Question 1

How to Enable Macros and Install Add-In's in Powerpoint

Accepted Answer

This tutorial describes how to Enable Macros and Install Add-In's in Powerpoint. It applies to:

Whenever you use a Powerpoint file that contains macros, you'll receive a warning in Powerpoint. There are two steps to take (just once) to allow the macros to work:

Tell Windows that the file can be trusted
Tell Powerpoint that the macros can be trusted
Add the Add-In

Security Step 1 - Windows

To let Windows know that you trust the downloaded file, right-click the Powerpoint file and select Properties.

Unblock File in Windows

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/5Tk3PaDOK8/Windows%20Unblock.png (Unblock File in Windows)

Make sure "Unblock" is checked, then click OK.

Security Step 2 - Powerpoint

After you double-click the Powerpoint file, Powerpoint may show a warning that Macros are disabled. In that case, you have to enabled macros to use the LCB Book Creator on your computer:

In Powerpoint, click the File menu-option, then click "Options", at the bottom. In the Options window, find the Trust Center options (at the bottom), and click "Trust Center Settings".

How to find the Powerpoint Trust Center

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/0NMByXbpKG/Powerpoint%20Trust%20Center%201.png (Powerpoint Trust Center)

Powerpoint Trust Center

In the Trust Center, find the Macro Settings, then click either "Disable all macros except digitally signed macros", or "Enable all macros".

Powerpoint Trust Center - Enable Macros

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8uWjC3gkuF/Powerpoint%20Trust%20Center%202.png (Powerpoint Trust Center - Enable Macros)

Powerpoint Trust Center - Enable Macros

Step 3 - Install Add-In

Please be aware, if the security settings (Step 2) are set to "Disable all macros", you won't be able to install the add-ind.

Open the Powerpoint Add-Ins Manager

Open the Powerpoint Options window by clicking the File menu, then click Options (at the bottom left).

LCB Book Creator Manage Add-In's

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sqyv4o12bN/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Manage%20Add-In%27s.png (LCB Book Creator Manage Add-In's)

LCB Book Creator Manage Add-In's

In the Options window, click the Add-Ins option, and select "PowerPoint Add-ins" in the dropdown menu at the bottom.

Add the new Add-In

The Add-Ins window may look different if you already have other add-in's installed.

LCB Book Creator Add New Add-In

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/YOsxR0LJHq/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Add%20New%20Add-In.png (LCB Book Creator Add New Add-In)

LCB Book Creator Add New Add-In

Click "Add New" and navigate to the folder where you saved the LCB Book Creator addin. Please be aware that the plugin should stay in this location, otherwise Powerpoint will not be able to use it in the future.

Depending on your security settings, you may get a security notice (see below).

Handle the Security Notice

Powerpoint will let you know that you're installing something new, and let you decide whether to accept this.

LCB Book Creator Security Notice

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XPHiX2fbr2/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Security%20Notice.png (LCB Book Creator Security Notice)

LCB Book Creator Security Notice

The add-in file is signed with a digital certificate owned by "Core Insights" (click Show Signature Details to verify this). You can either "Trust all from publisher" or "Enable Macros". If you decide to "Trust all from publisher", Powerpoint will never show you the security notice again for future add-ins or updates.

Once this is done, you're ready to use the add-in in Powerpoint.

Question 2

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 3

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.

Question 4

How to get a Transparent background for my maze

Accepted Answer

Puzzle Maker Pro uses a two-step approach to generate puzzles and puzzle books. A brief overview of the different steps can be found here: How to create puzzles and puzzle books with Puzzle Maker Pro

To use transparency for puzzles, the following settings will be useful:

The Puzzle Output Format
The Maze Colors

How to set the Puzzle Output Format for transparency

To create mazes with a transparent background, the first step is to select the right image format.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sbq7ZGtzxy/PMP%20-%20Puzzle%20Output%20Format.png (How to set the Puzzle Output Format in Puzzle Maker Pro)

"Transparent PNG" is the only format that allows transparency, JPG and regular PNG do not.

Note: Regular JPG and PNG are 24 bit formats. That means 24 bits (0's or 1's) for each pixel, using RGB colors (Red, Green Blue). Transparent PNG is a 32 bit format: 24 bits RGB plus 8 bits for transparency. Each pixel can have one of 256 grades of transparency.

How to set the Maze Colors for transparency

The next step is to set the specific Maze colors on the Puzzle Settings / Colors tab.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/UvjQraf8bB/PMP%20-%20Mazes%20-%20Transparency.png (Creating a transparent background for your maze.)

There are two different options here:

Canvas - this is the background on which the maze is printed. For square and rectangular mazes, the entire canvas will be covered by the maze itself. For shaped mazes, there will be a part of the canvas that is not covered by the maze, and you'll probably want this to be transparent or white;
Floors - this is the content of each square, for lack of a better name. In this image the floors are set to transparent. You can see in the oval at the bottom, that the background color of the maze is identical to the background of the Puzzle Maker Pro window itself. There is no fill added.

For shaped mazes, where you want to print the shape underneath the maze, you'll want to choose a non-transparent setting for the floors, e.g. white, otherwise you may not be able to see the maze. You can see the result of this in the image below.

Note: the shape image will be printed 'as is' on the puzzle canvas. If the shape image is not transparent, there will be no transparency in the resulting puzzle image.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XehL4Zjiqe/PMP%20-%20Mazes%20-%20Transparency%20Shaped%20Puzzle.png (Create a solid floor color for your shaped maze)

How will transparency affect my Puzzle Book?

Puzzles with transparent backgrounds will be 'printed' on the pages in your puzzle book. Depending on the puzzle book settings, the effects will be different:

JPG/PNG: If you create page images as additional output, you can only use non-transparent JPG and PNG formats. Because commercial printers don't like transparency, the option is not added here.
PDF and Powerpoint: The transparent puzzle images will be imported into the PDF or Powerpoint file. The background image or page colors you use in the PDF or Powerpoint file will be visible wherever your puzzle image is transparent.

Question 5

How to get started with Geometric String Art Designer

Accepted Answer

Geometric String Art Designer

Introduction

Geometric String Art Designer (GSAD) is a tool to help you design string art creations. You can use this to:

Create your own unique designs
Analyse existing designs, without having to re-create it with pins and string
Create drawing images or coloring images

Tutorial Overview

The tutorials for GSAD have been split into different topics:

Overview and Design Approach

For Geometric String Art Designer, or GSAD, we developed a specific approach that will allow for a lot of flexibility when creating your design:

You can add different "shapes" to the canvas, such as squares, circles, polygons and lines.

Each shape has a number of "Segments", e.g. for a square you have the top, left, bottom and right.

In most cases each segment is split into two further (smaller) segments.

To add a string, you can add a connection between two segments. The following screenshot illustrates this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/100NCVrsI1/Geometric%20String%20Art%20Designer%20Shapes%20Segments%20Connections.PNG (Geometric String Art Designer Shapes Segments Connections.PNG)

In this image a square shape is used ("Square (1)"). Of this shape, the segments "Top" and "Left" are connected, resulting in the purple lines (the 'connection'). At the right of the screenshot you can see how the connection can be found in the list (or dropdown menu): "Square (1) Top - Square (1) Left".

Creating a design with GSAD means you have to add shapes, and then select the scale and position of the shape, define the segments for each shape, and finally add connections. These steps will be explained in detail in separate tutorials.

If you prefer to learn by doing, instead of reading, you can also:

Click the "Demo" button and then look at the tabs for Shape and Connection, and make changes, or
Go to the Shape tab, and click "New Shape", and add one or more shapes.

You can also go to Glossary of Shapes and Segments and read more about the shapes and segments.

Different shape types

Puzzle Maker Pro - Geometric Mazes offers 4 different shape types, which are enabled depending on your license. (Read more about Geometric Mazes licenses here).

Squares

Mazes with squares are the most easy to understand: You can set the number of rows and the number of columns for the total maze grid, and the software will generate a nice meandering path using some of these squares. An example is the screenshot at the top of this page.

Triangles

Triangles mazes are made up from triangles, alternatingly pointing up and down. A triangle based maze can never be fully square in size (unless you do some advanced math).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qW45nPAk0J/03%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Triangles.png (03 Mazes 2D - Triangles.png)

You can see in this image that a triangles maze with 20x20 triangles is not exactly rectangular.

Circle

A circle maze consist of several concentric circles. The number of maze 'cells' in each larger circle will be larger than the smaller circles, to make sure all the cells are more or less the same size.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/aJ5l2Ta3DI/02%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Circle.png (02 Mazes 2D - Circle.png)

The number of rows and columns for circle mazes have a special logic:

Rows: The number of rings you encounter when you count from top to bottom or left to right. This setting is actually double the number of circles that are drawn.
Columns: This is the number of parts of the center circle, which can have a value ranging from 3 to 10. (This is a UNIQUE feature that you won't find in any other maze software). 4 or 6 are great values to work with, but you can experiment with the other numbers.

Hexagons

Hexagons are shapes with 6 sides. An example can be seen in this screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/iClafwvPIm/04%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Hexagons.png (04 Mazes 2D - Hexagons.png)

The number of columns that are drawn for hexagons will always be odd, to add corner shapes for bether esthetics.

Links to tutorials to configure all the different settings for Geometric Mazes can be found at the bottom of this page.

Save and Preview

For new Puzzle Maker Pro users:

At the bottom of the window, you can see three buttons and an option (checkbox)

"Create" will create new mazes. This will use the quantity setting (Basic Options, at the top of the Puzzle Settings tab), to create 1, 2, 5 up to 1000's of maze puzzles. Each puzzle consists of a puzzle image and a solution image. WARNING: for large puzzle sizes (70-100) this may take a while for each puzzle.
"Next Preview" will generate a new maze that is shown in the preview panel (the big maze image at the right side of the Puzzle Maker Pro window). This is not saved to disk, but is an easy and interactive way to play with the settings and see what happens.
"Save Preview" will save the current preview.
"Preview Solution" can be used to toggle the preview panel from solution to puzzle. For mazes it's usually convenient to preview the solution (otherwise you won't see the solution path).

Puzzle Maker Pro - Latin Squares

Latin Squares

A Latin Square is a square where each row and column only contains distinct symbols or colors. It has a resemblance with Sudoku, but the rules are easier to understand, because there are no boxes or regions.

In Puzzle Maker Pro - Latin Squares, there are different grid sizes, ranging from 3x3 (easiest) to 9x9 (hardest). For most grid sizes there are several difficulty levels, which are derived from the difficulty levels for Sudoku.

How to Create Latin Squares puzzles

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/B8yrMBPOmB/Latin%20Sqares%20-%20Settings%20Overview.png (Latin Sqares - Settings Overview.png)

To create Latin Squares puzzles, first you have to select Latin Squares in the Puzzle Type menu at the top (1). The main areas on the screen are:

The Grid Size selection (2), here you can select a grid size from 3x3 to 9x9.
The Difficulty Level (3) - This depends on the grid size, e.g. the smallest grid size 3x3 has only one difficulty level, while the largest grid size 9x9 has 7 difficulty levels
To see the result of your changes click "Create" or "Next Preview" (4). Both will show a new puzzle, based on your settings. Next Preview is best while you're still customizing the style and puzzle settings, this will not save the puzzle on your computer. Create will create a puzzle, save it to the computer and show it in the preview panel (5)
Style options (6) - For Latin Squares there are several style option tabs: Font Settings, Grid Styling and Symbol Options.
The Info tab (6) shows which licenses you have activated for this module
At the bottom right there's the "Preview Solution" checkbox (7) - Use this to switch the preview panel from puzzle to solution and back

By settings the quantity (3) and clicking Create, you can create a large number of puzzles at once. They will be saved in the location you've set up on the Output Settings tab.

Font and Grid Styling

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uB8GxNDM95/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Font%20Styling.png (Latin Squares - Font Styling.png)

To change the font for your puzzles, click the small looking glass (1) or click the white font preview panel (2). This will open the font setup dialog.

In Puzzle Maker Pro, the font size is always relative to the available to the square or cell where the number or character should be placed. If you want to publish large print puzzle books, please check out this tutorial.

You can also customize the grid colors:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/B7AqwdK84e/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Grid%20Styling.png (Latin Squares - Grid Styling.png)

You can set the background (canvas) color (1), the color and weight of the outer border (3) and the color and weight of the inner lines / cell borders (2)

Symbol Options (Latin Squares Creative Only)

Numbers

The option to use numbers is only available in the regular Latin Squares module, all other symbol options are available as part of the Latin Squares Creative module.

Letters

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/k1yKCKYK5r/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Letters%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares - Letters Screenshot.png)

To use Letters, choose "Letters" in the Symbol dropdown list. You can edit which letters to use.

Roman Numericals

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IxboTWc9tF/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Roman%20Numericals%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares - Roman Numericals Screenshot.png)

Roman Numericals is a built in style, it will replace 1 with "I", 2 with "II", etc, using the font you selected on the Font Styling tab.

Images

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/25Sytl9F2a/Latin%20Squares%20Images%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares Images Screenshot.png)

You can use your own images, but please be careful to use relatively simple images only: Especially at higher difficulty levels, it's hard enough to solve the puzzles with numbers or letters. With images the puzzles will be more difficult.

You can add the images one by one by clicking the image panel (the little white rectangles that show a moon and a boot in the screenshot. You can also drag one or several images onto the panels.

Colors

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/F0W0q3Qzvt/Latin%20Squares%20Colors%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares Colors Screenshot.png)

You can also use colors. The built-in colors have been selected for their uniqueness and contrast. You can change each separate color by clicking on the colored rectangle (e.g. the red or orange rectangles in the screenshot) and selecting a different color with the color dialog window.

Question 8

How to get started with Puzzle Maker Pro - Wordoku

Accepted Answer

Puzzle Maker Pro - Wordoku is a puzzle maker that creates word puzzles based on the sudoku puzzle rules.

Wordoku Products

This tutorial applies to Puzzle Maker Pro - Wordoku and Puzzle Maker - Pro Variations

Overview

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/tOIAGJDNAD/Wordoku%20Overview%20Screenshot%20Steps.jpg (Wordoku Overview Screenshot Steps.jpg)

The screenshot shows the starting view when you switch to Wordoku in Puzzle Maker Pro:

The Puzzle Type shows whether or not you have a license for Wordoku. You can find details on the Info tab (4)
Wordoku comes in several sizes. The default size is 9x9, based on the regular 9x9 Sudoku grid. If you have the Wordoku Variations module, you can also choose 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8 grids, for 4, 6 and 8 letter words.
Difficulty Levels: these depend on the grid size, and have been derived from the regular sudoku difficulty levels that are used in our Sudoku modules. Please note that wordoku puzzles are actually a bit easier, because you can also guess the word itself. (For example, if you have N . . D, and the remaining letters are E and R, you can 'guess' the word NERD. This is not possible in regular sudoku puzzles.
Wordoku tabs: Word List, Word Styling, Grid Styling and Info. The Info tab displays the licenses and options you have available.
The word list / word list file selection (see below)
Buttons to Create puzzles or create a Next Preview. "Create" will create and save puzzles for each word in the word list. "Next Preview" creates one single puzzle and displays it in the Preview panel (7). This enables you to test styling and other settings before actually creating puzzles. To switch between puzzle and solution preview, check/uncheck the "Preview Solution" box at the bottom right.

Word List Options

You can either type a list of words, or select "Word List File" and select a file that has a list of words. The latter makes it easier to reuse word lists.

The word list should be created as a plain text file with extension .txt (for example with notepad). Copying a list of words from MS Excel or MS Word may work, but it's best to verify that no additional characters (tabs etc) are included
Each word should only have different letters, otherwise it will be skipped when puzzles are generated
Each word should be on a separate line, and have the right number of letters (4, 6, 8 or 9, depending on the Wordoku size)
Optionally you can add a puzzle title, which should be separated from the word by a colon ":". For example "publisher:occupation". The word "publisher" will be used for the puzzle. "occupation" will be added to the title if you create an Instant Puzzle Book. (If you don't create Instant Puzzle Books, the additional word will not be used)
There will be a file "Skipped Words [date-time].txt in the Puzzles folder that has a list of words that could not be used for a puzzle.

Word Styling Options

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/eAj7feO9kM/Wordoku%20Word%20Position%20Screenshot.jpg (Wordoku Word Position Screenshot.jpg)

The Word Styling tab allows you to determine the position of the word in the puzzle, and to set up font and color of the word.

Word Location

You can choose whether the word should be placed Horizontally, Vertically or Randomly. You can also specify the exact position - which row or column to use. For "Random", there's a 50/50 chance of the word being placed horizontally or vertically, and the position (row/column) is also determined randomly.

Font and Color

You can change the font for the letters in the puzzle by clicking the white panel that shows the font preview (in the screenshot that's the Loveday font. You can change the font, the font color, and also change the positioning (vertically and horizontally). Changing the position may be needed because not all fonts are centered on the baseline properly. Additionally, the position may appear off when you use uppercase instead of lowercase.

Grid Styling Options

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/tO1M7pHL44/Wordoku%20Canvas%20and%20Line%20Colors.jpg (Wordoku Canvas and Line Colors.jpg)

The Grid Styling tab allows you to set the canvas color (cell background), and the width (weight) and color for the different lines:

Cell Border: the line around each single cell / square / letter
Region Border: the line around the 3x3 box / region (or 2x2, 2x3 or 2x4 box)
Outer Border: the thicker lines around the entire puzzle

Introduction

The Color Code Search option allows you to play with colors. You can set your own colors or choose random colors.

Color Code Search Puzzles

Just like the other Code Search variations, with Color Code Search you can set a total number of colors (20 in the screenshot) and than select a limited number of colors for each puzzle (5 in the screenshot). This way each puzzle will be different.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NL5DpcKQev/Color%20Code%20Search.png (Color Code Search)

You can choose the default set of 9 colors, change the colors 1 by 1, or Randomize the entire set. To change a color, click the colored panel, and a color selection dialog will be shown:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/O2guA6agV2/Color%20Code%20Search%20-%20Color%20Selection.png (Color Code Search - Color Selection)

You can change the color in several ways:

Click the black or white mini panels
Click the rainbow panel that shows the entire color range
Click the saturation or illumination panels
Enter the Decimal or Hexadecimal color value
Enter the HSL code for the color

Note: For Color Code Search it's best to use a thicker line for the solutions, optionally with a colored or gray fill for the solution indicator symbols:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WDcl0BNmGL/Color%20Code%20Search%20-%20Solution%20Lines.png (Color Code Search - Solution Lines)

Introduction

The Image Code Search option allows you to use your own images to create code search puzzles. Optionally you can use the built-in preset images for quick results.

Image Code Search Puzzles

Just like the other Code Search variations, with Image Code Search you can set a total number of Images (16 in the screenshot) and than select a limited number of images for each puzzle (5 in the screenshot). This way each puzzle will use different images. Of course you can also use the entire set of images for each puzzle - for example set the maximum to 20 and use all 20.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8IuTmvZhR9/Image%20Code%20Search%20-%20Abstract.png (Image Code Search - Abstract)

The example uses one of the built-in image sets. It's alawys better to use your oqn unique images.

Note: For Image Code Search it's best to use a thicker line for the solutions, optionally with a colored or gray fill for the solution indicator symbols, as shown in the screenshot above. Especially with less abstract and more natural shapes, it can otherwise become hard to see the solutions.

For Kids' puzzles, it makes sense to use smaller grids and fewer symbols, and also set the number of copies for each code to 1 only.

Here's an example of an image code search puzzle for kids:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/pMAr2Pv0vv/Image%20Code%20Search%20-%20Kids.png (Image Code Search - Kids)

You can also reduce the number of codes to only 5 or 10 (or as few as you need).

FAQs directory

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