GRID MAINTENANCE

The Grid Maintenance screen provides a set of functions which allow you to create new puzzle Grids (and Templates) and to edit existing ones. Grids of course are the familiar patterns of black and white square cells on which standard crossword puzzles are built. Templates are similar, but do not contain any pattern cells, and are usually constructed in some shape other than rectangular. They are used in conjunction with Freeform puzzles and Wordsearch puzzles as well as several others.

Menu Functions
  • File Menu
    • Select a Grid
      If your intention is to make some changes to one of your existing grids, then you will need to use this option to select the grid in question. The grids which are available for selection are listed in a File Chooser dialog. A single mouse click on any grid in the list will result in that grid being displayed in the Preview panel. Confirm your selection by clicking the Select Grid button.

    • Select a Template
      This option behaves in the same way as the Select a Grid option, but allows you to select a Template instead.

    • Save
      When you have completed all of the changes you wish to make to your new (or modified) Grid (or Template), you will use this option to save your work. It will be saved as a Grid if it contains one or more pattern cells. If it contains only active cells and null cells, it will instead be saved as a Template. If you forget to save your work, you will receive a reminder message when you attempt to exit from the Grid Maintenance function.

    • SaveAs
      Use this option when you have made changes to an existing Grid or Template and want to keep both the new and the old versions. It provides a small dialog in which you can enter a name for the new version. In all other respects, this function is identical to the Save Grid function.

    • Quit Grid Maintenance
      Use this option to return to the Magnum Opus opening screen.

  • Tasks Menu
    • Create a new Grid
      This option presents you with a dialog in which you can specify the name, size and symmetry of your new grid. As always, the dialog contains a  Help button  which will provide you with all necessary information.

    • Import a Grid
      This option is for the benefit of people who previously used Crossword Express, and spent some time building a library of Grids for that program. You are presented with a File Chooser dialog which you can use to select the grids you want to import. These files will have an extension of .lat and will be located in the LATTICES sub-folder of your main Crossword Express folder. The Chooser dialog supports multiple choice so you can select and import anywhere from one to all of the Crossword Express grids in a single operation.

    • Delete this Grid
      Use this option to remove Grids or Templates which you no longer require. Naturally you will receive a warning message before the grid is actually deleted.

    • Reflections and Rotations
      Having designed a grid which you particularly like, you can create variations of it by the processes of Reflection and Rotation. The following five options are available, and are considered to be self explanatory.
      • Left to Right
      • Top to Bottom
      • Top-left to Bottom-right
      • Bottom-left to Top-right
      • Rotate 90 degrees
      If you make use of these functions, it is your responsibility to save the modified grid. If you overlook doing this you will receive a reminder before you attempt to use any other grid maintenance functions.

  • View Menu
    • Grid Statistics
      This leads you to an information only dialog describing the current state of your grid design. It contains word length totals and counts of the 15 possible cell types.

  • View Menu
    • Grid Maintenance Help
      This option leads you to the Help which you are currently reading.

 Follow this link  for detailed Help on how to perform the Grid editing process.