Sunny 1,000 Collection/SUNNY1000.iso/Files/Dos/Boardak/CRSDWN25.ZIP/XDOWN25.DOC

Text File | 1992-01-10 | 39KB | 835 lines

*****************************************************************
*                           CROSSDOWN                           *
*                              the                              *
*                     crossword puzzle program                  *
*                        copyright (c) 1991                     *
*                               by                              *
*                         Sam Bellotto Jr.                      *
*****************************************************************
*  VERSION 2.5                               NOVEMBER 21, 1991  *
*****************************************************************

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 2.11 or greater, an EGA or VGA
monitor, a mouse and 512K of RAM.


INSTALLATION ***************************************************

You can run crossdown from a hard disk, a floppy disk or even
from a RAM disk. Because the program accesses the disk only when
it loads a puzzle file or saves the "working" puzzle file, any
speed improvements gained from keeping it on a hard disk are
really minimal.

Before you continue, make a copy of your CROSSDOWN master disk
right now. Store the master disk in a safe location and work with
the copy.

The following files are all that are necessary to run CROSSDOWN:

   XDOWN.EXE .............................. the program
   *.XWD ............................. the puzzle files

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

"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.

As of the present revision of CROSSDOWN, up to 18 puzzle files
can be displayed in the puzzle selection window at one time. If
you have more than 18 puzzles residing in the same
drive/subdirectory as CROSSDOWN only 18 of them will be
immediately available for selection, which should be plenty for
anybody.

You can copy up to 18 crossword puzzles to the CROSSDOWN
drive/subdirectory for solving, storing the remainder somewhere
else for later use. Alternatively, you can keep more than 18
puzzles on the CROSSDOWN drive/subdirectory. Everytime you
successfully solve a puzzle its extension is changed to XW!, it
no longer appears in the puzzle selection window, and a new
puzzle (as long as you have more than 18 unsolved puzzles present)
takes its place in the 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 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 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 left 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.)

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 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 left 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 adapted by the New
York Times. CROSSDOWN fully supports New York Times 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. Some publications
allow 13 x 13, or smaller, but these aren't serious puzzles. 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 QUIT. 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.

In CONSTRUCT mode, a maximum of 17 existing puzzle files can
be displayed in the puzzle selection window at one time. (This
is because [CREATE], always listed first, is treated as the
18th filename.) If you have more than 17 puzzles residing in
the same drive/subdirectory as CROSSDOWN, only 17 of them will be
immediately available for selection.

You can still create as many new puzzles as you like. However,
they may not subsequently always appear in the puzzle selection
window. If you are going to be creating puzzles, it is best to
leave enough room in the selection window for the new puzzles.
Keep no more than 8 or 9 puzzles in the same drive/directory as
CROSSDOWN, storing the rest elsewhere.

"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 QUIT. 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 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 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.

Keep in mind that every time you start up Autoclue, it begins
with the first puzzle word. However, all you have to do is press
ENTER to accept an existing clue. By holding down the ENTER key,
you can cycle through clues so fast that, even with a 23 x 23
puzzle, it takes only seconds to find your place.

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 QUIT 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 QUIT 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,
QUIT 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.


****************************************************************
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!

"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.

"Can I print out puzzles constructed with WRITECROSS?" Yes.
WRITECROSS is primarily intended to help produce puzzles for use
in CROSSDOWN. But you can output them to an Epson-compatible 9-
pin dot matrix printer with the XWD2EP9.EXE utility included
on your master disk. This utility prints the blank grid, the
solution grid, and the definition pages in standard crossword
puzzle manuscript format with the proper numbering and listing of
Across and Down clues done for you!

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 on the master disk for example. 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.

Simply type XWD2EP9 at the DOS prompt followed by a space and the
path and/or filename of the puzzle you want to output (the XWD
extension is unnecessary) followed by another space and any or
all of three parameters: /c, to print out the clue pages; /n, to
print out a numbered blank grid; /s, to print out the solution.
There must be a single space between each parameter. Hit ENTER to
begin. Type XWD2EP9 at the DOS prompt all by itself, then hit
ENTER to obtain an on-screen usage guide.

Right now you can only print CROSSDOWN puzzles with the XWD2EP9
printer utility. It was originally written to drive Epson-
compatible 9-pin dot matrix printers, but has been tested and
works just fine on the newer Epson-compatible 24-pin printers.
The resulting grids are somewhat longer (down) than they are wide
(across), but nonetheless are perfectly acceptable for most
requirements.

Printer drivers are time consuming to write (there are so many
different printers, too.) However, drivers are being developed
for 24-pin, Okidata, IBM and PostScript printers. And it is
anticipated that new drivers will output in "presentation" as
well as "manuscript" mode.


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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).


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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.


****************************************************************
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 $25.00 plus $ 0.75 shipping for a total of $25.75 in
US funds to:

     Sam Bellotto Jr.
     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 also order the registered version of
CROSSDOWN directly from Software Excitement! on CompuServe.
Use GO SE to access the Electronic Mall. Or contact Software
Excitement!, 6475 Crater Lake Highway, Central Point, OR 97502,
telephone [phone].

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 [phone] 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
GEnie is S.BELLOTTOJ. My E-mail address on CompuServe is
70724,2075. Registered users, in case of a dire 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 ignored.


****************************************************************
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) 1991 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.

November 20, 1991
Sam Bellotto Jr.
133 Akron Street
Rochester, NY 14609-7618
[phone]

****************************************************************
****************************************************************