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Thanks for the Azed info, app. It's a crossword I do only occasionally.

Balder, glad I could help.

The standard for enumeration in barred puzzles is that hyphens are ignored - MEAT-TEA thus being (7) - and multi-word solutions are enumerated as (total number of letters, number of component words), so BASS DRUM would be (8, two words). The treatment of apostrophes depends on the particular puzzle - Azed for instance would show CROW’S-NEST as (9, apostrophe) but other puzzles (eg Mephisto) would simply give it as (9).

In a blocked puzzle of course MEAT-TEA would be shown as (4-3) and BASS DRUM as (4,4).

Thanks for the clarifications jacknatter and app, I hadn't appreciated that the different configurations employed different rules (like RU vs RL... the)