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Tour Part 3 — Tips for Constructors

Some XWord Info features are specifically for constructors. Many provide unique capabilities not available elsewhere.

The Finder Page

Search for clues or answer words that match patterns

The XWord Info Finder Page is the most-used feature on this website. Other programs help you find words to fit into your grid, but our Finder is designed specifically for crosswords constructors. No other tool matches all these features:

  • Enter any word to find all the clues used for that word, including daily and Variety puzzles.
  • Enter any pattern using ? or * to find:
    • All NYT daily answer words that fit that pattern — click each one to see clues
    • All Variety answer words that fit — click to see clues
    • Dictionary entries — click to see definitions
  • Click any answer you find to see that answer highlighted in context.

Queries can be complex. Suppose you need a 9 letter word that starts with W and ends with E and the third letter can be either and I or and E. Click here to see the results.

In addition to the standard search syntax described here, searches can now be done using regular expressions or RegEx. See the Instructions on the Finder Page for more info.

By the way, the inclusion of those Variety puzzles is significant. There's a vast wealth of great answers and clues in acrostic, cryptic, and diagramless puzzles that don't appear in other databases.

Analyze your own puzzles

Solvers can view a complete statistical analysis of each published puzzle. To see what it looks like, click here to see the most recent puzzle, scroll down, and click the [Analyze this puzzle] button.

You can see that same data on any of your own crosswords. Just upload an Across Lite version of your latest construction at the Analyze Page to see full results.

Track your own status

And finally, just like solvers can track you, you can follow your own stats.

Connect with your solvers

The most popular solver feature is your photos. People love to make that connection and seeing your picture show up each time you publish a new puzzle helps them keep track of different constructors and their styles.

If you're an NYT constructor and you don't yet appear here, please email us with your photo. It's fine if it needs to be cropped and edited and it's better if it's large and crisp and bright. We'll tweak it to fit XWord Info requirements. Thanks.

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