Word Search Maker

Create Your Own Word Search

This Word Search Generator is a toolbox to help you create word searches for print or web pages. It is a free tool that is helpful for webmasters, teachers and creative artists.

Step 1: Word Search Settings

To make your word search, you must first choose the type of word search you want to make and the dimensions.

Word Search Type: The Word Search Maker allows you to make Word Searches and Number Searches. By default your puzzle is a word search. If select "Word Puzzle" you may not use numbers; if you select "Number Puzzle" you cannot use letters.
Rows & Columns: You must enter a numeric height and width for your puzzle. The minimum for each is 5 and the maximum is 30. Note that if your puzzle is higher than 15 for either rows or columns, you may find that the puzzle generator lags--this is especially true if your computer is slow.
Generate Puzzle Form: Once you have chosen a puzzle type and its dimensions, click "Make Form" to generate the puzzle tool kit. The form for your word search will appear on this page. Every time you click this button, the word search form is reset--so if you have already started a word search, be careful that you do not delete your information before you are done!

Step 2: Build Your Word Search

Once your word search form is available, you must enter the words into a word list field as well as into your puzzle cells. More information follows:

Word Search Form

The word search form contains a table of select menus that allow you to choose letters (in a word search) or numbers (in a number puzzle). Enter your words into this form by selecting the proper letter (or number) to create your words (or numbers). NOTE: Only enter letters (or numbers) in the fields that make up your answers--leave non-answers blank ("?"). Entries left as the question mark ("?") are randomly filled in by the JavaScript--and they alert the program to the fact that these are NOT ANSWERS!

Game Information

The fields in the Game Information fieldset let you set the title of your puzzle and create a list of words (or numbers) for players to find in the word search.

Game Title - This is the title of your game. It will appear at the top of your web page as well as above your puzzle in the final form.
Word List - This is a list of the words in your puzzle. NOTE: Separate each entry with a comma. You should not hit ENTER or add any non-alphanumeric characters (only use letters, numbers, commas and spaces). If you do not follow this guideline, your word search may contain blank spaces or strange results!

Your word list must contain at least 15 characters and four distinct words/phrases.

Preview Your Word Search

Once you have added your words to the word list and entered them into the Word Search Form, you can preview the results by clicking "Generate Preview". Your word search will display below the form and above these tips.

If you need to make a change, simply make the changes necessary (add words to the list or into the puzzle or change title), then click "Generate Preview" again.

You must enter at least four (4) distinct words/phrases and they must total at least 15 characters for the preview function to work.

Create Word Search HTML

The word search you create can be turned into a web page by clicking the "Generate Game" button. A bunch of green HTML code will appear below the preview area and above these instructions that must be copied and converted into a web page (instructions below).

NOTE: if you are posting this as an article in a Webonizer-enabled website, click "Format for Webonizer Article". Add the content under "Meta" into the article meta field and the code under "Article" into your article fields. If your account does not show the "Meta" field in your article form, ask your webmaster to paste the Meta code into the site's core template.

You must enter at least four (4) distinct words/phrases and they must total at least 15 characters for the HTML function to work.

Creating HTML

If you do not know how to create an HTML web page, instructions will follow. Note that you must have an FTP server to load your files to your website. This page assumes that you already know how to do that.

Copy HTML: Select all the green HTML code above. Only copy the green html starting with <html> and ending with </html>. Once selected, copy the text by clicking Ctrl + C or clicking Edit > Copy.
Open A Text Editor: Open a plain text editor such as Notepad. You should not use a word processing program unless it has the ability to save to plain text (rather than Rich Text).
Paste HTML Code: Paste the HTML Code you copied above into the text program. You can do this by clicking Edit > Paste or right clicking the program background and clicking Paste or by typing Ctrl + V.
Save HTML: Save your page as HTML. To do this, click File > Save in Notepad or type Ctrl + S. You must change the Save As Type to "All Files". Then for your file name type in a name and add ".html" at the end of the name. For example, you could give the page the name of "pet_puzzle.html".
Load Your Word Search: Now you must load your HTML file to a web server. You will need to have a web domain and FTP access to do that. It's assumed that all users of this page already have a web host and FTP access.

Printing Your Word Search

If you have clicked "Generate Preview" you can print your word search by clicking print. Note that the page will include the instructions. If you only want your word search to appear, tell your printer to print only page 1.