How to create Secret Word and Letter Hints crossword puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Secret Word Grid
This tutorial shows how to create Secret Word and Letter Hints crossword puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Secret Word Grid.
The main tutorial for Crossword Variations shows all the steps and information that applies to all the different puzzle types.
Introduction
There are many different types of Secret Word and Letter Hints Crossword puzzles. Secret Word Grid is the name we use for words that are placed in a grid, and that include additional hints to find a secret word, or to suggest additional letters in the grid that make it easier to find all the words in the puzzle.
The example below includes a secret word:
Hints Options for Secret Word Grid Puzzles
As mentioned in the introduction, you can use either Secret Word or Alphabet Hints (Letter Hints) for Acrostic Grid puzzles. You cannot have both at the same time.
When you use a secret word, you can set how many 'matching' letters must be available in each word, to be included in the puzzle.
In the screenshot, Matching Letters is set to 2. For the words Sudoku and Sensei we have indicated some of the matching letters for the word Word Search.
Grid Style
The Secret Word Grid puzzles will always (!) have the word number in a separate square, because the letter hints are shown as small numbers in some of the squares. (You can't have both at the same time)
There are quite a few additional style options, shown on the "Variation" tab:
- Max Words per Row - You can set the maximum number of words that can be printed on each row of the puzzle. This allows for interesting layout effects, as you can see in the screenshot
- Sort Rows - You can sort the rows by length, or use a 'Diamond' sort option, which sorts the grid rows from short to long to short. (see screenshot)
- Align Rows - You can align the rows to the left, right or center.
Note: The software will try to optimize the grid to make each row of equal length, if possible. However, this depends quite a bit on the words in your word list. For best results to get a really square or rectangular grid, use words with complementary lengths, e.g. 8 and 4 letters (to get 12 letter rows).