Word list file format (.ewl)

As file formats go, the EclipseCrossword word list file format is simple. Word lists have the default extension of .ewl, though EclipseCrossword will show all .ewl, .txt, and .ecw files in the word list selection dialog, and will attempt to load a file of any extension. A word list is a plain text file that meets all of the following criteria:

• Each word and clue pair is on a separate line, separated by a colon.
• There can be any number of spaces and tabs at the beginning of the line, end of the line, and before and after the colon; EclipseCrossword will ignore them all.
• The word does not need to be in uppercase letters. EclipseCrossword will convert it when loading the word list.
• Blank lines, lines beginning with a semicolon, and lines that do not contain both a word and a clue are ignored.
• Word list files must use CRLF (Windows default) line endings, not LF (Mac and Linux default).
• Word list files are expected to be in the user’s local code page, unless they’ve changed their EclipseCrossword language settings.

Important: EclipseCrossword does not support UTF-8 or Unicode (UTF-16) encodings, which are the default in many modern text editors.

Here’s an example of an EclipseCrossword word list file:

; This is an EclipseCrossword word list.
; These lines are comments and are ignored.

CAT: feline
HAT: headgear