Roll out the old, roll in the new

At this season of comfort and joy I should have liked to report that the switch to the new crossword site had gone smoothly. But that would be pushing things a bit. At least, however, it has been nothing like the last major shift of the crosswords to a new format in 2008. In those distant days you had to pay the princely sum of £24 a year for the pleasure of being able to get the crosswords online. The solverdom’s reaction then was quite negative over quite a long period, evoked by the treasured email that I still have before me: ‘How many times have you made pathetic excuses and tried to shuffle the blame onto someone else? You, sir, are unfit to run a whelk stall. Stand down, please, and let someone with more clout, more guts, more pride and more self-respect take over.’

Thankfully, this time it has been nothing like that. In fact, a few people have even written in to say that they like the new layout and its functionality, which is gratifying and, in my experience, unusual. But there has been a significant trickle of complaints and suggestions for further improvement. The two largest groups in this correspondence have been about: a) difficulties in printing puzzles on to one sheet of paper and in having grids and clues sufficiently large to be legible; and b) difficulties in connectiong properly to a particular puzzle. The development team has already responded to many of these complaints and suggestions and is looking at what more can realistically be done within the inevitable staffing and budget restraints.

The most intractable problems with the new site are those that stem from your use of one of the older browser programs. These are likely to be made worse, if you are combining use of an old browser with old computing equipment, such as older iOS systems, MacBooks, Android apps, or Blackberries. If you are using a dial-up connection for getting at the web (rather than broadband), that in itself should not cause problems, though it may well make things painfully slow for you. The development team has had success in getting older browsers to show you crossword grids properly, as opposed to just as black squares, but there is a limit as to what they can do with obsolescent software, especially when operated on older machines. So your first remedial action should be to try upgrading your browser to its latest version. Some systems, particularly Apple products, come with a built-in brower, such as Safari, that makes it impossible to upgrade to the latest version without updating the whole system, which is like taking the hammer to the nut. Some Android devices also come/came with an Internet Explorer browser as part of the original package, which also does not allow you to upgrade to the latest version.

In these cases your could profitably look at the independent website, What Browser. This provides links to the latest versions of six modern browsers (Chrome, Opera, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari). There are many others out there, each with different strengths and weaknesses when used with different systems, but latest versions of these six seem to work well with crosswords. They can all be downloaded and installed easily and for free to iPads, tablets and mobile phones, as well as to PCs and laptops.

But I fear that, even at this season of comfort and joy, I have no helpful suggestion to make (other than to find a new and more tolerant job) to those who tell me that they do the crosswords at work on an office computer network, where they cannot touch or alter the search engines already installed. Meanwhile, please keep sending me information about any continuing problems that you may be having, together with details of the computer system, operating program and browser that you are using. [NB Everyman, Speedy and Azed issues should go to crosswords.editor@observer.co.uk.]
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Note: The Christmas bumper prize puzzle set by Maskarade will be published on Saturday 19 December, with the entry deadline of New Year’s Eve and with the results announced on 4 January.
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The November Genius (No 149 by a new setter, Jack) produced 301 entries by the deadline (20 on the first day). PSC from Australia was first in at 02:51, followed by m1f at 03:43. There was then quite a gap to GM at 10:14. Congratulations to Emile Wolfe from Bristol, who is the winner of the November Genius competition.
If you have any technical problems with our crossword service, please email userhelp@theguardian.com. If you have any comments or queries about the crosswords, please email crossword.editor@theguardian.com. For Observer crosswords please crossword.editor@observer.co.uk.