Cross+A

People tend to like practicing brainy activities like crosswords or word-based puzzles, and some even take it to a hobby or obsession level. To be obsessed with putting your mind and knowledge to work is not a bad thing, despite the negative connotation some might give it. However, nobody is born a master, and even solving puzzles might require a bit of help from time to time.

Cross+A represents a helping hand by offering an English dictionary paired with a search tool for figuring out the answers to your crosswords or puzzles. It comes with proverbs, idioms, synonyms, and antonyms, and on top of that, it allows for multiple search methods like letter search, anagram search, word-combination queries, and more.

Cross+A sports a straightforward, plain UI, the toolbar and ribbon being the stars of the show. Of course, the preview panel is important as well, considering your search results will be displayed there.

The dictionary is loaded by default, but you can import various databases if that is what you prefer. Use the search bar for a quick word search. The results start populating the list once a concrete word is taking shape.

Use the context menu to add new words, delete unwanted times, or change descriptions. In short, if you have the time and patience, you can build your own dictionary from the ground up.

As mentioned above, there are more search methods. The ribbon is where these functions reside. They have somewhat descriptive icons, but the labels do a better job of describing them, so just hover the cursor over them to see what's what. The search methods involve letters, anagrams, patterns, word-combination, syllables, coupling words, track words, algebra expressions, word chains, and even telephone numbers.

Each search mode has its own separate dashboard, and settings some of them up might seem like a tedious task, but there's nothing that cannot be solved with practice.

Cross+A is a neat program that lets you import or develop a database/dictionary to help you with your crosswords or puzzles. While it might feel like cheating, one must first have the information in order to memorize or use it, so it definitely is not.