How to Write in Skip a Letter Code

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: August 8, 2019

Creating coded messages can be a fun way for you and a friend to pass on notes in secret. The skip a letter code is a simple encoding method that you can use to help keep your messages secret and safe. Only friends who know how to decode your message can read it. So if you want to learn an easy way to securely pass messages to your friends, learning more about the skip a letter code can be a good idea.

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Preparing The Code

1
Pick a word. Before you can use the skip a letter method to make a code, you will need to select a word. The word you choose is entirely up to you. Any word can be encoded using the skip letter code method. If you want to encode an entire message, start with the first word in your message.
- Any word will work for the skip a letter code.
- Encode each word in a phrase or longer message.
- Avoid encoding an entire message at once when using the skip a letter code.
2
Divide the word in half. To start the skip a letter code you will need to find the center of the word you have selected. To do this, count how many letters are in the word. If the word is even, split the word exactly in half. If the word has an odd amount of letters, put the extra letter on the left half of the word.
- For example, the word “code” would result in “co” and “de”.
- The word “codes” would result in “cod” and “es”.
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3
Write down the first letter of the first group. Take a look at the first half of your word and locate the first letter of this group. This letter will be the first one that you record in your encoded version of the word. It's important that you use the first letter of the first group to make sure the code can later be decoded.
- For example, if you used the word “secret”, we would have two halves; “sec” and “ret”.
- The first letter you would write down is the letter “s”.
4
Write down the first letter of the second group. After you've written down the first letter from the first half of the word, you can move onto the next. In your code, the second letter will be the first letter of the second half of the word you are encoding.
- If you were using the word “secret”, you would have two groups of letters; “sec” and ret”
- You will have already written the first letter of the first group down. In this case, the first letter was the letter “s”.
- Now you will write down the first letter of the second group. The first letter in the second group is “r”, resulting in “sr”.
5
Continue writing down the letters. Once your first two letters are written down, you can continue encoding your word in the same way you started. Take the second letter from the first half of the word and write it down. Write down the second letter from the second half of the word after that. Keep going in this way until you've used all the letters from both halves of the original word.^{[1]
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- Using the word “secret”, you would have two groups of letters; “sec” and ret”
- You should have already written down the first letters of each group, giving you “sr” as a result.
- Go back to the first group and write down the second letter. Here it would be “e”, giving you “sre”.
- Move to the second group and write down the second letter. This would give you “sree”.
- Going back to the first group, write down the final letter. The code would be “sreec” at this point.
- Finish the code by writing the last letter of the second group. The final code word would be “sreect”.
- Once you've used all the letters from the original word, the encoding process is complete.
6
Encode the rest of the message. If your message has more than one word to encode, use the same skip a letter code on the remaining words. Each word should be encoded using this method to create a fully encoded message. Once you've got the entire message encoded, you can safely share it with someone who knows how to decode it.

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Deciphering The Code

1
Look at the first letter of the encoded word. Once you've received a coded message, write down the very first letter of the encoded word. From here, write down every other letter you find. This will help you break the encoded word into its original halves, letting you recreate the original word.^{[2]
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- For example, start with the encoded word “sreect”. The letter “S” would be the first letter to write down.
- Write down every other letter in the code after “S”. This would result in “sec”, which is the original first half of the word before it was encoded.
2
Write down the second letter in the word. After you've written down the first letter of the word and every other letter after it, you can start on the second letter. Write this second letter down and then write down every letter after it. This will help you recreate the second half of the original word before it was encoded.^{[3]
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- As an example, imagine you are decoding the word “sreect”. The letter “R” would be your starting point for this step.
- Write down every other letter after “r” to complete the second half of the original word. In this case, the result is “ret”.
3
Recreate the entire word. Now that you have the two original halves of the word, you can put them together the recreate the original word. Take each half of the word and join them together to reveal the original word. If everything worked out properly, you should now have successfully decoded the word and you will be able to read it normally.
- As an example, the original coded word may have been “sreect”.
- When the original halves of the word were recreated, the result was “sec” and “ret”.
- These two halves combine to form the original word “secret”.
4
Finish decoding the message. You may have a message that is longer than one word. To read the entire message, use the decoding technique on each individual word. Once you decode each word, you will be able to clearly read the complete message.