***************************************************************** * CROSSDOWN * * the * * crossword puzzle program * * copyright (c) 1993 * * by * * Sam Bellotto Jr. * ***************************************************************** * VERSION 2.8 JANUARY 20, 1994 * ***************************************************************** Presenting REAL crossword puzzles on your computer. CROSSDOWN brings all the challenge and enjoyment of solving crosswords exactly like the ones found in your daily or Sunday newspapers to a brand new PC software package. CROSSDOWN employs a sophisticated graphical interface which is fun and intuitive for anyone to use who has ever picked up pencil or pen and filled in the ten-letter solution for a "1931 Gershwin song." And now, fans who love to decipher clues like "Meat made in the age of dinosaurs (7)" will be happy to know that CROSSDOWN includes cryptic crosswords in its repertoire. CROSSDOWN works on any IBM-compatible computer. System requirements include MS-DOS 3.2 or greater, an EGA or VGA graphics monitor, a mouse and 640K of RAM. A hard disk is strongly recommended. RUNNING CROSSDOWN ********************************************** You can run CROSSDOWN from a hard disk, a floppy disk or even from a RAM disk. But it is advisable that you run CROSSDOWN from a hard disk. If you wish to run CROSSDOWN from a floppy disk, then copy the XDOWN.EXE file, several XWD puzzle files and the printer utility from the hard drive to a floppy. **Please refer to the PRINTING PUZZLES section before printing, as there may NOT be enough free space on a floppy drive to successfully print CROSSDOWN puzzles! Printing CROSSDOWN puzzles requires at least 500k of available disk space to successfully execute! The following files are all that are necessary to run CROSSDOWN: XDOWN.EXE .............................. the program *.XWD ............................. the puzzle files XWD2PRN.INF ..................... header information XWD2LPT1.EXE .................... the printer driver Copy these files to your hard drive, a floppy disk, or a RAM drive--wherever you decide to keep CROSSDOWN. These files must be together on the same drive\directory\subdirectory. **************************************************************** SOLVING PUZZLES Move to the drive\directory\subdirectory where the CROSSDOWN files are stored. Start up CROSSDOWN by typing XDOWN at the DOS prompt, followed by hitting the ENTER key. After a few seconds, the graphical user interface comes up on your screen (in color if you have a color monitor). This is the CROSSDOWN desktop. You navigate this desktop with the mouse. By positioning the mouse cursor on specific areas of the desktop and "clicking" the left mouse button, you access CROSSDOWN's many features. Directly above the CROSSDOWN logo/copyright panel is a "radio button" labeled CONSTRUCT. Clicking on this button places you into CROSSDOWN's puzzle construction mode. DO NOT click on this button now. The CONSTRUCT mode is discussed later. At the upper right quadrant of the desktop are four "radio buttons" labeled NEW, QUIT, ACR (Across) and DWN (Down). Position the mouse cursor on the NEW button and "click" the left mouse button. *************************************************************** THE PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW There is no longer any limit to the number of puzzles that can be displayed in the PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW. The PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW now features a quick, easy "paging" capability. Each page displays the names of 18 puzzles. To the left of the PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW are two additional "bars." You can page down by "clicking" anywhere on the bottom bar. Similarly, you can page up by "clicking" anywhere on the top bar. Obviously, the paging bars function only if there are more than 18 puzzles available. "Clicking" on the NEW radio button pops up a vertical window in the middle of the desktop containing the names of any available crossword puzzles. Select a puzzle by positioning the mouse cursor on its name. The puzzle name is highlighted against a blue bar. Everytime you successfully solve a puzzle its extension is changed to XW! and it no longer appears in the puzzle selection window. To load the highlighted puzzle, "click" the left mouse button. To close the puzzle selection window without opening a new puzzle, "click" the right mouse button. NOTE: Every time you want to load a crossword puzzle, you have to "click" on the NEW button, highlight the puzzle's name in the selection window by pointing to it and "click" the left mouse button. You can open another puzzle even if you are in the middle of solving one puzzle. Any entries made to a puzzle are automatically saved before opening another puzzle or quitting CROSSDOWN. After completing the load puzzle procedure by pointing to the puzzle's name and "clicking" the left mouse button, the puzzle grid comes up on the CROSSDOWN desktop. If this is the first time that particular puzzle has been opened, the grid is empty. Otherwise, any entries made during previous accesses to the puzzle also appear. This automatic save feature allows you to work on one or more crossword puzzles at your leisure. The name of the opened crossword puzzle now appears on the desktop just above the CROSSDOWN logo/copyright panel. CROSSDOWN puzzles are solved in virtually the same fashion as printed crosswords. Find the ACROSS or DOWN clue corresponding to one of the grid squares, read the clue, figure it out, and fill in the answer. Position the mouse cursor on the first square of any ACROSS or DOWN entry within the puzzle grid. "Click" the left mouse button. The selected square is highlighted yellow. If you erroneously select a square which is NOT the first square of any ACROSS or DOWN entry, or is a black square, you hear a warning buzz and nothing happens. After you have "clicked" on a legal clue square and it is highlighted yellow, you must request the clue. Do this by positioning the mouse cursor on the ACR (Across) or DWN (Down) radio button and "clicking" the left mouse button. "Click" on the ACR (Across) button to see the ACROSS clue. "Click" on the DWN (Down) button to see the DOWN clue. Because not every white square begins both an ACROSS and a DOWN clue, you must "click" on the correct radio button. For instance, "clicking" on the DOWN button for a yellow square that does not begin a DOWN clue produces only a warning buzz. If the clue selection procedure is correctly followed, two things happen: the clue appears in the white clue box below the four main radio buttons at the right side of the desktop; all of the squares that comprise the word entry within the puzzle grid are highlighted yellow. The mouse cursor disappears. Fill the squares by typing in your answer from the keyboard. Letters are automatically entered in upper case. It is unnecessary to use the shift key or the caps lock key. Furthermore, only the letters A through Z, the SPACEBAR, the BACKSPACE key, the ESCAPE key (or left mouse button), the PLUS (+) key and the ENTER key are allowed during grid input. As letters are entered, the grid squares turn back to white from yellow and are filled in. After all the word entry squares have been filled in, no additional keyboard input is accepted. The mouse cursor reappears. The clue is erased from the clue box. (Of course you can always go back and change any previous entries you made to the puzzle--a lot easier than you can with a printed puzzle!) CROSSDOWN fully supports backspacing during puzzle input. If you make a mistake, use the backspace key as you would with any word processor. Note, however, that CROSSDOWN employs a destructive backspace; backspacing erases previously entered letters from their respective squares and highlights the erased squares yellow. Version 2.3 of CROSSDOWN introduced a helpful "hint" key. If you absolutely require assistance trying to fill in a word, press the PLUS (+) key to reveal the next letter of that word. You can keep on hitting the PLUS key to reveal as many letters of a word as you like but, hopefully, you won't. You have the following options: Hitting any of the keyboard keys A through Z fills in blank squares and overwrites squares containing previously entered letters. (In case you made a mistake, guessed the wrong answer to a clue, spelled a word wrong, you can always go back and change it!) Hitting the SPACEBAR clears the current square. Hitting the BACKSPACE key erases the current entry from the puzzle grid, square by square, and highlights the erased squares in yellow. Hitting the ENTER key while filling in a word skips that square. If the square is unfilled, it remains unfilled, If the square contains a previously entered letter, that letter remains unchanged. Hitting the PLUS key while filling in a word reveals the next letter of the word. Hitting the ESCAPE key (or right mouse button) while filling in a word skips all the remaining squares and ends the input procedure for the current clue only. Any unfilled squares are unfilled. Any squares containing previously entered letters (not overwritten) stay the same. **************************************************************** CHEATING Okay. You've worked on a section of a puzzle for hours and, face it, you're stuck. You've simply got to find out the answer for that Across clue. You can judiciously use the PLUS key or, in case you want to cheat on a grand scale, CROSSDOWN offers a hidden "Cheat Mode." (Shame on you!) Position the mouse cursor on the puzzle name bar, just above the CROSSDOWN logo box. "Click" on the left mouse button. The puzzle grid now displays all the right answers. To get out of "Cheat Mode," simply "click" the LEFT mouse button once more. The puzzle goes back to normal and you can continue working the solution. **************************************************************** QUITTING You can quit CROSSDOWN at anytime. You can quit from one puzzle and open a new one. Every time you exit a puzzle, either to quit the program or open a new puzzle, entries made to the previous puzzle are saved. This allows you to work on one or more puzzles over a period of time. To specifically QUIT from the program, position the cursor on the QUIT radio button and "click" on the left mouse button. Before exiting, CROSSDOWN checks the status of the current puzzle. If it has been correctly completed, you are treated to a short surprise. If the puzzle is incomplete, or incorrectly completed, a popup dialog box gives you the option of quitting or returning to the puzzle. (You can always go back to an incorrectly solved or incomplete puzzle after you have quit, anyway, because CROSSDOWN automatically saves all work done on a puzzle before exiting the puzzle.) If you have completely solved a puzzle, but one or more letters are incorrect, CROSSDOWN highlights those incorrect letters by drawing a large red X through them. You can "click" on CANCEL from the popup dialog box to clear it and rework the incorrect letters. NOTE: In addition to informing you that you have correctly completed a puzzle, CROSSDOWN changes the extension of all correctly completed puzzles from "XWD" to "XW!" so they no longer appear in the puzzle selection panel. If, for any reason, you want to re-work a puzzle that was correctly solved, simply make a fresh copy from the master diskette. Solve CROSSDOWN crossword puzzles in this manner. 1. "Click" on the first square of any ACROSS or DOWN word. 2. It turns yellow. 3. "Click" on the appropriate ACR (Across) or DWN (Down) radio button. 4. All the squares of the entry word turn yellow. 5. The clue appears. 6. Fill in the squares from the keyboard using the A through Z keys to enter letters, the SPACEBAR to clear squares, the BACKSPACE key to correct input mistakes, the ENTER key to bypass single squares, the PLUS key to obtain a hint, or the ESCAPE key (or right mouse button) to bypass the entire word. **************************************************************** CONSTRUCTING YOUR OWN PUZZLES There are probably as many ways to construct a crossword puzzle as there are crossword constructors. Because this is my software, I will briefly explain how I do it. American crossword puzzles conform to a set of standards. The most popular of these standards are the ones originated by Eugene T. Maleska, former Crossword Puzzle Editor of the New York Times. CROSSDOWN fully supports these standards. To begin with, a puzzle should conform to one of five grid sizes: 15 x 15, 17 x 17, 19 x 19, 21 x 21 and 23 x 23. Many publications allow 13 x 13, or smaller, but 15 x 15 or larger sizes are generally accepted as standard, with 15 x 15 being the most common size. The diagram (placement of black squares within the grid) has to be diagonally symmetrical. If a black square appears in the upper left hand corner, there must be one in the bottom right hand corner, and so on throughout the diagram. No two letter words are allowed, and even three-letter words must be kept to an absolute minimum. Each letter square must be part of both an Across and a Down word; letters not interlocked in this way are forbidden. Themes are the newest "standards" applied to crossword puzzles. Although not required, themes are certainly becoming more and more preferred by publishers and solvers alike. In a really well- constructed crossword, the longest words are related by topic or reference. All CROSSDOWN puzzles have themes, identified by their titles. When I construct a puzzle, I first pick my grid size. This can be dictated by the theme (three or four 12-letter theme words are hardly enough for a 21 x 21 puzzle), or the market (the New York Times accepts only 15 x 15 puzzles for its daily editions). Next, I position my theme words on the grid, careful to avoid arrangements which necessitate two-letter words or other taboo elements. Additionally, I try to maintain a diagonal symmetry with the theme words themselves. Having done this, I put in only those black squares dictated by the theme words. Having satisfied myself that no awkward traps have been inadvertently set (such as words that end in 'Q', or 'KX' pairings), I then complete the diagram by arranging the rest of the black squares. Incidentally, most professional markets establish limits as to the number of black squares allowed in a puzzle. The New York Times permits no more than one-sixth of the total number of grid squares to be black. Now comes the hard part: filling in the rest of the squares with legitimate words, abbreviations or phrases. I figure that it takes me a good three or four hours to put together a 15 x 15 puzzle. During the construction, I always discover that my original grid design contains "problem" sections and has to be altered. This is perfectly normal, as long as the changes maintain symmetry. At this point, I am at last ready to think up the definitions, or clues. Writing the clues is the last step. Therefore, it may also seem like the easiest, but this is far from the case. Boring clues, too many obscure clues, over-used clues can all lead to a puzzle being unceremoniously rejected by a puzzle editor. "Girl's name" is a definite no-no. "Australian dog" elicits yawns. "Chelated hydrocarbon"--? You see the point. Anyway, this should give you a cursory explanation as to how I construct a puzzle. It is by no means a tutorial. If you are really interested in making professional quality puzzles, I refer you to two excellent books on the subject: "Across and Down," Simon & Schuster, 1984; "A Pleasure In Words," Simon & Schuster, 1981. Both books are by New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Eugene T. Maleska. **************************************************************** USING WRITECROSS Go to the drive\directory\subdirectory where the CROSSDOWN files are stored. Start up CROSSDOWN by typing XDOWN at the DOS prompt, followed by hitting the ENTER key. After a few seconds, you will see the CROSSDOWN desktop. Position the mouse cursor on the CONSTRUCT bar which is located just above the logo/copyright panel and "click" the left mouse. The screen now displays the WRITECROSS desktop and you are ready to construct your own puzzle. You navigate the WRITECROSS desktop with the mouse. By positioning the mouse cursor on specific areas of the desktop and "clicking" the left mouse button, you access WRITECROSS's many features. **************************************************************** CREATING PUZZLES At the upper right quadrant of the desktop are two "radio buttons" labeled OPEN and EXIT. Below these are a series of additional radio buttons. To begin constructing a puzzle, position the mouse cursor on the OPEN button and "click" the left mouse button. This pops up a puzzle selection window on the right side of the screen. At the top of this window is the label [CREATE] followed by the names of any existing crossword puzzles. To construct a NEW puzzle, position the mouse cursor on [CREATE] and "click" the left mouse button. Pointing to the label [CREATE] highlights it as white text against a blue bar. "Clicking" the left mouse button begins the puzzle construction process. To cancel puzzle construction, "click" the right mouse button. If you "clicked" on [CREATE], a dialog box pops onto the screen to verify that you wish to construct a new puzzle. "Click" on YES to continue or NO to return to the puzzle selection window. NOTE: Every time you want to create a new crossword puzzle, you have to "click" on the OPEN button, highlight [CREATE] from the selection window, "click" on the left mouse button, and "click" YES in response to the dialog box. Do this only the first time for each new puzzle you create. To re-open a puzzle, either to complete the construction or edit it, refer to the section "OPEN AN EXISTING PUZZLE." After you have done the above, the two GRID selection radio buttons change to yellow. You must now select a grid size for your new puzzle. Do this by "clicking" on the left GRID button. Every time you "click" on the left GRID button, the right GRID SIZE button changes. Available grid sizes are 11x, 13x, 15x, 17x, 19x, 21x and 23x. If the GRID SIZE button shows 23x and you "click" on the GRID button, the GRID SIZE button goes back to 11x. When you have cycled to the grid size that you want, "click" on the right GRID SIZE button to accept that size. The GRID buttons turn off and your selected grid size is "locked in." Now you must name your new puzzle. To guide you, the empty bar above the WRITECROSS logo/copyright panel turns yellow. From the keyboard, type in an eight-letter name for your new puzzle. As you type, the name appears inside the yellow panel. You can only enter up to eight letters. You can only enter valid MS-DOS filename characters. There is no need to use the shift key, as everything is automatically converted to upper case. If you make a mistake, you can use the backspace key to correct your input. When you are done, press the ENTER key to accept the name. NOTE: if another puzzle by the same name already exists, a dialog box asks you whether or not you want to overwrite it. Overwriting an existing CROSSDOWN puzzle wipes out any clue, letter or diagram data the puzzle may have originally contained! Only an empty grid remains! If you hit ENTER instead of typing in any title at all, CROSSDOWN opens a new puzzle and gives it the default name of UNTITLED. (You can do this intentionally if you want to go ahead and create a new puzzle, and name it later through DOS.) If you have followed the creation process successfully, a blank puzzle grid appears on the WRITECROSS desktop, ready for construction. **************************************************************** OPEN AN EXISTING PUZZLE To resume constructing, or to edit, a puzzle that has already been created, after loading CROSSDOWN and going to WRITECROSS mode, "click" on the OPEN button. From the puzzle selection window on the right side of the screen, point to the name of the existing crossword puzzle you want to re-open by positioning the mouse cursor on its name. Do not point to [CREATE]. The name becomes highlighted as white text against a blue bar. There is no longer any limit to the number of puzzles that can be displayed in the PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW. The PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW now features a quick, easy "paging" capability. Each page displays the names of 18 puzzles. The first page always begins with the [CREATE] option, followed by 17 puzzles. To the left of the PUZZLE SELECTION WINDOW are two additional "bars." You can page down by "clicking" anywhere on the bottom bar. Similarly, you can page up by "clicking" anywhere on the top bar. Obviously, the paging bars function only if there are more than 18 puzzles available. "Click" on the highlighted selection with the left mouse button. To close the puzzle selection window without making a selection, "click" on the right mouse button. NOTE: Every time you want to work on an existing crossword puzzle, you have to "click" on the OPEN button, highlight its name from the selection window by pointing to it, and "click" on the left mouse button. If you have followed these steps correctly, the selected puzzle's grid comes up on the WRITECROSS desktop, its name appears in the bar just above the WRITECROSS logo/copyright panel, and its grid size appears in the right GRID SIZE radio button. **************************************************************** MAKING PUZZLES After the puzzle has been opened and the grid is displayed, you use a variety of radio buttons accessible on the right side of the screen. You can only access buttons which are "turned on" (yellow). At the top right side are two buttons marked SAVE and EXIT. Below these are two TOOL buttons: the Box Tool shows an icon of an outline box next to a filled-in box; the Letters Tool shows an icon of letters running across and down. Below these are ACR (across) and DWN (down) buttons, now "turned off." Below this is a bar labeled AUTOCLUE. These are the only buttons used during puzzle construction. The Box Tool. To add, change, or remove black and white squares within the puzzle grid, first "click on the Box Tool. Position the mouse cursor on any of the grid squares and "click" the left mouse button to color that square black. Position the mouse cursor on any of the grid squares and "click" the right mouse button to color that square white. WRITECROSS ensures that the puzzle conforms to diagonal symmetry by automatically changing the "opposite" square along with the selected square. In other words, with the Box Tool active, every time you change a square, you actually change two squares. NOTE: "Clicking" on a square containing a letter automatically erases the letter, making puzzle editing much easier and faster. WRITECROSS keeps a running ratio of black squares to the ideal one-sixth allowance for every grid. Every time you "click" on the Box Tool, this ratio is upgraded and displayed in the upper right corner of the WRITECROSS logo box. For example, "13/48" means that 48 is one-sixth the total number of squares for the current grid and there are 13 black squares. This feature is very handy for constructing professional puzzles. The Letters Tool. To add or change the letters within the puzzle diagram, first "click" on the Letters Tool. The ACR and DWN radio buttons "turn on" whenever the Letters Tool is activated. Position the mouse cursor on any non-black puzzle square within the puzzle grid. "Click" the left mouse button. The selected square is highlighted yellow. (If you erroneously "click" on a black square, you hear a warning buzz and nothing happens.) Select the direction--down or across--in which you want to input letters by "clicking" on the ACR or DWN radio button. All the white squares in a line along the selected direction from the yellow square to the first encountered black square or the edge of the grid are highlighted yellow. Existing letters in any of the highlighted squares remain. The mouse cursor disappears. Fill in the squares by typing from the keyboard. Letters are automatically entered in upper case. It is unnecessary to use the shift key or the caps lock key. Furthermore, only the letters A through Z, the SPACEBAR, the BACKSPACE key, the ESCAPE key (or the left mouse button) and the ENTER key are allowed during grid input. As you type, the grid squares turn back to white from yellow and are "filled in." After all the highlighted squares have been "filled in," or you press the ESC key, input is ended. The mouse cursor reappears. You have the following options with the Letters Tool active: Hitting any of the keyboard keys A through Z not only fills in the blank squares with letters but overwrites any squares containing previously entered letters. Hitting the SPACEBAR clears the current square. Hitting the BACKSPACE key erases the current entry from the puzzle grid, square by square, and highlights the erased squares in yellow. Hitting the ENTER key while filling in a word skips that square. If the square is unfilled, it remains unfilled, If the square contains a previously entered letter, that letter remains unchanged. Hitting the ESCAPE key (or the left mouse button) while filling in a word skips all the remaining squares and ends the input procedure. Any unfilled squares are unfilled. Any squares containing previously entered letters which have not been overwritten stay the same. You can alternate between use of the Box Tool and the Letter Tool as much as you like. The Box Tool can be used on any square within the grid. The Letter Tool can only be used on non-black squares. If you decide to change the diagram and replace a pair of black squares with letter squares, first use the Box Tool to change the black squares (remember diagonal symmetry), then use the Letter Tool. NOTE: Because puzzle grids are odd-number sizes and diagonally symmetrical, the exact center square, and only the exact center square, does not have a counterpart. Although most professional puzzle markets do not accept crosswords with clues less than 3-letters long, CROSSDOWN permits you to make puzzles with 2-letter and 1-letter words. However, CROSSDOWN will not define or number (in printout) these "unkeyed" squares in order to conform to cryptic puzzle standards. Autoclue. After you have completed the diagram, filled in all the across and down words and are generally satisfied with the construction of your puzzle, it is time to write the definitions, or clues. WRITECROSS makes this task exceptionally easy by means of the Autoclue feature. You don't have to worry about which are Across words and which are Down words. Autoclue figures that out. You don't have to worry about overlooking a word. Autoclue sniffs them all out and presents them to you in a sequential fashion. To start, "click" on the Autoclue bar. If the puzzle is not fully completed, Autoclue informs you of this fact with a pop-up dialog box and returns you to the construction process! If the puzzle is properly finished, Autoclue displays a definition input window on screen. The mouse cursor disappears. Puzzle words are displayed, in turn, at the top left of the panel. The top right of the panel tells you whether each word runs Across or Down. Use the keyboard to type the clue for each word in the space provided. All alphanumeric letters, both upper case and lower case, punctuation marks and various symbols can be used. Backspace normally to correct any input errors. You have a maximum of 60 characters for each clue. (You should keep all of your clues short, however. Professional crossword markets frown on too many clues exceeding even 40 characters in length!) To accept your clue, press the ENTER key. Autoclue clears the definition panel and goes on to the next puzzle word. You can quit out of Autoclue at any time. To quit, press the ESC key. NOTE: If you input or edit a clue and then press the ESC key to quit, the new clue or current edits are not saved. To quit Autoclue following any new input or changes, press the ENTER key first to accept the data and then press the ESC key. You do not have to write all of the clues at one sitting. You can go back to your puzzle as often as you like and use Autoclue to enter additional clues or change existing ones. NOTE: If a clue was previously input, it is displayed in the definition panel. You can press ENTER to accept this clue and go on to the next one, or you can edit the existing clue. After selecting Autoclue, a dialog box pops up asking "Begin clue entry at last position?" "Click" on YES to jump to the first undefined Across or Down word. "Click" on NO to begin Autoclue with the very first puzzle word. If there are no existing definitions, the dialog box does not appear and Autoclue begins with the very first puzzle word. Selecting Autoclue is also a good way to scan your puzzle for any words you may have left undefined. "Click" on YES to jump to the first undefined Across or Down word. If all words have been defined, the message NO MORE CLUES appears and the clue definition window closes. Autoclue does not define 1-letter ("unkeyed") words. After entering the last clue of the puzzle, Autoclue exits automatically. **************************************************************** SAVING OR QUITTING You can exit from WRITECROSS at any time by "clicking" on either the SAVE or EXIT radio button. The SAVE button does what it says: it lets you SAVE your work without having to exit from the CROSSDOWN program. At any time during puzzle construction, position the cursor on the SAVE radio button and "click" the left mouse button. A dialog box pops up and asks you if you want to quit. "Click" on YES to go ahead and quit, if you like. Or "click" on NO and continue constructing your puzzle, secure in the knowledge that all your efforts up to this point have been saved to disk. The EXIT button exits from WRITECROSS, but does not save any work done during the current session. Before exiting, if any recent work has been done to the puzzle and it has not been saved, EXIT presents you with a dialog box to verify that you really want to exit without saving. "Click" on YES to discard your work and exit, NO to return to WRITECROSS. ******************************************************************** MULTIPLE CONSTRUCTING To quit from WRITECROSS mode, "click" on the EXIT button. This now returns you to the CROSSDOWN opening desktop. From here, you can return to WRITECROSS and work on another puzzle. But you can only switch to WRITECROSS as long as the CONSTRUCT selection bar is visible. **************************************************************** PRINTING PUZZLES You can now print directly from CROSSDOWN! First, make certain that you are in CROSSDOWN mode. If you are in WRITECROSS, save your work and "click" on the EXIT button. Load the puzzle that you want to print by "clicking" on the NEW button. Then select the puzzle from the Puzzle Selection Window. Directly below the PUZZLE NAME bar and above the copyright/logo panel is the PRINT bar. "Click" on the PRINT bar with the left mouse button. The PRINT OPTIONS window opens. You have four options: manuscript, numbered grid, solution grid, and puzzle page. These options are fully defined later in this section. The MANUSCRIPT option is an enhancement of the /c switch (print clue pages) option, and is primarily intended for constructors to output their puzzles in manuscript format. The clue pages are output double- spaced with clues listed on the left-hand side of the page and corresponding answers tabbed over to the right. A final page is output of the puzzle grid with numbers and the solution. "Click" on the box to the right of a print option to select that print option. The box is filled in. "Click" on a selected print option to de-select the option. The box is cleared. You can select any number of print options at any time. "Click" on PRINT to begin printing. If you change your mind and do not want to print, "click" on CANCEL. Note: if you "click" on PRINT, but haven't selected any print options, CROSSDOWN automatically cancels the print operation. During printing, the CROSSDOWN desktop clears and is replaced with a "Printing In Progress" message. After printing is completed, the CROSSDOWN desktop returns. STANDALONE. The CROSSDOWN printer utilities can also be used by themselves. Note that with Version 2.8 of CROSSDOWN, the default printer is now named XWD2LPT1.EXE. At the DOS prompt, type the filename of the driver, leaving off the EXE extension just the way you would run any other executable application file. Follow this with a space and the name of the puzzle file. (The XWD extension is unnecessary.) Follow this with a space and type in one or more of four possible command line switches, with a space separating each additional switch. Hit ENTER to begin. XWD2LPT1 puzzle[.XWD] /p [/p] [/p] [/p] You can also type the filename of the driver all by itself to obtain an on-screen usage guide. XWD2LPT1 The command line switches tell the program what types of output you want. Each switch is preceded with a slash. They are: /c ............. print puzzle manuscript /n ............. print a numbered grid /s ............. print the solution /1 ............. print a complete puzzle The /c switch. This option prints out the puzzle clues, double- spaced, with the corresponding answers down the right side of the page, followed by the puzzle solution. This is the standard manuscript format used to submit puzzles to editors. With the /c switch CROSSDOWN automatically prints your name, address, etc., on the first page of the clues. To do this, the XWD2PRN.INF file must be included in the same directory as the XWD2LPT1.EXE driver. XWD2PRN.INF is a straight ASCII text file which you can edit with any word processor. But it must be saved in ASCII format! The /n switch. This option prints out a numbered, blank crossword grid in maximum resolution. Each box in the grid is approximately 5/16-inches square. The /n switch is the best choice for producing a very high-quality, camera-ready puzzle grid for publication. It is also necessary to include one of these pages along with the clue pages when submitting puzzles to editors. The /s switch. This option prints out the crossword grid with all the answers filled in. The /1 switch. (A slash, followed by the number one.) This option prints out a blank, numbered crossword grid and the Across and Down clues on a single page, formatted the same way as daily newspaper puzzles, ready for solving. You can print out your puzzles this way to give to others. Because it outputs in maximum resolution, you can also use the /1 switch to produce a complete puzzle on a single page for inclusion in newsletters and the like. PLEASE NOTE: With larger puzzles (greater than 17x17), it isn't always possible to contain the grid and clues on a single page and still maintain legibility. In such cases, CROSSDOWN fits as many clues as it can on the first page and prints the rest, in columns, on a second page. Here's what a typical command line looks like: C:\>XWD2LPT1 PUZZLE5 /n /1 At the DOS prompt, the driver for an Epson 9-Pin impact printer is invoked to print PUZZLE5.XWD. The first command line parameter, /n, requests a blank, numbered grid. The second command line parameter requests a complete puzzle on one page. Output produced by CROSSDOWN is in rasterized, or bit mapped, form. Because of this, printing can take from a few minutes to nearly one-half hour, depending upon puzzle size and combination of options chosen. Impact printer users obtain best results by setting the zero mark on their printer platens about one-quarter inch to the right of the left side paper perforations. It is advisable to run CROSSDOWN printer utilities from a hard drive. The program saves temporary data to disk and makes frequent disk accesses. A hard drive speeds the process immeasurably. NOTE: these printer drivers store rasterization information in a temporary disk file, which can be quite large. THERE MUST BE AT LEAST 500K OF FREE DISK SPACE available on the drive/directory from which you are printing or unexpected results can occur! (Many thanks to Alan J. Cohen of Silver Spring, MD., for his efforts in helping to figure this one out.) CHANGING PRINTERS. It is expected that you will be using one kind of printer with CROSSDOWN. But if you need to install a different printer, simply re-install CROSSDOWN. IMPORTANT: Printer drivers for CROSSDOWN are continually being developed and improved. In order to reduce download time and costs, only the most common drivers have been included. If a driver for your printer is not currently available and you can supply the appropriate bit-mapping codes, I will be happy to develop a driver for a modest fee. Puzzle manuscripts customarily have the author's name and address on the first page of definitions. CROSSDOWN's printer utilities get this data from the XWD2PRN.INF file. It is a plain ASCII file, written with any word processor in ASCII mode. A sample XWD2PRN.INF file is included in this shareware package. Change the data to suit your needs, but DO NOT change the filename. If an XWD2PRN.INF file is present on the same directory as the printer driver, CROSSDOWN prints the text as a heading on the first page of definitions. If the XWD2PRN.INF file is not present, no special heading is printed. **************************************************************** ABOUT WRITECROSS "Why doesn't WRITECROSS construct crossword puzzles for me?" WRITECROSS is not a toy. It was developed to assist in the construction of professional quality puzzles. This process normally involves a lexicon of several hundred thousand words and phrases. Add diagraming, theme development to the task and you end up with infinite variables and permutations--no problem for an intuitive human brain. But software to do this would take years to code, cost hundreds of dollars, probably need to run on a mainframe, and would be eschewed by the majority of professional constructors, anyway! Making puzzles is fun. Why would you want a machine to do it for you? "What can I do with puzzles I make with WRITECROSS?" Puzzles constructed with WRITECROSS can, of course, be solved with CROSSDOWN. You can duplicate or distribute your own puzzles as far and wide as you please, either by themselves or with the RUN- TIME version of CROSSDOWN which is included on your master disk. And you can even submit your puzzles to CROSSDOWN c/o Sam Bellotto Jr. If accepted, your puzzle is included in an upcoming CROSSDOWN Puzzle Disk and you receive payment for it. **************************************************************** ERROR MESSAGES If something goes wrong, CROSSDOWN is usually the first to tell you about it. The on-screen error messages are really self- explanatory. **ERROR: No mouse currently installed! If CROSSDOWN fails to load and this message appears, it means that your mouse driver is missing from RAM. Check your system hardware or CONFIG.SYS file. You do have a mouse, don't you? **ERROR: This isn't an EGA or VGA monitor! CROSSDOWN only runs on computers with EGA or VGA monitors. Again, check your system hardware. If you are certain you have the right monitor, maybe something is wrong with your video or you may have a non-standard EGA or VGA card. **ERROR: Cannot find any crossword files! The crossword puzzle files have an XWD extension and they must reside on the same drive\directory\subdirectory as the main XDOWN.EXE program. You must be logged onto that drive\directory\subdirectory or it must be in your path statement. **ERROR: Not in XWD file format! The puzzle file you tried to load was probably corrupt. In which case, CROSSDOWN renames the damaged file with the extension of BAD. Get a new copy of the problem crossword file from the master disk and erase the old one (now with the extension BAD). **************************************************************** ABOUT THE AUTHOR CROSSDOWN's developer, Sam Bellotto Jr., has been constructing crossword puzzles professionally since 1979. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and his puzzles have also appeared in numerous Simon and Schuster crossword collections, the pages of Games magazine and other popular puzzle markets. Bellotto is a charter member of the American Crossword Puzzle Academy. By the way, the ten-letter solution for a "1931 Gershwin song" is DELISHIOUS. A "Meat made in the age of dinosaurs (7)" is SAUSAGE. **************************************************************** PLEASE REGISTER NOW! If, after a reasonable trial period, you find CROSSDOWN worthwhile, you are encouraged to become a registered user. Registration fees make possible further development of CROSSDOWN and additional sets of puzzles. All registered users of CROSSDOWN receive not only the latest version of the software available at the time of registration, but the next major upgrade after that absolutely FREE! In addition, registrants get regular mailings about the CROSSDOWN software, additional sets of puzzles and enhanced product support. But you can't get any of this if you don't register. So register NOW by sending your check or money order for the sum of $30.00 plus $ 0.75 shipping for a total of $30.75 in US or Canadian funds to: CROSSDOWN 133 Akron Street Rochester, NY 14609-7618 Please print the accompanying file, REGISTER.FRM, fill it out and send it in with your registration fee. Credit card customers can order the registered version of CROSSDOWN directly from the Software Registration Service on CompuServe. When on-line, GO SWREG and register product ID# 557. You can also order directly from Public (software) Library via most credit cards by calling 800-242-4PsL or by FAX to 713-524-6398 or by CompuServe at 71355,470. Orders are normally shipped within 24 hours of receipt of registration; checks are not deposited until AFTER the order is shipped. **************************************************************** UNLIMITED PRODUCT SUPPORT Both registered and unregistered users of CROSSDOWN are welcome to call me at (716) 482-8092 evenings, generally between the hours of 7 pm and 12 pm, and anytime on weekends. Letters are answered usually within a couple of days. My E-mail address on CompuServe is 70724,2075. Registered users, in case of emergency, can call me collect. Registered users are also invited to suggest features they would like to see incorporated into future releases of CROSSDOWN or ask for particular kinds of puzzles or puzzle themes. No request is too extreme. **************************************************************** ABOUT SHAREWARE The concept of shareware has proven to be a very successful way to market computer software. Shareware products are NOT public domain. You may freely duplicate and distribute the shareware version of CROSSDOWN, and any puzzles you construct yourself with WRITECROSS. However, CROSSDOWN, WRITECROSS and the XWD file format are all copyright (c) 1992 by Sam Bellotto Jr. The registered version of CROSSDOWN and all puzzles in the XWD file format offered for sale or distributed by Sam Bellotto Jr. are owned exclusively by Sam Bellotto Jr. and may not be reproduced, distributed, sold, altered or incorporated into any other software product, in whole or in part, without express written permission from the author. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- January 20, 1994 | ____|__ | Association of Sam Bellotto Jr. | | |_| Shareware 133 Akron Street |__| o | Professionals Rochester, NY 14609-7618 -----| | |--------------------- (716) 482-8092 |___|___| MEMBER **************************************************************** ****************************************************************