!

sammy the problem i have with dashes is if there is a number of the running consecutively i find it difficult to count them without going cross eyed, especially if its late at night and working under electric light, just my preference is ???

helena

Sammy the example you give is clear, but as Helena says when there are lots of dashes I cannot count them as I have visual impairment. I am in favour of the ? myself.

What about H♥♥♥t♥ LOL

I don't like consecutive hyphens, but they do work if they have spaces between each one and the adjacent characters. If they're all bunched together, then "?" is definitely more readable.

I will adjust the first post as we go along and re-post it with the same title (which works on here) every time it leaves the front page.

I must admit I have a problem with both of them!
H/w a/o/t u//ng sl///es i/s/e/d?

Ah yes mamya and the dreaded Character Map.

Bullfrog,

While the use of ??? makes it akin to searching among a clump of brambles, for me your preferred symbol would make it like having to negotiate the high hurdles!

I was idly wondering one day if it would be possible to use some sort of simple template here in which one could display the words across or down and showing the known letters and spaces the way they are shown in a crossword. I am thinking something like a simple box of blank squares going across or down. Someone who is adept at playing around with keyboard characters (or Word) and creating pictures out of them could probably do something suitable.
Seeing as we have problems with a variety of other methods, the box template could be the solution.