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Q: This may be under your pay grade.  How do people handle the crossword puzzle on the e-paper?  When the puzzle is 2 columns it is ok to print as a ‘fit to page’, but when it is a bigger puzzle that makes it so small it cannot be read or write in the little squares. Since these appear to be PDF files they cannot be broken to smaller parts. It would be nice to print the puzzle on one page and the clues on another page.  Thanks for your help.

 – Eugene S.
Lubbock, Texas

A:  Greetings, Texas!  Also, Happy New Year!  Welcome to the first edition of It’s Geek To Me for 2025.  I’m glad to hear from you and know that the column is still in print over in the Lone Star State.

Beyond my cheesy greeting, Eugene, let me state categorically that there is no problem that I consider to be below my pay grade (and it’s not just because I don’t get paid to write the column!).  I write this column to help people, so whether it’s “I can’t get my computer to work,” or something as seemingly minor as “I can’t print my crossword puzzle,” if the problem is important to you, the reader, then it’s important to me.

It might interest you to know that I too am an aficionado of the crossword puzzles, which I enjoy doing on my lunch hour at my desk.  I have walked the same road as you, having gone from the printed newspaper to the e-Edition.  That, however, is where our similarities seem to end.  All the crossword puzzles I see in my local paper are half a page wide, and when printed, seem to fit quite nicely on a single sheet of paper, with squares large enough for the crosswordly task of writing letters in them, despite my aging eyes. 

You are correct in thinking that the paper is basically a .pdf version of exactly what goes to press.  The thing about .pdf files is that without the right software they can be quite difficult to edit in the way you described.  And that “right software” can be prohibitively expensive for the casual user who just wants to print off his daily crossword puzzle.

Fortunately, there are options and alternatives.  Now, I will tell you outright that these were tested on the website of my local paper here in the Florida Panhandle.  I’m assuming your hometown paper is also under the Gannett umbrella, and that it has similar structure and features as mine.

I was able to break a crossword puzzle from my local e-edition into pieces that could be handled separately, exactly as you described.  I went to the page containing the puzzle, and when I put my mouse cursor over it, the entire puzzle was highlighted yellow.  I clicked it, and the page zoomed to the point where not all of the crossword was even visible anymore.  On the right side of my window some round buttons appeared.  The top one looked like three dots connected by a couple of lines.  I clicked it and was taken to a “clipping” window that allowed me to select any area of the puzzle.  I did so, then clicked “Download / Print”.  You can probably take it from here, to either print just the selected piece, or download the selection as a stand-alone .pdf file.  Handling the puzzle in pieces this way should allow you to print it as large as you like, including spanning multiple pages if necessary.

These steps may be bit Rube Goldbergesque for something as simple as printing a puzzle.  To have to repeat them every day may be more than you’re willing to take.  If that’s the case, let me also tell you that USA Today (another Gannett-owned property) has a very feature-rich puzzle section that is 100% electronic – no printing needed.  It’s not the same puzzle that publishes in print, mind you, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  My local paper’s website has a link that says “Puzzles” in the header bar at the top of each page of the e-edition.  If yours doesn’t have such a link, you can visit TinyURL.com/IGTM-0911 and you will be redirected right to it.  Happy puzzling, Eugene!