gizmobench

Crossword Maker

Type up to 50 answers with a clue beside each one, set the grid from 5 to 25 squares a side, and the puzzle is laid out in front of you: answers crossing on shared letters, squares numbered the way a printed crossword is, and across and down clue lists under the grid. Two things here are different from the puzzle sites this competes with. When an answer cannot be crossed into the grid, it is named with the reason, so you are never handed a puzzle that is quietly missing four of the fifteen answers you typed. And the layout comes from a seed you can see and type again, so the same list at the same size rebuilds the same puzzle rather than a new one each time the page loads. Nothing appears in the grid that is not on the clue list: an answer only lands where it crosses one already placed, and the squares around it stay empty, so every run of two or more letters in the finished puzzle is numbered and clued. Print gives you the numbered grid and the clues on one page, with the solution on a page of its own that you can leave off.

15 x 1512 answers

Building the crossword.

by 5 to 25 a side
Placed
0 of 0
Across
0
Down
0

One answer on each line, then its clue after a colon, a pipe, a tab or a spaced dash. Up to 50 answers. Every answer goes into the grid in capitals, with accents and punctuation removed, so a two-word answer like ice cream goes in as one run of letters.

  • Answers that interlock15 x 15
    not while the settings above are refused
  • An answer that cannot fitnamed, never dropped
    none, every accepted answer is in the grid
  • Print viewgrid and clues
    answers on a second page
Every answer that would not fit is named, not dropped. Places your words by crossing shared letters and tells you plainly which words it could not place. It does not invent words or clues, and the same word list with the same grid size and seed gives the same layout. An answer only goes in where it crosses one already in the grid on a shared letter, so every run of two or more letters in the finished puzzle is an answer with a clue beside it. The search is bounded: on a list that cannot all interlock it stops and places what it can, and names the rest above.

Everything runs in this browser: the answers and clues you type are not uploaded, and the list, grid size and seed are remembered here so the next session opens where you left it. The Start over button at the top of the page forgets them.

Common questions

One of my answers is not in the grid. Where did it go?
Nowhere quiet. Any answer the grid could not take is listed by name under the stage with the reason, and the clue lists only ever number the answers that really are in the grid. There are two reasons an answer is left out. It is longer than the grid is wide and tall, and the message says how many squares it would need. Or no crossing square was left for it: every answer after the first has to cross one already placed on a shared letter, and an answer whose letters appear nowhere else has nothing to cross. A larger grid, or one more answer that shares a letter with it, usually fixes the second case.
Can I rebuild the same puzzle later?
Yes, and that is what the seed field is for. The layout is drawn from the seed, so the same answers at the same grid size with the same seed rebuild the identical puzzle on any machine and any day. Leave the field empty and the seed is the word auto, which is itself reproducible: your list and your grid size give the same layout every time. Reroll draws a new seed when you want a different arrangement of the same answers, which is the quick way to make a second version for a class that sits together.
How does it number the squares?
The way a printed crossword does. The grid is read left to right and top to bottom, and a square gets the next number whenever an answer starts there, going across or down. Two answers that start on the same square share its number, which is why you see the same number once in the across list and once in the down list. Each clue carries the length of its answer in brackets, and the number in the grid is the number in the list.
Does the printout give the answers away?
Only if you leave the box ticked. Print gives you the numbered blank grid and both clue lists on one page, with a header line naming the puzzle and its seed, and the solution on a page of its own after it. Untick the box beside the clue lists and the printout is the puzzle alone. On screen, the Solution chip on the stage fills the letters in and empties them again, and Copy puts the grid, the clues, the solution and any unplaced answers on the clipboard as plain text.
What are the limits on the list and the grid?
Up to 50 answers after blanks and repeats are removed, and a grid of 5 to 25 squares a side, set separately for width and height. An answer has to be at least two letters. Lines are read as the answer, then a colon, a pipe, a tab or a spaced dash, then the clue, and only the first separator on a line divides, so a clue may hold a colon of its own. Answers go in as capitals with accents and punctuation removed, so a two-word answer like ice cream goes in as one run of letters. A line whose answer holds no letters at all, like 123, is reported rather than silently ignored, and an answer with no clue yet is still placed and listed as no clue yet.
Will it always fit every answer in?
No, and it says so instead of pretending. The layout search is bounded: it tries to interlock the whole list, and if the list cannot all fit, or the search reaches its step limit, it stops, places as many answers as it can and names the rest. That is a deliberate choice over a maker that hangs on a hard list or prints a grid quietly missing answers. A shorter list, a larger grid, or answers that share more letters will place more of them.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The grid, the numbering, the clue lists, the solution and the printable sheet are all built in this browser, with no account and no upload. Your list, grid size and seed are remembered in this browser so the next session opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them. Printing uses your browser's own dialog, which is also how you save the puzzle as a PDF.

Places your words by crossing shared letters and tells you plainly which words it could not place. It does not invent words or clues, and the same word list with the same grid size and seed gives the same layout.