Sympathy Tutorial

1.9 Using Word Search

At the end of the previous step, the thematic lights should have been moved, resulting in the following grid:

Step 1.9 Initial Image

Sympathy offers several filling methods that can be used in different phases of the construction. For this puzzle, we will eventually use Automatic Filling to find several different fills for the grid as fast as possible. But first we will use Word Search - although this is slower, it can help to check particular lights are fillable and choose their answer manually.

In this case, we will use Word Search to fill 10 down, because there may not be many answers that could fit in that space. To use Word Search to fill 10 down, first select that light using one of the techniques in Step 5 so that the status bar shows Light: 10d (8). Then click on the Standard toolbar to open the Word Search window, which will display the answers it can find for the light:

Step 1.9 Final Image

The words available are split into two panes corresponding to the two dictionaries used for filling: Core English and USWordNet. If you are evaluating Sympathy, the second dictionary will have a different name.

We can now choose one of these answers to be entered into the light. When choosing the answer, we need to think both about how easy it will be to clue and how easy it will be to fill around. In this case we will choose splutter from the Core English dictionary. Follow these steps to enter it into the light:

select the line displaying splutter in the top (Core English) pane, either by using the scroll bar to the right of the list and clicking on the entry with the left mouse button; or using the down arrow key
press the return or Enter key, which will insert the selected answer into the light
click on Close to dismiss the Word Search window

10 down should now be filled and the grid should appear as shown at the start of the next step.

Note that the Word Search window shows entries in the dictionaries in upper and lower case and with punctuation and spacing - this makes it easy to recognize proper names and phrases. However, when the answer is displayed in the grid, only the letters are included and these are in upper case.

Relevant Help Sections

Standard Toolbar
Word Search