Word search puzzles have, like crosswords and arrowords, been very popular in the United Kingdom, and - also in common with these latter puzzles - have had complete magazines devoted to them. Word searches are commonly found in daily newspapers and puzzle books. Some teachers use them as educational tools for children, the benefit being that young minds can learn new words and their spellings by intensively searching for them, letter by letter, in the puzzle. A common strategy for finding all the words is to go through the puzzle left to right (or vice versa) and look for the first letter
Word polygon each word. Further rules may be set. One letter may be highlighted, and all words made must include that letter. A minimum length for words may be set. There is always at least one word that can be made using all of the available letters, and the rules may require that a maximum length word be found. With each puzzle, a number of words to aim for is usually included as a guide, with three difficulty ratings: good, very good and excellent. Each puzzle differs in its target, depending on the letters given to work with. In Australia, "The Advertiser"