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Creating Word Search Puzzles

Objective

Learn the different ways to create a Word Search puzzle: using PuzzleMe AI, listing entries manually, or uploading a file.

You can create a Word Search puzzle using PuzzleMe AI or by listing entries manually.

Initial Steps:

  1. From your dashboard, click the New Game button and then select Word Search.
  2. In the "Create Word Search" form, ensure the Content tab is selected.
  3. Enter a Game title.
  4. Select the Game language. This language is also used for AI content generation.
  5. (Optional, but recommended) Enter a Slug, which is a unique identifier for the puzzle used in the URL and embed code. Using a meaningful slug name will help you track your embed codes better and will help avoid mixing up different puzzles. This can happen as you create more and more puzzles!
  6. Under "How would you like to create a word search?", select AI or List Entries.

PuzzleMe AI​

PuzzleMe AI helps you quickly generate word search puzzles. Provide a topic or source material, with optional instructions – and that's it! PuzzleMe suggests relevant words and creates a well designed grid automatically. You can go to Edit game to review, edit, and use these suggestions. You can even run AI multiple times from the Edit game page, or combine it with manually written words, and hitting the "Update Game" button to update the puzzle.

Data Sources for AI​

You can provide content to the AI using:

  1. Topic: Enter a concise description of the topic (e.g., "Valentine's Day").
  2. Website: Provide up to 5 publicly accessible URLs (one per line) for the AI to create a puzzle from. Occasionally, the AI may not be able to access the content of the page if it is protected by a paywall or other restrictions.
  3. PDF Link: Enter a link to a publicly accessible PDF file. Currently we only support PDF files with text content, if the PDF is scanned or only contain images, the AI will not be able to process it.
  4. Text: Paste text (up to 20,000 characters) as the source material.

Instruct PuzzleMe AI​

This is an optional field in which you can provide additional instructions to AI. For example, if your topic is "New York", you can provide additional instruction like "Include a few well-known landmarks". This is a powerful feature to steer the PuzzleMe AI towards your desired output.

You can also instruct it to create puzzle using certain sub-topics from the website or PDF provided. But remember that the instructions are common and applied individually to each input value. For example. if you provide multiple URLs, the AI will apply the instruction to each URL individually.

important

PuzzleMe AI may not always follow the exact instruction you provide. It is important to review the AI-generated words and clues before publishing your puzzle.

Creating a Word Search using PuzzleMe AI

Steps:

  1. Select the AI tab under "How would you like to create a word search?".
  2. Choose a data source tab (Topic, Website, PDF link, or Text) and provide the corresponding content.
  3. (Optional) In the "Instruct PuzzleMe AI" field, add specific instructions.
  4. Select the desired Grid Size.
  5. Click the Create Game button.
Note

AI can sometimes generate inaccurate or inappropriate words ("hallucinations"). Always review the AI-generated word list before publishing.

After creation, you can review the puzzle on the preview page and choose to "Edit game" or "Publish".

List Entries​

Manually enter your own list of words (and optional clues).

Creating a Word Search using the List Entries method

Steps:

  1. Select the List Entries tab under "How would you like to create a word search?".
  2. Select a Fixed grid size ("Auto Size" determines the size automatically, or choose a specific size from 11x11 to 25x25).
  3. In the Words section, enter your first word in the Entry field.
    • The recommended word length is upto 15 characters, but you have enter words ranging from 2 to 35 characters.
  4. Optionally, enable the With clues toggle (top right of the Words section) to add extra information.
  5. If "With clues" is enabled, fill in any desired optional fields: Clue, Media, Credits, Explanation (see Customizing Clues below).
  6. Click Add another entry to add more words.
  7. Repeat steps 3-6 for all words.
  8. Click the Create Game button.
Editing

You can edit Word Search games after creation to modify words or clues via the PuzzleMe dashboard.

Customizing Clues​

When using "List Entries" with the With clues toggle enabled, you can enhance each word entry:

Enable the "With clues" toggle to access additional fields
Fields available when "With clues" is enabled
  • Entry: The word to be found in the grid (required).
  • Clue: Text clue for the word. If Clue and Media are blank, the Entry text is shown as the clue.
  • Media: URL for an image, audio, video, or YouTube link related to the clue.
    Image Hosting Guidelines
    • You can host the images with any image provider that allows you to use directly link to the images.
    • Please ensure you use secure image URLs that start with HTTPS:// .
    • Ensure that the link you paste into PuzzleMe editor ends with an image extension (eg. PNG, JPN, JPEG, GIF etc). For example https://i.ibb.co/18NqXVN/bell-pepper.png
    • Please ensure that wherever you host the images allows direct linking (hotlinking) to the images. Some image hosts might not allow direct linking to the images. Here is a list of free image hosting services that allow hotlinking.
    • If you copy image URL from Google image search results, you may sometimes get an image URL like this :

      data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAoHCBUWFRgWFRYYGRgZGRg

    This kind of URL is not compatible with PuzzleMe. Please get the link to the original image that starts with https:// and ends in a suitable file extension.

    • On the web, you can often right click an image and copy its address.
    Copying image URL
    Become a Partner

    If you use our Professional and Enterprise plans, you can upload the images directly to PuzzleMe, without needing to host them anywhere or insert a link.

  • Credits: Attribution for the media (max 50 characters), displayed in the media popup.
  • Explanation: Text (HTML supported) displayed below the clue after the puzzle is completed.