This is the dialog you'll see the first time you launch Crosswords, and when you choose the Game info menuitem. Its parts are explained below.

Connect Total players R (PPC only) Preferences Name column Robot column Pwd column Dictionary

Connect (Palm and version 4.4 for WinMo)

Crosswords supports play between two devices using IR on Palm and over the internet on Windows Mobile devices. Choose Host or Guest here to activate that feature. If you choose Host, a "Remote" checkbox will appear next to each player's name so you can identify which are on the other device. If you choose Guest then you will be listing only players on your device, with the others added once the two devices connect.

Total players/Player count

Use the dropdown here to choose how many players will be in the game. The number of rows in the name and other columns will change to match this number.

R-for-Rearrange button (PPC only so far)

This button randomly reorders all players. Use it to change who goes first.

Preferences

This button launches the Preferences dialog. (It's scrolled out of view in the WinMo screenshot.)

Name column

Enter each player's name here.

Robot column

Check this box to make the corresponding player a robot -- meaning the robot engine will make its moves for it.

Pwd column

Enter a password here to keep other players from (even accidentally) looking at your tiles when you don't have the device. Use short passwords!

Dictionary

The button here displays the name of the dictionary that will be used with this game. Tap it to choose a different dictionary.

On PocketPC, beginning with version 4.1 beta 7, Crosswords will only look for dictionaries in a limited set of directories:

• \Program Files\Crosswords
• \SD Card\Crosswords

If you are installing dictionaries from .cab files, you don't need to worry about this. But if you are upgrading or installing manually please put them where Crosswords can find them.

Dictionary files hold both word lists and tile information (letters, counts and values), so it's by changing dictionaries that you change the language you're playing in, e.g. French instead of English. You can also choose a larger or smaller dictionary in the same language to make the robot a more or less capable opponent.

Read more about dictionaries here.