Sympathy Tutorial

3.3 Adding the Across Lights

At the end of the previous step, a new empty grid will have been created with the requested size, and the Sympathy window show appear as below. The top left hand corner square (called a "cell" in Sympathy) has a dashed line inside to show it is selected:

We can now create a barred grid by adding the necessary lights. Grid editing using the mouse and keyboard was introduced in Module 1 Step 8 in which a light was moved. You can also use either the mouse or keyboard when adding lights. To add a light:

• either drag with the mouse from the center of the start cell to the end cell of the light
• or select the start cell then use the arrow keys while holding the Alt key down

Note that bars will only appear if the button on the Editing Toolbar is pushed in. This is the default setting if you select the Barred puzzle type in the New Crossword Wizard.

The first light we need to add for our grid is four letters long and starts in the second row down and the fourth column along. It has a symmetrical counterpart as shown below:

To add the above lights using the mouse, follow these steps:

1. move the mouse pointer over the center of the square in the second row down and the fourth column along; the pointer shape should change to , indicating that a light can be added
2. press and hold the left mouse button down while moving the mouse pointer three squares to the right so that the dotted box extends over four squares; when you are in the right place the status bar will display Adding light: (2,4)-(2,7)a (4) to confirm that a four-letter light will be created
3. release the left mouse button

Alternatively, you can add the lights using the keyboard:

1. use the arrows keys to move the cell selection to the square in the second row down and the fourth column along; the status bar will show that Cell: row 2, col 4 is selected
2. hold down the Alt key, then press the right arrow key three times
3. release the Alt key

Note that in either case, a second light is added because the button is pushed in (i.e. 180 degree rotational symmetry is in effect). If you make a mistake when doing the above operation, you can undo it using the button (a quick way of doing the Edit|Undo command).

Now we can add the remaining across lights required for the grid using either the mouse or keyboard. Because of the symmetry mode, only five light additions are required to create this result:

Note that the lights you are adding all have a little red arrow at the left. Sympathy uses these arrows to show lights that are breaching the rules in the "unch model": a red arrow indicates an overunched light and a blue arrow indicates an underunched light. At this stage, all the lights are shown as overunched: there are no down lights, so every letter is unchecked and every light has more than the maximum number of unchecked letters. An appropriate unch model is created for the puzzle type you choose in the New Crossword Wizard; you can override this if necessary using the Grid|Unch Model... command which opens the Unch Model Dialog.

When the Sympathy display appears as shown above, proceed to the next step in which we'll add the down lights.

Relevant Help Sections

Editing the Grid structure with the Mouse
Editing the Grid structure with the Keyboard
Standard Toolbar
Editing Toolbar
Unch Model Dialog

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Last updated: $Date: 2006/12/29 15:51:00 $
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