Question 1

How to use the Time Saver for Standard Word Search

Accepted Answer

This tutorial has been replaced by: Using the Time Saver extention for Word Search

Question 2

How can I create a Puzzle Book without using the Time Saver in Puzzle Maker Pro?

Accepted Answer

Create Puzzle Books with Puzzle Maker Pro

There are several ways to create puzzle books with Puzzle Maker Pro. With 'puzzle book' we mean a PDF or Powerpoint file that can be used as an interior for KDP books, or as a printable on e.g. Etsy.

Single Puzzle Type

Single Puzzle Type in this case mean: a single format / difficulty level. For example:

Sudoku 3 star puzzles
Word Search 12x12 grid with the same word list
Mazes with the same size and settings.

Step 1: Set Puzzle Settings

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The first step is to set the puzzle settings you want. The screenshot shows sudoku as an example. You can set the difficulty level and quantity (the number of puzzles). After that you can set the styling and the advanced options. Use preview to verify that it's to your liking.

Step 2: Set 'Book' Settings

Creating a PDF or Powerpoint file is called 'Additional Output', because the puzzle files are the primary output of Puzzle Maker Pro.

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There are several output options to choose from, in the example we selected "Create Powerpoint File". If you want, you can edit some of the custom layout settings as well.

If you don't have the Time Saver, you'll get a book with one puzzle or solution per page. If you do have the Time Saver, you can choose different page layouts for puzzle pages and solution pages.

Step 3: Create

Click "Create" - Puzzle Maker Pro will create the different puzzles for you, and automatically create a Powerpoint (or PDF) file that is the puzzle book (interior or printable).

Multiple Puzzle Types

There's a secret option to create a puzzle book with multiple puzzle types - meaning: multiple difficulty levels for Sudoku, different sizes or other options for word search or mazes, etc. Don't try to mix different puzzles, e.g. sudoku with word search, in a single book. This usually won't work correctly.

Step 1: Setup

First: Switch off the Additional Output - Make sure Powerpoint and PDF are not selected in the Additional Output area (on the Output Settings / Additional Output tab).

Second: Go to the Tools tab, and make sure the option "Clear Project Folder Before Create" is not selected.

This will make sure the files you create will be kept (and not deleted each time).

Step 2: Create Puzzles

Now you can Create puzzles in several steps. You can change sizes, difficulty levels, colors, etc. Each time you click "Create" it will add some puzzles in the puzzles folder.

The puzzle file names contain a time stamp (current date and time and a number), that will ensure that puzzles will appear in the book in the same order you create them.

Step 3: Create the Book

Before you create the book, go to the Output Settings / Puzzle Files tab and make sure "Skip Puzzle Creation" is selected. This will let you create a Powerpoint or PDF from the puzzles that have been generated earlier.

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Now go to the Output Settings / Additional Output and select the options you need (e.g. Powerpoint).

Click "Create" and the Powerpoint or PDF file will be generated from the existing puzzles.

Using "Save Preview"

This is identical to the "Multiple Puzzle Types" steps, except that you can use the "New Preview" - "Save Preview" buttons to create new puzzles and select the ones you want to have in your book.

So: Switch off the option "Clear Project Folder Before Create", and switch on the option "Skip Puzzle Creation".

Now add puzzles by creating new previews and saving them.

Finally click "Create" to create your Powerpoint or PDF file

Why do I need the Time Saver?

After reading this, you may ask yourself: Why would I need the (expensive) Time Saver extention?

You don't, if the steps above work for you.

The Time Saver does two things:

It saves TIME. It saves time when creating the puzzles: instead of having to go through the steps in this tutorial, you can configure the Time Saver to create a variety of puzzles.
It offers a flexible page layout system, and this will save you more TIME: When there was no Time Saver, you could copy and paste the puzzles, to create your own 2x2 or 2x3 puzzle pages. Which takes a lot of time. The Time Saver offers these options, so you get the layout you want with a single click.

The name "Time Saver" was made up by the early users of Puzzle Maker Pro, because it saves time.

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The screen shot shows how you can flexibly set up layouts for your puzzle books. This option is only available as part of the Time Saver extensions.

Question 3

How to use the Time Saver extension for Word Search

Accepted Answer

Welcome to the tutorial on how to use the Time Saver for Word Search. For this tutorial you need a version of the standard Word Search that also has the Time Saver module. You can buy these separate, but they're also combined in Word Search Bundle 1.

The Time Saver for Word Search is a little bit more complex to use than the other Time Savers within Puzzle Maker Pro. In this tutorial we'll go over the three steps to create Word Search puzzles with the Time Saver:

Set up the main configuration - How the word lists will be used, and some global styling options,
Set up the word lists - files with words that you have saved on your computer
Set up the batch creation of puzzles.

How to combine several word lists

To use the Time Saver for Word Search, first select Word Search in the Puzzle Type menu. Then go to the Time Saver tab, and check the "Use Time Saver to generate Puzzles" option. You can see three tab areas in this window: Main, Word Lists, and Batch Creation.

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Here you can choose to combine multiple word lists, or create separate puzzles for each word list. This will allow you to mix several themed or generic word lists.

There are other - advanced - options on this Main tab, we'll skip these for now.

How to set up the word lists in the Time Saver for Word Search

The next step is to select one or more word lists. These are word lists on your computer. You can select as many lists as you need.

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Depending on your settings in the first step, these word lists will be combined or used separately.

How to create a batch of Word Search puzzles with the Time Saver

There are two different ways to specify how to create word search puzzles with the Time Saver.

Fast (legacy) will quickly create rectangular puzzles for you, using the styling options on the Puzzle Settings Panel
Preset Puzzles will create puzzles from your own presets, offering you more options to set styling for individual puzzles, as well as the option to use shaped word search puzzles. You can create Presets in any version of Word Search. You can create presets here with masks, special sizes, or other style options.

How to create Word Search puzzles using the Fast option

This (legacy) Time Saver for Word Search will create rectangular or square word search puzzles from your word lists.

You can specify several formats and quantities, in the screenshot you will see the default configuration to create 20 puzzles in a 15x15 grid.

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You can add several rows with instructions, to create several different puzzles with one mouse-click. These options include the amount of words allowed in the puzzle, and if diagonals or backwards words are allowed, for extra difficulty.

Note: If you chose to separate puzzles per word list on the Main tab, you'll get 20 puzzles for each word list (in this example). If you merge all word lists, you'll just get 20 puzzles.

How to create Word Search puzzles using the Preset Puzzles option

This Time Saver for Word Search will create word search puzzles using the presets you have saved. It will replace the word lists but will use all the styling options and the puzzle shape.

To use this option, you'll have to create your own presets for Word Search puzzles. You can create presets in the Puzzle Settings tab.

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You'll have to select the "Use Time Saver - Preset Puzzles" option to activate this module. You can select as many presets as you need.

Overview

The screenshot above shows several things:

The puzzle select screen. You can select the type of puzzle you want to make here.
Grid Type. You can choose between Squares, Isometric Classic, or Isometric Full Square. For the differences between the two isometric styles, we recommend you check out our tutorial: Create Isometric Mazes with Mazes 2D Tiles
The Image Folder is where you can select a folder, using the "browse" button. You can use this to import your own tilesets. Puzzle Maker Pro is installed software, so you don't need to upload your images to use them.
Maze generator settings, to control how the maze is generated, and where the Start and End points will be located.
Preview window. This is where you can see a preview for the maze you are currently generating.

You can also see 5 tabs for this puzzle type

Setting up your maze

Puzzle Size

You can select the number of rows (horizontal) and columns (vertical) for your maze. Both have a mazimum of 100. We chose this maximum because of multiple reasons:

We want to keep the appearance of your tiles intact. If you print too many tiles on a small surface, details could be lost.
Each tile image has to be 'printed' on the maze image. Using larger puzzles will take more time to generate.

However, if you really want larger puzzles, feel free to contact us, and we can see if a larger upper limit is possible.

Empty Cells

You can add empty cells to the maze. Depending on your tile set, these tiles will be actually empty, or you can add specific tiles for these empty cells. For example, if you create a maze with road style tiles, you could add houses or small lakes in the empty cells.

Quantity

Finally, there's an option to set the quantity. This is the number of mazes you want to generate when you click the "create" button. The puzzles will be saved in the location you set up using the Output settings in Puzzle Maker Pro

Selecting the Tiles Folder

To select the Tiles Folder, click the "browse" button, and navigate to the folder where you have stored your images. Select one of the images, and click "open". This will automatically select the entire folder of images.

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The pack shown here is a free Cartography Tiles Pack from Kenney. As you can see, we've renamed the files, with each file now starting with one or more numbers. The numbers indicate the sides of the square that are connected, with 0 having no connections, 12 meaning side 1 and 2 are connected, et cetera. For more information, you can always look at our tile format and naming conventions guide.

Note: The tiles used in this preview are only 64 by 64 pixels, meaning they have to be upscaled if you want to use them in a maze.

After selecting this set, and clicking the "preview" button, you'll see something like this:

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The straight black solution line looks out of place in this maze style, so let's change that up a bit.

Style

The screenshot below shows the style settings for Mazes 2D Tiles

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8N1WT532Nv/Mazes%202D%20Style%20Settings.jpg (Mazes 2D Style Settings)

Mazes 2D Tiles Style Settings

There are several options to customise the way the solution path is drawn:

You can change the width and colour of the solution path. Here we changed the width to 15. The width is a percentage of the square, so when a maze gets drawn the width of the solution path will now be 15%.
Curved line: This will uze Bezier curves (if you've used Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Affinity before, you may be familiar with these already), to make a curved line. The line will go through the center points of each tile.
Dotted Line: Instead of a single continuous line, you can also create a dotted line. We have chosen this style because it fits the general style of the puzzle more.

In addition to these options, you can also change the canvas colour. We haven't changed that setting here, because the tiles themselves have transparency as well.

Introduction

A requirement for all Crossword style puzzle is that they have clues. It's best to vary the clues between puzzles, and not have identical clues for the same word in all the Crossword puzzles you generate. For example: If you have "Longest river in the USA" (8 letters) in each and every puzzle, that's not very exciting for your customers.

There are two main functions for word lists and clue management. First of all, with the clue editor you can edit the clues for your word lists, before or after (!) generating puzzles. Additionally, there's an option to add your own main word list or dictionary, instead of adding the clues to each theme word list separately.

Editing Clues for Puzzle Maker Pro - Crosswords

The three options to set the clues for your words are:

Edit the word list in your favorite software.
Edit the word list in Puzzle Maker Pro, after copying or selecting it in the Word List area
Edit the clues for your puzzles AFTER generating the puzzles. You'll get this option automatically if some words are missing clues.

Editing your Word List in your own software (Notepad)

The words are listed in a simple format:

In other words: Each line in the text file has a word and a clue, separated by a colon. You can easily edit this file in Notepad on Windows. It should be a standard ".txt" file, without any kind of layout or control characters. If you're using MS Word to edit the file, make sure to select "Plain Text (.txt)" as the format, when you save the file.

This way, when you add the clues, they will be part of your word list, and can be reused each time you use the word list.

Edit Word List (in Puzzle Maker Pro)

In Puzzle Maker Pro - Crosswords (also for Criss Cross) there's an option to edit the word list you've selected. This will work both when you have copied a list of words in the words area, or if you have selected a Word List file to use. Click the "Edit Word List" button to go to the Clue Editor.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/pMF8shgxL5/Criss%20Cross%20-%20Clue%20Editor.png (Criss Cross - Clue Editor)

Here you'll see a table with the words and the clues. Once you click a word or clue, you can edit the clue. (see the screenshot below). Click "Close" on the Clue Editor window to close and save all clues and return to the Crossword module.

Edit Clues

You can even edit the clues AFTER generating the puzzles. This is how most other crossword software works as well, but Puzzle Maker Pro will also generate your Puzzle Book in PDF or Powerpoint format after adding the clues.

If you want to edit the clues after generating the puzzles, make sure the "Edit After Create" box is checked. Alternatively, if any of the words is missing its clue, you'll see a warning like this, allowing you to edit the clues:

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If you click "No", then some words in the puzzle book will have blank clues. You can always edit the PDF or Powerpoint document after it's created.

If you click "Yes", you'll see the following window:

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Select the file you want to edit. The file name may seem a bit cryptic, the dropdown list shows all the word / clue files for the puzzle. By selecting them one by one, you'll be able to check or edit the words for each puzzle.
The words and clues are shown, along with the position in the puzzle (V 3 means Vertical word 3). By clicking the word CROSSSUM or the empty clue field, you'll be able to edit the clue
Textbox to edit the clue
Click "Save Clue" to save the clue to the table. Alternatively you can click the "Auto Save Changes" box, this will automatically save changes when you change to a different word or file
Select a clue from the list - these clues are taken from the main and custom dictionaries (if you have the dictionary add-on)
Add changes automatically to the custom dictionary, or "Add All" words and clues to the custom dictionary at once, for future re-use. (This requires the dictionary add-on)
Save / Close: Leave the Clue Editor Window. After this, Puzzle Maker Pro will automatically generate puzzle books for you.

Using a Dictionary Word List

The use of main and custom word lists, is available as a separate add-on: Word List Editor for Puzzle Maker Pro. Not everybody may need or want this.

Our Dictionary system allows you to set up a main dictionary that has many words the clues for the words. Additionally you can add a 'custom' dictionary, that will be used to add all the new clues you add in Puzzle Maker Pro.

The main dictionary and the custom dictionary are separate files, this allows you to use dictionaries (clues) that you download or purchase elsewhere, and still save your own custom clues separately.

Theme Word List

In the (theme) word list for your puzzles, it's allowed to include only the words and not the clues. For the dictionaries, the clues are mandatory, since the main purpose of the dictionary is to provide you with clues.

When you use the Time Saver for Crossword, you can add multiple word lists, to create a large set of themed puzzles with a single mouse-click.

Main Dictionary

The main dictionary, or main word list, can consist of millions of words with corresponding clues.

For puzzles like Criss Cross, this dictionary is used to provide you with clues for the words that are used in the puzzle. This way you don't have to add clues in your theme word lists. Of course you still can add clues to the theme word list, which will have priority over the clues in the dictionaries.

The format of the main word file is identical to the theme word list format:

The main dictionary will never be changed by Puzzle Maker Pro.

At the time of writing, we do not include dictionaries with Puzzle Maker Pro.

Custom Dictionary

The custom dictionary is used to save clues that you add while creating puzzles. You can edit the word list before creating puzzles, and add all the clues to the custom dictionary, you can also edit the puzzle clues after creating the puzzles (but before generating a puzzle book), and add the clues to the custom dictionary.

Using Multiple Languages

Like all other Puzzle Maker Pro features, you can easily use different languages with the Crossword modules. However, you should make sure that you change the main dictionary and the custom dictionary when you use word lists for other languages. Otherwise Puzzle Maker Pro may for example add English clues from the dictionaries to French words from your word list.

Workflow options

There are different ways to use word lists in Puzzle Maker Pro - Criss Cross (and future modules):

You can create Criss Cross puzzles using your own word lists, including clues. In which case there is no need to use the built-in Clue Editor. (Note: It's faster to edit clues and descriptions in Notepad or Notepad++ or any other text editor. Our Clue Editor needs to do some extra checks because it can be linked to your dictionaries).
You can create Criss Cross puzzles using your own word lists, and add clues before or after creating the puzzles. Before your puzzle book (Powerpoint or PDF) is created, there's an automatic check to verify that each word has a clue, and you'll get the option to edit the clues with the clue editor.
Optionally you can also edit the puzzle clue files in your favourite text editor, but you have to make sure that required parts, such as word positions, remain in place
If you use a dictionary, Puzzle Maker Pro will automatically retrieve missing clues from your dictionary. You can still choose to edit the clues before creating a puzzle book.

Why so many options? First of all: With professional crossword software, it's best practice to create the puzzle(s) first, and edit all the clues after that, to create the best possible puzzle and clues. We definitely wanted to support this workflow.

Connections

This tutorial will show you how to add connections (the strings/wires) between shapes in Geometric String Art Designer

Introduction

Please check the Glossary of Shapes and Segments to learn more about the use of 'Segments' in Geometric String Art Designer.

A "Connection" connects two different segments, and will draw the strings between both segments.

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In the example you can see a connection between Square (1) Left and Square (1) Top. "Left" and "Top" are two segments of Square (1). You can choose to rename the shapes; otherwise the "(1)" helps to identify the shape if you have multiple squares in your design.

The number of strings between both wires, depend on the 'Pin' settings for both segments.

Add a Connection

To edit a connection, go to the "Connection" tab and click the "New Connection" button.

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This will open the edit panel just below the button, where you can select the shapes and segments that need to be connected. First select a shape in the dropdown menu "Shape 1", then you can select a segment for shape 1. Repeat for Shape 2.

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If the pins of the segments are connected in the wrong order, select "Reverse" to reverse the order of the pins.

Edit a Connection

To Edit a connection, select the connection in the dropdown menu at the left of the New Connection button. The name for each connection is made up from the names of the shapes and the segments.

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You can change the shapes, or just the segments, or only the color and/or gauge. Click "Save" to save the changed color and gauge. (The other options will be saved right away).

Edit Multiple Connections

You can edit the color and gauge for multiple connections at once, making it easy for you to make sure the same settings are applied to different connections.

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Open the "All Connections" tab, and you'll see a list of all connections in your current design. You can use the "Refresh List" button if not all connections are shown.

Now select one or more connections in the list, select a new color and/or gauge, and click Apply.

Adding Shapes

Adding and configuring shapes in Geometric String Art Designer is done in 4 steps:

Add the shape to the canvas
Set the size and position of the shape
Adjust the size and position of the shape with pixel-precision
Set up the Segments for the shape

Step 1 - Add the Shape

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To add shapes to your design, go to the "Shape" tab (1) and click "New Shape" (3). This will display a pop-up menu where you can select the shape you want: Line, Circle, Triangle, Square or Polygon (5 to 10 edges). Click to select the shape you want.

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Note: to edit any of the shapes you've added, use the shape selection dropdown menu (2).

The shape will have standard size and position, but this is easy to change in step 2.

Step 2 - Set Size and Position

On the "Easy" tab (5) you can set the size of the position with just a few button clicks. You can separately set the height and width (6). The buttons indicate sizes based on the current canvas size and margins: "Full Width" means the maximum size within the margins.

You can also quickly set the position using the "Easy Position" buttons (7). In many cases, this is all you need to do to get the shape sized and positioned correctly. If you need more control, go to step 3.

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The screenshot shows an example where the width and height have been set to one third of the maximal width and height, and the shape has been positioned in the top right of the canvas (within the margins).

Step 3 - Adjust Size and Position

On the "Main" tab you can find settings to further adjust the size and position.

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You can choose between centimeters, inches, pixels or a percentage, to set the position and size of the shape. This will apply to all the size and position settings in the software.
You can set the horizontal/vertical position in detail, as well as the width/height of the shape. Optionally you can lock the Aspect Ratio, which means that the relative height/width proportion of the shape will not change.
An additional option, is to drag the mouse over the canvas to set the size and position of the shape. Just click this checkbox, then click and drag the mouse over the canvas, and let go of the mouse-button. This will work just once (unless you click the checkbox again), the normal behaviour of the mouse-buttons and mouse-wheel is to zoom and drag the entire image.
You can also rotate the shapes. This will give an additional complexity to the strings that are drawn between separate shapes.

Note: You can also change these settings after you've set up one or more connections. This will let you see immediately what the effect of the changes is.

Step 4 - Set up the Segments

There are three options to add segments to the shapes. Segments are used to connect the different shapes. Read more in the Glossary of Shapes and Segments.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/OSan2Bfasr/String%20Art%20Designer%20Polygon%20Segments.jpg (String Art Designer Polygon Segments)

Use the "Segments" tab to choose which segments you want to use. Full, Quarters or Eights. It's best to only select the set you need - selecting the right one later on is easier when you have less clutter.

Pins

The string between two segments are connected to the pins of each segment. Pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc. Therefore it's important to set the number of pins for each segment properly.

If the number of pins of both segments is not identical, the software will connect multiple pins from one segment to a single pin on the other segment.

You can also set the number of pins for a segment to 1 or 2, for special effects.

Cloning Shapes

If you have a shape set up just right, and want to create identical copies, use the "Clone" button at the bottom. This will create an identical shape, with a different name, and the same size, position and segment settings.

Deleting Shapes

To delete a shape, first select it on the "Shape" tab, then click the "Delete" button at the bottom

How to use the Time Saver for Standard Word Search

How can I create a Puzzle Book without using the Time Saver in Puzzle Maker Pro?

How to use the Time Saver extension for Word Search

Getting Started with Mazes 2D Tiles

Can I use Arial (font) in my puzzle books?

Is there a demo version of BookPublisherTools software available?

How to use the Word List Editor for Puzzle Maker Pro?

Can I get a refund for my purchase?

How to add Connections to your design in Geometric String Art Designer

How to add Shapes to your design in Geometric String Art Designer