Help

Solve a puzzle

• Open the Catalog to choose official, custom, or shareable puzzles.
• Click a square or clue, then type letters into the grid.
• Type a letter to fill the active square and advance in the active clue.
• Use Hint when you want assistance. Assisted solves may be labeled differently from clean solves on completion and leaderboards.

Keyboard controls

• Tab to the puzzle board to focus the active square. The board keeps one square in the tab order instead of requiring Tab through every cell.
• Type A-Z to enter letters. Focus moves to the next square in the active clue.
• Use arrow keys to move to the next playable square. Left and right set Across; up and down set Down.
• Press Space on a square to switch Across/Down when that square has both directions.
• Press Backspace or Delete to clear the current square. If the current square is already empty, Backspace clears the previous square in the active clue.
• Clues, Hint, Catalog, Player, Settings, and dialog controls remain reachable with Tab and use standard button behavior.

Focus and accessibility

• The active clue is shown near the board and announced through a polite live region when it changes.
• The selected clue exposes current-state semantics, and the active square keeps a visible focus outline.
• Dialogs keep keyboard focus inside while open and return focus to the opener when practical.
• Hints reveal one current square at a time and mark the solve as assisted. This help page does not list puzzle answers or solution keys.

Sign in and profile

Select Player to sign in by email. The app sends a six-symbol code, then asks for a display name if your profile needs one.

A signed-in profile can sync progress, show recent plays, display level and achievements, and list your custom puzzles. If account storage or email delivery is not configured, local browser progress can still work for solving.

Leaderboards and achievements

• Completing a puzzle can produce a solve card with time, score, rank, and share text.
• Leaderboards can separate clean and assisted solves when the competitive tables are available.
• Achievements and levels are based on profile activity such as solves, custom puzzle creation, and leaderboard placement.

Create and share custom puzzles

Choose Create custom puzzle from the Catalog. The builder requires sign-in and may depend on configured generation services. You can preview a staged puzzle, publish it, and manage visibility for your custom puzzles.

Public custom puzzles can appear in the Catalog and creator profile surfaces. Unpublished or deleted puzzles should not be visible as public puzzle listings, but operational retention and audit details are still being finalized.

Privacy, export, and deletion

See the privacy notes for the current data copy and the cookie and storage notes for browser storage. Select Player, open your Profile, and use Account Data to export your account data. Use Delete Account when you want to remove private account data and anonymise retained public attribution.

• Use Sign out from Player to end the current account session.
• Use the Public Profile control in Profile to hide or show your public creator profile.
• Use the leaderboard privacy controls in Profile to hide public leaderboard entries or keep entries while hiding your public name.
• Use Source Tracking in Settings to allow or refuse this browser's acquisition-source cookies and future source event writes.
• Use Clear Browser Puzzle Data in Settings to remove local progress, solve telemetry, local preferences, and visible Crossword Study cookies from the current browser.
• Avoid adding sensitive information to public profile names or custom puzzle content.