At some point in their lives, the majority of people have probably come across word search puzzles. Basically these puzzles are a grid of letters containing various words placed in all types of directions (from left to right, from right to left, up and down the page, and in each of the various diagonal directions). Additionally, the words can overlap too, and any unused squares in the grid are filled with a randomly chosen letter.
The player's goal is of course, to find the words hidden in the letter grid, and circle each of these words. Often players will be told exactly what words to look for, but in more difficult puzzles, the designer may simply give the player a hint as to the type or subject matter of the words (for example, "countries in Europe").
Like jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, kakuro, crosswords and other types of puzzles, a lot of people enjoy word search puzzle as a recreational activity. It can be a pleasant distraction to hunt down those words! Moreover, since players need to place attention to words and their exact spelling, these puzzles are becoming increasingly popular with teachers, especially teachers of K-12 education and the English as a second language (ESL).
You can create word search yourself using nothing more than a pen and paper, but it can take you a long time! If you want to make some of these puzzles, the best answer is to use the computer - with the right software, it's a piece of cake: type a list of words and a puzzle can be generated automatically for you in a few seconds. As well as varying your word list, using software will also allow you to experiment with placing words in different orientations. and create different size and shap puzzles.
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