Making an Online Crossword Puzzle

Finding a Website

Creating crossword puzzles online can be a fun activity for people of all ages. It can be a practical tool for a teacher looking to teach her students and have fun at the same time, or a nice way to share trivia and compete with friends and family.

The first step in making a crossword puzzle online is finding a website that creates crossword puzzles. You can do this by typing in one of many searches, such as "How to make a crossword puzzle" or "Make your own crossword puzzle." Often with searches like this on Google or Yahoo, many dozen links will come up. Many of these sites are puzzle makers that allow you to enter your own clues and answers, and the site will make the puzzle for you.

Creating the Puzzle Contents

For crossword puzzles of different sizes, you will need different numbers of clues and answers. Many crossword puzzle sites will force you to make an even number of clues, with the same number used for across clues and down clues. Choose a topic for your puzzle, whether it is for a history class, for baseball trivia, or just for general fun questions, and type out a list of answers and clues.

The clues are generally short statements, such as "The first battle of the Civil War," and are usually between three and eight words. The answers are usually short responses of no more than two or three related words. For example, the above answer would be "Bull Run." On the crossword puzzle the answer would be written as "BullRun." Come up with a variety of questions and answers, at least 16 sets in total.

Making Your Puzzle

Depending on the website that you found-there are dozens that you can use-you may be asked to enter the questions in one large set, line by line. For examples, enter the previous question as, "The first battle of the Civil War / BullRun." Hit enter and submit the next question in the same format, line by line until you run out of questions. In this format, the website will likely create a puzzle without your input. It will assign questions and answers to numbers down and across, and will provide you with a puzzle and a question key.

Other sites will give you the option of entering certain questions for certain numbers. You will have the option of making a question either down or across, and any of the numbers that you have to work with. After inputting your questions, click the "Submit" tab and the website will likely take at least 15 seconds to create your puzzle. Most of the puzzles come in easily printable formats, so you can print many copies and distribute them.