Your custom list was saved, the game runs fine — but the list is nowhere to be found, or the words arrive garbled. Word-list problems in Tux Typing have a short list of causes; this page walks them in the order they actually occur.
Cause 1: The List Was Never Selected
Creating a list does not activate it. When starting Fish Cascade or Comet Zap, choose your list in the game’s list picker before playing — the game otherwise uses the built-in list it launched with last time. This accounts for most “my list doesn’t show” reports.
Cause 2: Format Problems in an Imported TXT
- Encoding: re-save the file as plain UTF-8 text. Files saved by word processors (or as .docx renamed to .txt) will not parse.
- One word per line: comma-separated rows arrive as one giant “word”. Convert with find-and-replace (comma → line break).
- Smart characters: curly apostrophes and accented characters from rich-text editors can render as boxes; retype those entries in a plain editor if they garble.
- Empty lines and trailing spaces at the end of the file can create blank “words” — trim the file’s tail.
Cause 3: The File Is in the Wrong Place
If you added the TXT by dropping it into folders manually rather than through Options > Edit Word Lists, the game may never look there — data locations differ between the Windows installer, distro packages, and the Flatpak sandbox. The reliable fix is to import through the in-game editor, which files the list where your build expects it. The full method is in Add Custom Word Lists.
Cause 4: Permissions on Shared Machines
On school PCs, a standard user account may be unable to write to the game’s data area, so lists “save” for the teacher’s login only. Test by signing in with the same account the child uses; if the list is missing, have IT install per-user or grant write access — or use the Flatpak build on Linux, which keeps data in the user’s own sandbox.
Quick Diagnostic
- Create a tiny test list in the editor with three obvious words (cat, dog, sun).
- Select it and start Fish Cascade. If the test words appear, the game is fine — your imported file has a format issue (Cause 2).
- If even the test list is missing, it is selection or permissions (Causes 1 and 4).
Free ready-made packs that follow the format rules live on the word lists page — import one to sanity-check your setup end to end.