Excalibur 455 User manual

Crossword

Puzzle

Model 455

Touch-Screen

Congratulations on your purchase of Excalibur

Electronics The New York Times Touch-Screen Cross-

word! Now you can take the best crosswords in English

with you anywhere! You don’t need paper, pencil, or eraser. The

included stylus and The New York Times Touch-Screen

Crossword’s technology does it all.

The New York Times Touch-Screen Crossword is easy to use and

enjoy. But be sure to use it safely. Before getting started, please read this

manual thoroughly, especially noting safety, care and battery informa-

tion. Keep your manual for future reference.

Although Excalibur Electronics can’t

claim the magical secrets of Merlin, King

Arthur’s court wizard, sometimes our

patented technology may make it seem as

if we could. The New York Times Touch Screen

Crossword is another unmatched innovation

of Excalibur Electronics.

We make you think.

The legendary King Arthur brandished a magic

sword, Excalibur, from which we take our company

name. With this unique weapon in his hands, he could not be

vanquished.

Table of Contents

Installing Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3

Layout of the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Layout of the Onscreen Keyboard . . . 4

Functions of the Icons . . . . . . . . . . .. 4

Locating & Using Your Stylus . . . . . . 5

UsingYour NY Times Crossword . . . .5

Getting started (5), Choosing the level (5),

Choosing the puzzle (6), Working a puzzle

(6), Viewing hints (6), Filling in letters (7),

Solving (7), Deleting or erasing (8), Using

the spell function (8), Completing the

puzzle (9), Starting a new puzzle (9),

Auto power-off (9), Competing against

friends (9)

Special Care & Handling . . . . . . . . .10

Battery Information . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

90-Day Limited Warranty . . . . . . . . 11

Installing Batteries

Your New York Times Touch-

Screen Crossword requires 2

AAA batteries. Be sure to review

“Battery Information” on page

10. Carefully turn the unit over

so that the top side is face-down

on a soft surface, such as a towel

or magazine. You’ll find the bat-

tery compartment on the unit’s

back. Use a small Phillips screw-

driver to remove the screw. Lift

off the battery compartment lid.

Install 2 AAA batteries, making

sure to match the polarity (+ and

-) with the diagram inside the

battery compartment. (See dia-

gram at

right. Place

the battery

c ompar t -

ment lid’s tabs in their slots and

snap the compartment door back

on. Replace the screw and gently

tighten it.

Layout of The New York Times Touch-Screen Crossword

Reset Button

(on back)

QWERTY Keyboard

Crossword Puzzle

Functions of the Icons (Onscreen Buttons)

Your unit’s buttons are easy to

use.

RESET:Press this button if your

unit functions improperly.

ON/OFF Press this to turn the unit

on and off.

SOUND Press to toggle sound on

and off.

NEW GAME Press to start a new

puzzle.

HINT Press to see the “across”

and “down” hints for a selected

letter.

CLUE Once you’ve filled in one or

more letters, tap and hold this key

to check spelling. Any letter that

is incorrect will be marked with a

spell-check icon. Once you re-

lease the CLUE key, the original

letters will return.

DELETE Press to delete letters

filled in on the selected letter,

word, or all letters filled in on the

entire puzzle.

PUZZLE Press key to solve the

entire puzzle.

WORD Press WORD to solve the

selected word.

LETTER Press this key to solve the

selected letter.

A-Z: Use these keys (which are

arranged into standard “QWER-

TY” keyboard, just like your

computer keyboard) to enter your

answers.

Layout of Onscreen Keyboard

“QWERTY” Keyboard Hint Key

Clue Key

Delete Key

Solve Letter Key

Solve Word Key

On/Off Key

New Game Key

Solve Puzzle Key

Sound On/Off

Key

Your unit uses a touch-screen “QWERTY” keyboard. A“QWERTY” keyboard arranges

the letter-keys just like your home, school, or work computer keyboard does.

Your stylus is the key to com-

municating with your New York

Times Touch-Screen Crossword.

On the back of your unit, between

battery compartment and the

reset button, you’ll find a

recessed cradle running diagonal-

ly across the unit. Inside is the

stylus. Carefully remove the sty-

lus by pressing gently on the tab

near its top and pushing it up

until you can hold the stylus eas-

ily and pull it out completely.

Note: Remove the stylus by

pulling away from its cradle until

its tip clears the brace at the top

of the indentation.

When you want to store your

stylus again, just slide it back into

its cradle, pointed-end first.

Locating & Using Your Stylus

Using Your New York Times Crossword

Getting started

Gently touch the pointed end

of the stylus to the ON/OFF icon at

the bottom left of the keyboard.

The first time you do this after

installing batteries or pushing the

RESET button, your screen will

display: New York Times

Crossword

Puzzle

Choosing the level

Next, use your stylus to press

the NEW GAME button. Your dis-

play will show the screen at right.

Use your stylus to touch the

box corresponding to the level of

challenge you want. (Selecting

“MIXED” will give you a variety

of puzzles, from easy to hard. We

suggest, unless you are a very

experienced crossword player,

that you choose the “EASY” level

to get started.)

Choosing the puzzle

When you select a level, the

numbers of the puzzles corre-

sponding to your selected level

will appear on the screen. Your

display will look like this:

Touch any of the numbers to

display a puzzle.

This feature allows you to

select favorites, or avoid selecting

puzzles you’ve already worked. It

also allows you to compete with

others, by seeing who can work

the same puzzle the fastest.

(Note: there are more than 1,000

puzzles in your New York Times

Touch-Screen Crossword, so it

requires more than one screen

“page” to list the puzzles. Touch

“NEXT PAGE” to move through

the screens. The screen will dis-

play “LAST PAGE” when the

final page of choices has been

displayed.

Working a puzzle

As soon as you touch a num-

ber with the stylus, your display

will fill with the chosen cross-

word puzzle. Naturally, all

“boxes” (each indicating a single

letter) are blank. Blanks between

words are indicated by a solid

black “box,” just as in the puzzles

printed in The NewYork Times.

You’ll see the cursor flashing

in the first blank “box” at the top

left of the puzzle. You can move

the cursor to any open square you

want simply by touching that

square.You can’t move the cursor

to a blocked-out (black) square.

Viewing hints

Naturally, you’ll want to see

the hint so that you can try to

solve the word. Simply touch the

HINT key with your stylus. A new

screen will be displayed. At the

top, you will be shown the

“ACROSS” hint. At the bottom,

you will be shown the “DOWN”

hint.Your display will look some-

thing like this:

Your puzzle will not look

exactly the same as our example,

but you can see that the hint at the

top gives you the number of let-

ters in the “ACROSS” word, rep-

resented by the five dashes. Then,

it gives you a hint.

The hint at the bottom of the

screen indicates that in this exam-

ple, the “DOWN” word is a

seven-letter word meaning

“CERAMIC ARTISANS.”

Let’s use this example to

explain how your unit works.

Filling in letters

With your stylus, you’d touch

HINT again to leave the hint screen

and return to the puzzle screen.

Suppose you wanted to try to

solve the “ACROSS” with the

word “POLES.” With your stylus,

you’d touch the “P” on your

onscreen keyboard, and the letter

would appear in the first box.

(This would make the letter “P”

appear as the first letter of both

words.) At the same time, you

would see two arrows on the

screen, indicating that you should

select the across or down arrow

by touching either with your sty-

lus. You’d touch the arrow point-

ing to the right. Then, the cursor

would automatically move to the

next square, allowing you to fill

in the rest of the word “POLES.”

Solving letters, words & puzzle

Suppose, in our example, you

were stumped about the

“DOWN” word. You could ask

for a specific letter, word—or

even the whole puzzle—to be

solved. With your stylus, you’d

press LETTER,WORD OR PUZZLE.

Suppose you touched WORD.Your

screen would look like this:

SOLVE WORD?

Y/N

By asking you this question,

your unit is safeguarding against

giving you a clue you do not

want. If we confirm that we want

the clue by tapping “Y” with our

stylus, the following screen

would be displayed:

Because we want the

“DOWN” word solved, we could

touch the box to the left of

“DOWN,” but we could also

select “BOTH” to confirm our

choice of “POLES.” In a

moment, you’d be returned to the

puzzle screen, and both words

would be filled in. (You’d see that

you were right about “POLES,”

and that the “DOWN” answer

was “POTTERS.”)

By progressing in this way,

with or without getting help from

the solve functions, you

can work

through the entire puzzle.

Deleting or erasing

This function is just like eras-

ing an answer you’ve made in a

paper-and-pencil crossword. Place

the cursor on the letter you want

to delete, and touch the DELETE

key with the stylus. Three options

will appear on screen: “DELETE

LETTER,” “DELETE WORD,”

and “DELETE PUZZLE.”

When you choose to delete a

word, your unit will display

ACROSS or DOWN, giving you

a chance to select which you want

to erase.

Using the spell function

You can touch and hold the

CLUE key to check the spelling of

all words in the puzzle. All of the

incorrect letters will be replaced

by a spell-check icon, alerting

you that you’ve made a mistake,

without giving you the answer.

When you release the CLUE

key, the spell-check icons will

disappear and the original letters

will be displayed.

Completing the puzzle

A puzzle is completed when

all of the squares have been filled

with the correct letters. Whether

you complete the puzzle by using

the SOLVE keys or by working

each word out, when you’re fin-

ished, the screen will display:

PUZZLE

COMPLETED

TIME 045M025S

The third line tells you how long

it took to solve the puzzle, in total

minutes and seconds.

Starting a new puzzle

You can begin a new puzzle

any time by touching the NEW

GAME key. Your display will ask

you to confirm your choice—so

that you don’t lose your current

game by accident. Then the dis-

play will give you the choice of

levels.

ON/OFF button

Touch the ON/OFF key at any

time during game play to turn the

game off.Touch the ON/OFF key

again to turn the game on, and

you will continue playing the cur-

rent game.

Auto power-off

To save batteries, your unit

will automatically turn off after

three minutes of inactivity. If this

happens while you are still play-

ing, touch the ON/OFF key to wake

up the game. You will continue

playing the current game.

Competing against friends

You can see that by remem-

bering the level and number of

the puzzle you select, you can

compete against others. The one

who solves the puzzle in the least

time wins!

You can allow a specific

number of letter and word clues

per player—the more experi-

enced the players, the fewer the

clues. Or you can make a rule that

each use of the letter clue adds,

for example, 10 seconds to your

time and each use of the word

clue adds a minute. You’ll still

want to establish a maximum

number of uses of each, however.

You can even compete against

players that are much more or

less experienced than you by

selecting puzzles at different lev-

els. As the more experienced

player, you may have to solve a

puzzle in the “MEDIUM” cate-

gory, while your less expert

opponent gets to choose from the

“EASY” level.

• Avoid rough handling such as bumping or dropping.

• Avoid moisture and extreme temperatures. For best results, use

between the temperatures of 39ºF and 100ºF (4º C and 38º C).

•Clean using only a slightly damp cloth. Do not use cleaners

with chemical agents.

Special Care & Handling

• Your New York Times Touch-Screen Crossword uses 2 AAA

batteries, not included.

•Do not mix alkaline, standard (carbon-zinc) or rechargeable

(nickel-cadmium) batteries.

•Do not mix old and new batteries.

• Do not use rechargeable batteries.

• Remove exhausted batteries from the unit.

•Do not short circuit battery terminals.

• Remove batteries and store them in a cool, dry place when not

in use.

• To avoid explosion or leakage, do not dispose of batteries in a

fire or attempt to recharge alkaline or other non-rechargeable

batteries.

Battery Information

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