Customizations : Grid Structure

Objective

Learn how you can customize the crossword's grid in the grid editor

Once a crossword has been created, you'll find yourself inside the grid editor. The grid editor allows you to fine-tune the structure and design of the grid.

In this article, we'll explore the Grid Structure menu in the grid editor.

Crossword: grid structure menu

Letter Entry

Enter or remove letters

The grid editor allows you to manage your crossword's word entries. This is done on a letter-by-letter basis.

Crossword: managing words inside the grid editor

1. Click the "Grid Structure" button.
2. In the Grid Structure menu dropdown, select "Enter letters". This will enable the letter editor for your grid.
3. On your grid, manage your letters. Click on any cell to select it. Use the arrow keys to navigate the grid without a mouse.
4. Enter a letter in a selected cell to add it to the grid. Press backspace to erase the letter and make it a black square.
5. In the navigation bar, click on "Save Puzzle" to save your changes.

Rebus letters

Crossword: rebus letters

A rebus is a crossword element where multiple letters can be entered into the same square. This is a creative tool that can be used to make your puzzles more engaging.

Crossword: Adding rebus letters

1. Click the "Grid Structure" button.
2. In the Grid Structure menu dropdown, select "Enter rebus letters". This will enable the rebus letter editor for your grid.
3. On your grid, select any cell using your mouse. Use the arrow keys to navigate the grid.
4. When a cell is selected, all the entered letters and symbols become a part of a single square. This is the rebus cell. Your puzzle can have as many of these as you desire.
5. Once done, click on "Save Puzzle" in the navigation bar to save your changes.

Grid shape

Change grid size

You can modify the size of your crossword and add rows or columns from inside the grid editor itself. This can be used to pad your crossword, or to make space to add more words.

Crossword: changing the grid size

1. Click the "Grid Structure" button.
2. In the Grid Structure menu dropdown, select "Add row or column".
3. Select what you'd like to add, and where: top/bottom row, left/right column.

The process is identical for deleting rows and columns.

Transpose grid

You can transpose (i.e. interchange columns and rows) your crosswords inside the grid editor. Transposing a crossword maintains its integrity - it just exchanges all the Across words with Down words. All the associated clues get updated as well.

Grid transpose can be useful in cases when you want to use a specific word in a specific position in the grid (for example, using a fixed word in the 1 Across position).

Crossword: grid transpose

1. Click the "Grid Structure" button.
2. In the Grid Structure menu dropdown, select "Transpose Grid".

Cell walls

Cell walls are functionally a replacement for a black square on the crossword grid. Cell walls can be used to break one long word in the grid into multiple smaller words, making it easier to add words in the grid.

Crossword: Without cell walls. There are 5 words in this grid.

Crossword: With cell walls. The letters on this grid are identical to the grid above.
Cell walls have been added at the bottom of 'C' and 'O' in the top row. Due to this, "CZ" and "OP" are no longer considered as words inside the grid. This is reflected in the clue box.

1. Click the "Grid Structure" button.
2. In the Grid Structure menu dropdown, select "Mark right/bottom cell walls".
3. On your grid, select the cells where you'd like to add a cell wall. The mouse click leads to a cell wall being added.
4. Once done, click on "Save Puzzle" in the navigation bar to save your changes.

Cell walls

Cell walls can only be added at the right/bottom side of a cell. If you'd like to place one on the top or left side of a cell, you can achieve the same effect by adding cell walls on adjacent cells.

For instance, a top cell wall can be achieved effectively by adding a bottom wall on the cell above your target cell. Something similar can be done to achieve a left wall if required.

Find more words

PuzzleMe grid editor provides an autofill tool to help you increase the density of your puzzle grids. The tool works by analyzing the current state of the grid, including presently filled in words, their position and where they intersect. Then it provides suggestions for words that can be filled into the grid. You can provide a list of your own words to use for suggestions, as well as select one or more custom wordlists we have curated.

Use Cases:

• You are trying to create a crossword puzzle, but the existing list of words is too small and you want a denser grid fill
• You want to create a crossword puzzle on a specific topic, and already have a list of words related to the topic
• You have created a themed crossword puzzle, but now want to add some themeless / regular words to add some variety

Creating a dense grid using "Find more words"

Steps to use the "Find more words" feature:

1. Make sure you already have entered some words in the grid. The 'Find more words' tool is not available for empty grids.
2. Select "Find More Words" from the Grid Structure menu.
3. A popup box will appear. This popup box contains two sections:
   1. A textbox called "Word List". If you have a list of words you would preferably like to fill in the grid, please add them to this list. Ensure that there is only one word on each line.
   2. A set of additional dictionaries you could use for the source of words. This includes curated dictionaries of various lengths, themed word lists and word lists for specific languages.
4. Once you have entered the list of words and/or chosen the dictionaries, click on the 'Get Suggestions button'.
5. You should see a list of suggestions of words which can be filled into the grid, along with their positions, in both the Across and Down directions.
6. Hover your mouse pointer over any word to see a preview of where it would be filled in the grid.
   note

   Hovering your mouse pointer over a word suggestion does not automatically insert it into the grid. You need to click on the word to add it. If you didn't like the preview for a word suggestion, simply remove your mouse pointer and the grid would return back to its original state.

7. Once you have decided to insert a word, click on the suggestion. The word will be filled into the grid, and the set of suggestions would be updated, based on the new set of words in the grid.
8. Continue adding more words until you feel that the grid is densely filled in.
9. Click on "Save Puzzle". This will save the grid with all the word suggestions you recently accepted. You would still need to write the clues for each of the suggested words. You can use our AI Clue Management tools to add clues for these words.