Design a Crossword Puzzle in Microsoft Excel

I found this excellent article on making crossword puzzles on the Microsoft Website. It gives good ideas on how to use Microsoft Excel to make your own crossword puzzle.

Design a Crossword Puzzle in Microsoft Excel

Enjoy and be creative.

Frans Van Wyk

Making Crossword Puzzles - Build Your Own

Continued: Making Crossword Puzzles....

Another thing to decide on, is which type of grid you’re going to use for your puzzle. According to Wikipedia there are mainly three kinds of grid. The American, English and Japanese grids. Here are examples of the three grids:

American










English












Japanese

As you see the main differences between the grids are that the English grid uses vertical and horizontal blanks, the Japanese grid uses only diagonal blanks while the American grid uses a combination of all three.

So as not to cramp your style for your first crossword I would suggest that you use the American grid. Have a look at different types of grids, however, and choose the one you’re most comfortable with. You can find it in the newspapers and magazines you have access to.

Drawing grids by hand is tedious and boring, and it will be changed repeatedly as you design your own crossword. Because of this it would save you lots of time and frustration if you create the crossword on a spreadsheet. If you don’t have one you can download it for free here.

Happy Crossword Building.

Frans

To be continued....

PS. If you're tugging at the bit look at this.

2008 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Finals Part 4 of 4

2008 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Finals Part 3 of 4

2008 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Finals Part 2 of 4

2008 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Finals Part 1 of 4