Doing crosswords is an enjoyable and painless way of extending your vocabulary, and for those learning French, this program should supply a useful language opportunity. Full instructions are given in French on the screen and in English in the accompanying notes.

First you are given a choice of 15 crosswords, though these are not graded according to level of difficulty, and when the selection has been made, a grid appears on the screen surrounded by an alphanumeric border. You have to enter the co-ordinates of the first square of the word for which you want a clue, together with the letter H for 'horizontalement' (across) or V for 'verticalement' (down). You can then type in your answer which, if correct, will be displayed in its position on the grid. If wrong, you can keep trying, or ask for the clue for another word by pressing 0. You can also choose to see all the answers displayed on the grid by entering A, though you are advised to do this only after several genuine attempts to solve the crossword!

I thoroughly enjoyed this program and found that much of my long forgotten French was coming back to me.

COMMENTS
Control keys: letter keys used as normal, though there is no facility for typing in accents
Keyboard play: good
Graphics: limited to the grid
Use of colour: adequate