CWC Help – Formatting Guide

It would be great if word processors would preserve the formatting of the crosswords as you see them in the e-mails, so all you have to do is copy, paste into your word processor, and add the clues. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and usually the crossword and solution need to be reformatted.

We have created some document templates to assist you with formatting. The basic steps are:

1. Download the template which matches your word processor and version
2. Install the template (e.g. copy it to your template folder)
3. Use the template!

The specific instructions for installing templates depend on your operating system and installation details. Google is your friend here!

• Microsoft Word 2003 2007 and later
• LibreOffice Writer – functional templates are in development, see below for a workaround
• Corel WordPerfect – cutting and pasting removes important formatting, it is currently not possible to provide a template!

A template will provide two macros to format crosswords and solutions, as well as a CWC toolbar (or a CWC ribbon under Add-Ins) with buttons Fmt-Cwd and Fmt-Sln to access these macros.

Once the template is downloaded and installed, you can use it:

1. Open your word processor and create a new CWC document
2. Copy and paste your e-mail into the document
3. Select the crossword, and format it with Fmt-Cwd
4. Select the solution, and format it with Fmt-Sln
5. Provide the clues – use the hyperlinks if possible
6. Make any final edits and save the document

If you don’t see your template, or want its development made a priority, or have problems with an existing template, please contact cwc (at) russell-harper.com and we’ll be happy to help.

Instructions for LibreOffice Writer

We are currently evaluating recent versions of LibreOffice Writer to see if the macro language includes the required functionality. As a temporary workaround, any formatting can be done manually.

For the Crossword:

1. Select the entire table
2. From the menu, select Table | Table Properties then Table tab
3. Enter table width as number of columns × column width (0.34" or 0.85 cm)
4. From the menu, select Table | Autofit | Distribute Columns Evenly
5. From the menu, select Table | Autofit | Row Height
6. Turn off Fit to size, enter row height (0.34" or 0.85 cm)
7. From the menu, select Table | Table Properties then Text Flow tab
8. Set vertical alignment to Top

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