Crossword puzzle form

You can't make whold-word text boxes because of where the horizontal and vertical answers overlap with the same letter. You will need to make one text box per square. 

Create one text box, set it up exactly as you want, 

Create multiple copies. (adjust spacing better than I did)

Delete text boxes over black squares. (I didn't make any black squares)

Since the Prepare Form wizard in Acrobat isn’t giving you the exact results you need, you can try a more manual approach to convert those crossword boxes into fillable fields, which might give you better control.

👉Here’s a step-by-step suggestion based on my experience with similar projects, keeping it compliant with Adobe’s community guidelines:

• Open the PDF in Acrobat: Load your crossword puzzle PDF in Adobe Acrobat (web-based Acrobat online works great on Chromebooks). Go to Tools > Prepare Form to start editing, even if the wizard didn’t fully work.
• Manually Add Text Fields: Instead of relying on the auto-detect feature, click Add a Text Field from the toolbar and place a small text box over each crossword square where students need to type a letter. You can resize them to fit neatly by dragging the corners and aim for a square shape to match the grid.
• Set Field Properties: Right-click each text field, select Properties, and set the font size (e.g., 12pt) and alignment to center. You can also limit the input to one character by going to the Options tab and checking “Limit of 1 characters” to mimic a crossword’s single-letter input.
• Copy and Paste for Efficiency: After setting up one text field perfectly, copy it and paste it across the grid to save time. Then, align each field to the corresponding crossword square using the arrow keys for precision.

This method lets you customize the fields exactly how you want, avoiding the wizard’s hit-or-miss detection. As a side note, I’ve seen puzzle enthusiasts create similar interactive forms for word games like crosswords or even Letterboxed 😊, where precise field placement is key to a clean user experience.

Only manually.