Sympathy Tutorial

3.10 Creating an Unnumbered Light

At the end of the previous step, a grid fill will have been committed. This means that all the letters are now in black (although the answers may well be different):

Step 3.10 Initial Image

Before adding the clues, we will change further properties of the unclued thematic light. There are two common ways of presenting such lights:

leaving them numbered in the grid and giving their clue as See preamble or the like
making them unnumbered and omitting their clue from the sequence

Option 1 is straightforward, just involving a slightly different form of the clue to normal. Option 2 can be achieved using changes to the properties for the unclued light(s). To remove the light number, you use the Light Properties Numbering Tab.

In this case, we need to remove the number from 13 across, so make sure that light is selected (see Module 1 Step 5 for the technique), then use the Properties... command on the Light menu. When the Light Properties dialog has opened, click on the Numbering tab. The dialog should then appear as below:

Step 3.10 Intermediate Image

To make the light unnumbered, click on the Remove number button. The text entry box to the left should be cleared for you and the Sympathy main window should show that the grid has been renumbered as shown below:

Step 3.10 Final Image

Note that you can use the Number property for the light to create a wide variety of different numbering schemes. You can use the up and down arrows to the right of the text entry box to change the numbering of a grid. You can even enter arbitrary text in the box if you need a non-numeric "number".

We will now use the Light Properties Text Tab, so instead of closing the Light Properties dialog, click on the Text tab. It should then appear as shown at the start of the next step.

Relevant Help Sections

Light Properties Numbering Tab