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How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Picture Cryptograms

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This tutorial explains how to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Just Five Words

Puzzle Maker Pro - Picture Cryptograms

This tutorial applies to the Puzzle Maker Pro module Picture Cryptograms

The add-on "Time Saver for Word Puzzles" adds additional options for puzzle generation and Instant Puzzle Book layouts.

Picture Cryptograms Explained

The module Picture Cryptograms creates puzzles where words or phrases are displayed as a set of pictures or symbols. You can use your own images (jpg or png) for these symbols.

There are several ways to encode the words with pictures:

Randomized by word, word set, or fixed for all words
Alphabetic (fixed) based on the name of the images you use
You can display all the letters and symbols in the key table, to create puzzles for children
You can add clues to make it easier to solve the puzzles

Additionally, you can display a full key table for the alphabet, or only show the letters that are used in the words or phrases. The order of the letters in the key table will be randomised, unless you use the Alphabetic option. We'll discuss all these options below.

Picture Cryptograms Overview

To use Picture Cryptograms, select the puzzle type in the drop down menu, or in the regular menu.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/h1MY02x2g0/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2001%20Overview.png (Picture Cryptograms - 01 Overview (1).png)

When you select this puzzle type for the first time, a default list of words is shown, and the preview shows an puzzle with the first word or words, this is also the puzzle image that will be saved and/or used in an instant puzzle book. (What you see is what you get). You can (and should) replace the word list with your own words, and you can (and should) replace the default images with your own pictures or symbols.

There are several options to customize the puzzle and the styling of Picture Cryptograms:

Word List: you can add additional text to the word list. In the example you can see "word:description", additional options can be found here: Word List Format for Word Puzzles;
Use your own images,
Choose to use Alphabet images, and set the code variation (Algorithm)
Settings: Configure the puzzle options, including word list settings
Styling: Styling options are covered below;
Image: In addition to the 'standard' puzzle output, you can also create images/memes for social media or activity books. This is described in a separate tutorial: How to create Images/Memes for Word Puzzles;

Generating Picture Cryptograms Puzzles

You can set the total number of puzzles you need, or generate puzzles for the entire word list. The quantity is the number of puzzle files that are generated. For example when you use 5 words per puzzle (as in the previous screenshot), a quantity of 7 will result in 7 jpg or png files, with a total of 35 words or phrases (if the word list is long enough).

The puzzles will always be generated as a JPG/PNG image. To add a title and/or watermark (url) to the image, see How to create Images

Images

On the "Images" tab you can add your own images (aka pictures / symbols / pictograms).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Lr3XCe2LlQ/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2002%20Images.png (Picture Cryptograms - 02 Images)

You can either click one of the image panels (which are now filled with these colored square images), or drag and drop 1 or more files on these image panels. By dragging a list of files from File Explorer to the top left image, these files will be set for all the other image panels as well.

You can click "Reset" to revert to the default images.

It's possible to add more than 26 images. This enables you to create puzzles for other languages, or just to add a larger set of images, from which random images are selected for each puzzle.

Algorithm (Algo)

On the Algorithm tab you can choose how the words will be encoded.

With the "Use Alphabet Images" setting, you can use 'fixed' pictures for each letter of the alphabet. For example apple.jpg for the letter "A". These puzzles can be used as a spelling / writing exercise.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Dy6PDkJkRm/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2003%20Alphabet.png (Picture Cryptograms - 03 Alphabet)

(The images in the screenshot are just an example, and not included with the software).

Additionally, you can control how words are encoded: a single encoding for all words, or per set of words, or even per word. In the latter case only one word or phrase is printed on each image.

Options

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sFbdHetUGx/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2004%20Options.png (Picture Cryptograms - 04 Options)

The options on the "Options" tab are those that are not directly related to styling or key table.

You can set how many words will be printed on each image. In the screenshot you see 5 words plus a key table
You can choose to print the description on top of each word, e.g. the text "Brain Teasers" in the screenshot. These descriptions can be supplied in the word list file, like this: "word:description", or "puzzles:Brain Teasers".
You can also set the line distance, to create more space in the image, and optionally set the code on top of the puzzle, or at the bottom
You can add Clues to the puzzle, random or fixed. In the screenshot, the letters D, I and M are added as clues
You can randomise the order in which the word list is processed, to create a different set of puzzle images each time you use the same word list.

Styling

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZcX28Ti1qS/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2005%20Styling.png (Picture Cryptograms - 05 Styling)

You can set your own style for Picture Cryptograms puzzles:

Font Styling - Select the font, positioning and relative size of the font
The placeholders for the letters - use an underscore, period or a custom letter, or even a square box for each letter in a custom color
Puzzle Alignment - place the words left or right, and aligned to top or bottom
Padding - add a bit of padding between the letters and images. This is in addition to the line distance setting
Image Styling - This can be set on the Image tab (see also: How to create Images Word Puzzles) - This is to create ready-to-use images with a title and watermark on each image.
Instant Puzzle Books - additional Styling and layout options for Instant Puzzle Books can be customized using the Time Saver options. If you don't have the Time Saver, default options will be used.

Key (Key Table)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/K1wBxdPRK2/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2006%20Key.png (Picture Cryptograms - 06 Key)

The key table for cryptogram puzzles shows all the letters and images matched together.

When you use Alphabet images, you can choose not to print the key table, since the images are already the key. For example a Bear for B
When you print the key table, you can set the number of lines and the position. In the example we've set it to use 3 lines and print at the top.
Key Table Alphabet - add all the letters that can be used for the key table. By default this is the English Alphabet
Print All Hints - this will print all the images and letters for the puzzle. This way there is no real guesswork involved, but it can still be challenging to find the right letters for the words (for children)
Only Print Used Letters - this is shown in the screenshot above. Instead of printing all the available symbols, only the symbols used in the different words are printed.

Here's an example that shows all the hints in the puzzle:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/YRJYLfW4SS/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2007%20Key%20All%20Letters.png (Picture Cryptograms - 07 Key All Letters)

Image

Using the "Use Image Settings" on the "Output Settings" tab, you can automatically add a title, description and watermark to each puzzle.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/lSHqK97Nt3/Picture%20Cryptograms%20-%2008%20Image%20Settings.png (Picture Cryptograms - 08 Image Settings)

In the example we've added a description "Find the encoded words" as an instruction for the puzzle. You can change the layout, colors, fonts, and the watermark (the url at the bottom).

Puzzle Maker Pro - Easy Cryptograms

This tutorial applies to Easy Cryptograms

The add-on "Time Saver for Word Puzzles" adds additional options for puzzle generation and Instant Puzzle Book layout.

Easy Cryptograms Explained

Our module Easy Cryptograms creates puzzles where the letters of a word, a set of words, or a phrase, are replaced by a different letter. For example each A is replaced by a D, each B by an E, and so on.

Easy Cryptograms is an implementation of a letter encoding (letter replacement) puzzle, is a word puzzle where the letters of a word, a set of words, or a phrase, are replaced by a different letter. For example each A is replaced by a D, each B by an E, and so on.

In Puzzle Maker Pro - Easy Cryptograms, there are some basic rules that are applied for encoding words and phrases:

Letters in a word are replaced by other letters. For example: Sudoku may result in tveplv,
Each word in a phrase is changed consistently, with the same key,
Spaces, punctuation marks and other special characters are not scrambled,
Optionally you can use a different key for each set of words, or for each word in a word list,
The key can be customized or randomized

Encoding where each letter shifts 3 letters in the alphabet is also known as Caesar code.

Easy Cryptograms Overview

To use Easy Cryptograms, select the puzzle type in the drop down menu, or in the regular menu.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Pmwwb3HXih/Easy%20Cryptograms%20Overview.png (Easy Cryptograms Overview)

When you select this puzzle type for the first time, a default list of words is shown, and the preview shows an image using the first word.

In addition to the 'basic' easy cryptograms functionality this module has quite a few options:

Word List: you can add additional text to the word list. In the example you can see "word:description", additional options can be found here: Word List Format for Word Puzzles;
Algorithm: You can specify how letters are replaced (see below)
Styling: Styling options are covered below;
Image Output: In addition to the 'standard' text output, you can also create images/memes for social media or activity books. This is described in a separate tutorial: How to create Images/Memes for Word Puzzles;

Generating Easy Cryptograms

The total number of puzzles can be set ("Quantity"), or you can use the entire word list ("Entire List").

When generating puzzles, and when generating a new preview (click Next Preview), a meme style image is shown as a preview. You can configure and style these images using the Images/Meme tab.

Hoewever, for Instant Puzzle Books, the images are not used, but instead the text output is used. That means you do not need to create the image output for your Instant Puzzle Books.

The text output consists of a TXT file and a CSV file, see also "Text Output for Word Puzzles". The CSV file can (for example) be used in Canva Pro to quickly generate images (in addition to the built-in Images/Memes option).

A default layout for Instant Puzzle Books will be used (just click "Create" to see this). With the Time Saver add-on, you can adjust the layout, using columns and customize other layout options.

Algorithm

You can control how the letters will be replaced / substituted:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/v12xLREBHO/Easy%20Cryptograms%20Algorithm.png (Easy Cryptograms Algorithm)

Use a Caesar Code - Letters are shifted a certain amount of positions in the alphabet. Or choose Random, in which case there won't be a clear order of replacement - this makes the puzzles harder to solve;
Set the shift amount for Caesar Code cryptograms, or optionally make it random - this will generate a random shift amount from 1 to 26)
Configure when a new randomization will be generated. (This will not work for Fixed Shift)

Fixed - the same encoding will be used for all words,
Vary Per Set - a new randomization will be generated for each set of words (see also Word List Format for Word Puzzles for more information about sets,
Vary Per Word/Phrase - for each word in the words list, a new random offset or randomization will be generated. For a phrase (multiple words on a single line in the text file), each word will always be encrypted with the same key (offset).

Styling

Styling the puzzles and puzzle books for Easy Cryptograms can be configured in several places:

Font Styling - The selected font will be used for the Images/Memes and for Instant Puzzle Books (see below),
Output Style - How to display the puzzle (see below),
Image/Meme Styling - This can be set on the Images/Memes tab (see also: How to create Images/Memes for Word Puzzles)
Instant Puzzle Books - Styling and layout options for Instant Puzzle Books can be customized using the Time Saver options. If you don't have the Time Saver, default options will be used.

Font Styling

You can customize the font by clicking the white panel (or the looking glass icon) in the Font Settings area. You can set both the font and the font color.

For the Instant Puzzle Books you can set the exact font size.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/umTwRURKAG/Fixed%20Font%20Size.png (Fixed Font Size)

For Images/Memes the font size is determined automatically, since this will vary depending on the image size (the number of pixels).

Output Style

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/spbhuqbVb8/Easy%20Cryptograms%20Output%20Styling.png (Easy Cryptograms Output Styling)

You can choose if you want the output in letters (A-Z), numbers, or double digit numbers.

When you choose numbers, the space between characters will be at least 1, otherwise it's impossible to distinguish between single digit and double digit numbers.

For Double Digit Numbers, the space between characters is optional. No spaces between the different numbers will make a puzzle quite a bit harder to solve. Compare 041717131823041411211007202217171421 to 04 17 17 13 18 23 04 14 11 21 10 07 20 22 17 17 14 21.

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Picture Cryptograms

How to Create Cryptograms with Puzzle Maker Pro

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