Lovely app for crossword constructors

This app has made my crossword-constructing life much easier. I used to use software made for PC only, because there was nothing at all for the Mac that did the job. Every PC-owner I knew gave me their old machine. Then would follow a bunch of exporting to a USB port drive (the machines werent hooked up to the internet) and emailing to get it to my newspapers layout person.

XWord Author is fast and has a great dictionary. Its clue assortment is solid. There are a couple of bugs I hope get fixed; one is that the whole app occasionally freezes when I move quickly between clue options and the puzzle. The other is that, occasionally, the clues contract, dumping one or two or closing up a left-till-later clue-space -- leaving me with clues fitted up to the wrong numbers in the puzzle. Both of these issues are easy to get around; theyre just the reason Ive given four stars instead of five.

At first I was completely stumped by the lack of an emailing/ exporting option. What good was it going to do me to get the crossword done efficiently on my iPad if I was going to have to copy the whole thing over again on an old PC and go through the whole transport rigmarole? Suddenly I had an epiphany, and felt simultaneously like an idiot: All I had to do was take screen shots, go to my photo stream, and email the photos of puzzle and solution to layout.

So easy. When the bugs get fixed up, definitely 5 stars.

Bartlebead about Crossword Author