Zyzzyva Tutorial

Zyzzyva. Maybe this word is a little bit weird for common people's ears but not for Scrabble players'. It's actually a tropical weevil, a type of insect. In Scrabble, the name is taken as a word study app created by Michael W. Thelen. This app has been widely known and used by Scrabble players around the world. Zyzzyva helps Scrabble players to increase their word source and anagramming skill.
For you who haven't got Zyzzyva on your laptop, download it here http://zyzzyva.net/download.shtml
And here's a tutorial how to use it and how to maximize the features for your word study. First, after you've finished installing the app, build the lexicon database. Pick CSW12 as the default one, other lexicons are optional.

This is the Welcome page when you open the app :

You can check and edit your lexicons on Menu > Edit >Preferences > General

Click Edit... to edit your lexicon preferences.

As I've mentioned earlier, you are suggested to set your default lexicon to CSW12. You don't need to load all lexicon, just the ones you need. Then go to Menu > Edit > Preferences > Word Tables.

On Word Tables, you can edit how the words will be displayed on search tab. Also the lexicon symbols might help you to identify word availability in different lexicons.Once you've done with your preferences, you need to get familiar with Zyzzyva's features and menu.

Quiz - to test your word knowledge in form of quiz based on specifications.

Search - the most used feature in Zyzzyva. You can search words based on preferred criteria.

Cardbox - the scheduled mode of Quiz. It will help you to study and memorize more words with its intensity.

Definition - you can check the word availability and its definition.

Word Judge - this feature is used commonly in tournaments to check the availability of the challenged words. 

SEARCH

Legend of the column :

?                      : Acts as a blank. If you search with '?' or '.', ? column will show you the letters that can be added to make a word.

Prob-2            : Probability of the word. The calculation of how often you will get this word (this only applies to Scrabble game).

<                      : Front hook of a word

Word              : The list of the words

>                      : Back hook of a word

Definition       : The definition of a word

*for front hook and back hook column, if you see some letters there, for example the word EATINGS. On the front hook column appears “bh!s”, what does it mean? (ignore the non-alphabetic character, it has been explained on Preferences – Word Tables section).

“bhs” means the string of letters that can be added in front of EATINGS.

B -> BEATINGS

H -> HEATINGS

S -> SEATINGS

This also applies to the back hook.

WORD JUDGE

Click the Word Judge icon to start judging word(s). Firstly, you'll see a pop-up box to select the lexicon to be used for judging.

To continue, click OK and you'll enter the full screen Word Judge mode. It looks like this.

Type how many words would you challenge, then enter the words. Separate the words with SPACE or ENTER. Press TAB to see whether the play is acceptable or not. Even if only one word that's illegal, the play will still be unacceptable.

QUIZ & CARDBOX

You can train your word knowledge with these two features. To start the Quiz, click its icon then select your specifications so it can match your preferences. The quiz will come out one by one in jumbled letters. Find and type all the anagrams. You can find how many words you have answered correctly per total anagram per question at the bottom left corner. Click Analyze Quiz... to see how many words you've missed and answered incorrectly during the session.

Moving to Cardbox, it's actually the same with Quiz but added with scheduling. It's very helpful if you want to intensively study words everyday. When you able to answer one question correctly, that question will be moved to higher number of cardbox (you start from cardbox 0). The higher the number of cardbox is, the longer time period the question will appear.

To start using Cardbox, click Quiz icon then New Quiz window will appear. Change Quiz Method to Cardbox and you can select to Use only words matching search specification. Click OK when you're ready to start.

The Cardbox question's display is the same with the Quiz. Only with additional Cardbox placement and the next scheduled to appear in your question.

 Cardbox helps you to recall words you've studied before plus adding new ones.

Notes : Probability is the calculation of how likely a word (combination of letters) will you get in Scrabble games from 100 tiles. The greater number of tiles for a letter from 100 tiles will probably make the probability points of a word become lower.
Example : OTARINE -> O (8 tiles), T (6 tiles), A(9), R(6), I(9), N(6), E(12). These letters are the most common letters, thus when forming OTARINE, OTARINE has the lowest probability points.
The higher points of probability are, the less possibility you can get the word / letter combination.