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How to Create a Message Decoding Puzzle

Message can be coded in various ways, but the most common and simple way is to code a message using shifted substitution, where each alphabet is shifted up or down the alphabetical order. For instance, all the ̶0;A̶1;s are replaced with ̶0;C̶1;s, ̶0;B̶1;s with ̶0;D̶1;s, ̶0;F̶1;s with ̶0;H̶1;s and so on. Thus, ̶0;Hello Lisa̶1; can be coded as ̶0;JGNNQ NKUC.̶1; A message decoding puzzle can be made by determining how much to shift up or down the alphabet. Such cryptography is also known as a Caesar cipher.

Instructions

- 1
  Make a message you wish to encode and write it out on a piece of paper. It helps if you write the message in capital letters.
- 2
  Choose how many letters you want to shift your message. For instance, you may choose to shift the message four letters toward Z. Then, ̶0;A̶1;s will become ̶0;E̶1;s, ̶0;B̶1;s will become ̶0;F̶1;s, and so on.
- 3
  Create a key. Write down the alphabet from A to Z, and write below the shifted alphabet. For the example above, you will start the alphabet with E.
- 4
  Encode the message, using your key as a reference. To make the puzzle harder, you may omit spaces between words.
- 5
  Type the encoded message on a Word document and print it to make a puzzle worksheet.

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