Crossword Toolkit

Thonners

About this app

Crossword Toolkit provides all the tools you need to take on a crossword, even if you're without a pen!

Enter the grid (with smart grid-assist), take a picture of the clues, and the crossword is now saved digitally on your device. No need to carry around the paper or tear out the page.

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Also included in Crossword Toolkit:

Manual Anagram - Solve an anagram yourself. The toolkit will jumble the letters and display them in a circle. Fill known letters in the hang-man spaces to better visualise the answer.

Dictionary - look-up from Merriam-Webster. Easily look up a word suggested by the anagram or word-fit tools by tapping it in the results - no typing necessary!

Anagram solver - all matched words returned instantly. You won't find a faster anagram algorithm!

Word-solver - lists all the words which fit your blanks, for those final tricky clues.

Wikipedia Cryptic Crossword Abbreviations - an in-app display of the Wikipedia page on regular cryptic crossword abbreviations, for those just getting to grips with cryptic crosswords.

This app is totally free, with no advertising :)

P.S.
If you encounter a bug, please let us know using the 'feedback' option in the menu so that we can root it out and make Crossword Toolkit even better. Thanks!

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Instructions:
To access the Toolkit without saving a crossword, click Crossword Toolkit at the top. This provides access to the dictionary, anagram and word-fit tools, plus the Wikipedia page. Swipe between tabs to access the different tools.

Access recently used crosswords from the home page, or click the 'Saved Crosswords' card to access your saved library.

To save a new crossword, tap the 'New Crossword' card on the homepage. You'll be prompted for the publication's name and the date it's published. Several popular publications are offered in the pop-up list, but hit 'other' to enter a different one. You'll then be asked for the number of rows/columns in your crossword grid - scroll to the right number then click forward. You'll now be presented with a blank grid with the number of rows/columns previously selected. Tap the squares which should be black to make the grid. (The smart grid assist will automatically fill in the rotationally opposite square, to save you time and ensure your grid is valid.) Click the floating action button again to continue when you're happy, and congratulations, your grid is now saved! Swipe right to the next tab to take a picture of the clues. The rest of the Toolkit is easily accessed by swiping right again.

To use the dictionary, just enter the word you wish to look up and hit 'Search'.

To use the anagram solver, just enter all the letters of the anagram. The results will be returned instantly, if they exist.

To use the word-fit solver, enter the letters you know, with a '.' (full stop) for letters you're currently unsure of. The solver will search the dictionary for all words that fit. (Note: this takes a little time, particularly if the first letter is unknown.)

Tap any of the results to look up that word in the dictionary. Whilst the anagram and word-fit tools will work without internet access, you must be connected to the internet to use the dictionary!

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Features coming soon (Not yet implemented!!):
Optimisation for tablet display.
Automatic grid entry - from a picture of the grid.
Server sync - access your crosswords across all your devices, and keep a backup in case you lose your device.
Crowd-sourced grids/clue images - if your crossword has already been uploaded to our servers, download the grid/clues to save you the trouble.
Crowd-sourced answers - unsure of an answer? Check to see if anyone else agrees with you!

Ratings and reviews

I don't usually write reviews on apps but this one is so disappointing. It kept crashing and I lost my progress. So I decided to save my work often to keep me from losing my work. Didn't matter, I had a good themed crossword going and even after saving it multiple times it lost my work. It reverted back to a blank grid.

This seems useful, but it crashes whenever I click 'Saved Crosswords' on the menu (even with Low RAM turned on), and it also doesn't seem to deal with portrait photos of the clues, rotating the images to be landscape. This is on a Samsung Galaxy S8 with Android 9. While I'm here, a couple of suggestions: * Add support for barred crosswords. Many British newspapers have them for their more difficult cryptics. * Add the ability to toggle grid symmetry off. Yes, most are symmetric, but occasionally you need a grid that isn't, or has mirror symmetry instead. * Add the ability to start with a pre-made grid. Most British crosswords are based around a basic grid where the squares in both the even rows and columns are always black, so it seems a bit wasteful to always have to fill those in. * Add support for non square grids. * Add some way to see the clues and the grid at the same time. Maybe have the photo you took displayed under the grid instead of the numbers. * Allow the clues picture to be one from your gallery. * Allow letters to be taken back with the manual anagram tool. At present, once you've placed a letter, there is no way to put it back into the pool other than starting again. Also, you can accidentally overwrite a placed letter.

I've tried quite a few crossword apps and this is the best I think. I've only given 4 stars because I think it would be nice if there was a way to separate words in the answer, as in " mix up "instead of reading it as " mixup "

What’s new

Added ability to add hyphens or word-splits to visualise word ends in multi-word clue solutions!