Question 1

Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

Accepted Answer

Welcome to the tutorial for the add-ons for Zig-Zag Word Search.

There are two add-ons available for this software.

Extras add-on: use diagonals and segmented word lists
Random Shapes: No longer are you forced to use a grid, letters now go everywhere they want.

Let's look over what these two have to offer.

Extras Add-on

Diagonals look interesting, and can create a lot of new effects.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Ms3phl3AIY/Zigzag%20word%20search%20diagonals.jpg (Zigzag word search diagonals)

The little crosses, as the diagonals go over each other, are a nice added difficulty and look really good in the solution too.

You can also use this option with the Word Snake option.

Word Snake

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1721Phn4Ed/ZigZag%20Word%20search%20snake.jpg (ZigZag Word search snake)

Word snake is a variation on the normal zig zag word search puzzles. Usually, the words can go anywhere they want, and in whatever form they want. In word snake, they will go into a single long line. This is represented in the solution by using a continuous line for the words, and the little dotted lines in between the words. You can see that the next word will always start next to, or diagonal to, the ending of the last word. This isn't a singular looping line, so there are two words that have a beginning and an end without anything connecting to them. See if you can find those the start and end point!

Random Shapes

This is by far the most interesting and unique variation on the zig zag word search puzzles. Usually, you'd only work within a grid, where each letter is directly next to its neighbours. Not in this variation. Here, the letters are placed more or less randomly on the screen.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Xz5G2lP2no/zigzag%20random%20shapes.jpg (zigzag random shapes)

So how does this work? Well, if you go to style, and add a bit of "line width", you can see the boxes that the letters are contained in, and what boxes are neighbours.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/DEUgMzokYJ/Zigzag%20voronoi.jpg (Zigzag voronoi)

This is called a Voronoi Diagram. You can look up how this works if you want to, but the more interesting part is how this works. No longer are there three (or eight, if you use diagonals) possible routes from each letter, now it can be any random number. It adds a layer of difficulty, while looking very different from the puzzles you get with other word search options.

Puzzle Maker Pro - Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search Introduction

The Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search resembles the Time Saver for (regular) Word Search, but the way word lists are handled is a bit different.

This tutorial applies to:

Zig Zag Word Search, the standard / regular Zig Zag Word Search module, in combination with:
Time Saver for Word Search

The Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search will work with the squares, diagonals, words snake and random shapes options.

Time Saver Overview

The Time Saver needs two ingredients to work correctly:

Word Lists
Jobs to do

You can set up the 'Jobs to do' on the Batch Creation tab. A job is a specific puzzle type and format, for example "Squares" 10x10 with Quantity 5. This will create 5 puzzles for each (!!!) word list. If you set up 3 word lists, with enough words in each, you will get 15 puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/6zXxjw2BoS/Time%20Saver%20Word%20Search%20Diagram.JPG (Time Saver Word Search Diagram.JPG)

Main Settings

There are a couple of layout settings that control some of the styling for Instant Puzzle Books, such as the puzzle alignment and the font size for the word lists.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/fmgnyGujJc/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Time%20Saver%20Main%20Settings.png (Zig Zag Word Search Time Saver Main Settings)

Variable Font Size - the font size is calculated for each puzzle, based on the number of words and the word length. For puzzle books this may lead to different font sizes for each puzzle, especially if you use different sizes for the puzzle (a 10x10 puzzle will have fewer words than a 25x25 puzzle)
One Size Fits All - the font size is calculated after all word lists are set up, to make sure each page looks similar

Word Lists

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/T6UYyswPDI/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Time%20Saver%20Word%20Lists.png (Zig Zag Word Search Time Saver Word Lists)

Selecting Word Lists

Each word list should be just a text file with a list of words, for example when you create a file with Notepad.

You can select as many files as you want, and it's best in general to make the wordlists larger than the strict minimum. For example, for a 10x10 grid, the combined length of the words should be at least 100. However, when you create a list of more words, with a combined length of say 500, you'll get a larger variety of puzzles from it.

Word List Control

Just like the regular Zig Zag Word Search, you can choose how the word list should be used:

Auto: This will try to create as many puzzles as the Quantity setting indicates. However, if it runs out of words in the list, it will stop.
Repeat: This will use all the words in the list, and then repeat the entire wordlist (again and again) to get to the number of puzzles in the quantity setting. Each puzzle will draw random words from the list, so each puzzle will be different
Reset: This will reset the entire word list after a puzzle is created, so every puzzle can use words from the entire word list.

Merging Word Lists

You can choose to Merge all lists, to create just 1 large list. This will basically just add all words to a single list.

You can also choose to use each word list separately, which would work like the diagram above (each 'job' will be executed for each of the word lists). In this case you can also use the file names as titles.

Segmented Word Lists

Segmented word lists are available as part of the Extras Add-On, but are also available automatically as part of the Time Saver Add-On. This will allow you to combine multiple short word lists into one larger list, while still keeping the words separate.

Basically, you can use a blank line to separate the lists:

Optionallly you can add a title to each list, which will be used for the Instant Puzzle Books

In the future there may be other options for these segmented word list, to exploit additional features of the Instant Puzzle Books

Batch Creation Settings

When you use the Time Saver, don't forget to select "Use Time Saver to generate Puzzles" and to select the options for Batch Creation you want to use (e.g. "Use Time Saver - Fast"). This will change the text of the "Create" button to "Create (TS)".

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/66Euj4Po0j/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Time%20Saver%20Batch%20Creation.png (Zig Zag Word Search Time Saver Batch Creation)

Fast Mode

This options is called 'Fast' because it doesn't depend on you setting up specific puzzle presets, but simply select the Zig Zag Word Search variation you want to use, and set the rows, columns and quantity. Additionally you can set the Sort Order, this will control the order in which the puzzle appear in your puzzle book (and the order in which the files are listed in File Explorer, if you sort them by filename).

Preset Puzzles

With this option you can use your own presets (that you have saved on the Puzzle Settings tab for Zig Zag Word Search) to create an entire batch of puzzles.

Question 3

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Zig Zag Word Search

Accepted Answer

Puzzle Maker Pro - Zig Zag Word Search Overview

Zig Zag Word Search is an alternative Word Search puzzle, quite different from the regular Word Search. It's also known as Jigsaw and Tetris Word Search.

This tutorial applies to three different products:

Zig Zag Word Search, the standard / regular Zig Zag Word Search module
Zig Zag Word Search - Extras Add-On, an add-on module that adds different complexities and options to the regular Zig Zag Word Search
Zig Zag Word Search Random Shapes, this module can be purchased separately, and adds random shapes (random polygons) to make a completely different type of word search

Additionally there are some Add-Ons available for Zig Zag Word Search

This main tutorial uses the regular Zig Zag Word Search for examples. Paragraphs for the Extras Add-On and the Random Shapes will focus on the differences for these modules.

Zig Zag Word Search Explained

Zig Zag Word Search is a puzzle where you have to find words in a grid. Unlike with regular Word Search puzzles, the words are not placed in straight lines, but a zig-zagging line, where the words can have corners. For generating these we have set up some basic rules:

Letters of a word are connected to each other horizontally or vertically
In general, the words should have exactly the number of letters required for the squares in the grid. If you have a 10x10 grid, then all words together should have 100 letters
Words cannot overlap

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/U78JkEdbbn/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%2010x10%20Grid.png (Zig Zag Word Search 10x10 Grid)

In this image you see an example of a solution for a Zig Zag Word Search puzzle. Words are positioned randomly in the grid.

Zig Zag Word Search Overview

To use Zig Zag Word Search, select the puzzle type in the drop down menu.

To see the solution in the preview screen, toggle the "Preview Solution" option at the bottom right of the window:

Note: You'll need words with at least 100 letters to create a 10x10 puzzle. It's better to use a longer list with more words than needed, and create one or more puzzles from that. This way you won't have to worry about counting the letters. (See "Advanced Options" for additional options.

In addition to the Word List, you can also select a Word List file. This has to be in plain text format (.txt). Pay attention to this when you export from MS Word or MS Excel.

Advanced Options

The Advanced tab has some options to control the word list use, the spelling of the words, and an option for filling the remaining squares with random letters, so the amount of letters doesn't have to be exactly the right amount.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ofFn83RSUK/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Advanced%20Options.png (Zig Zag Word Search Advanced Options)

1 Wordlist Control

For most puzzles you can control the amount of puzzles using the "Quantity" setting. For Zig Zag Word Search there are other options as well:

Auto: This will try to create as many puzzles as the Quantity setting indicates. However, if it runs out of words in the list, it will stop.
Repeat: This will use all the words in the list, and then repeat the entire wordlist (again and again) to get to the number of puzzles in the quantity setting. Each puzzle will draw random words from the list, so each puzzle will be different
Reset: This will reset the entire word list after a puzzle is created, so every puzzle can use words from the entire word list.

Note: This may work slightly different if you use the Extras Add-On.

2 Remove Characters

Your wordlist may contain characters that you don't want to see in the puzzle. These may be spaces, dashes, or other characters. You can use both checkboxes to filter these characters. The word list will be created from the original words!

Note: the letter count used for the puzzles is based on the 'clean' words, after the spaces etc have been removed.

3 Random Fills

While the words for a Zig Zag Word Search puzzle should have exactly the right number of letters, there's an option to add noise or fill letters as well. This should make it a bit easier for you to set up word lists (but please be aware that your customers may not expect this).

Style

On the Style tab you can change the font, canvas and cell colors and the line colors and weight. (Canvas color is only used for masks, without masks, the entire canvas will be covered by cell backgrounds).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/AdD6AV04xS/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Style.png (Zig Zag Word Search Style)

Click "Next Preview" after changing the settings to see the result.

Extras Add-On

The Extras add-on offers two additional features: Diagonal connections for the regular Zig Zag Word Search, and segmented word lists for all Zig Zag Word Search modules.

Diagonals

Choose "Squares Diagonals" in the Grid Type list, then click "Next Preview" to see an example of a Zig Zag Word Search puzzle with diagonal connections.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/icYNvsua2n/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Diagonals.png (Zig Zag Word Search Diagonals)

As you can see, letters can be connected horizontally, vertically and diagonally, and the diagonal connections can cross each other.

Segmented Word Lists

We use the name "Segmented Word Lists" for word lists that are already divided in several lists of words.

You can do this by using a blank line between the words. Additionally, you can use #title:"title" to add a title, for example "#title:Vegetables"

When you load a word list (click the little looking glass button on the Word List tab), you'll get a status notification showing you how many words and letters are part of each section. (This will take into account that spaces and other characters may be removed).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/9FCBZyPQ9y/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Word%20Count.png (Zig Zag Word Search Word Count)

When you use the "Auto" setting for word list control (on the Advanced tab), only one puzzle will be created for each 'segment'.

Random Shapes

To use the Random Shapes variation of Zig Zag Word Search, select "Random Shapes" in the Grid Type list, and click preview. This will display a puzzle like the example below:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/m7FqP0n850/0-20221012105539--1-W-P.png (0-20221012105539--1-W-P)

Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

How to use the Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Zig Zag Word Search