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Customization: Grid Decoration

Grid Decoration​

With grid decoration settings, you can customize your crossword's appearance to enhance visual appeal, integrate themes, and subtly hint at solutions.

In this article, we'll explore the Grid Decoration settings. These can be used to decorate the grid and improve its design. They are also useful for enhancing gameplay by providing hints and weaving together a theme for your game.

Crossword: grid editor

Pre-revealed Cells​

Pre-revealed cells are grid squares that display their letters at the start of the game. This can be useful while constructing themed puzzles. Check out this example in Spyscape.

To mark cells as pre-revealed:

  1. Click the Mark pre-revealed cells icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Click on any cell in the grid that already contains a letter to mark it as pre-revealed. A red marking appears in the bottom right corner of pre-revealed cells. To remove the marking, click the cell again.
  3. Click Save Puzzle in the navigation bar to save your changes.

Void Cells​

Void cells are black squares that are transparent, making the puzzle appear to have a non-linear shape.

You can choose to make only certain black squares void, or you can make all black squares void with one click.

By default, all black squares are black. Tweak void cells in your grid using the following steps:

To mark cells as void:

  1. Click the Grid Decoration icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Select Mark void cells from the Grid Decoration menu.
  3. Click on any black square in the grid to mark it as void (transparent). To revert a void cell back to a black square, click it again.
  4. Click Save Puzzle in the navigation bar to save your changes.

To mark all black cells as void:

  1. Click the Grid Decoration icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Select Mark all black cells void from the Grid Decoration menu.

To mark all void cells as black:

  1. Click the Grid Decoration icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Select Mark all void cells black from the Grid Decoration menu.

Circled Cells​

Circled cells highlight specific letter entries with a circle in the crossword grid. This can emphasize a theme or provide indirect clues. Circled cells are visible from the start of the game.

To mark cells as circled:

  1. Click the Mark circled cells icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Click on the cells in the grid you want to circle. A circular border will appear around the selected cells. To remove a circle, click the cell again.
  3. Click Save Puzzle in the navigation bar to save your changes.

Shaded Cells​

Shaded cells have a background color different from white. Use them to visually highlight a theme, wordplay, or simply for aesthetic purposes.

To mark cells as shaded:

  1. Click the Mark shaded cells icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. In the color picker that appears below the navigation bar, choose a color.
  3. Click on the cells in the grid to apply the selected background color. To remove shading, click the cell again after selecting white in the color picker.
  4. Click Save Puzzle in the navigation bar to save your changes.

Font Colors​

You can change the font color of letters in specific cells. This can emphasize theme or add visual interest. Font color is visible when players enter letters in these cells.

To change font color in cells:

  1. Click the Mark font color icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. In the color picker that appears below the navigation bar, choose a color for the font.
  3. Click on the cells in the grid where you want to change the font color. To revert font color to default, click the cell again after selecting the default color (usually black or a contrasting color).
  4. Click Save Puzzle in the navigation bar to save your changes.

Image in Grid​

You can insert images into the crossword grid, spanning across multiple cells if desired. This can visually represent the theme, provide subtle clues, or enhance visual appeal.

To insert an image in the grid:

  1. Click the Insert image in grid icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Click the top-left cell where you want the image to start.
  3. In the popup window, drag and drop your image file or click to upload it.
  4. Set the desired Width and Height in grid cells for the image. For a full background image, Start X and Start Y should be 1 and Width and Height should be the same as the grid size.
  5. Click the Insert button in the popup window. The image will appear in the grid.
  6. Click Save Puzzle in the navigation bar to save your changes.

To delete an image from the grid:

  1. Click the Insert image in grid icon in the toolbar on the left side of the grid editor.
  2. Click on the top-left cell of the image you want to delete.
  3. Click on the image itself in the grid. A confirmation dialog will appear.
  4. In the confirmation dialog, click Delete image.

If you need to adjust the image placement, delete the existing image and re-insert it with the desired settings.