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.
2
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)
3
QWERTY Keyboard
Crossword Puzzle

4
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
5
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
6

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
7

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
8

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
9

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.
10
• 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