How to Create & Print a Crossword Puzzle

Make a crossword puzzle with your computer

Crossword enthusiasts may wish to create their own puzzles to their specific tastes. It is possible to do so with a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. You can make your puzzle as large or small as you wish.

Instructions

1. Determine how large you want the puzzle to be. For the purposes of this tutorial, the grid will be 5 by 5, but you can make your grid as large as you wish.

2. Open Microsoft Word. Click "Tables" on the navigational bar and select "Draw tables."

3. Click the table icon on the second row of the "Tables and Borders" dialog box and choose "Insert table."

4. Use the fields in the "Insert Table" dialog box to select the number of columns and rows. Choose "Autofit to contents." Click "OK."

5. Create a list of answers for the puzzle and create a clue for each answer. Type the clues underneath the grid.

6. Arrange the answers in the grid. Look for two answers that have a common letter and arrange them so that they share the letter in the grid. For instance, since pear and pull both start with the letter "P," place "Pear" in the first row and "Pull" in the first column so that they both share "P." Use this process to insert the remaining answers.

7. Black out the empty squares. Double-click an empty square then click "Table" on the navigational bar and select "Draw Table." Click the shading color button. This button has the image of a bucket on the surface. Click the down arrow on the right side of the button and select the black color. Click outside the grid to see the effect. Repeat this process for other blank squares in the grid.

8. Arrange the hints and number them in the order in which the answers appear in the grid. For instance, if "Pear" is the first word in a row and "Rabbit" is the third word in a column, then the hints could be arranged and numbered this way:

   Across

   1. Elongated fruit

   Down

   3. Bouncy animal

9. Click the "More Buttons" arrow on the right side of the toolbar and select the superscript button. This button has the image of an "X" with a "2" on the upper left side.

10. Type a number beside the first letter of each answer. For instance, type "1" on the left side of "P" for "Pear." Highlight the number and click on the superscript button. This reduces the size of the number and places it on the upper left side of the number.

11. Save your puzzle. To create a version of your puzzle for an enthusiast to play, remove the answers from the grid, but leave the numbers. Save this grid with a different name. Click the "Print" button to print the puzzle.

References

• Microsoft: Create a table

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish