Embedding a crossword with Crosshare
Crosshare makes it dead simple to start your own crossword blog. For those constructors who want a little more freedom, though, embedded puzzles are a great way to have interactive puzzles on your own web site.
How to embed
First, publish a puzzle on Crosshare. Your puzzle can be published privately or publicly, either way it can still be embedded. A public puzzle will also be eligible to appear on the Crosshare homepage and in our weekly email.
Once your puzzle is published, go to the puzzle page and click "More" in the upper right hand corner. Then click "Embed".
You'll see a new window pop up where you can get the embed code for your puzzle. Copy and paste this into your website's HTML code and you're good to go! The embed pop up also has options for you to customize the theme of your embeds - you can change the primary and secondary colors, enable dark mode, and more. Any changes to your embed theme apply to all of your embedded puzzles - you don't need to go back and re-embed existing puzzles when you make a change.
Why use Crosshare for your embeds
There are a number of options out there for embedding crossword puzzles. There are a couple of reasons why we feel Crosshare is the best choice:
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It's free and open-source. You know exactly how your puzzles are being shared and can even make improvements to Crosshare if you're a developer yourself.
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Instant community. If you decide to post publicly, your puzzles will be available on crosshare.org in addition to your own website. The Crosshare community is large and growing, so it's a great way to get more solvers and make a name for yourself in the crossworld!
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Comments are built-in. Crosshare puzzles have built-in comments that are packed with crossword-specific features. Comments include solve times and can reference specific entries that get nicely linked with their clues via tooltips.
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Best-in-class analytics. Every Crosshare puzzle comes with detailed analytics, including heat maps of solve difficulty.
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Meta leaderboards. If you decide to post
meta puzzles, Crosshare features built-in meta-submissions with a leaderboard.
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Responsive development. Crosshare is under active development and is improving all the time. If you have any suggestions or desire changes, just
open an issue.
Partnerships and custom development
If you're a publisher looking for a solution for adding crossword puzzles to your website we encourage you to reach out to
mike@crosshare.org. Custom development is available to make sure Crosshare meets your needs exactly.
This article is part of a series of posts designed to teach visitors about crosswords in general as well as some Crosshare specific features. If you have any questions or suggestions for this or other articles please contact us via email or discord.
We're seeking volunteers to help expand and edit this knowledgebase so it becomes more useful for constructors and solvers. If you're interested please reach out!