How to Make Crosswords on Google Sheets

Put the answers in the crossword so that they intersect. Each answer must have the same letter as the other answer. Line up some words vertically and some words horizontally so that words that share the same letter will intersect. To make sure words intersect perfectly, it’s better to line up the long words first. The next thing is to put the shorter words around the long word. ^[10]

• You can enlarge the content page when you do this.
• Adjust the formatting in the text so that the letters are all centered. Thus, the crossword will look more beautiful. ^[11]
• For the press-style crossword, each letter must be in the word horizontally and vertically to form a square. For example, if row 1 is the word “MAST”, you will have to line up a vertical word that starts with one of those four letters. ^[12]

Use the “Fill” tool to make the empty cells black. Once you’ve stacked all the words, you’ll click in an empty box, then select the “Fill” icon in the toolbar – that’s the pouring paint bucket icon. Choose black to fill the empty cell. Repeat the operation for all remaining blank cells on the crossword. ^[13]

• On Windows computers, you can quickly work by pressing the keyboard shortcut CTRL+C to highlight colored cells. Use arrow keys to move the cursor to another empty cell and press CTRL+V to color.

Number the box that starts with a word. You will number in order from left to right and from top to bottom. When you find the box for the first letter of a word, enter the number “1.” into that box. That’s the answer to “Horizontal 1”. Continue with the first box of the next word and number 2, and so on for the rest of the words. Do the same for the words in the “Vertical” row in order from top to bottom and from left to right. ^[14]

• If two words start with the same box, they have the same number. For example, if the words “ASTRONAUT” and “AEROSPACE” intersect at the first A, they will be numbered “1 Horizontal” and “1 Vertical”.
• If a word starts in the middle of another word, you must number a new one. For example, if the word “ASTRONAUT” starts with the second letter in “NASA”, the word “NASA” would be “1 Horizontal” and “ASTRONAUT” would be “2 Vertical”.

Give short hints for each word in the crossword. After filling in the answer in the crossword, you need to create a hint to help the player solve the crossword. It’s best to use short suggestions – just a few words. You can give simple or complex hints, but make sure the hint helps the player find the answer. ^[15]

• For example, for the answer “PURLE”, you probably wouldn’t give the suggestion “My favorite color”. Instead, you would use the suggestion “Color of Faithfulness”, “Language Flower” or “Lavender”.
• If your answer is “STOP”, the suggestion will be “Octagonal sign” or “Stand still”.
• For the word “C”, you can use a suggestion like “ground cover green”.
• Try using a thesaurus if you don’t know what to suggest.
• Advanced crosswords often use suggestions that include puns, anagrams, and homonyms. ^[16]

Add numbered hints to the appropriate “Horizontal” or “Vertical” column. Once you’ve created a suggestion, you’ll put it in the appropriate suggestion column. All suggestions for horizontal words should be placed in the “Horizontal” column, and all suggestions for vertical words should be placed in the “Vertical” column. Make sure each clue is numbered the same as the relevant answer. Enter each suggestion in each row in the appropriate column in numerical order. You need to adjust the column size to make sure all the hints are in one cell. ^[17]

• You may have to adjust the Horizontal and Vertical column sizes to make sure all suggestions are fully visible.