Question 1

Getting Started with Link Finder (Plugin for Powerpoint)

Accepted Answer

Getting Started with Link Finder (Plugin for Powerpoint)

The Link Finder plugin for Powerpoint is a tool to help you manage all the invisible link shapes that you (or your designer) may have added to a Powerpoint file.

If you haven't yet installed it, please do that first. You can find a tutorial on how to install Link Finder and our other Powerpoint Plugins here. (Link Finder is included in the download for Easy Journals).

##Finding Links

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FlzkMszl5R/Link%20Finder%2001%20-%20Set%20Up%20colors.jpg (Link Finder 01 - Set Up colors.jpg)

The slide that's shown in this screenshot contains a couple of invisible shapes with links to other slides. It's hard to find these, especially if you haven't created the slide yourself, or if it was created a long while ago.

In the plugin panel you can see only very few options:

The color (now set to a very bright green color). Invisible shapes will be set to this color,
Transparency, ranging from 0% to 100% transparent. Although it makes sense to make the shapes opaque, that would also mean you cannot see the shape below it (which may have meaningful text). That's why you can set transparency to e.g. 20%. (The best value depends on the color you select and the colors of the shapes in your Powerpoint file).
A selector for "Current Slide" or "All Slides".

Click "Find Links" to find the invisible (transparent) shapes that contain link. It will show something like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IfR4VZLk8I/Link%20Finder%2002%20-%20Results.jpg (Link Finder 02 - Results.jpg)

Once you've done your inspection or editing, you can make the links transparent again by using "Hide Links". This will make the shapes fully transparent again, but it only works for shapes previously found with "Find Links".

Question 2

Getting Started with Planner Links (Plugin for Powerpoint)

Accepted Answer

Getting Started with Planner Links (Plugin for Powerpoint)

This plugin for Powerpoint offers an easy way to add links to your Digital Planners.

Digital Planners, planners that are shared as PDF's, usually have a table of contents or another way to navigate inside the document, that relies on links. For each shape or text in Powerpoint, you can add a link (also known as hyperlink) to specific slides or pages.

This is usually done by adding a hidden shape on top of the visible shape, because of the side effects of adding links directly to shapes with text (only the text is clickable).

Planner Links offers a transparent (pun intended) way to manage the invisible links, in three steps:

Add one or more tags to the slides that need to be linked to (the link targets)
Select tags to add to the shapes that can be clicked,
Generate the links for the document (or for a single slide).

If you haven't yet installed the plugin, you need to do that first. You can find a tutorial here. (Planner Links is installed with the download called Easy Journals).

Open the plugin panel, then follow the steps below.

Add Link Targets

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/MgMaUqIOrU/Planner%20Links%2001%20-%20Link%20Targets.jpg (Planner Links 01 - Link Targets.jpg)

To add tags to a slide, select the slide in Powerpoint (1). This wil automatically display the active tags for that slide (2). There can be more than one tag for each slide: For example, the first slide for a calendar could have tags "Calendar" and "January", while the second slide only has the tag "February".

After typing the new or changed tags in box (2), click the "Set Slide Tags" button (3). Automatically they will be displayed as available tags in list (4).

These tags are not visible in Powerpoint, however they will be saved as meta-data inside your Powerpoint file. (Meaning: they will be available in a next working session with the Powerpoint file).

Add Tags to Shapes

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Vw2orMxZiy/Planner%20Links%2002%20-%20Shape%20Link.jpg (Planner Links 02 - Shape Link.jpg)

Each shape (or text, or group) can have one tag (or none). It's not possible to add more than one tag, since that would mean you would want to link to more than one slide (page) at a time.

To add or change the tag for a shape, select the shape on your slide (1). After selecting it, you'll see the current tag for that shape (2). If you want to change it, you can select a tag in the list (3) and click "Add to Shape" (4), or remove the tag from the shape (5).

You can also select more than one shape and add the same tag to all selected shapes at once.

Create Links

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/CfJlCVL0MG/Planner%20Links%2003%20%20-%20Create%20Links.jpg (Planner Links 03 - Create Links.jpg)

To add (create) the actual links, select the "Create Links" tab.

You can choose to add links to the current slide or to all slides in the Powerpoint file (including Master Slides) (1). To Add Links, click "Add Links" (2). This will remove old links and add new ones. To only remove existing links, click "Remove Links" (3).

Note: These options will only remove links that were created with "Planner Links", it does not handle links and invisible shapes that were added manually.

Note: It is not possible to set a Master Slide as link target (for obvious reasons). However, you can add tags to shapes on Master Slides, these will be turned into links when you click "Add Links" (with the "All Slides" option enabled).

Question 3

Getting Started with Puzzle Maker Pro - Cross Sum

Accepted Answer

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 4

How to use the Manual mode in Mixed Puzzle Books (plugin for Powerpoint)

Accepted Answer

This tutorial explains the Manual mode in Mixed Puzzle Books (plugin for Powerpoint)

Overview of the Manual process

Using Mixed Puzzle Books with Manual Layout adds a few steps to the Automatic process:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WS53HEptbA/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20020%20Manual%20Layout%20Overview.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 020 Manual Layout Overview (1).jpg)

Some of the steps are identical to the "Auto" approach, some are different:

Select Puzzles - Select puzzles and solutions
Set up the Puzzles Grid (this will be used to generate the template in step 4)
Set up the Solutions Grid (this will be used to generate the template in step 4)
Create the Template Pages for your book
Define the Templates to use - you have to tell the plugin which slides are the puzzles templates and which slides are the solutions templates
Create Puzzle Book

In addition to that, you have to click the "Use Manual Layout" box to make sure the settings are used.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/QeCv0UcQaB/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20050%20-%20Manual%20Overview.PNG (Easy Puzzle Books 050 - Manual Overview.PNG)

Step 1: Select Puzzles

This is step is identical for Automatic Layout and Manual Layout. A tutorial can be found here.

Step 2: Set up Puzzles Grid

This is step is identical for Automatic Layout and Manual Layout.

Step 3: Set up Solutions Grid

This is step is identical for Automatic Layout and Manual Layout.

Step 4: Create and Edit the Template Pages

For both the Puzzles template and the Solutions template, there are three things you need to do:

Step 4.1: Specify the number of puzzles for the template

The number of puzzles does not have to be equal to the grid size, because you can select more than one page (slide) for the template. For example, you could choose to create different 'left' and 'right pages.

For example, if you have a 2x2 grid (4 puzzles on a page), you could choose to have 4, or 6 or 8 puzzles in the template. (or any other number!). If you choose a number larger than 4, you'll need multiple pages. By default the nur of puzzles is set to the grid size.

Step 4.2: Create Grid Puzzles (or Solutions)

Click the green button "Create Grid Puzzles" (or "Create Grid Solutions") to create new slides with the specified number of puzzles.

The screenshot shows a grid with 3 rows and 2 columns, and Nr of Puzzles set to 6, so you'd get just 1 single slide.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NTqUsi9n1K/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20041%20-%20Manual%20Create%20Grid.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 041 - Manual Create Grid.jpg)

Here you can see the 6 different placeholders for puzzles, and 6 for puzzle titles. (You'd see the same type of placeholders on the solution template.

As long as these placeholders remain in place, you can completely change the look and feel of this template slide. For example, change the position of titles and puzzles, change the font and color of the titles. You can also change the size of the puzzle placeholders.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/equTmkIObX/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20042%20-%20Manual%20Edit%20Grid.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 042 - Manual Edit Grid.jpg)

You can repeat this step for the Solution Grid, so you'll end up with at least one Puzzle Page Template, and one Solution Page Template.

Summarized: The Grid Size (e.g. 2x2) defines how a basic grid will be generated, the "Nr of Puzzles" controls how many puzzles will be used on the template. (You can leave it to be identical to the default values)

Step 5: Define the Template Pages To Use

You can create 1 or more template slides for the puzzles, and 1 or more tempate slides for the solutions. That means the plugin cannot really know which is which, and you have to specify which slides to use. (That means you can even create one master Powerpoint file with all your templates, and just select the ones you need for this session).

When you use more than 1 template slide for puzzles or solutions, you can also include slides that do not have any placeholders, but other text, images, etc.

In the screenshot below we've used 1 puzzles template slide and 1 solutions template slide:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/OfYHNVD1Ta/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20021%20Puzzle%20Templates.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 021 Puzzle Templates (1).jpg)

The red arrows (right to left) show how the "Nr of Puzzles" determines the layout. The green arrows show the definition of Puzzle Template and Solution Template.

To do this: First select the puzzle slide (or slides) in 'Slides Pane'. In the example that's slide 2. With this slide selected, click the green "Set Puzzle Slides" button (Step 4).

Next select the solution slide or slides. In this example that's slide 3. Click "Set Sol Slides".

You can now see a small status text (the red rectangle in the screenshot): "Puzzle Slides: 2" and "Sol Slides: 3". The numbers are the slide numbers.

Finish: Create Puzzle Book

The settings for the final step are identical to the settings for Automatic Layout. Click "Create Puzzle Book" to create slides (optionally in a new file) with your puzzles and your manual layout.

The screenshot below shows the results when you'd use 3 puzzles in the template, in an edited 2x2 grid, and 6 solutions in a 2x3 grid.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/atW1bl6YnS/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20022%20Manual%20Layout%20Result.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 022 Manual Layout Result.jpg)

You can see one blue square: That's one of the placeholders in the template that was not replaced by a puzzle (because there were only 200 puzzles, this would be puzzle 201). You'll need to remove these additional placeholders manually.

Final remarks

Feel free to play with the options, and it's best to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. (That's what I do as well).

The suggested workflow, at least while getting started, is to set up the puzzles and the grid, and create a book from those puzzles. That way you can see how the puzzles work together when mixed. The next step can be to choose a different grid format, or to choose the Manual Layout.

Once you've create a couple of books, you'll probably have a couple of layout templates that work well for you, that can be reused (using presets).

Puzzles / Solutions per Page

The settings for Puzzles per Page and Solutions Per Page is part of the puzzle settings, but it can be adjusted when creating the grids: If you set it to 1, and the grid is 2x3, you'll need 6 puzzles / solutions per page. It will be automatically set to 6. (It's only adjusted when CREATING the grids, not in other steps)

However, there's no automatic check later on, so if you manually adjust these numbers, e.g. set the Puzzles per Page to 4, you may get an incomplete set of puzzles in your book, or worse, you get duplicates.

An example: For the first page, the first puzzle number will be 1. Then 2, etc. For the second page (more precisely: the second copy of the puzzles template slides, the first puzzle number will be 1 + the number of Puzzles per Page. When the Puzzles per Page are set to 4, the second page will start with puzzle 5. When Puzzles per Page is set to 8, the second page will start with puzzle 9.

If you use a grid with 6 puzzles on a page, the first example (with 4 puzzles per page) will result in duplicates, while the second example (with 8 puzzles per page) will never print puzzles 7 and 8.

Question 5

How to Set Up Puzzles and Solutions for Mixed Puzzle Books (plugin for Powerpoint)

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to set up your puzzles and solutions to create a puzzle book with Mixed Puzzle Books Plugin for Powerpoint.

Puzzle Sets

For the Mixed Puzzle Books plugin for Powerpoint, we use the term Puzzle Set to indicate a set of puzzles and solutions that can be used to fill a single spot on the page of a puzzle book.

In the example we will be using four different types of mazes as four puzzle sets. However, it's totally up to you. If you would want to have a set of mazes and a set of sudokus, that would work too.

When you click "Select Puzzles", you'll see a empty list of puzzle sets, like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rILtQ3FOee/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20010%20Puzzle%20Sets.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 010 Puzzle Sets.jpg)

This may look intimidating, but it just means you haven't selected any puzzles yet.

To start, click "Add New" (1) to create a new puzzle set.

You can also save the entire list of puzzle sets as a preset (2). It's important to do this when you cannot finishe the book in one session, because Powerpoint will NOT save the plugin data with the Powerpoint file. you'll need to do this manually.

In the next screenshot you can see the puzzle sets we use for this tutorial: Four different types of mazes, 50 of each.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/6M6AAdlc7W/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20011%20Puzzle%20Sets%20Example.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 011 Puzzle Sets Example.jpg)

When you click "Add New" or "Edit" (if you have a puzzle set selected), you can edit the puzzles and solutions.

Note: There's no built-in limit to the number of puzzles or puzzle sets you can use.

Puzzles and Solutions

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/HQSKL5ABpv/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20-%20004%20Select%20Puzzles%20-%20Blank.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books - 004 Select Puzzles - Blank.jpg)

The screenshot shows the empty Puzzle Files window. This is what it will usually look like when you start, unless you have used a preset already.

For Mixed Puzzle Books, it's important that you enter a meaningful name. That way it will make sense in the list of puzzle sets.

You can click "Add Puzzles" to add puzzles, and "Add Solutions" to add solutions. Pretty easy, isn't it?

The puzzles and solutions will be displayed in the list. Especially for the first few puzzle books, it makes sense to verify that the proper puzzles and solutions are matched.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/TozOU08WIX/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20-%20005%20Select%20Puzzles%20-%20Details.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books - 005 Select Puzzles - Details.jpg)

In this screenshot you can see that a number of puzzles and solutions have been selected. Each line contains < P>: showing the puzzle file name, and < S>: showing the solution file name. When you click on each line, a message box will show you the full path for the puzzle and solution.

Note: When you use presets, you'll get a warning "File Not Found", if your list of puzzle files contains files that cannot be found. For example when you've deleted the files or moved them to a different location.

Titles

Select the "Titles" tab to see more information:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/nA1gAdP70G/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20-%20006%20Select%20Puzzles%20-%20Title%20Auto.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books - 006 Select Puzzles - Title Auto.jpg)

For Mixed Puzzle Books, you can set up different titles for different puzzles. For example "Puzzle ## - Sudoku" instead of just "Puzzle ##".

You can edit the Puzzle Title, Solution Title and Number Symbol here. These settings are part of the preset for the puzzles (if you choose to save a preset).

In the screenshot, the lower part of the window is greyed out. This is not used for Mixed Puzzle Books.

Question 6

How Can I Create Books with Mixed Puzzle Books (plugin for Powerpoint)?

Accepted Answer

Getting Started

This tutorial explains the steps to create puzzle books using Mixed Puzzle Books (plugin for Powerpoint).

If you are using Puzzle Maker Pro, you can quickly create puzzles and puzzle books with a single mouse-click. However, there is a lot of puzzle-software available - free and commercial - that only creates the puzzles, not the books. That's where Mixed Puzzle Books comes in. (Fair warning: the Easy Puzzle Book plugins may not work properly with certain Puzzle Maker Pro puzzle types, such as Word Search or JigSaw).

Install the Plugin

First of all, you'll need to install the software: Easy Puzzle Books is a plugin for Powerpoint - it requires MS Windows and MS Powerpoint to be installed on your computer. It does not work with the cloud (browser) version of MS Office / Powerpoint.

If you haven't installed the plugin yet, you should do that first. There's a tutorial for downloading and installing the plugin here.

Start the Plugin

To start Easy Puzzle Books, open the "Add-ins" ribbon in Powerpoint (this is a menu option, usually just to the left of the Help Menu).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/c2xd7twyDJ/Add-in%20menu.jpg (Add-in menu.jpg)

The Add-ins ribbon should contain the BookPublisherTools group of options. Click "More Options" to open the dropdown menu, and select "Mixed Puzzle Books".

Mixed Puzzle Books - Overview

If you have used the Easy Puzzle Books plugin for Powerpoint, please be aware that Mixed Puzzle Books is designed slightly differently.

The Mixed Puzzle Books plugin will open a panel at the right (just like the shape edit panel in Powerpoint). The panel has two tabs:

First things first: Page Setup

Always set up the page size first, otherwise you'll be generating grids and puzzle page in the wrong format later.

Automatic Book Generation

As you can see in the screen shots, there are 4 steps to set up and create your puzzle book:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sMpP6hL201/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20001%20Overview.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 001 Overview.jpg)

At the top of the tab page is a "Preset" section: You can save the entire book setup as a preset, and retrieve it later. This will NOT save the Powerpoint contents, and saving the Powerpoint file will NOT save the Easy Puzzle Books data!

Step 1: Set up the puzzles

Select puzzle and solution files on your computer for your puzzle book. Click the green button "Select Puzzles". More details can be found in the Puzzle Setup Tutorial.

After selecting the puzzles and solutions, you should see the status information next to the green button.

There are two additional options:

"Start At" - The first puzzle number to use. In most cases this will be 1 (one), but if you want to create parts of a puzzle book to combine later, you can enter a different number here,
"Balance Puzzle Sets" - Use this option to make sure each page will contain an equal number of puzzles from each set. An example: if you have 4 sets of 50 puzzles and want to balance them, the four puzzles will be used in a random order. The order can be A-B-C-D C-A-B-D D-A-C-B, but it will never be A-A-B-C D-A-C-D.

Note: For Mixed Puzzle Books it makes sense to name the puzzle sets properly, to prevent making mistakes.

Note: If you select just one set of puzzles, Mixed Puzzle Books create books that are identical to Easy Puzzle Books output.

Step 2: Set up the Puzzles Grid

Easy Puzzle Books will use a grid-style layout for your puzzles, e.g. 1 per page, 2x2, 3x4, etc. Click the green button "Set Up Grid (Puzzles)" to set up the number of puzzles per page and the margins and padding. Details can be found in the Grid Setup Tutorial

When the grid setup for the puzzles is done, the selected grid size should be shown next to the green button.

Step 3: Set up the Solutions Grid

There are two options for the solutions grid:

It can be identical to the puzzles grid. Click the "Use Puzzles Grid" option and make sure it's checked. This is usually the best format if you want to create a solutions page right after each puzzles page;
Set up a separate grid for the solutions - for example you can have 6 puzzles on a page and 12 solutions on a page

Setting up the solutions grid is done identical to the puzzle grid.

Step 4: Create Puzzle Book

The final step is to create a puzzle book, using the settings specified in the previous steps.

There are three options here:

Keep Aspect Ratio - If you use different types of puzzles, with different shapes, e.g. rectangles and squares, you want to keep the original size of the puzzle. By default, images are stretches to fit in the shapes of the grid. However, adjusting the size of each shape (based on the shape of the puzzle or solution) strongly affects the processing time;
Collate - Print the puzzles first and the solutions later. if unchecked, it will print a puzzle page, then a solution page, then the next puzzle page, etc;
New Powerpoint File: It's possible to create the puzzle pages in a new Powerpoint file. It will automatically copy the page setup (width and height) from the current file. Otherwise the new pages will be appended at the end of the current Powerpoint file.

Example

To show you what it can look like, this screenshot shows the setup for a sudoku puzzle book with 50 puzzles. The next screenshot shows the pages that have been generated in Powerpoint.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/L2NEj8vewb/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20002%20Auto%20Filled%20Overview.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 002 Auto Filled Overview.jpg)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/9o3nAexdjc/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20003%20Example%20Powerpoint.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 003 Example Powerpoint.jpg)

Next steps

In many cases the automatic puzzle book creation will be just what you need. It's fast.

Once you have a configuration that works for you, with the proper grid sizes and margins, you can even save the entire setup as a preset, to use for several books. Each time you create a new book, you can load the preset, and just clear the puzzle sets and select different puzzles.

It's possible to have many presets, for example if you publish different book sizes or different puzzle types.

Manual Puzzle Book Creation

With Easy Puzzle Books you can also customize the grids, page style, fonts, etc before filling the templates with puzzles and solutions. This is called Manual Puzzle Book Creation. You can find a tutorial here.

Question 7

How do I use the Time Saver for Geometric Mazes? (Video Tutorial)

Accepted Answer

This video demonstrates the use of Time Saver for Geometric Mazes in Puzzle Maker Pro

Question 8

How do I fix my Powerpoint Add-In problem?

Accepted Answer

How to fix your Powerpoint Add-In problem

Installation

Installing the plugins

There's a separate tutorial to install our plugins for Powerpoint: Click here.

Installation Issues

When using our Powerpoint Add-ins, there have been a few occurrences where the installer seemed to work properly, but the Add-in was not visible in the Add-in’s menu.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Ifih5ZMYla/AddIns%20Menu.png (AddIns Menu.png)

First of all, you should go to File -> Options -> Add-ins, to verify that it’s installed, but possibly inactive, or not available at all.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/tVZ1DEZfug/AddIns%20Options.png (AddIns Options.png)

In addition to that, there’s an option to force Powerpoint to show Add-in error messages (which may be suppressed otherwise). We need these messages to figure out what’s going on.

You can find this setting in File -> Options -> Advanced.

When you report add-in errors, please be as specific as you can be, and add screenshots of errors that are shown.

You can report the error to the seller (for Powered by BookPublisherTools add-ins) or to our on helpdesk for BookPublisherTools add-ins.

Certificate Not Trusted

There's a separate tutorial to fix certificate issues: Click Here

Other Issues

Please read the tutorials before reporting issues with the plugins.

Display Issues

There's a separate tutorial to fix display issues: Click Here

Question 9

How to Fix Certificate Not Trusted Error

Accepted Answer

This tutorial describes the steps to 'trust' our certificate, so you can use the BookPublisherTools software.

When you’re installing our Powerpoint plugins, you may sometimes get an error stating that the certificate is not trusted.

Note: This works for many other MS Office plugins as well, so even if you’re not using BookPublisherTools software, this may help you.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/SaE4eiJXao/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%200.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 0.png)

Cause

We sign our software with a ‘code signing’ certificate, just the way websites have a certificate to allow for secure HTTPS connections. For software it means you can be 100% sure that it was created by BookPublisherTools, and hasn’t been tampered. (The certificate is for “Core Insights” which is the parent company of BookPublisherTools).

Normally MS Windows will automatically accept and register this certificate, but in rare cases it doesn’t (even if you were able to install a previous version without problems).

Solution

The solution is to store the certificate in a ‘certificate store’ on your computer manually. That will tell MS Windows that you trust our software. (If you don’t trust our software, you shouldn’t be using it!).

Unfortunately, this takes 8 small steps, but each step is very easy to do.

Step 1

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/drvdvs4zQH/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%201.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 1.png)

Right-click the setup file (setup.exe if you see the file extensions) and click Properties in the pop up menu

Step 2

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZYLVyhEQgY/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%202.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 2.png)

In the properties window, you should see a tab “Digital Signatures” (1). This means it’s signed with a digital certificate. When you click this line where it says “Core Insights” (2), the Details button should be enabled, and you can click this (3)

Step 3

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/eXGaupoRLq/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%203.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 3.png)

Here you can see again that the certificate is for Core Insights. Click “View Certificate”

Step 4

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/cy5kHO8zOY/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%204.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 4.png)

If you want to verify the authenticity of this certificate, you can click “Issuer Statement” (1), which will show you a page on the Sectigo website. (Sectigo is one of the worlds trusted organisation that issue certificate).

To continue, you should click “Install Certificate” (2)

Step 5

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/YANZVsgxnc/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%205.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 5.png)

It’s up to you whether you want to install the certificate for the Current User or the Local Machine (all users). It’s safest to select Current User and click Next.

Note: To install for Local Machine, you need administrator rights on your computer.

Step 6

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/xF9cTbYzsN/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%206.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 6.png)

There are several options to store the certificate. Please select “Place all certificates in the following store”, then click “Browse” and select “Trusted Publishers”. Click “Next”

Step 7

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/TZf0mBefHA/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%207.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 7.png)

This window summarizes what you’ve selected so far. When you click “Finish” the certificate will be installed and you should be able to install the plugin normally afterwards.

Step 8

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/BeCRlE8wnP/Powerpoint%20Add%20In%20Certificate%20Step%208.png (Powerpoint Add In Certificate Step 8.png)

Finally you should be seeing this confirmation message “The import was succesful”. If you get an error at this point, please take a screenshot and send this to the seller of your plugin or to our helpdesk (in the case of BookPublisherTools software).

Step 9

Okay, I lied. This is step 9, but to be honest, some steps didn’t take much work, besides clicking one button.

As a final step, double-click the setup (or setup.exe) file for the Powerpoint add-in, and install it.

Question 10

How to fix display issues for Powerpoint plugins

Accepted Answer

Our plugins for Powerpoint have been designed to display properly on your computer.

However, since there are many different computers, and especially monitors and laptops, and some Windows settings that may affect the display, there are some things you can do to fix things yourself:

Scrunched display

For older plugins (or plugins by other developers) you may have seen a strange, "scrunched", display.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/TQP6uCGf7O/Add-In%20Scrunched%202.png (Add-In Scrunched 2.png)

The cause of this is the way Windows handles fonts – You can instruct windows to scale the display of fonts and apps. For example if you have small laptop display with a HD screen, you would have very small pixels, and all the text on that display would be tiny. Windows added an option to scale it up by e.g. 150%, making it easier to read.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/LO0paMdRKp/Add-In%20Windows%20Scaling.png (Add-In Windows Scaling.png)

The result after changing this 'scale' value:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/nyYLLZu6Cl/Add-In%20Scrunch%20Fixed%202.png (Add-In Scrunch Fixed 2.png)

Note: You can also change this setting when the plugin fields seem to be shown too wide (with too much space in between)

Setting it to 100% will fix the problem, although you may need to restart Powerpoint to make it work. In addition to that, please report it to your seller or to our helpdesk and we’ll fix it.

Not all parts of the plugin are visible

First of all, we've added scrollbars to all BookPublisherTools plugins. That should make sure you can reach all the fields vertically.

Horizontally, you can make the plugin panel larger or smaller: Move the mouse (without clicking) over the left edge of the plugin panel. At a certain point the mouse cursor should change into a double-headed arrow. At that point you can press the left mouse-button and drag the panel edge to the left or right, to change the size.