# How to Use the Crossword Builder — User Guide | PuzzleBuilder > URL: https://puzzlebuilder.co/docs/how-to-use-the-crossword-builder/ Step-by-step guide to creating a personalized crossword puzzle with PuzzleBuilder. Learn how to add words, use the AI assistant, customize the design, download print-ready files, and publish online games. --- ## How to Use the Crossword Builder This guide walks you through everything you need to know to create a personalized crossword puzzle using PuzzleBuilder — from adding your first word to downloading or publishing your finished puzzle. ### 1. Getting Started To create a crossword puzzle, you first need an occasion. An occasion is the container for your puzzles — it can be a wedding, a birthday, a classroom activity, or any other event. If you haven't created an occasion yet: - Click + New Puzzle from your dashboard. - Choose an existing occasion or create a new one. - Select Crossword as your puzzle type. Once your occasion is set up, the crossword builder opens automatically. The first time you open a new puzzle, you'll be asked to choose a page size and orientation — these can be changed later from the **Size** tab at any time. ### 2. The Builder Interface The crossword builder has three main areas: - Left panel: Four tabs — Puzzle (your words, clues, and AI assistant), Size (page dimensions), Templates (ready-made designs), and Layers (element list and new element tools). - Center canvas: A live preview of your puzzle design. The artboard inside the canvas represents the actual page — everything within its boundaries appears in your downloaded file. - Right panel (Style & Content): Controls for the currently selected element — text content, fonts, colors, alignment, size, rotation, and more. The top toolbar includes **Save** (with an input field to name your puzzle), **Guide** (a link to this page), **Download**, and **Publish**. Below it, you'll find zoom controls, a **Fit** button to fit the canvas to your screen, and toggle buttons for **Hide Crop Marks**, **Hide Grid**, and **Show Answers**. You can also right-click anywhere on the canvas to open a quick menu with shortcuts to Save, toggle Crop Marks, Grid, Answers, and Download. To move around the canvas, hold **Alt** and drag, or press the middle mouse button and drag. You can also zoom in and out using your mouse wheel. #### On Mobile On mobile devices, the builder adapts to your screen. The left and right panels are hidden by default and open from the buttons at the top of the screen: - Tap Panel at the top left to open the left panel. - Tap Properties at the top right to open the Style & Content panel. - The Save, Guide, Download, and Publish actions are grouped under the ☰ menu button in the top row. Mobile also includes a **Pan** toggle for navigating the canvas by touch. When Pan is on, you can drag the canvas with your finger to move around. When Pan is off, tapping and dragging selects and moves elements on the artboard. ### 3. Adding Words and Clues Your crossword is built from a list of words and clues. Each word has a corresponding clue that players will see when solving the puzzle. You can add words in three ways: manually, by pasting existing content, or by generating them with AI. #### Manual Entry In the left panel under the **Puzzle** tab, you'll see a numbered list of word/clue pairs. To add a new word: - Click + Add word at the bottom of the list. - Type your word in the top field (e.g., PARIS). - Type the corresponding clue in the field below (e.g., City where they got engaged). To remove a word, click the **×** icon next to it. You can edit any word or clue at any time — the fields are never locked. #### Paste Your Content If you already have a list of words and clues written elsewhere, you can paste them in without reformatting. Click **or Paste your content** below the word list to open the Paste dialog. Paste your content in any format — numbered lists, dash-separated, colon-separated, or anything else the AI can recognize. For example: _LOVE — A deep affection · WEDDING: A marriage ceremony · 1. RING — Worn on a finger_. Click **Parse with AI**. The builder then opens a review screen where you can check the parsed results, adjust the detected language, edit any word or clue, or remove entries. When everything looks right, click **Apply to Puzzle**. Your words and clues are added to the manual list and the crossword grid is generated automatically. #### Generate with AI If you'd rather not write clues from scratch, click **Generate with AI** at the top of the Puzzle tab. The AI assistant walks you through three steps: **Step 1 — Preferences:** Choose a tone (Fun, Romantic, Elegant, Kids, or Mixed), one or more content focuses (Couple story, City & places, Friends & family, Hobbies, Mixed), a difficulty level (Easy, Medium, Hard), and the number of clues you want (10, 12, 15, or a custom amount between 5 and 40). **Step 2 — Details:** Add optional context about your event — for example, _"We met in Paris and got engaged in Rome. We love hiking and cooking."_ Select the puzzle language. Under **Advanced options**, you can allow proper nouns (names and places) and require family-friendly content. Click **Generate with AI**. **Step 3 — Review:** The AI generates a complete set of words and clues. You can edit any word or clue directly, use the **Rephrase** button next to a clue to rewrite just that one, click **Improve Phrasing** to rewrite all clues at once, or click **New Set** to generate a completely different set. When you're happy with the result, click **Apply to Puzzle**. If you already have a puzzle and apply a new AI-generated set, the builder will warn you that regenerating replaces your current layout and resets any customizations you've made to the puzzle elements. ### 4. The Puzzle Grid Once you've added your words and clues, the builder automatically generates a crossword grid. Words are placed to interlock where they share common letters, and numbered references are assigned automatically for Across and Down clues. #### Regenerate and Shuffle Layout Below the word list, you'll find two buttons: - Regenerate: Rebuilds the puzzle from scratch. Use this after you've added or removed words. Any style, position, or size changes you've made to the puzzle elements will be reset. - Shuffle Layout: Produces a new arrangement of the same words and clues without touching your design. Your style, position, and size customizations are preserved — unless you've manually edited clue texts or duplicated clue elements, in which case the builder will ask for confirmation before continuing. Above both buttons there's a **Try until all words fit (up to 10s)** checkbox. Enable this if you want the builder to keep trying different arrangements (up to 10 seconds) to place every word. If some words still can't be placed, a message appears above the checkbox suggesting you try again or add more clues. #### Puzzle Language At the bottom of the Puzzle tab, you'll find the **Puzzle Language** selector. This sets the default labels that appear on your puzzle (such as _Across_ and _Down_), influences the random letters used in the grid for word-based games, and determines the language the AI assistant generates content in. Available languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Turkish, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese. #### Showing Answers Use the **Show Answers** toggle in the top toolbar to preview the solved version of your puzzle before downloading or publishing. ### 5. Choosing a Page Size Click the **Size** tab in the left panel to choose your page dimensions. Available sizes include: - 5×7 in (Card Size) — 127 × 177.8 mm - 5.5×8.5 in (Half Letter) — 139.7 × 215.9 mm - 8.5×11 in (US Letter) — 215.9 × 279.4 mm - 11×17 in (Tabloid / Ledger) — 279.4 × 431.8 mm - 18×24 in (Medium Poster) — 457.2 × 609.6 mm - 24×36 in (Large Poster) — 609.6 × 914.4 mm - 30×42 in (Giant / Easel) — 762 × 1066.8 mm - A5 — 148 × 210 mm - A4 — 210 × 297 mm - A3 — 297 × 420 mm - A2 — 420 × 594 mm - A1 — 594 × 841 mm - A0 — 841 × 1189 mm You can also switch between **Portrait** and **Landscape** orientation. Click **Apply Page Size** to update the canvas. When you change the page size, your design is automatically rescaled to fit the new dimensions. In most cases, you may want to fine-tune element positions and sizes afterward. ### 6. Applying a Template Click the **Templates** tab to browse ready-made designs. Each template includes a pre-arranged layout with styled elements — titles, clue lists, grid styling, and decorative elements. Select a template and click **Apply Template**. A confirmation dialog will ask you to confirm, because applying a new template replaces the decorative elements of the current template (including any customizations you've made to them). Your puzzle content and any elements you've added yourself stay exactly where they are. ### 7. Customizing Your Puzzle Elements When a crossword is generated, five puzzle elements appear on the canvas: the **Puzzle Grid**, the **Across Title**, the **Across Clues**, the **Down Title**, and the **Down Clues**. These elements can't be deleted, but each one is fully customizable, and the title elements can be hidden if you don't want them to show. Click any element on the canvas (or in the **Layers** tab) to select it. The right **Style & Content** panel will show its options. #### Puzzle Grid When the grid is selected, you can adjust: - Cell background color - Border color and border weight (thickness) - Number color and number size for the small numbers in each cell's corner #### Across and Down Titles The Across and Down titles are the labels above each clue list. When a title is selected, you can: - Hide or show it using the Visibility toggle (you can also use the eye icon in the Layers tab). - Edit the title text — by default it's ACROSS or DOWN, but you can change it to anything you like. The title supports multiple lines if you want to style it creatively. - Change the font family, weight, style (normal or italic), color, and alignment. If you shuffle the layout, your custom title text is preserved. If you regenerate the puzzle, the titles reset to the defaults for the selected puzzle language. #### Across and Down Clues When you select a clue list, you can edit the clue text directly in the **Clue Text** field on the right panel, or double-click on the canvas to edit inline. Changes made here do not sync back to the word list on the Puzzle tab. You can also change the font family, weight, style, color, and alignment. #### Splitting Clues Across Multiple Blocks By default, all Across clues appear in one block and all Down clues in another. If you want more layout freedom — for example, placing five clues next to the grid and five below it — you can use the **Duplicate Element** button under **Clue Actions** in the right panel. Duplicating creates a copy of the clue element that you can position independently. Edit each copy to keep only the clues you want in that block, then place it anywhere on the canvas. Duplicated clue elements can be deleted from the keyboard or from the Layers tab. **Note:** Both **Regenerate** and **Shuffle Layout** reset any manual edits to clue text and remove any duplicated clue elements. The builder asks for confirmation before doing this if it detects you've made customizations. ### 8. Customizing the Overall Design Every element on the canvas — not just puzzle elements — can be customized from the right panel. #### Inline Text Editing Double-click any text element on the canvas to edit its content directly on the artboard. This includes titles, labels, clue texts, and any text elements you've added yourself. You can also edit text from the text field in the **Style & Content** panel. #### Size, Rotation, Flip, and Alignment Every element has the same core controls in the right panel: - Align to Page: Snap the element to the Left, Center, Right, Top, Middle, or Bottom of the page. - Size: Set exact width and height in pixels. Use the lock toggle to maintain the aspect ratio, or click Reset Size to restore the original dimensions. - Flip: Mirror the element horizontally or vertically. - Rotate: Enter an angle in degrees, or click Reset to return to 0°. You can also drag elements freely on the canvas, resize them using the corner or edge handles, and rotate them using the rotation control that appears below a selected element. #### Multi-Select Alignment Select multiple elements at once by holding **Shift** and clicking each element, or by dragging a selection box across them on the canvas. You can also multi-select from the **Layers** tab by holding **Shift** and clicking layer rows. When multiple elements are selected, the right panel shows two sets of controls: **Align Elements** aligns the selected elements relative to each other (e.g., align their left edges or center them horizontally), and **Align to Page** aligns them relative to the page. #### Adding New Elements Open the **Layers** tab. At the bottom you'll find the **Add Element** section with these options: - Rectangle: A shape with adjustable fill color and corner radius (for rounded corners). - Triangle and Circle: Shapes with adjustable fill color. - Line: A straight line with adjustable thickness and color. - Text: A new text box with full typography controls — font family, weight, style, color, and alignment. - Image: Upload your own images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP — up to 5 images, max 5 MB per file). You can add up to 10 of each shape or text element. Template elements and puzzle elements don't count toward these limits. #### Layer Management The **Layers** tab shows the stacking order of all elements on the canvas. Elements at the top of the list appear in front of elements below them. Drag and drop layer rows to reorder them — useful when you want to overlap elements or ensure the grid stays on top of a background shape. Each layer row includes a remove icon (for user-added elements), a visibility toggle (for hideable template and puzzle elements), and a drag handle for reordering. ### 9. Crop Marks and Grid Lines The builder includes three display toggles in the top toolbar: - Hide/Show Crop Marks: Small corner marks that indicate the safe print area. Useful when printing to ensure accurate trimming. - Hide/Show Grid: A background grid that helps you align elements while designing. - Show/Hide Answers: Reveals the solved version of your crossword so you can verify the layout. These are display-only features — they don't affect your downloaded file. ### 10. Saving Your Work Click the **Save** button in the top toolbar to save your current progress. Your puzzle name appears in the input field next to it — you can rename it at any time. Saving preserves everything: your words, clues, grid layout, design choices, element positions, template, page size, and orientation. Your puzzle is stored in your account, and you can return to it any time from your dashboard. ### 11. Downloading Your Puzzle Click the **Download** button in the top toolbar to open the download dialog. You'll see three options: - PNG Preview: A standard-resolution image for quick previews and sharing. - PNG High-Quality: A high-resolution image suitable for printing. - Print Ready PDF: A PDF file optimized for professional print quality. The downloaded file shows exactly what's inside the artboard — crop marks, grid lines, and other display-only helpers are not included. Downloads are available on all paid packages. Free plan users can preview their puzzle in the builder but cannot download files. ### 12. Publishing Your Puzzle Online Click the **Publish** button in the top toolbar to open the publish dialog. Here you can: - Get a public link: A unique URL that anyone can open to play your crossword puzzle online. - Add password protection: Optionally set a password so only invited guests can access the puzzle. - Enable scoring and leaderboard: Turn on the scoring system to track each player's score, completion time, hints used, and failed attempts. Players are ranked on a live leaderboard visible on the puzzle page. - Show leaderboard to players: Choose whether players can see the leaderboard and other players' scores. You can copy the public link, share it via any messaging app, or unpublish the puzzle at any time. Online play is available on all paid packages. Free plan users cannot publish puzzles. ### 13. How Online Play Works for Players When someone opens your puzzle link, they see a welcome screen with the puzzle title, your custom header (if set), and a name entry field. After entering their name, they tap **Start Playing**. The crossword puzzle is displayed with Across and Down clue lists. Players tap a cell in the grid to open the word panel, type their answer, and tap **Check** to submit. The game includes: - Timer: Tracks how long the player has been solving. - Hints: Players get three hints per game. Each hint reveals one random letter in the selected word. - Wrong answers: If a player submits three incorrect answers for the same word, that word is locked out and its squares stay empty. - Score: Calculated based on speed, accuracy, hints used, and failed attempts. Players do not need to create an account or download anything. The game runs entirely in their browser on any device. ### 14. Tips for a Great Crossword Puzzle - Aim for 10–15 clues for a well-balanced puzzle. Fewer than 8 can feel too short, and more than 20 may overwhelm players. - Mix difficulty levels: Include a few easy clues everyone will get, along with harder ones that challenge your guests. - Keep clues concise: One clear sentence per clue works best. Avoid overly long or vague clues. - Use personal content: The most memorable puzzles include personal details — names, places, inside jokes, and shared memories. - Preview before publishing: Always use Show Answers to check that all words are placed correctly and clues make sense. - Test the online version: Open your own puzzle link and play through it once to make sure everything works as expected. ### Need Help? If you have any questions or run into any issues while building your crossword puzzle, contact our support team through the [Support page](https://puzzlebuilder.co/support/?contact). #### All Documents - How to Use the Crossword Builder - How to Use the Word Search Builder - How to Use the Number Hunt Builder - How to Use the Photo Challenge Builder - How to Use the Bingo Challenge Builder - How to Use the Sudoku Builder - How to Use the Spy Challenge Builder - How to Use Online Play and Leaderboards - Printing Guide - How to Print Your Puzzles - How to Use the AI Clue Generator - The Complete Guide to Designing Print-Ready Puzzle Cards - How to Create Engaging Classroom Puzzles for Any Subject [← Back to Support](https://puzzlebuilder.co/support/) ### Ready to make your event unforgettable? Open the editor and build your first puzzle in minutes. You only pay when you're ready to download or publish — and every purchase is covered by a 14-day refund. [Start Building →](https://puzzlebuilder.co/start/) --- Path: [Home](https://puzzlebuilder.co/) › [Support](https://puzzlebuilder.co/support/) › [How to Use the Crossword Builder](https://puzzlebuilder.co/docs/how-to-use-the-crossword-builder/)