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Crossword tool tutorial

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kyc edited this page Oct 20, 2021 · 2 revisions

Crossword tool tutorial

  1. Open https://util.in/parser.

  2. Enter the URL of the puzzle page. This can be either an HTML page or a link to the puzzle PDF.

    If the HTML page is not public (e.g. it's from an active hunt with puzzle unlocks), then we recommend printing to PDF by pressing Ctrl+P, selecting "Save as PDF", and uploading the saved PDF.

    Another option is uploading a screenshot image of the crossword grid. This may be easier, but you'll need to manually enter the crossword clues later.

  3. If the HTML page or PDF spans multiple pages, then navigate to the page with the crossword grid.

  4. Click "Parse crossword".

  5. Verify the extracted crossword and clues look correct. If so, click "Export to Sheets". Otherwise, see "Troubleshooting" below.

  6. Share your Google Sheet with [email protected]. (If you do not wish to share your Google Sheet with util.in, you can use "Copy to clipboard" as an alternative with slightly less functionality - see "Tips" below for details.)

  7. Enter the URL of the Google Sheet in the prompt, and click "Submit".

util.in will add a fully scripted crossword app in your Google Sheet. Make sure to enter your answers in the correct column, and the app will automatically fill in the grid and orthogonal clues!

Tips

Bulk sharing with util.in

If you have a Google Drive folder for puzzles, consider sharing the entire folder with [email protected] so that you don't need to do it for individual sheets.

Copying to clipboard

If you do not wish to share your Google Sheet with util.in, then instead of steps 5-7 you can click "Copy to clipboard". This will still add a fully scripted crossword app, but without the following features:

  • Rows and columns for the grid and clues won't be automatically resized.
  • The scripted cells are not protected, so users may accidentally edit over them.
  • The raw image of the crossword (which would otherwise be placed over the grid for convenience) won't be included.

Troubleshooting

Manually entering crossword clues

If util.in is unable to automatically find the crossword clues, then you'll need to enter them manually after step 4.

Manually editing the grid

util.in may be distracted by other lines in the puzzle page. To improve parsing, click "Select region" and drag over only the image of the crossword (leave some space around the crossword).

As a last resort, you can click "Edit grid" to add grid lines that were missed or remove extraneous grid lines that should not be part of the crossword. After fixing the grid lines, click "Parse crossword" again.

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