How to Make a Crossword Puzzle Using Excel

1. Open a blank work sheet in Excel.
2. Enter 'Ctrl A' to select all cells. While all cells are selected, place the cursor on the border between two columns of cells and drag them until the cells show a width of 3.75 (35 pixels). Place the cursor between two rows of cells and drag until the row height is 24.75 (35 pixels). This will give you a printable grid with squares that are about 0.3' by 0.3', large enough to write in comfortably.
3. Define the grid area you want to print out. For a 20 cell by 20 cell crossword, select 20 columns by 20 rows. Select all of the cells you want to assign grid lines to. Click on the 'Cell Borders' drop-down (located on the Font area of the tab, with a stylized picture of a grid on it).
4. Enter your first clue in a clear area and give it a number. Type in the answer to the clue on the grid you made earlier. Repeat until you've entered all of your clues and answers in the crossword puzzle.
5. Select all of the cells that don't have letters in them and change their fill color to black. The drop-down for selecting the fill color for a cell is on the Home tab, in the area labeled 'Font.' It is immediately to the right of the drop-down used to select 'Cell Borders' in Step 3. Clicking on it will allow you to select the color.
6. Save the file and print a copy as your answer key, typically as Crossword_Subject_Key.xls. For example, a crossword about Frog Anatomy might be named Crossword_FrogAnatomy_Key.
7. Select all of the cells in the grid (but not your questions) and hit the 'Delete' key. This will delete all of the letters in the cells.
8. Set the font size to 3 points and set the vertical justification to 'top.' (Vertical justifications are the icons next to the font size drop-down in Excel 2007.) Enter the numbers corresponding with each clue in the boxes where each word starts.
9. Save the file (under a different file name, such as Crossword_Subject_Blank) and print out copies. Continuing the example naming convention above, the crossword would be called Crossword_FrogAnatomy_Blank.