Word Grid Puzzles
By Sunil Tanna

Word grid puzzles consist of grid letters arranged in rows and columns. Within the grid are words, than may start at any point, and go off in any direction (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). The task in the puzzle is find all the words hidden within the grid, and it as a result of this feature that these puzzles get their other names such as "word find puzzles" and "word search puzzles".
Many children and adults enjoy solving word grid puzzles, in the case of children there can even be an educational benefit. This is because they can be used to introduce children to new words, thus helping to expand their vocabulary, and also to help children pay attention to the exact spelling of words, and thus hopefully improving their spelling.
Word grid puzzles often appear in newspapers and magazines, and if you publish a newsletter (perhaps for your church or school) or an newsletter (perhaps for your business), you might want to consider including one. They are very suitable for this type of use, since they don't take a lot of space, and can be themed around any topic that you like. Of course, you can't simply copy and republish somebody else's puzzle (that would be infringing copyright), so you will need to create your own.
Creating your own word grid puzzles is possible using just a pen and paper, but you will find it very time consuming and tedious work. A better approach is to use a computer. With the help of some word grid puzzle maker software, it becomes a very easy task - simply enter a list of words, choose a grid size, and the computer can generate a puzzle in seconds.