Word searches

The objective of a word search is to find hidden words in a grid full of characters. To show the programme that you have found a word you have to click on the first letter of the word, go to the last letter with the mouse and click again. If the word is correct it will appear marked in inverse video.

The words can be hidden in any direction: horizontal, vertical or diagonal, normally or back to front.

Optionally, Clic can be instructed to reveal the content in a second window as the words are found in the word search. The content of this alternative window can be a text, a graphic, or any kind of multimedia material.

Clic does not randomly set the positions of the words; it follows the distribution given and then fills the empty cells with random letters. To obtain different distributions of a group of words in a grid, you can use programmes such as WordSearch, which can be found in the "Clic Corner".

It is important to write the list of hidden words correctly, as Clic cannot detect which expressions are correct and which are not. If the activity has a second window, the words have to be written in the same order in that they should be shown in their cells.

Here are the steps to follow to make a word search:

- Sketch out the distribution of the words we want to appear on a sheet of paper (or use WordSearch to set the distribution).

- Create a new word search activity.

- Set the number of rows and columns that are needed to fit the word search in. The maximum is 10 rows and 21 columns.

- Write the hidden words in the grid, leaving the rest of the characters with the asterisks that Clic initially shows. You can move from one cell to another by using the arrow keys, and if an error is made it can be corrected by placing the cursor on the incorrect characters and pressing the SPACE BAR.

- Write the list of words that have been hidden in the grid in the Hidden words section.

- Optionally, mark the Right grid box and select a content type and the distribution of rows and columns for this second alternative window.

- To finish, write a welcome message and a good bye message, set the fonts and colours, etc.