The Stickler Weekly 74 Solution

I regularly get asked whether the crosswords I write are “computer-generated”. People seem to assume that techonology can replace all manual effort, even thinking. All types of published crosswords originate on a computer in some form, whether it be from grid design through to final copy or just the final copy itself. All publishers use software and so demand crosswords in formats that can be easily incorporated into their publishing systems. These days all images I supply are as PDF pictures and clues are generally text to allow a publisher to apply their own in-house style. I’ve been sending image and text files via email since before I started the Stickler in 1998. Robust crossword compiling software has been around since the early 1990s and while some veteran setters in that era would prefer pencil and paper, I doubt any current professional setter would still set crosswords without using software.
So, how much of the professional crossword production process is computer and how much is setter? Let’s say, no matter what kind of crossword, a setter/puzzle company can choose to create the whole thing “automatically” or, at the other extreme, choose to do the whole thing by hand and just deliver the final copy in an acceptable digital format. In reality, a cryptic crossword setter falls somewhere in between and uses crossword software mainly to assist in grid-filling and to export the final product, online references and dictionary software to help with clueing and possibly a wordprocessor to manage wordlists.
A computer is an essential part of a setter’s work as it is with just about every modern job, but it’s just a tool.