Step-by-step tutorial
Step 1
Write your message in a zig-zig pattern on a grid 3 squares high. (It helps to keep the message short to start out with.)
Step 2
Now copy down the letters in the first row, then the second, then the third. You can add random spaces or just smush all the letters together. That's your coded message!
Step 3
To decode the message, the recipient simply writes the letters out in the same grid.
Final result!
Want more cipher styles? Try writing the same message again, but arrange the letters in columns instead of a zig-zag. (So to start with CODE, place C-O-D in the first column, then start the second column with E.)
Then follow the path shown by the red arrow and copy down the letters. That's your coded message!
There are many different variations of this technique. If you change the shape of the grid or the pattern that the arrow follows, you'll change the way the letters are scrambled. Give it a try and see what you come up with!
