How can I make a word search and or crossword puzzle formats? Thanks

Hi As'50,

Numbers is probably a more suitable platform for either of these than Pages, as it offers more flexibility in setting up a table to serve as the base for your puzzle.

Word find

For a word search, set up a table with as many columns and rows as you want in the puzzle grid.

Enter the letters of each word, one letter per cell, into the table.

When done, fill the empty cells with letters of your choice, taking care to NOT replace any of the 'answer' letters.

Make a second table, with enough cells to list all of the words in the puzzle. Place this table below the puzzle table. You may want to group the words by length, or arrange them alphabetically.

Word find puzzles have no empty cells. some have random letters in the cells not filled with a letter that is included in one or more of the puzzle words. n others, the unused cells contain letters that, when written down left to right and row by row (and hve spaces inserted in appropriate places, form a sentence, usually related to the theme of the set of letters used in forming the words in the puzzle.

Crossword

Crossword puzzles come in three basic formats:

US standard puzzles, for lack of a better term, use a 15 x 15, 19 x 19, or larger square grid, with several 'black' squares marking the ends of words in rows or columns. In standard grids, the positions of these black squares form a symmetrical pattern. The symmetry may be a left-right reflection, a top bottom reflection, both of the above, or a rotational symmetry where the pattern, rotated 90, 180, or 270 degrees remains the same. Although there are some exceptions, as a rule, every white cell in the puzzle is crossed—meaning the letter in that cell is part of an across answer AND a down answer.

Cryptic crosswords use a grid which has several blocks of black cells, and rows or column of white cells.Unlike the US style, not all cells are crossed, and can be seen in this example of a Cryptic table. Note tat the symmetric arrangement of the cells is maintained—in this case using rotational symmetry, with a 180° rotation around the 'black' cell in the centre.

Freeform crosswords

These informal crossword puzzles forgo the rules of symmetry to provide a puzzle involving a fixed set of words. They are often found in schools, where they are used to introduce or give practice to learning a vocabulary specific to the topic of study.

their construction generally starts with a set of words, then progresses to a 'tree' structure providing at least one 'cross' cell for every word in the list used for the puzzle.

For any of these crossword styles, I would suggest using two tables:

A Base table, containing as many rows and columns as needed to hold the intended puzzle. 'Black' squares on this table should be formatted with black Color Fill. 'White' cells may be left with no fill. Serial numbers, increasing to the right an in rows from top to bottom, are placed in every cell that i the first cell of an 'across' or 'down' answer. Align the numbers to to top and let of the cell, and make them somewhat smaller that the ones in the example, relative to the size of the cell..

When the base table is completed, move it to where you want it on the page, thenLock the table.

If you are printing the puzzle, tour table is now complete. Add the clues in a manually numbered list, Save the document, and it's ready to go.

(You may want to make a copy of the table, place it on a second Sheet, and fill it with the correct answers. Could prove useful if you re-use the puzzle a year from now. Might prove too tempting if the puzzle is to be solved in the document itself.)

If the intention is to have the user solve the puzzle in the application, rather than on a printed copy:

Create a new, empty table, the same size (in rows and columns0 as the first.

This table should have no fill in the cells, and either borders/grid lines the same weight as those on the now locked first table, or no borders at all.

Resize the new table to exactly match the size of the base table, and place it in front of the base table.

The document is now ready to be used as a sheet on which to solve the puzzle. Saved as a template, it can be used to open several copies of the puzzle, or can be copied to several machines to be opened directly on each.

For the informal version, you may not need any 'black' cells. Fill all the cells not used in the puzzle with White, and set the cell borders for those cells to White. Youmay need to then set all borders of the cells supplying squares to the puzzle to black.

Regards,

Barry