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Just been toying with the formatting for the next Joint Effort and it seems to be a lot easier for me to export the crossword and clues into Microsoft Publisher, it gives me more freedom to shift the clues and the grid about, and resize things to fit more snug. I have just had a go with one of my older crosswords to see how it turned out.
I've public linked it to my Dropbox so you can have a go at it if you want, but more importantly, is it coming out ok at your end? Because it looks fine on my 2010 version of Microsoft Office (I know we had probs last month with missing letters from different programs opening the file)
I've missed a space at 18 across and could be other minor typos, but let me know how the overall format looks if that's ok.

Cheers.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57742443/Practise%20format%20crossword.pub

i don't have microsoft publisher(or office) so i can't open'.pub' files, i would have to convert them to pdf format.

same here Les.

Cheers for that guys, if it looks like people might struggle with that mode, then I will think up another way.
I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to put up two links, one this way and one the old PDF way.
As you've seen before, the problem with the old way is, when I complete the grid and enter the clues into the pre-set program dialogue boxes, it automatically formats the PDF by itself. Maybe I can edit and format in Publisher and then convert it myself back to PDF before publishing.
I'm off to have a go at that now.

Right then, try this one chaps

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57742443/Practise%20format%20crossword%20convert%20to%20PDF.pdf

that works fine les.

i converted it using

http://www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf/

and put result here,

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18569289/lezers.pdf

but you were way ahead of me. Are you sure that Microsoft Publisher doesn't have an option > save as > pdf?

Yeh trevor, I was being a bit thick really.
I can do all the formatting in Publisher and then save it in any program format I wish.
I think the JE next week will look a lot better than usual.
When the crossword software does it itself, it tries to put everything in the right place but can end up with an odd sentence in the wrong place. but with Publisher, I can import onto the page from the other program and then stretch or shrink the grid and play about with the movement and positioning of the clue lists, which now we know we can then just save it back to a PDF before Dropbox public linking it for the forum. I'm happier with it now.
Cheers for the feedback.

btw,
A good alternative to 'Adobe Acrobat Reader' is Nitro Reader.
http://www.nitroreader.com/
both free versions are good but 'Nitro Reader'(free) has a lot of stuff that you have to pay for on 'Adobe Reader'.

Cheers trevor,
I've just downloaded it, it seems to have some helpful features, I will have a good read through them tomorrow.
I've just been messing about with an old Joint Effort crossword and feel I have got it now, I've got all the clues on one page in two lists on portrait format and at newspaper print size.

Are you getting involved this time? I will be starting to send words out soon for the May edition.

Puzzle looks fine as a PDF. Don't have Publisher.

Glad to see Trevor can do something more useful than challenge people to a handbag duel at dawn. (-;
Just kidding.

Thanks to you both for the links.

Looking forward to the next JE.

Will post a new Harper's shortly.