Select Grid Properties from the Grid menu to change various settings for how the grid is displayed and edited. You can also edit the grid properties when you are exporting by clicking on the Grid Properties button in the export window.
The dialog box has tabs at the top for changing standard and more advanced options. When you have changed some properties you can see the effect by clicking on the Apply button.
Change these settings to affect every square in the grid that has default color settings. Use the Square Properties dialog box to change the colors of individual squares. You can choose a custom color by selecting the Custom item, which will then show a window allowing you to choose any color in the spectrum. Note that custom colors may not show on screen exactly as they should if your screen setting is less than 16 million colors . The Line color is setting is used for the grid lines and bars. Check the Thick puzzle border box to make the outside border of the crossword thicker (the thickness of a bar).
Square Numbering
Change this setting for how all the squares in the grid are numbered. Normal is the standard clue numbering scheme. Sequentially numbers each square left to right then top to bottom. By Letter is useful for coded-crosswords where each square is given a number depending on the letter in the square. None leaves the square numberless.
If you select By Letter the program will automatically create a code at random. To force the program to create a new code select Generate new code from the Grid menu. You can also select the Use sequential code item on the Grid menu if you prefer the code to be generated based on the order of appearance of the letters in the grid.
You will generally wish to make this setting tally with a corresponding clue numbering scheme in the Clue Properties dialog box.
The puzzle and solution sizes are given in millimeters. The grid is displayed on screen at the puzzle size, modified by the Zoom setting. Due to the low resolution of computer screens small changes in sizes may not show up on screen, but they will when you print the grid.
Change these settings to modify the relative sizes of the lines, bars/border, numbers and letters in each square. The same setting is used for the thickness of bars and the puzzle border (if you select Thick puzzle border).
Select Italian block style to use blocks that do not entirely fill the square, as used in many Italian crosswords. Change the Margin % setting to change what width the non-filled margin is as a percentage of the square width.
This setting determines what happens when you double-click on a square or line in the grid. If Allow Bars is not selected bars will never be inserted, regardless of how close to a line you click. If Allow Blocks is not selected you can insert bars by clicking only very approximately on the grid line. This is useful if you find it difficult aiming for a narrow grid line when you want to insert a bar using the mouse.
This setting determines whether words are circled or marked by single lines. Note you can only use circles on Windows 2000 and higher.
Select this option to number the top and left sides of the grid, outside the grid.
This determines whether Roman numerals, letters, or numbers are used for the numbering. These settings are also used if you select clue numbering by position in the Clue Properties dialog box.
If this setting is selected, the puzzle copyright (set under File, Information) is shown directly underneath the grid, and is included with the grid when exporting a puzzle or printing. You can set the text size as a percentage of the grid cell size. By default, the copyright is only included underneath the puzzle, but you can also check the box to show in both puzzle and solution.
You can set the default number of lines for clues in clue squares, and also whether dividing lines should the full width of the clue square. By default, the vertical spacing of clues is optimized to allow enough space around character accents and descent, select Space vertically independent of content if you want the spacing to be based just on the number of lines not on the specific content on each line (which gives identical positioning of lines on squares with the same clue-line-divider distribution). By default, clue squares and arrows are not shown in the solution; to change this check the Show in solution box.
This determines whether a clue square or a normal block is inserted when you double-click or press Spacebar on a square.
On the Arrow style tab you can customize the shape, size and position of the arrows used for clues in squares puzzles and continued words. All dimensions are specified as a percentage of the square size. Check the Use for continued words box if you want to use the same arrow settings for continued words (otherwise they appear using large arced arrows).
Arrows are required by the program to link words to clues. However, if you don't want to actually show them in the published puzzle you can select the Don't show clue square arrows option.