Creating a New Puzzle

Follow the instructions shown below to create a new crossword puzzle, word search puzzle, or jumble puzzle. Simply specify the type of puzzle, select your word sets, and choose your words.

To create a new puzzle

  1. Choose the option to create a new puzzle from the main menu.

    You must choose this option from the main menu. (See Getting Started.) If you are editing a vocabulary database or opening an existing puzzle, click the Close or Menu button to proceed back to the main menu.

  2. If there is only one vocabulary database, PuzzleMaker will go directly to the first step of the PuzzleMaker Wizard without asking you to select a database.

    Otherwise, PuzzleMaker will display a dialog box from which you can choose a database. If no databases appear in the dialog box, navigate to a new location (directory/folder) where the program will find the database files. Select a vocabulary database from the list and click the Open button.

  3. Choose a puzzle type—Crossword, Word Search with Words, Word Search with Clues, or Jumble.

  4. Click the Next button to proceed to step 2 of the PuzzleMaker Wizard.

  5. Identify the sets that you want to include in your puzzle. You may select all the sets by clicking the Select All button, or you may select them individually by clicking the checkbox to the left of the set name.

  6. Choose the selection method—automatic or manual. You can choose to have the program automatically select the words for the puzzle, or you can manually select the words in step 3 of the PuzzleMaker Wizard.

  7. Click the Next button to proceed to step 3 of the PuzzleMaker Wizard.

  8. If you chose to have the program automatically select the words for you, they are listed in alphabetical order at the top of the word list. The word list only contains words that are part of the sets that were previously chosen. If you chose to manually select your words, you can select them by clicking the checkbox to the left of the word that you want to select. You can change the selection of any word regardless of the selection method by clicking the checkbox to select/deselect any word.

    The minimum number of words required for a puzzle is five. The maximum number of words is twenty for crossword and word search puzzles, and ten for jumbles.

    If the vocabulary database that you are using contains multiple language clues, you will need to choose the clue language.

  9. Click the Finish button to display the puzzle.

    Depending on the words selected, the program may not be able to create a crossword or a word search puzzle. In such cases, a dialog box will appear displaying the word(s) that did not fit into the puzzle. In the dialog box you can choose Yes to continue creating the puzzle without using the word(s), or you can choose No in which case you will be returned to the word selection screen, there you may deselect the problem word(s) and choose any replacement words.

    Once a puzzle has been created, the PuzzleMaker Wizard will close and you will see the appropriate puzzle screen.

  10. Click the Modify button if you want to make changes to the puzzle type or word sets. The Modify button will take you back through the steps of the PuzzleMaker Wizard.

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    (Optional) Choose Preferences from the Edit menu to change the puzzle preferences. Puzzle preferences include the puzzle instruction line and the general options.

  11. (Optional) If you want your students to be able to complete a puzzle using the computer, you must save the puzzle to disk.To do this, click the Save As button, enter a file name for the puzzle, and choose a location to save the file.

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    Later, you can open the puzzle to print it or change the puzzle preferences.

  12. Click the Print button to print the puzzle. You can choose to print the student puzzle or the answer key from the print preview screen. Once you have chosen what you want to print, click the Print button.


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    If necessary, use the Printer Setup option in the File menu to select or setup your printer before you choose to print a puzzle.

  13. Click the Close button to return to the program.

  14. If you want to create additional puzzles, open an existing puzzle, or edit a vocabulary database, choose Menu to return to the PuzzleMaker main menu.

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  15. Choose Exit from the File menu to quit the program.

NOTE: Depending on the vocabulary database, some puzzles may include "multiple part" words. In such instances, however, these words appear without any space or punctuation. For example, "acid rain" and "sales tax" would appear as "acidrain" and "salestax" respectively.