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Newsletter puzzle

A Swedish-style puzzle for the back page of the staff mail. Clues sit in the grid, and the numbered cells spell the word readers send in.

When to use it

The puzzle corner of a weekly staff mail or a company magazine, with a new solution word each issue. A seasonal edition before the summer or the holidays, with a small prize for a correct entry. The same grid printed in the PDF edition and linked for anyone reading on screen.

What makes it this

Built on the Arrowword generator with these changed. Everything else is the default.

  1. Hidden solution

    Marked cells spell out a word or phrase that players enter to finish the puzzle.

    In the builder: How it plays › Hidden solution

  2. Solving it completes the activity

    The right solution finishes the activity, even with cells still empty.

    In the builder: How it plays › Hidden solution

  3. Remember answers between visits

    Answers come back when a player reopens the activity in the same browser.

    In the builder: Timing & attempts › Attempts & answers

Preview

View only — copy it to play.

The office week: newsletter puzzle

A back-page puzzle for a staff newsletter. Every clue sits in a shaded cell, and its arrow points to where the answer goes. The numbered cells spell this week's solution word: fill them in and it appears under the grid. In a real issue, this line says where readers send the word and by when.

16 words

Why the example is built this way

  1. The solution word is the whole point.

    Readers open a newsletter puzzle for the numbered cells. Pick a word or phrase none of your answers contains, and check that each of its letters appears in several of them, so the grid always has a cell to number.

  2. Spelling the word is enough.

    Solving it completes the activity is on. A prize draw asks for the word, not a full grid, so the activity finishes the moment the numbered cells spell it. Leave Shuffle the solution letters off, or the numbers disappear from the grid.

  3. Two or three words per clue.

    Each clue is drawn inside a grid cell, so keep it short: "Tea maker", not a definition. Remember answers between visits is on, because a newsletter puzzle gets done over several coffee breaks.

Build it yourself

  1. 1 Open the Arrowword builder and fill in the Words & clues tab.
  2. 2 Change the settings under What makes it this. Each one says where it is in the builder.
  3. 3 Share the link with your players, or embed the activity in your own site.

Or skip the building: copy this example and swap in your own content.