Menus

The main menus offer access to all the utilities and settings within Word Splash Pro. Many of these have duplicate access in the toolbar and other pop-up menus.

Power Pack and Sound Studio users will also have their set of extra menu items that will include features only available with those add-ons.

FILE MENU

The File menu is used to access features that allow loading, saving, exporting and printing.

The first section is dedicated to actions pertaining to the entire puzzle.

• New Puzzle 
  Prepare to create a new puzzle. If a puzzle already exists it can be saved if needed. If the New Puzzle Wizard and/or Styles are turned on in the General Options then they will be displayed to help you create your puzzle.
  
• Open Puzzle
  Open an existing puzzle using the Load Window.
  
• Save Puzzle
  Save the current puzzle. If the puzzle was opened off the hard drive then it will save it without displaying the Save Window. If you are saving a new puzzle then the Save Window will appear so you can enter a file name and description.
  
• Save Puzzle As
  Save the puzzle, but always display the Save Window so you may change the file name and description.
  
• Puzzle Info
  Displays a puzzle information report about the current puzzle.

The next set of File Menu items are used to load and save different aspects of your current puzzle. All of these aspects of the puzzle are saved with a puzzle when the entire puzzle is saved, but they can also be saved individually so that you can reuse these settings.

For each of these options a sub-menu similar to the following will display.

• Clear
  This is only available for a few importable items like the word list and mask which can be fully cleared.
  
• Import
  Displays the Import Window so you may open a saved file and import it into the current puzzle.
  
• Save
  Save the current settings for the aspect. If a previous setting file was loaded it will save over that file.
  
• Save As
  Will always display the Save Window before saving the file.

Available Puzzle Aspects:

• Word List
  Gives you access to features to import and save word lists.
  
• Style
  Gives you access to features to import and save the new puzzle Style Settings and automation.
  
• Grid Settings
  Gives you access to features to import and save the Puzzle Grid Settings used to generate your puzzle.
  
• Page Layout
  Gives you access to features to import and save the Page Layout Settings used to define the look of printed or exported puzzles.
  
• Text Paragraphs
  Gives you access to features to import and save Text Paragraphs to use with your puzzles.
  
• Mask
  Gives you access to features to clear, import and save the Masks which are used to give your puzzle grid shape and color.

• Randomizer Lists
  Allow you to process and save groups of files to be used with the Randomizer, a random word list creation utility.

The next section is used to export your puzzle.

• Clip
  Displays the Clip Window to allow you to send an entire puzzle to the Windows Clipboard so it can be Pasted into another software program.
  
• Export
  Displays the Export Window to allow exporting the entire puzzle into a format that can be used in other software programs.
  
• Publish HTML
  Displays the Publish HTML Window which can be used to generate web pages from your puzzle.

The next section is used to print your puzzle.

• Print
  Displays the Print Preview Window and allow sending the puzzle to the printer.
  
• Printer Setup
  Allows you to change the printer being used.

The final section allows closing the application.

• Exit
  Exits Word Splash Pro.

EDIT MENU

The Edit menu contains features that operate on your word list and other text entry areas.

Many of the features require "selecting" text first. You can select text by holding the left mouse button down while moving the mouse, or you can hold the SHIFT key down while using the arrow keys on the keyboard. You can find further information about text selecting in your Windows help.

• Cut
  Places the selected text into the Windows clipboard and then delete it.
  
• Copy
  Places the selected text into the Windows clipboard.
  
• Paste
  Extracts any text from the Windows clipboard and place it into the current text editing area.
  
• Delete
  Deletes the currently selected text.
  
• Thesaurus Replace
  Looks up the currently selected word and let you replace it with a word looked up in the thesaurus.
  
• Select All
  Selects all of the text in the current text editing area.
  
• Find
  Allows searching for specific text.

• Find Next
  Repeats the last Find looking for the next one in the text.
  
• Replace
  Similar to the Find feature, only it allows you to replace text with different text.

• Sort Word List
  Displays a sub-menu of word list sorting options.

• Sort List will sort the word list.
• Unsort List will place the words in the word list into random order.

• Set Line Type of Word List
  Works only on the word list. It allows changing word list lines to different line types. To use it you will first choose if you want to change All lines or only the Selected lines.

 The line style type conversion functions are as follows.

• Normal to Hidden will change all standard word list lines to hidden lines by placing a space in front of all standard word lines.
• Hidden to Normal will change all hidden word lines to standard word lines by removing the space from the front of the line.
• Sentences to Numbered will change all standard sentence lines to numbered sentence lines by changing the period (".") at the front of the line to a pound sign ("#").
• Numbered to Sentences will change numbered sentences to standard sentences by changing the pound sign ("#") at the beginning of the line to a period (".").

• Convert Case Of List
  Converts all the words in the word list. A sub-menu allows choosing the conversion method

• Lowercase will convert all the words to lower case.
• Uppercase will convert all the words to upper case.
• Initial Capitals will convert the first character of each word to upper case and all the other letters to lower case.

Utility Menu

The utility menu gives you access to some utility processes.

• Automated New Puzzles
  Generate or print multiple puzzles automatically.
  
• Word List Builder
  Displays the Word List Builder Window which can be used to create new word lists from saved word lists. It also gives you access to the random word list utility.
  
• Thesaurus Builder
  Displays the Thesaurus Window and allow you to add words by looking them up in the Thesaurus file.
  
• Trim Word List
  Displays the Word List Trimmer Window.
  
• Parsing Cleanup
  Displays the Parsing Cleanup Window.
  
• Key Typer
  Displays the Key Typer Window which allows you to enter any character in the chosen font.
  

Process Menu

The process menu gives you access to the special processing features of Word Splash Pro.

• Generate Puzzle
  Generates the puzzle grid from the current word list. If no word list exists you will be shown the Load Word List Window.

• Generate Noise
  Generates only the noise characters of the puzzle grid. Noise characters are the non-word characters.
  
• Duplicate Word Check
  Checks the word list for duplicate words. Words will be checked both forward and backwards.
  If any are found the Words In Other Words Window will be displayed so you may remove the duplicate words.
  
• Noise Check
  Checks the puzzle grid for duplicate words and adjust the noise characters if possible to remove the duplicates.
  
• Censor Check
  Checks the word list for words defined in the Censor Window.
  
• Spell Check Current Text
  Run the Spell Checker against the currently active text entry area.
  
• Spell Check All Text
  Run the Spell Checker against all text in the puzzle.
  
• Revert Puzzle
  Reload a previous generation of the current puzzle.

Settings Menu

The Settings menu gives you access to the puzzle properties windows. These windows let you define various aspects of your puzzle.

• Grid Settings
  Gives you access to the Grid Settings Window which defines how the puzzle grid will be generated.
  
• Fonts
  Gives you access to the Font Tap Page of the Page Layout Window which defines the fonts that will be used for the puzzle grid and word list.
  
• Text Paragraphs
  Gives you access to the Text Paragraph Window where you can type in text paragraphs that will be placed on your puzzle page.
  
• Page Layout
  Gives you access to the Page Layout Window which allows you to define how your puzzle will look when it is printed or exported.
  
• Noise Fill
  Gives you access to the Noise Fill Window which allows you to type in text that will be placed where the noise characters normally would be placed.

View Menu

The view menu allows you to change the view of your work space. The first set of options allow changing the puzzle grid mode being used. This can also be changed on the toolbar using quick select buttons.

See the section on Grid Modes for more detail about the various grid modes.

The SIZE sub-menu allows you to choose how large the puzzle grid will be displayed in the main interface.

Each of the options will give you different sized grid text.

Auto Size will cause Word Splash Pro to automatically display the largest grid it can for the size of the Word Splash Pro main interface window. All other options will give you a fixed grid size and will allow scrolling the grid if necessary to see the areas that are not visible.

Options Menu

The Options menu allows you to set properties of the Word Splash Pro puzzle making environment.

• General Options
  Displays the General Options Window. Here you can set many features of Word Splash Pro.
  
• Auto Generate Puzzles
  This item can be set and unset by clicking on it. When set, Word Splash Pro will automatically regenerate your puzzles for you if you make changes to your puzzle settings or load a new word list. If not set then you must always press the MAKE button to generate the grid.
  
• Auto Check For Duplicate Words
  When set this item will cause your word list to automatically be checked for duplicate words both forward and backward. If any duplicate words are found the Words In Other Words window will display. If not set then you would have to check for duplicate words manually using the Duplicate Word Check item under the Process menu.
  
• Auto Check Grid Noise
  When set this item will automatically check the puzzle grid for duplicate words that have been placed in the grid accidentally because of the word placement and noise characters. If not set you can run this check manually using the Noise Check item under the Process menu.
  
• Auto Sort
  When set the word list will be automatically sorted for you.
  
• Auto Capitalization
  When set the word capitalization method will be automatically applied for you. If not set you must set the capitalization method yourself under the EDIT menu. See the General Options window for the Capitalization method that will be used.
  
• Censor Words Configuration
  Displays the Censor Words Window so you can define a list of words that should be censored from your word list and puzzle grid.
  
• Add Censor Words
  Displays a small entry window so you may add a word to the censor list without actually opening the list itself.
  
• Spell Checker Configuration
  Allows configuring the spell checker using the Spell Checker Configuration Window.

Help Menu

The Help menu is used to access support features of Word Splash Pro.

• Contents
  Used to access the table of contents to the help document.
  
• Search for Help On
  Used to access the search feature of the help document.
  
• Daily Helpful Hints
  Displays the Daily Helpful Hints Window so you can review a set of tips on how to use Word Splash Pro. Normally this will display once each time you start Word Splash Pro. The automatic display of Daily Helpful Hints can be turned on and off using the General Options under the OPTIONS menu.
  
• Buy Now
  Only available when software is not registered. Will display the ordering page of the web site in a web browser.
  
• Check for Update
  Use the Internet Update Process to allow you to upgrade your software and load any new features, dictionaries, or extra files available.
  
• Web Site
  Access the main page of the official Word Splash Pro web site.
  
• About
  Displays the About box so you can see what version of Word Splash Pro you are currently using. Also used to enter registration data.