xword-dl 2021.6.24

a download tool for online crossword puzzles

xword-dl

xword-dl is a command-line tool to download .puz files for online crossword puzzles from supported outlets or arbitrary URLs. For a supported outlet, you can easily download the latest puzzle, or specify one from the archives.

Currently, xword-dl supports:

• Atlantic
• Daily Beast
• LA Times
• New Yorker
• Newsday
• USA Today
• Universal
• Wall Street Journal
• Washington Post
• Vox

To download a puzzle, install xword-dl and run it on the command line.

Installation

To install xword-dl, download or clone this repository from Github. From a terminal, simply running

python setup.py install --user

in the downloaded directory may be enough.

But you probably want to install xword-dl and its dependencies in a dedicated virtual environment. I use virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper personally, but that's a matter of preference. If you're already feeling overwhelmed by the thought of managing Python packages, know you're not alone. The official documentation is pretty good, but it's a hard problem, and it's not just you. If it's any consolation, learning how to use virtual environments today on something sort of frivolous like a crossword puzzle downloader will probably save you from serious headaches in the future when the stakes are higher.

If you are installing in a dedicated virtual environment, run the above command without the --user flag.

Usage

Once installed, you can invoke xword-dl, providing the short code of the site from which to download. If you run xword-dl without providing a site code, it will print some usage instructions and then exit.

For example, to download the latest New Yorker puzzle, you could run:

xword-dl tny --latest

or simply:

xword-dl tny

To download the Newsday Saturday Stumper and save it as stumper.puz, you could enter:

xword-dl nd --date saturday --output stumper

You can also download puzzles that are embedded in AmuseLabs solvers or on supported sites by providing a URL, such as:

xword-dl https://rosswordpuzzles.com/2021/01/03/cover-up/

The resulting .puz file can be opened with cursewords or any other puz file reader.