Question 1

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Spiral and Secret Word Spiral

Accepted Answer

This tutorial explains how to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Spiral and Secret Word Spiral.

This tutorial applies to two Puzzle Maker Pro puzzle types:

The main tutorial for Crossword Variations shows all the steps and information that applies to all the different puzzle types.

Introduction

Both Word Spiral and Secret Word Spiral offer you a couple of different shape variations of the spiral (also called word snake in some magazines). Because the number of letters is important for the spiral, for these puzzles you set the approximate number of letters, instead of the number of words. (The minimum number of words setting will not be used).

On the Variation tab you can find all the different settings and options.

Variation tab

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/dLniLTrXWW/Word%20Spiral%20Overview.png (Word Spiral Overview)

Letter count

The number of letters determines the length (and part of the shape) of the spiral. Common lengths for the word spiral are 70 to 100 letters in a puzzle. You can also indicate that the length can be a bit longer or shorter. This improves the results when you use a word list that is not specifically prepared for a word spiral with an exact length.

Additionally there's an option to sort the words from long to short - this way the longer words will be on the outer part of the spiral, and shorter words will be on the smaller inner side.

Spiral Style

The screenshot above shows we call a 'real' spiral. All the letter boxes are placed along a natural looking spiral. Additional you can use a "Square" spiral, as shown here:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/oYu3pTxgt9/Word%20Spiral%20Square%20Spiral.png (Word Spiral Square Spiral)

Cell Shape

Additionally, you can choose to use square or circle shapes for the lines around the letters. For the 'real' spiral, the use of circles will actually result in a slightly different shape as well.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/fD5MW4kQNA/Word%20Spiral%20Real%20with%20Circles.png (Word Spiral Real with Circles)

Smoothness

When using the "Real Spiral" with Square cells, you can adjust the shape 'smoothness'. That will align horizontal and vertical square a bit more, giving semi-straight lines, instead of jagged lines. (This way you can control the drawing style).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XIB2BT45Mo/Word%20Spiral%20Smoothness%200.png (Word Spiral Smoothness 0)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rR5jE37h5E/Word%20Spiral%20Smoothness%20100.png (Word Spiral Smoothness 100)

Layout Options

Finally there's an option to make the overall shape more rectangular / elliptic instead of square. This is especially useful if the image you're creating is rectangular, for example when you use the built in Social Media image output in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/VDc00439rt/Word%20Spiral%20Layout.png (Word Spiral Layout)

Introduction

There are many different types of Secret Word and Letter Hints Crossword puzzles. Secret Word Criss Cross is a mix of anacrostic (letter hints) and Criss Cross with two variations:

Use hints to find a secret word, or
Add additional hints to the puzzle to make it easier to find all the words.

The example below includes a secret word:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/30SeUZ1hwg/Secret-Word-Criss-Cross.png (Secret-Word-Criss-Cross)

Letter Hints Options for Secret Word Criss Cross Puzzles

As mentioned in the introduction, you can use either Secret Word or Alphabet Hints (Letter Hints) for these Grid puzzles. You cannot have both at the same time.

When you use a secret word, you can set how many 'matching' letters must be available in each word, to be included in the puzzle.

Additionally, the Word Count settings (on the Settings tab) will be overruled if there are not enough words available to 'cover' the secret word. For example, if the secret word would be "kayak", the puzzle will only have words that contain the letters "K", "A" and "Y". If you also set the "Minimum Matching Letters" to 2, this would limit the choice of words even further.

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Spiral and Secret Word Spiral

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Secret Word Grid (Video Tutorial)

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Secret Word Criss Cross (video overview)

How to create Secret Word and Letter Hints crossword puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Secret Word Criss Cross