Question 1

Can you create puzzles with numbers using Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Search

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows you how you can easily create word search puzzles with numbers, using Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Search.

The steps in this tutorial apply to all versions of Word Search.

Step 1 - Select a file with numbers or paste the list of numbers

First of all, you need a list of numbers instead of words. The process is the same as for word search puzzles:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uI92RPKg8h/Word%20Search%20with%20Numbers.jpg (Word Search with Numbers)

As you can see, the numbers are in the puzzle, but the "filler", or empty squares are still using letters. You can easily fix that.

Step 2 - Enter the numbers for the empty squares

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/eNftVPmd6S/Word%20Search%20with%20Numbers%202.jpg (Word Search with Numbers 2)

Find the 'Hidden Word' section on the Solution tab, make sure 'Random Characters' is selected, and enter all the numbers you want as filler in the text field. Click 'New Preview' again to verify that the result is what you want it to be.

Right now the puzzle is correct, but there's one more step to make sure the PDF or PPT output looks good too:

Step 3 - Set the sort order

By default, words will be sorted in alphabetical (dictionary) order. You can do that for numbers too, but especially if you use numbers of different lengths, like 11 and 90210, you may want to use the numerical sort order. You can find this on the 'Style' tab, below the color settings.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/89vI8kQz01/Word%20Search%20-%20Number%20puzzles%203.png (Word Search - Number puzzles 3.png)

Connector Types

No Connectors

Puzzles no connectors are easiest to cut out. You won't be distracted by the connectors, but the image has to be clear enough to solve a puzzle without additional clues. You also won't get any clues as to which pieces are sides or corners. If you or your customers are people who tend to start with the edges of a puzzle, this may not be the best connector type for you.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FD92o6fKDW/Jigsaw%20007%20-%20Square%20Connectors.png (Jigsaw 007 - Square Connectors.png)

Additionally you can display the coordinates and/or a number of clues for the puzzle, as shown in this screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/nqigYYDS5D/Jigsaw%20008%20-%20Square%20Connectors%20and%20Coordinates.png (Jigsaw 008 - Square Connectors and Coordinates.png)

Note: You can see difference in sizing for the puzzle grid and the puzzle pieces in these screenshots, because the coordinates require space as well.

Square Connectors

The standard setting when you open the program. Because of this, most examples and tutorials use Square Connectors:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/M456z7oFcV/Jigsaw%20002%20-%20First%20Preview%20-%20Solution.png (Jigsaw 002 - First Preview - Solution.png)

These are easy to cut out, and add the much-needed help for difficult puzzles. You can also see what pieces go near the edges.

Triangle Connectors

The following screenshot shows what Triangle Connectors look like:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZWC6eu9y6j/Jigsaw%20009%20-%20Triangle%20Connectors.png (Jigsaw 009 - Triangle Connectors (1).png)

Much like square connectors, these are easier to cut out than the jigsaw connectors.

JigSaw Connectors

JigSaw Connectors are curved connectors that make your puzzle look like real jigsaw puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WKMQgbx0MG/Jigsaw%20010%20-%20JigSaw%20Connectors.png (Jigsaw 010 - JigSaw Connectors.png)

As you can see, these would be hard to cut out, but for copy / draw puzzles they look quite nice. Or if you have a cricut or similar, you could even cut these out properly to create a real jigsaw.

Other Connector Options

Connector Length

The Connector Length determines how much the connector sticks out from the edge of the puzzle piece. This is a percentage of the puzzle piece size: 0.25% is 1/4 of the size of the puzzle piece. Horizontal connector length is derived from the puzzle width, vertical connector length is derived from the puzzle height. The following screenshot illustrates this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/0k1yXbN2bp/Jigsaw%20011%20-%20Connector%20Length.png (Jigsaw 011 - Connector Length.png)

In the example we used a fixed size for the length. You can also choose to use a randomly varied length. To do this, you can set the minimum and maximum length for the connector.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/CyHZijeErN/Jigsaw%20012%20-%20Connector%20Length%20Random.png (Jigsaw 012 - Connector Length Random.png)

You can see in this screenshot that the lengths of the connectors vary greatly. You may notice that the smaller lengths also have smaller widths...

Connector Width

By default the Connector Width is equal to the Connector Length. In some cases you may want to use a fixed width - in that case you can set it to "Max". That will use the maximum width for all connectors, regardless of the length.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/LgkwjsvaZV/Jigsaw%20013%20-%20Connector%20Width%20Max.png (Jigsaw 013 - Connector Width Max.png)

Connector Position

The final option for the connectors is the Connector Position. By default the connectors are placed exactly in the middle of the side. The amount you enter here (up to 25%) defines the maximum random adjustment away from the center. This creates a more organic look, and extra hints for where the pieces go. Just like real puzzles, you can now also tell from the location and shape of the connector where a piece goes.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1MEmNJMUju/Jigsaw%20014%20-%20Connector%20Position.png (Jigsaw 014 - Connector Position.png)

Creating Puzzles

You always start off with a blank screen. If you've activated your software (Instructions for this appear are sent in an email automatically upon purchase), you can start making your own puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/DiiQYZeann/Nonogram%20starting%20screen.jpg (Nonogram starting screen)

The starting screen

You can select a file with the "Select File" button, and a preview of the puzzle/solution will be shown in the panel at the right. The original image is shown at the left. (The actual puzzle isn't shown, since this resembles the solution, but without the black squares.)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/dsUqnwedEQ/Nonogram%20Puzzle%20selected.jpg (Nonogram Puzzle selected)

We have selected a picture of a puppy

There are several ways to further customise and finetune the puzzle:

Select the Puzzle Format. There are further options for Small or Large, that will impact the final size of the puzzle.
You can choose where the hints are shown. Top/Left is automatically selected, if you deselect this the hints will go bottom/right.
You can add a separator. This will appear between the numbers on the left, to make the guide easier to read.
You can choose to show zeroes. If you uncheck this box, the rows without any solution will not have any numbers.
Remove Padding. This will remove all empty rows, and redraw the puzzle. If you have a puzzle with a large amount of white space on the edges, this could make more detail show up in the puzzle. However, this option can also change the amount of rows and columns that appear in the puzzle. For further information on how to avoid this, you can look up our Advanced Nonogram Editing tutorial.

We have used several of these options, which leaves us with this puzzle for now.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uLKz4TkItx/Nonogram%20Basic%20result.jpg (Nonogram Basic result)

For further tutorials, you can check out:

Question 4

How to create Crossword Variations with Puzzle Maker Pro

Accepted Answer

This tutorials shows how to create Crossword Variations with Puzzle Maker Pro. It applies to:

Introduction

Crossword Variations is our collection of all puzzles based on the crosswords format. There are many types of crossword variations:

Words placed in a grid or free format, that have to be guessed from given clues
Secret Word puzzles, which have additional hints and/or secret words
Cryptic puzzles where the clues are cryptic instead of straightforward

This tutorial provides an overview of all the options and features in the Crossword Variations module, that you can use to create unique puzzles that attract attention and stand out. (Or even boring, run-of-the-mill puzzles, if you desire).

There are additional tutorials for the specific puzzle types as well, that build on this main overview.

Crossword Variations Overview

When you select CrossWord Variations in the main menu, you'll see a window like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Vi6dajW6uc/Crossword-Variations-Overview.png (Crossword-Variations-Overview)

Select Puzzle Type "Crossword Variations", or select any of the crossword variations in the "Word Puzzles" menu
There are many different options for Crossword Variations puzzles. You can click on each button to show additional settings
The word list that is currently used
A preview of the most recently generated puzzle
Buttons to create (and save) a new puzzle, or generate a new preview with the current puzzle settings
Switch between puzzle and solution preview. By default it's set to Preview Solution

Note: for all puzzle types, the shape and layout of the puzzle will be heavily influenced by your word list. A mix of very long and very short words will usually result in oddly shaped and irregular puzzles.

Words

With Crossword Variations you can and have to use your own word lists. When you start this module the first time, a short word list is shown, to make it easier for you to play with the settings and get some fast results.

You can choose to provide a complete word list with clues (word descriptions) and other information, or to provide only a list of words without any other information, and use the integrated dictionary and editing system to add missing information.

Word Lists

A word list can be anything from just a list of words, to a list of words with word descriptions (used as clues) and other information. A full description and specification of the word list options can be found here: Word Lists for Crossword Variations

Word List Summary

Word : Clue - On each line, type a word and add the clue (description) separated by a colon ":". You can type multiple clues for each word, the generator will select a random clues for each puzzle
#title:title - you can add a title for the puzzle. This can appear in the puzzle book (depending on your settings) or in the puzzle image
#description:description
#secret:word:clue - use the tag "#secret" to specify the secret word for your puzzle

Word Settings

You can control how your word list is used to create puzzles on the "Settings" tab:

Word List Control: Use the word list only once, reset the word list for each new puzzle, or reset the word list only after all words have been used. Each puzzle will use randomly chosen words from the word list, even with a word list of only 20 or 30 words, you can create almost unlimited puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/zB0dWZ76G9/Crossword-Variations-Word-Settings.png (Crossword-Variations-Word-Settings)

Automatically remove characters / letters from your words. For example, you may want to remove all the spaces or hyphens from the words. For example, if the word list contains the word "word search", the puzzle would use "wordsearch". This setting is now available on the main Dictionary tab (to ensure consistency for all puzzles).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Z0hP14XzUQ/Puzzle%20Maker%20Pro%20-%20Letter%20Settings.png (Puzzle Maker Pro - Letter Settings)

You can also set the minimum and maximum number of words for a puzzle. When there are less than the minimum number of words in your word list, no puzzle will be created. For some crossword variations this option may have a slightly different function (which is detailed in the corresponding tutorials). For some puzzles you can "Minimize Word Count" or "Maximize Word Count", this will use as few or many words possible to cover the secret word and use the available grid space.

Dictionary

You can use the integrated dictionary to speed up your puzzle creation, and inspire your creativity as well. This dictionary is mostly AI generated, for the English language. That means it can really speed up your workflow, but it's also best to always verify the results that are provided. You can enable this dictionary on the main "Dictionary" tab.

Additionally you can use your own word list / dictionary file and even add a custom word list to save all the changes you make.

Letter Hints Options

There are two tabs in the puzzle settings that are used for some puzzles only:

Hints - These settings are used for secret word and letter hints puzzles only (e.g. not for the regular Criss Cross or Word Spiral puzzles)
Variation - This tab can contain custom settings for specific puzzles (e.g. Secret Word Grid). Otherwise a message "No Additional Settings for this puzzle type" is shown.

Hints tab

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/JyFzJe2f9s/Crossword-Variations-Hints-tab.png (Crossword-Variations-Hints-tab)

Choose between Secret Word or Alphabet hints. You cannot use both at the same time.
The secret word or phrase will be shown at the bottom of the puzzle (2)
You can specify which secret word to use by using the "#secret" tag in the word list, e.g. "#secret: orange : color". The other option is to randomly select a word from your word list to use as the secret word.
Minimum Matching Letters: You can choose to add only words that have 2 or more letters in common with the secret word or phrase. By setting this to '1', only one matching letter is needed. This value influences the number of hints that can be shown in the puzzle. This option is only applied when you use a secret word.
You can customise how many hints are shown for each letter. For example, if you set this to 3, the first letter of a secret word will only have 3 hints, the second letter will also have 3 hints (if possible). When you use Letter Hints, each letter (e.g. "A", "B" or "C") will only get 3 hints. This settings influences the difficulty of the puzzle.

Grid Settings

In Puzzle Maker Pro, puzzle images are generated with a consistent size, to make sure the puzzles can easily be used together in a puzzle book. In some cases this may seem counterintuitive.

Especially for crossword variations generated from your own word lists, which differently sized words, randomly generated puzzles, and optionally secret words or phrases that can have different lengths, it takes some steps to guarantee that the puzzles in your puzzle books will have consistent font sizes. Therefore we've added the "Fixed / Maximum Grid Settings". You can (and should) customise these settings to get the exact output you need. (And, honestly, it's best to just play with these settings and preview the puzzles to see what works best for your current project).

Crossword Variations - Criss Cross Grid 1

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZcSxJMBEvl/Crossword%20Variations%20-%20Criss%20Cross%20Grid%201.png (Crossword Variations - Criss Cross Grid 20x20)

Set the maximum grid size you need. If this is fixed, it will also determine the font size. Padding may occur, since crossword puzzles are created randomly and the exact size and shape depends on your word list
Dynamic size - The grid size will be used as a maximum size, and empty rows and columns will be removed before printing the puzzle.
Align the puzzle in the fixed grid. Especially with a fixed grid size, if the actual puzzle is smaller than the grid size, it can be aligned or centered horizontally or vertically.

The screenshot below shows a completely different grid size, used with the 'social media' image settings to add a title, description and watermark to the generated puzzle image:

Crossword Variations - Criss Cross Grid 10x25.png

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/MTM5yNKBuA/Crossword%20Variations%20-%20Criss%20Cross%20Grid%202.png (Crossword Variations - Criss Cross Grid 10x25)

Styling

The style options can be found on the Style 1 and Style 2 tabs. (The small size of the tabs is to accomodate users who work on a laptop).

Style 1 tab

The first Style tab includes the options for the main puzzle styling settings. In the screenshot you can see a custom font and blue'ish colors:

Crossword Variations - Style 1

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qOrJ9P3wDZ/Crossword%20Variations%20-%20Style%201.png (Crossword Variations - Style 1 tab)

You can set the font, font color and other font settings, the cell colors, additional colors for accented cells (for example in Acrostic Column), and the lines between cells and the outer border lines.

Style 2 tab

The second style tab has the style settings for the puzzle numbers:

Crossword Variations - Style 2

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WgAfN0cAWf/Crossword%20Variations%20-%20Style%202.png (Crossword Variations - Style 2)

Here you can choose between small word numbers in each cell, or separate word numbers as an additional square in the puzzle (as in the screenshot). You can also choose to use letters instead of numbers, and of course you can set the font and font color for the word numbers.

Clues Settings

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/5fv86ppDeT/AC%20-%20Clues%20tab.png (AC - Clues tab)

You can choose to use the classic clue output, which will be printed only in the Instant Puzzle Books (PDF or Powerpoint) or the new 'In Image' output, which is shown in the screenshot.
When you print the clues in the image, you can set the position and number of columns. Additionally you can set how much space the puzzle should take. The best value for this space allocation depends on the words you are using, it's best to play with this value, and the number of Clue Columns, and generate previews to see what looks best.
Two additional Clue Style options are available: "Word Fill" - A list of words is added, instead of the hints. The goal is to find the right positions for the words. "Word Scramble" - Instead of the clues, a random scramble of the words will be shown
For Acrostic puzzles, the Clue Headings are only used for "Word Fill", in which case the "Word Fill Title" can be set

Image and Output Options

In addition to 'clean' images that only contain the puzzles or solutions, you can also create images that have a title, description and watermark. These images can easily be used on social media, for advertising or as printables.

A full tutorial can be found here: (Social Media) Image Settings

Variation 1 Step 1 - Specify which letters to remove

On the 'Advanced' tab for Word Search Puzzle Settings, you can find an option 'Remove Other'. Although originally intended to remove certain symbols in other languages, such as ', `, and - in French words and word combinations, you can also use this setting to create Missing Vowel puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/7fxuVbZOfJ/Word%20Search%20-%20Hidden%20Vowels%201.png (Word Search - Hidden Vowels 1.png)

In the screenshot you can see that we chose to remove A, E, I, O, U and Y. Y isn't considered a vowel in all languages, but for this example it is.

By its nature, missing vowel word search puzzles will be very compact, since all the words will be a lot shorter and easier to connect to other words.

Warning: There are quite a few words that will result in just a single letter if you remove the vowels, such as 'age', 'ago', 'aid', 'aide', 'no', 'any', or two letters , like 'all', 'ally'. Especially the single letter results will make the puzzle hard or impossible to solve, since a single 'g' or 'n' could also be randomly chosen for an empty square. Please make sure that you check your word list and the resulting puzzle to verify that it's the puzzle you want to publish.

Variation 1 Step 2 - Fill the Empty Squares

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/JRFwKRSPyq/Word%20Search%20-%20Hidden%20Vowels%202.png (Word Search - Hidden Vowels 2.png)

On the 'Solution' tab you can specify which letters you want to use for the empty squares, in the 'Hidden Word' section. It makes sense to remove the vowels from this list as well.

Variation 2

In this variation, empty spaces are left over where vowels should go. For this we select the "Hide Vowels" option. As with variation 1, you can choose what you consider a vowel, as this could be different depending on your language.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/0EADBJUkkX/Puzzle%20maker%20word%20search%20no%20vowels.jpg (Puzzle maker word search no vowels)

Now, in the image above you still see the vowels, because we are looking at the solution. However, if we turn off "Preview Solution" in the bottom right of the screen, we see that all vowels have been removed, leaving only a blank space.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FXZKRvfDy6/No%20vowels%20word%20search.jpg (No vowels word search)

Introduction

With Puzzle Maker Pro version v2023.3.3, the Time Saver for Word Search has undergone significant changes. It now lets you combine multiple puzzle types in one single table (more about that later). This allows you to completely set up your puzzle book to look the way you want.

Using this Time Saver consists of 3 steps, before you click the "Create" button:

Set up the 'global' options for the puzzles and puzzle book,
Select the Word Lists you want to use in your puzzle book,
Configure the puzzles you want to generate and include in your puzzle book.

A good way of learning to use this version of the Time Saver is to play around with the word lists and puzzle configuration first. You can easily create 'test' puzzle books in Powerpoint or PDF format, to see the results of certain options, and delete these files when you're done.

Set up the Global Options

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/DoHTuPZd9K/Word%20Search%20TS2%20-%20Main%20Options%20Merge.png (Word Search TS2 - Main Options Merge (1).png)

First of all, you'll have to click the "Use Time Saver" checkbox at the top of the page to activate the Time Saver. The text for the "Create" button at the bottom will change into "Create (TS)".

Word List Use Options

The "Word List Use" options will override the similar options for the Word Search Puzzle Settings tab.

When you create several puzzles (for example, when you set quantity to 10), you can specify that words will only be used once (1). This means that you get a set of puzzles that don't use the same words. However, processing may stop when all words have been used.
Minimum Words for Final Puzzle will make sure there are enough words in the last puzzle, or it will stop generating puzzles. For example, if you have a list of 100 words, and the first two puzzles together use 85 words, you will not get a third puzzle, because there are only 15 words left for the puzzle.
"Stop when all words have been used" - In the previous example, you can order Time Saver to stop, so you get only 2 puzzles, or you can uncheck this options. In that case it will reset the word list and start over, with all words available for the next puzzle.
"Merge All Word Lists" (2) - If you specify more than 1 word list on the "Word Lists" tab, you may want to merge them into one large word list for all your puzzle. This allows you, for example, to use a Christmas themed word list, and a general word list together, so each puzzle will have some themed words and some words from the general list.

Layout Options

Word List Font Size
- With the default 'Variable Font Size' you may get a different font size for the different word lists, depending on the length of the words and the number of words. It's a matter of style choice whether you like this.
- You can also set it to "One Size Fits All". That will analyze all the word lists to find the largest font size that allows all the word lists to be printed in the available space.
- With "Fixed Font Size" you can explicitly specify the font size. With this option it makes sense to generate a test version of your book and check this manually: If you set the Font Size too large, some words may not be printed due to the available space the word lists.
Alignment - you can set the alignment of the puzzles in the available space. For example if you have one puzzle per page, with a trim size of 8.5" and 0.5" margins, that would leave 7.5" for the puzzle. Usually the height will then only be 4 or 5" (since the title and word list require some space as well), a square puzzle would be printed at a 5x5" size. You can set whether it should be aligned left, center or right. Additionally, you can 'force' Puzzle Maker Pro to align the word lists with the puzzle, to make the page look more compact.
In some cases, for example religious puzzle books, you may want to add a "Filtered Words" List. This is a list of words that should not appear in the puzzle by accident. (Please note: this will NOT filter words from the regular words list. If you use the word "homeowner" in a word list, and the word "meow" is in your filtered word list, the word "homeowner" can still appear in the puzzle!

Separate Word Lists

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/btqPiaMLWf/Word%20Search%20TS2%20-%20Main%20Options%20No%20Merge.png (Word Search TS2 - Main Options No Merge)

You can also choose to keep all word lists separate. In that case you can even use the word list file name as a title for the puzzle.

For example, if you have a word list "dinosaurs.txt", it can use the word "dinosaurs" as a title. When it results in several puzzles (e.g. quantity is set to 2 or higher), the puzzles will be numbered dinosaurs 1 and dinosaurs 2.

You can set up your own title format:

"Puzzle" is printed as is. You can type a different word here, or leave it out. For example for other languages you can change this.
"#" is the puzzle number. All puzzles in your book are numbered, unless you click "Don't Number the Puzzles".
%TITLE% is a placeholder that will be replaced with the name of the word file. The way this is set up in the screenshot could result in a puzzle title like "Puzzle 113 dinosaurs".

Select the Word Lists

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/KGUmdNLMBr/Word%20Search%20TS2%20-%20Word%20Lists.png (Word Search TS2 - Word Lists)

On the next tab you can select your word lists. Each file should be a plain text file with ONLY the words you want to use, each word on a separate line. Each line will be considered a separate word for the puzzles.

An example:

Configure the Puzzles

To specify which puzzles you want to generate and print in your puzzle book, go to the "Batch Creation" tab. Please don't let the numbers and arrows in the screenshot below overwhelm you.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Sy9kpXa2K9/Word%20Search%20TS2%20-%20Batch%20Creation.png (Word Search TS2 - Batch Creation)

What you see here is a table that contains a row for each puzzle configuration that you want to create. Regular puzzles with just the number of rows and columns, Preset puzzles from your own Word Search presets, and Mask puzzles, from your own saved masks.

At the top left, you can set the Default Quantity (1) for each row you add. By default it's set to 1. You can also edit the configuration for each row later on, just by clicking on the cell you want to change.

You can move rows up and down by selecting a single row and clicking the "Row Up" or "Row Down" buttons.

You can delete rows from the table by selecting one or more rows and clicking the "Delete Selected" button, or clicking the "Delete All" button. Deleting rows from this table will NOT delete presets or saved masks.

Adding Regular Word Search Puzzles (2)

The easiest way to add puzzles, which was called 'Fast' in the older Time Saver, is by setting the number of rows and columns. In box (2) you can see that both the Rows and Columns are set to 20. When you click the button "Add", it will add a row to the table:

Type: R (Regular), this identifies the type of puzzle for that row
(File) Name "Rectangle". This has no further meaning for Regular puzzles
Word List "Default". See "Word List Setup for Specific Puzzles" below for details.
Rows / Cols: The number of rows and columns for the word search puzzle
Quantity: The number of puzzles to generate
Number of Words: The number of words for the puzzle. A value of 0 (zero) means unlimited, as many as can be fit in
Diag: Allow Diagonals for the puzzle
Rev: Allow Reversed (Backwards printed) words for the puzzle
BG: Not relevant for Regular puzzles

Adding Word Search Puzzle Presets (3)

To use your existing Word Search Puzzle Presets to the list, click "Add Presets". This will open a window where you can select all the presets you want to add. The information in the table that's specific for Preset rows:

Type: "P" for Preset
(File) Name: The name of the preset
Word List: See "Word List Setup for Specific Puzzles" below for details.

Adding Word Search Saved Masks (4)

To use your existing Saved Masks to create puzzles, click "Add Masks". This will open a window where you can select all the masks you want to add. These are mask that are saved from the Mask Editor that's shown when you click "set Mask" in the Puzzle Settings tab for Word Search puzzles. The information in the table that's specific for Mask rows:

Type: "M" for Mask
(File) Name: The name of the saved masks file
BG: Print the mask silhouette as a background for the puzzle. You can switch this on and off for each row of type Mask. Additionally, since you probably want to have a consistent approach to printing mask, you can set the default value for this option in box (4): Print Mask as Background

Word list Setup for Specific Puzzles

The "Word List" column in the table gets the value "Default" for each new row. There are some other options.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/KqsfjZax9w/Word%20Search%20TS2%20-%20Word%20List%20in%20Row.png (Word Search TS2 - Word List in Row)

To change the Word List value for any of the rows in the table, click the down arrow (the 'v' next to Default) to get a list of options.

Default: This will use the default word list setup as defined on the "Main" tab. For each row the word lists will be reinitialized
- Merge All Word Lists: For each row in this table, whether the quantity is 1 or more, the 'merged' word list is initialized and used. That means that the same word can be used for puzzles from several rows. (The option "Use Words Only Once" applies only to the quantity of puzzles for a single row)
- Separate Puzzles Per Word List: For each row in the table, the next word list will be used. For example, the first row with "Default" will use word list 1, the second will use word list 2, etc. When there are no more word lists, it will start back at word list 1.
Word List From Preset: This will work only for rows with the "Preset" type! It will use the word list that was saved with the puzzle preset. This can be a pasted list of words, or a word list file. (If you use this setting for the other rows in the table, it will revert to "Default" when processing the table
A specific Word List file: You can also select any of the word list files that you added to the "Word Lists" tab. You'll need to set up all the word lists you want to use on the "Word Lists" tab, because Puzzle Maker Pro won't know in which folders you store all your word lists. When you select a specific file, such as "Car Brands.txt" in the screenshot, only that file will be used for the puzzle.

Tips and Tricks

The previous version of the Time Saver would 'multiply' the number of word lists with the quantities set in the table. This (new) version will generate exactly the quantities that are set in the table, unless your word lists do not contain enough words.
Setting up Masks or Word Search Presets is a time investment that will pay off. You can choose to either set up a Word Search Preset with a Mask and a Word List, or to just create the Mask and Word List and combine them in the table in the Time Saver. The result will be identical
If you have a Preset with a mask, and you change the number of rows and columns in the table, the mask will not be used. Example: If you have a mask of a cat that has 23 rows and 17 columns, and you change the numbers to 25 rows and 20 columns, the mask will not fit with those dimensions and will not be used
You'll need to add ALL the word lists you want to use, on the "Word Lists" tab. These will be added automatically to the drop down menu for the Word List column
You can add a list of Presets and then add a list of Masks, and use the Row Up / Row Down button to mix them up, if needed. You can also maximize the Puzzle Maker Pro window on your computer to see more of the table.

Getting Started with Puzzle Maker Pro - Cross Sum

For Cross Sum it's not just important to understand the software, but you also need to understand the puzzles themselves:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/HiKrCpIHM7/0-20210330105932-1-01-J-P.png (0-20210330105932-1-01-J-P.png)

The rules:

Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares, to solve these simple equations
Calculate the steps from left to right, the first line would be (x + y) divided by z = 4, and top to bottom.
The outcome has to be zero or greater
Intermediate results have to be zero or greater
The outcome has to be an whole number, not a fraction.

The solution for this puzzle would be:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/F235Y4qjLd/0-20210330105932-1-01-J-S.png (0-20210330105932-1-01-J-S.png)

Creating Cross Sum puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro

If this is the first time you're using Puzzle Maker Pro, there's an introduction of the main options here:

Getting Started with Puzzle Maker Pro

Information about the generic tabs in puzzle Maker Pro (Output Settings, Instant Puzzle Books and Tools) can be found here:

Puzzle Maker Pro - Tutorial Overview

When you start the Cross Sum module in Puzzle Maker Pro, you'll see a view like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/l31ILCpmjh/001%20Cross%20Sum%20Overview.jpg (001 Cross Sum Overview.jpg)

Cross Sum Standard

For standard Cross Sum puzzles, the rules are fixed. You can customize your puzzles by changing fonts, colors, adjusting the line width, etc.

Just click "Preview" when you make changes, to see a new puzzle in your customized style.

Cross Sum Variations

If you purchased the Cross Sum Variations module, you can change the rules for Cross Sum puzzles. Please be aware that you need to state clearly what the rules for a puzzle are, otherwise you'll confuse your customers.

Select the "Variations" tab, and select "Custom" to enable the different options.

Some of these options will allow you to create easier puzzles that can be used for teaching math.

You can combine the different options, but we'll show them one by one.

Select Operations

First of all, you can select with operations / operators are allowed. There are different options, such as only plus and minus.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rUhHfJTKkg/010%20Cross%20Sum%20variations%20-%20Only%20Plus%20Minus.jpg (010 Cross Sum variations - Only Plus Minus.jpg)

Even though fewer operations are allowed, it doesn't necessarily mean that the puzzles are easier.

Negative Outcomes

Negative Outcomes, including intermediate steps, can be enabled. You'll get results like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NxMeQ8TisP/011%20Cross%20Sum%20variations%20-%20Negative%20Allowed.jpg (011 Cross Sum variations - Negative Allowed.jpg)

Fraction Outcomes

Fraction Outcomes will be displayed as 3/4, instead of 0.75. These will be simplified as well, e.g. 12/16 will become 3/4.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/T8D8y1I338/012%20Cross%20Sum%20variations%20-%20Fractions%20Allowed.jpg (012 Cross Sum variations - Fractions Allowed.jpg)

Regular Math

As stated in the first section, Cross Sum puzzles are calculated from left to right. This may feel unnatural, and you can change the math rules, by selecting "Regular Math". This will enable the order of operations you've learned in school with PEMDAS (or similar acronyms).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/DArxscd5Sj/013%20Cross%20Sum%20variations%20-%20Regular%20Math.jpg (013 Cross Sum variations - Regular Math.jpg)

Normally, the first line would be solved as (4 + 2) x 8, or 6 x 8 = 48. However, with the regular math option, it will be processed as 4 + (2 x 8) = 4 + (16) = 20.

Custom Numbers

Last but not least, you can enter custom numbers. There are two options to add a consecutive range, either select 11-19, or select "Base + 1 to 9" and enter a number. For example entering 25 would give you the numbers 26 to 34.

In the example we've used custom numbers:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/6cpRGNWeLY/014%20Cross%20Sum%20variations%20-%20Numbers%2020.jpg (014 Cross Sum variations - Numbers 20.jpg)

Another option is to type the numbers, separated by spaces or commas. You can be creative here, but be careful to explain your custom rules to your customers!

Question 8

How to Use LCB Book Creator (Powerpoint product)

Accepted Answer

This tutorial describes how to Use LCB Book Creator (Powerpoint product). It applies to:

For the Reseller / White Label product, the screenshots may look slightly different because of product customisation. for the Source Code product, this tutorial shows how the scripts and macros work after delivery.

First Things First - Handling Security Issues

If you get security warning from Powerpoint when you start the product, you have to tell both Windows and Powerpoint that you accept the file and the macros. We have a separate tutorial that shows you in detail how to do this: Enable Powerpoint Macros

Using LCB Book Creator

You can find LCB Book Creator on the Add-ins ribbon:

LCB Book Creator Finding the Add-In

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/2t13ML5EZa/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Finding%20the%20Add-In.png (LCB Book Creator Finding the Add-In)

LCB Book Creator Finding the Add-In

Click the "LCB Book Creator" text or icon to start the LCB Book Creator:

LCB Book Creator Main Window

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Bnja5XbYzz/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Window.png (LCB Book Creator Main Window)

LCB Book Creator Main Window

There are 5 different (small) steps:

Select the CSV File, the data file for your Low Content Book or Images,
Select the Powerpoint Template file
Verify Placeholders - Check that all placeholders in the Powerpoint file do have data in the CSV file
Set the Powerpoint Output file
Generate Slides.

Optionally you can create example files, this will save a sample CSV file and a sample Powerpoint file to your computer. (You can select the sample files for step 1 and 2, to do a first test-run with LCB Book Creator).

CSV Files

CSV means "Comma Separated Variable length". In other words: the different values, texts, on each line are separated by commas. Besides that, it's just a plain text file, that you can type in Notepad, or save in Excel (use csv as the output format).

For LCB Book Creator, the first line needs to have the 'Placeholder' names, that will be present in the Powerpoint file.

After the first line with the placeholders, you can add lines with data. The lines will be processed one at a time.

Powerpoint Templates

Powerpoint Templates for LCB Book Creator are regular Powerpoint files. You can use placeholders (like "%TITLE%") that will be replaced with text from the CSV file.

The image below is from the sample Powerpoint Template file.

PPT Sample File

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XE7n05BEIF/PPT%20Sample%20File.png (PPT Sample File)

PPT Sample File

The sample file is plain, and it is not recommended to use it 'as is'. It is intended to show you how the placeholders work. You can design the Powerpoint file any way you like, and you can even use multiple slides for each row of data in the CSV file.

Whever the text for a placeholder is an existing file on your computer (e.g. "C:/Images/Books.jpg"), LCB Book Creator will replace the placeholder with the image. Otherwise, it will only replace the placeholder text with the next text.

Output Settings

To generate a Powerpoint file, you'll always need to specify where the new file must be saved (step 4).

Additionally, you can automatically generate image files in PNG, JPG and PDF format. These will be saved in a subfolder. The value in the first column of your CSV file will be used as the filename.

Generate Powerpoint Slides

When you click Generate, a Powerpoint file will be created and saved to your computer, with the name and location that you selected in step 4. This may take a couple of seconds, depending on the complexity of your template, the number of placeholders and the size of the CSV file.

Question 9

How to use the Time Saver for Word Puzzles

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to create Word Scramble puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Scramble.

This tutorial applies to:

Time Saver for Word Puzzles

This Time Saver is currently available for:

Puzzle Maker Pro - Time Saver for Word Puzzles

This Time Saver is still being beta tested. An upgrade is expected ultimately on June 1st 2023.

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