Consultancy and Training in Assistive Technology
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Create a crossword in Microsoft Excel
Use Microsoft Excel to produce a quick crossword that
displays clues and checks answers.
By following steps 1 to 10 you will be able to construct a
crossword and enter clues as comments which will appear on
screen when you hover the mouse pointer over the relevant areas.
Steps 8 to 10 show you how to check the answers and highlight
the correct ones.
STEP 1…
Start Excel and open a new
workbook. Start by changing the
height and width of the rows and
columns where the crossword will
be displayed.
Click inside column letter A, hold
down the shift key on the
keyboard and click inside column
letter J to highlight all 10
columns.
Click on the Format menu,
choose Column and select Width.
From the box that appears, enter
the number 5 and click on OK.Columns A to J will now be shorter. Repeat
this for rows 1 to 10, clicking on the Format menu, choosing Row and
selecting Height, Enter 25 in the box
STEP 2…
Select cells A1 to J10. Selecting
cell A1 hold down the left mouse
button and move the pointer to
J10.
Next, click on the drop-down menu
to the right of the Borders toolbar
button, as shown in the picture,
and a palette of borders will
appear.
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Choose the one that looks like a grid. Depending on your version of Excel,
this may be labelled as All Borders.
STEP 3…
Select all of the cells for the
crossword (A1 to J10) then click
on the Format menu and choose
Cells.
From the dialogue box that
appears, click on the Alignment
tab. Change the settings for
Vertical and Horizontal alignment
to the Centre option as shown
here, then click on OK to close
the dialogue box.
To check enter a single letter in one of the cells inside the crossword.
After entering it, the letter should be displayed in the middle of the cell.
STEP 4…
Enter the answers into the
crossword - the clues or
questions will be created later.
Entering the answers first helps
to construct the blank sections in
the crossword and allocate
numbers for the clues or
questions.
Enter one letter in each cell of
the crossword, using the arrow
keys on the keyboard to move
between cells.
After entering the answers to the clues, fill in the blank squares using the
colour black from the Fill Colour pallete, as shown here.
STEP 5…
We’ll use cell comments to enter
the down and across clues for the
crossword. Where a down and /
or across clue starts in the
crossword, right click inside the
cell and choose Insert Comment.
A small yellow box will appear.
Enter the clue that corresponds
to the question, then click
elsewhere on the workbook to
close it. A red triangle will appear
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in the cell containing the comment. Position the pointer over the triangle
in the cell to see the clue.
STEP 6…
If a clue needs to be changed,
right
click
inside
the
cell
containing the clue and choose
Edit Comment. You can then
change the contents of the
comment. Click outside the cell to
close it.
Next, you need to copy the
crossword as a reference for the
answers. Select all the cells for
the crossword, click on the Edit
menu and choose Copy. Select
cell A35, click on the Edit menu
and choose Paste.
The crossword will be copied into cells A35 to J44. You may want to
increase the height of the rows (refer to notes as per Step 1)
STEP 7..
Return to the crossword in cells
A1 to J10 and delete the
answers. This can be completed
quickly by selecting all of the
cells from A1 to J10, then
pressing Delete.
This will not delete the cell
comments, just the text inside
the cells. Save your spreadsheet
by clicking on the File menu and
choosing Save.
Enter a suitable name for your Excel file, then click on the Save button.
STEP 8…
The crossword is now ready to
use, but the only way of checking
the answers is to look at the
answers displayed in cells A35 to
J44. However,
Excel can check the answers
entered into the crossword and
highlight the correct ones. Select
cell A1 or the square in the
crossword for the first clue. Click
on the Format menu and choose
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Conditional Formatting. From the dialogue box that appears, change the
settings using the drop-down menu to show ‘Cell Value is’ for the first
box, followed by ‘equal to’ for the second box.
STEP 9…
Click inside the third text box in
the Conditional Formatting
dialogue box and enter =A35 (or
the cell for the start of the first
clue).
Click on the Format button below
and another dialogue box will
appear.
Choose Bold and a suitable colour
for the correct answer and click on
OK. Click on OK again to close the
Conditional Formatting dialogue
box. Enter the correct letter for the cell A1 (or the first cell for the first
clue). It should be displayed in bold and the selected colour.
STEP 10…
Make sure A1 (or the cell for the
start of the first clue) is still
selected. To apply the Conditional
Formatting to the other cells in the
crossword, double-click on the
Conditional Formatting toolbar (it
looks like a large paintbrush).
Click inside the answer squares in
the crossword to apply the
Conditional Formatting.
When you’ve finished, click on the
Conditional Formatting toolbar again to turn it off.
STEP
10
(continued)…
Test the crossword by entering
correct and incorrect answers.
Each letter that is correct will be
displayed in bold using the colour
set in step 9.
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