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Crossword creation best practices

Objective

Ten tips for creating a successful puzzle

PuzzleMe makes it simple to create high-quality, engaging, and interactive crosswords. Follow these guidelines to create a better solving experience.

  1. Consider splitting long two-word answers into smaller linked entries when it helps. If an answer feels too long for a clean fill, you can split it into two entries and connect them with cross-referenced clues (for example, “See 5 Across”). This can make your grid easier to balance and adds a fun solving moment.
  2. Use photos, videos or audio files in as many clues as possible. Experience tells us that including multimedia in at least a third of your clues creates greater user engagement.
  3. Respect copyright. Fair use permits limited use of copyrighted material without permission. But it's wise to use a creative commons search engine or apply a copyright filter when doing a Google image search. Wikimedia commons is an excellent and free resource for images. See this page for more tips. Make sure you credit all copyright holders in the attributions field.
  4. Be consistent. Make sure the answer matches the clue. For example, if the clue is singular, the answer should be, too. If the clue refers to the past tense, so should the answer.
  5. Be precise. For example, a clue asking "Where were the 1972 summer Olympics held?" could be answered Munich or Germany. If Germany is the expected answer, ask "Which country hosted the 1972 summer Olympics?"
  6. Be clear about which names of individuals you expect in response to a clue. First and last? Last? A simple approach is to outline your approach in your instructions at the beginning of your puzzle.
  7. Make sure media files are a reasonable size. Players may be on a mobile device with a weak connection. A good rule of thumb is to keep image and audio files under 500 Kilobytes and videos under 1-2 Megabytes.
  8. Ensure that YouTube videos are embeddable. Verify this by previewing clues after puzzle creation.
  9. Customise your puzzles. Choose a strong image for the backdrop. Pick some nice sounds for correct and wrong answers (Free Sound and Sound Bible are good sources.) Choose a custom image for the empty cells so that it represents your publication or brand. You can also set fonts and primary/secondary colours in Branding to match your style.
  10. Proof-read your text before making your puzzle public. The best approach is to have someone test-solve it for you.
Creator warnings

PuzzleMe can show warnings while you build. You do not need to fix every warning, but it is best to resolve as many as possible. A common warning is media that is too large. For the best solver experience, especially on weak connections, use smaller media files.