Mecanim won't save instant transition

I have made a character with the Generic Animation Type. I'm using Unity 4.2.1f4

I want him to crouch immediately, transitioning from either idle or walk animation. Both the idle animation and walk animation have separate transitions directly to the crouch animation. In the inspector panel of the transition, I have tried to make the transition as immediate as possible by dragging the crouch animation bar to the start of the transition phase (in line with the idle/walk animation) and the blue zone to cover the crouch animation bar. It plays nicely in the preview window. I hit save scene and project. BUT when I click away and then reclick the transition, it has reverted back to the crouch animation occurring midway through the idle/walk animation. WHY? Why was I not allowed the transition at the start. I've even tried 12% into the idle anim with no luck?

Furthermore, if the character is transitioning from idle to walk, but the player presses the crouch button, I expect the system to interrupt that transition and go directly to a crouch transition. I don't have any of the transitions ticked as Atomic, so why aren't they being interrupted.

Thanks for any help