Why doesn’t my puzzle look like those in newspapers?

There are two reasons why puzzles you create with EclipseCrossword don’t look like crosswords you see in newspapers. The first is that, to save ink and make your puzzle look a little better, EclipseCrossword normally only prints an outline of the puzzle instead of filling in each unused square with black ink. If you don’t like that behavior, you can switch to the normal style of puzzles. Learn how to change the print style.

Switching the print style will change the way that your crossword prints to make it look more like you’re expecting. The second reason, though, is not merely an aesthetic one. EclipseCrossword simply isn’t designed to create newspaper-style crosswords where there are only a few filled-in squares, generally in a symmetric pattern, and all of the other squares contain letters. Why?

• Thinking up clues for all of those words, and finding the right words to use in the first place, is hard, not to mention very time-consuming. EclipseCrossword doesn’t have a word bank, so you’d need to come up with many more words and clues to create this type of puzzle.
• Arranging all of those words into a grid is no easy task either. Ever wondered why there are so many weird words that you’d never use in everyday speech in crosswords? They’re usually the only way to get everything to fit properly.
• These types of puzzles can be automatically generated to some extent by drawing from a large database of words and clues, but then you lose the personal touch that EclipseCrossword gives you.

EclipseCrossword is targeted toward casual “regular people” like you: teachers, parents, and small newsletter editors who want a crossword quickly with their own personalized words and clues, not clues from a generic database. It’s not the best tool available for producing professional crossword puzzles for use in large newspapers. If you have the time and energy to create these types of puzzles, you should consider professional crossword software.