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Making a word search for your kids on a rainy day, your students to help them learn vocabulary, or simply for a bored friend can be a fun activity. You can get as creative as you like—just follow these steps to learn how to create your own word search.
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Decide on the theme of your word search. Picking a theme for the words you want to put in your word search will make the word search seem more professional. If you are making this word search for a child, picking a theme will make the puzzle more understandable. Some example themes include: country names, animals, states, flowers, types of food, etc.
- If you do not want to a have a theme for your word search, you don’t have to. It is up to you what you decide to put into your word search.
- If you are making the word search as a gift, you could personalize the word search for the person you are making it for by using themes like, ‘names of relatives’ or ‘favorite things.’
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Select the words you want to use. If you decided to go with a theme, pick words that match that theme. The number of words you choose depends on the size of your grid. Using shorter words will allow you to include more words in your puzzle. Word searches generally have 10-20 words. If you are making a very large puzzle, you could have more than that.
- Examples of words for the theme ‘animals’: dog, cat, monkey, elephant, fox, sloth, horse, jellyfish, donkey, lion, tiger, bear (oh my!), giraffe, panda, cow, chinchilla, meerkat, dolphin, pig, coyote, etc.
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Look up the spelling of words. Do this particularly if you are using more obscure words or the names of foreign countries. Misspelling words will lead to confusion (and someone potentially giving up on your puzzle.)
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Leave space at the top of your page. You will want to add a title to your word search once you have drawn your grid. If you have a theme, you can title your word search accordingly. If you don’t have a theme, simply write ‘Word Search’ across the top of your page.
- You can also make your grid on the computer. To make a grid in versions of word prior to Word 2007: Select ‘View’ at the top of the page. Select ‘Toolbars’ and make sure the ‘Drawing’ toolbar is selected. Click on ‘Draw’ (it looks like an ‘A’ with a cube and a cylinder). Click ‘Draw’ and then click ‘Grid’. A grid option box will pop up—make sure you select ‘Snap to Grid’ and then select any other options you would like for your grid. Click ‘OK’ and make your grid.
- To make a grid in Word 2007: Click ‘Page Layout’ at the top of the page and click the ‘Align’ list within the ‘Arrange’ grouping. Click ‘Grid settings’ and make sure ‘Snap to Grid’ is selected. Select any other options you want for your grid. Click ‘ok’ and draw your grid.
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Draw a grid by hand. It is easiest to make word searches when using graph paper, although you do not have to use graph paper. The standard word search box is 10 squares by 10 squares. Draw a square that is 10 centimeter (3.9 in) by 10 centimeter (3.9 in) and then make a line at each centimeter across the box. Mark each centimeter going down the box as well.
- You do not need to use a 10×10 grid. You can make your grid as big or as small as you like, just remember that you need to be able to draw small squares within your grid. You can make your grid into the shape of a letter (perhaps the letter of the person’s name who you are making it for?) or into an interesting shape.
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Use a ruler to draw lines. Use a pencil to draw the lines evenly and straightly. You need to create small, evenly-sized squares within your grid. The squares can be as big or as small as you like.
- If you are giving the word search to a child, you might consider making the squares larger. Making larger squares will make the puzzle a bit easier because each individual square and letter will be easier to see. To make your puzzle harder, make smaller, closer together squares.
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Make a list of your words. Place the list next to your grid. You can label your words #1, #2 etc. if you want to. Write your words out clearly so that the person doing the word search knows exactly which word he or she is looking for.
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Write all of your words into your grid. Put one letter in each box. You can write them backward, forward, diagonally, and vertically. Try to evenly distribute the words throughout the grid. Get creative with your placements. Make sure to write all of the words that you have listed next to the grid so that they are actually in the puzzle. It would be very confusing to be looking for a word in the word search that isn’t actually there.
- Depending on who you are giving the puzzle to, you may wish to make your letters larger or smaller. If you want your puzzle to be a little less challenging, like if you are giving it to a child, you might consider writing your letters larger. If you want your puzzle to be more challenging, make your letters smaller.
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Create an answer key. Once you have finished writing in all the words, make a photocopy of it and highlight all of the hidden words. This will serve as your answer key so whoever does your puzzle will be able to see if they got everything right (or can get help if they are stuck on one word) without the confusion of the extra, random letters.
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Fill in the rest of the blank squares. Once you have written all of your chosen words into the puzzle, fill the still empty squares with random letters. Doing this distracts the person from finding the words in the search.
- Make sure that you do not accidentally make other words out of your extra letters, especially other words that fit into your theme. This will be very confusing for the person doing the puzzle.
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Make copies. Only do this if you are planning on giving your word search to more than one person.
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Add New Question
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Question
Why do I not use lowercase letters?
Uppercase makes the letters clearer and easier to see.
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Question
How do I make a crossword?
Rene Teboe
Community Answer
Websites like puzzle-maker.com let you make word searches and crossword puzzles by just typing in the words and clues you want.
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Question
How do I find a word in a word search?
Look at the beginning letter, then go line by line down the word search until you find the first letter. When you find one, look at the letters surrounding it to see if there is the next letter of the word. If there aren’t any of the next letters there, carry on until you find the word.
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Write all the letters in capitals so that it doesn’t give away any clues.
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Make the letters easy to read.
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If you do not want to take the time to make your word search by hand or in a document on your computer, there are many websites where you can make your own word search online. Type ‘make a word search’ into your search engine and you are guaranteed to find many websites that will generate word searches for you.
Thanks for submitting a tip for review!
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Things You’ll Need
- Pen or Pencil
- Paper
- Eraser
- Ruler
About This Article
Article SummaryX
After you’ve decided what words you want in your word search, use a ruler to draw a grid on a piece of graph paper. Fill in your word search by writing your words in the grid, but make sure to spread them out and vary writing them so words are written vertically, diagonally, backwards, and forward. Once you’ve added all of your words, add other letters in the blank squares. Finally, write out a list of your words next to the grid so the person doing the word search knows what they’re looking for. If you want to learn how to make your word search on the computer, keep reading!
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a word search?
A word search is a puzzle where there are rows of letters placed in the shape of a square, and there are words written forwards, backwards, horizontal, vertical or diagonal. There will be a list of words for the player to look for and the goal of the player is to find those words hidden in the word search puzzle, and highlight them.
How do I choose the words to use in my word search?
Once you’ve picked a theme, choose words that have a variety of different lengths, difficulty levels and letters. You don’t need to worry about trying to fit the words together with each other because WordMint will do that for you!
How are word searches used in the classroom?
Word search games are an excellent tool for teachers, and an excellent resource for students. They help to encourage wider vocabulary, as well as testing cognitive abilities and pattern-finding skills.
Because the word search templates are completely custom, you can create suitable word searches for children in kindergarten, all the way up to college students.
Who is a word search suitable for?
One of the common word search faq’s is whether there is an age limit or what age kids can start doing word searches. The fantastic thing about word search exercises is, they are completely flexible for whatever age or reading level you need.
Word searches can use any word you like, big or small, so there are literally countless combinations that you can create for templates. It is easy to customise the template to the age or learning level of your students.
How do I create a word search template?
For the easiest word search templates, WordMint is the way to go!
Pre-made templates
For a quick an easy pre-made template, simply search through WordMint’s existing 500,000+ templates. With so many to choose from, you’re bound to find the right one for you!
Create your own from scratch
- Log in to your account (it’s free to join!)
- Head to ‘My Puzzles’
- Click ‘Create New Puzzle’ and select ‘Word Search’
- Select your layout, enter your title and your chosen words
- That’s it! The template builder will create your word search template for you and you can save it to your account, export as a Word document or PDF and print!
How can I print my word search template?
All of our templates can be exported into Microsoft Word to easily print, or you can save your work as a PDF to print for the entire class. Your puzzles get saved into your account for easy access and printing in the future, so you don’t need to worry about saving them at work or at home!
Can I create a word search in other languages?
Word searches are a fantastic resource for students learning a foreign language as it tests their reading comprehension skills in a fun, engaging way.
We have full support for word search templates in Spanish, French and Japanese with diacritics including over 100,000 images.
Using the WOWSER Excel VBA system to build a word search
Follow this blog to construct your own word search, complete with a missing phrase spelt out by the unused letters!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 01 February 2021
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So you want to build a snowman word search?
A typical grid contains a number of related words, all running
horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Introducing WOWSER (the Wise Owl Word Search Excel Replicator).
Download this workbook and follow the numbered
steps below!
If you want to see how to go about building a system like this, read this alternative blog
explaining how I went about constructing this system (it includes lots of generally
useful programming tips based on my 30+ years of system-building experience!).
Step 1 — prepare your list of words
Go to the Words worksheet in the workbook and type in your
words:
For this example I’ve gone for an owl theme. Don’t worry about spaces or punctuation
characters — these will be removed.
Lists of words work best when you have a range of different lengths, as for the above
example. It’s a good idea to avoid three-letter words, as these can be
very hard to find.
On the menu, choose to prepare this list:
Click on this button to strip out punctuation and prepare your words.
In this case you’ll see this message:
I could have got away probably with an 8 x 8 grid, were it not for the pesky
African fish and Andean pygmy owls.
This is now the list that the system will search against:
When the system finds a word it will flag this in column D.
Step 2 — Prepare your grid
Next, go to the Parameters worksheet and check you’re happy
with the choices there:
I’ve reduced the number of rows in the final grid to 8, but left 11 columns.
Now choose to recreate a blank grid:
You can click on this button at any time to start again, while keeping your word list.
The system creates (after a warning and confirmation message) your blank grid:
Ready to start adding words!
Step 3 — adding words
Click on any cell in your grid and press Ctrl
+ Q to run the FillOne VBA
procedure:
I tend to start at the bottom right.
The system will find the longest word that it can, and show it to you as a
suggestion:
You can now decide if you want to keep this.
I chose to keep this word and then added two more (selecting cells
A1 and K7 respectively, and pressing Ctrl
+ Q each time):
I’ve now selected the blank cells G5 as shown, and pressed Ctrl + Q to run the macro again.
The system suggests another owl, but not the one with the shortest name:
The system will try to create as many cross-checking letters as possible — so it chooses
TAWNY in preference to BARRED (which would
also fit in, and is longer) because it cross-checks the letter Y.
For each suggestion you can choose one of three options:
| Button | What it will do |
|---|---|
| Yes | Permanently add this word to the grid in its current position. |
| No (the default) |
Either rotate the current word into a new position, or show the next one which will fit. |
| Cancel | Abandon the attempt to find a word. |
Step 4 — finishing the grid
You can keep adding words individually like this, but there’s a short-cut:
Click on this button to add the rest of the words in your list (where possible) into your grid.
You could do this right at the start, but you will end up with many of the
words starting in the top left corner.
Choose the length of word you’ll accept:
The idea behind this is to fit the longer words into the grid first, otherwise the system may use up all of the shortest words leaving no space for the longer ones later.
A glance at my list of words shows that I need to fit in a 9-letter and 6-letter
owl first, so I went for 6 in the dialog box above:
The owls I’ve got left to fit in.
I then refused to accept the first words I was offered, to get this:
By not accepting the first words at the top left, I’ve got a reasonably balanced grid.
I then ran this macro again (clicking on the button a second time), this time
setting a minimum word length of 0 to get:
Your
final grid will depend on which word suggestions you accepted.
Step 5 — testing your grid
To give yourself the confidence that all your words have been found, click on
this button:
Only click on this when you think your grid is complete.
You’ll see a message about your unused cells:
I’ve got 32 cells I didn’t use.
The macro then uses different colours for each word:
Your macro should then display a reassuring message that all your words have been found.
Step 6 — filling in a missing phrase
To make your word search more interesting you could ask people to spell out
the phrase constructed from the unused letters (reading left to right and top to
bottom). First enter the phrase:
Keep entering your phrase until the stripped out version beneath it contains exactly the right number of characters (this can take a bit of time — use trial and error).
You can then put the missing phrase in the unused cells:
Click on this final button to add the missing phrase into your grid.
Once you manually remove the background colour from your cells, your grid will
be good to go!
Once you remove background colouring you can send out your grid.
You can use this system to create a word search for any purposes, but the
system itself remains the intellectual property of Wise Owl Training, and you
may not copy or distribute it in any form without our prior written permission.
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Create your free, printable wordsearch here:
Enter a page title:
Enter the number of letters across:
Enter the number of letters down:
Select the directions you would like to have the words go:
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Would you like the letters in the wordsearch grid to be UPPERCASE or lowercase letters?
UPPERCASE
lowercase
Enter each word you would like to try to fit in the puzzle on a new line:
Please Note: The computer will try to place as many
words as possible into the puzzle, but some words may not be used. Also, please
be aware that
the computer will automatically fill in left over spaces with random letters
— these random letters may form words, it is up to you, the creator, to check
for any offensive or unwanted words. If you do not like the way the puzzle
is created use the refresh button on the browser to generate a new puzzle.
Click here to learn more about the other activities EdCreate has to offer!
Create a wordsearch that can be played and saved online:
Play an online wordsearch example
or Create a free trial and start creating your own online wordfind!
Create your own word search puzzles with this word search generator tool. Create random puzzles using your own words list with solutions.
What is a Word Search Puzzle?
A word search puzzle is basically a combination of meaningful letters in a grid. These set of words can be found horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Goal of the players is to find the list of words hidden in the grid with other letters. Most of the times the words that need to be searched are listed at the bottom of the puzzle. But sometimes more challenging puzzles may not have the list of words. These puzzles can have a theme like find the words associated with food, birds, colors, months of the year etc.
Why play Word Search Puzzles?
Puzzles like word search have benefits for children as well as adults. For kids, these are great way to learn new words and their spelling. They also help strengthen their concentration and memory skills. For kids and adults, they play an important part in keeping up with mental health and brain activity.
These also help with learning and memorizing new vocabulary words, historical events, interesting characters, famous destinations and so much more.
Word Search Generator Tool for Commercial Use
Now you can create your own custom word search puzzles with this Word Search Puzzle Generator. You can use this tool for Personal as well as Commercial Use. Create number of printable puzzles to create a custom workbook. You can either print these and use these for personal and educational use. You can also brand these as your own and sell on Etsy, Amazon KDP, Ebay and other similar marketplaces. These are a great way to start making money and generating passive income.
How to create custom Word Search Puzzles?
You can use variety of options to create such puzzles. Follow these steps to create your custom words search puzzles:
- Input the Title of the puzzle
- Create and input your Words List
- Select the Grid Size, like 10×10, 15×15, 20×20 etc
- Select the Font Style
- Select the Direction of the words
- If you wish, you select to cell borders color and style
- Select the color of Title, Grid and Words
- Once all the options are set, click on “Generate New”
- Select “Show Answers” button to see the answers
- Once generated, download the puzzles as PDF formats
- You can also Download Preview before actually downloading the puzzles
- Print the puzzles and start playing. Or create a workbook and start selling
- Note: Only English letters are supported. Any other NON-English characters or European accented characters may cause unexpected results.
What Kind of Word Search Puzzles Should I Make?
When you are customizing a word search puzzle, it is entirely up to you to include the type of words you want to use in your word search puzzle.
To keep the players interested, make sure to use the words that are not too long in length. Try to avoid phrases that can get mixed up easily with other words.
Avoid words that require special characters, punctuation marks or numbers.
PLEASE NOTE: After you create your puzzle, proofread carefully to make sure that offensive or unintended words are not used. If you happen to come across any, you can generate another puzzle by following the steps above.