It’s usually easiest to start by creating your answer list first. That way, you’ll have a good idea of what length and width your crossword grid needs to be. If you’re making a newspaper-style puzzle, start by listing several longer answers that fit your theme. You can fill in the rest of the words later on. Since newspaper crosswords have blocks of intersecting words, they’re more complicated to create. It’s okay if you don’t know every single word you’ll use in advance.

When the whole sheet is highlighted, if you resize one row or column, the change will apply to all of the rows or columns.

Each time you release your mouse, all of the cells in the sheet should automatically resize, so you should end up with a whole sheet of neat squares. You won’t necessarily use the whole spreadsheet for your crossword puzzle, but this is the easiest way to create even squares for your grid.

If you know you’re going to build your crossword around a certain theme, you might use that as the name, like “National Parks Crossword” or “All About Space. " You might need to adjust the font size so your title is easier to see. If the title looks off-center later, you can always shift it to a different cell.

If you’re just doing a simple crossword, consider sketching it out on scrap paper to get an idea of the dimensions you’ll need to use. [6] X Research source Conventionally, most crossword puzzles are square, but if you want to create a rectangular grid, you can. If you’re creating a newspaper-style crossword, it should be 15 cells across and 15 cells high for a daily puzzle or 21x21 for a Sunday puzzle. [7] X Research source

This will create a border around each cell in the highlighted section.

Since these columns aren’t included in your grid, you can resize them to be wider so the clues will be easier to read. Just don’t adjust the height of the rows—that will mess up the formatting of your crossword grid.

It can help to zoom out on the document while you’re doing this. Adjust the formatting in your document so the letters are center-aligned. This will help the crossword look neater. [11] X Research source In a newspaper-style puzzle, every letter needs to be in both an across word and a down word, creating blocks of squares. For instance, if your 1 Across is the word “MAST,” you’ll have a down word starting from each of those 4 letters. [12] X Research source

On a PC, make quick work of this by hitting CTRL+C to highlight the filled square. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to another blank square and hit CTRL+V to fill it.

If two words both start on the same cell, they’ll share a number. For example, if “ASTRONAUT” and “AEROSPACE” intersect on the first A, they might be numbered “1 Across” and “1 Down. " If a word starts in the middle of another word, it should get a new number. For instance, if the word “ASTRONAUT” starts on the second letter in “NASA,” then “NASA” might be “1 Across” and “ASTRONAUT” might be “2 Down. "

For instance, for the answer “PURPLE,” you wouldn’t use a clue like “My favorite color. " Instead, try a clue like, “The color of royalty,” “Eggplant hue,” or “Some blueberries, oddly. " If your answer is “STOP,” your clue might be “Halt” or “Octagonal direction. " For the word “GRASS,” you might use a clue like, “Ground covering,” “Turf,” or “Snake’s place. " Try using a thesaurus if you get stuck coming up with a clue. More advanced crosswords frequently use clues containing puns, anagrams, and words that sound similar, as well. [16] X Research source

You may need to resize the Across and Down columns to make sure all of the clues fit.

You may need to retype the numbers back into the puzzle after you erase the squares. Be sure you keep the copy with the words—that’s your answer key!