Crossword Compiler Prejudice?

[kellicos]

Hi everyone,
I'm new here! I love crosswords and thought I might like to try making my own. I must admit I'm not a champion-level solver. I can rarely finish the Friday and Saturday NYT, and sometimes have difficulty with Thursday and Sunday. I have fun, however, and have learned a lot through doing them.

I've only created one other crossword before (for a non-profit newsletter) and I just did it by hand on graph paper. I had so much fun making it I thought I'd try a few more!

So I've read a lot of what's on this site and it seems that Crossword Compiler is sort of the "standard" for computer-crossword making.  So I looked at their site, and it seems great, but seriously, what is up with their prejudice towards aviation! I read their "reasoning" which in my opinion is very weak "green" propaganda. As a professional pilot I really take offense at this, to the point of not wanting to buy their product. CrossDown looks good to me, but according to your publisher chart it doesn't seem to be as preferred. Am I getting ahead of myself here? I honestly don't know if I'll be good enough at this to send out puzzles for publication anyway. Should I stick to the graph paper???

Thanks,
Kelli

[geohutton]

Hi Kelli,
I use CC but only after I have finished my paper and pencil grid.  I prefer to work my puzzles out manually with plenty of sharp pencils and a good eraser!  Once I've completed my puzzles, I use CC to help me format for electronic transfer (.puz, .pdf, etc)

Geo

[fungi1995]

If you want to stick to pencil and paper, you can find neat grids made especially for different sized crosswords here:

http://puzzles.about.com/library/grids/blankind.htm

It's worth checking out!

[kellicos]

http://puzzles.about.com/library/grids/blankind.htm

It's worth checking out!

Now that's cool :-)  I think I'll just try that first.  Thank you!