Question 1

How to use More Clues for Puzzle Maker Pro Sudoku

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to use the More Clues add-on. The tutorial applies to:

Introduction

We've used the name "More Clues" for sudoku puzzles where additional clues are added to the puzzle. This module adds the following options:

Odd/Even - Mark the even cells in the grid
Consecutive - Mark some of the cell borders where the cells have consecutive numbers
Difference - Show the difference between some of the cells
Compare - Show which of two bordering cells has a larger value than the other
Threshold - Innovative sudoku variation where numbers greater than a certain threshold number are marked.

You can find the More Clues options on the "More Clues" tab for Sudoku Variations in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FXZxOU13st/Sudoku%20More%20Clues.png (Sudoku More Clues)

Using More Clues

The Sudoku More Clues add-on works on all sudokus, depending on your license. There are three license variations that are explained in the next section.

If you don't have a license for the sudoku type, the results will be watermarked. If you use (test-drive) the More Clues add-on without a valid license, the results will also be watermarked.

Sudoku symbol types

The More Clues options will work for sudokus with number, hexadecimals and Roman numerals. It will give unpredictable results for sudokus with letters and images, i.e. there is no numerical 'Difference'or Çomparison' for two letters or two images.

Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive

Even though the More Clues add-on can work with the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive sudoku variations, it is not recommended to do so: Both Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive sudokus already have additional visible and invisible clues incorporated. Adding "More Clues" will reduce the difficulty level of these sudokus.

More Clues Licenses

Sudoku More Clues Add-On for 9x9 Regular: This license allows you to use all the options of the More Clues add-on on the Regular variation of Sudoku 9x9. Additionally, it will allow you to use these options on the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive variations of 9x9 sudokus.
Sudoku More Clues Add-On for Variations: This license allows you to use all the options of the More Clues add-on on Variations of the regular sudoku for sudoku sizes 4x4, 6x6, 8x8 and 9x9. Variations are the additional grid types such as Triathlon and Sensei (and all others). Additionally, it will allow you to use these options on the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive variations of these sudokus.
Sudoku More Clues Add-On for Other Grid Sizes: This license allows you to use all the options of the More Clues add-on for the Regular variations of all grid sizes except 9x9. Additionally it will allow you to use these options on the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive variations of these sudokus.

More Clues Examples

Odd/Even

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/my2eyWEeG6/More%20Clues%20Odd%20Even.png (More Clues Odd Even)

"Odd/Even" will give all the even numbers a colored background. The color is taken from the 'Grey Cell Color' setting on the Styling tab. In contrast to the Checkerboard sudokus, the even numbers can be in all cells. The colorization results a random pattern.

When solving this sudoku, almost half the options can be removed from each cell, making the puzzle quite a bit easier to solve.

Consecutive

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RsqtQzBkzD/More%20Clues%20Consecutive.png (More Clues Consecutive)

"Consecutive" will add a small circle between some of the cells with consecutive numbers, for example 1 and 2, or 7 and 8. The clue will only be placed between cells that don't already have a clue in the sudoku puzzle.

You can select "Few Clues" or "Many Clues" for a rough indication of the number of clues. In many cases the number of cells with consecutive values is quite limited, due to the random nature of sudoku grids.

Compare

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/5RptX5Q5kR/More%20Clues%20Compare.png (More Clues Compare)

"Compare" will display the algebraic 'greater then' sign and 'smaller then' sign, to indicate the relationship between two cells. The clue will only placed between cells that do not yet have a clue in the sudoku puzzle.

You can select "Few Clues" or "Many Clues" for a rough indication of the number of clues.

Difference

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yBk8Wq6alk/More%20Clues%20Difference.png (More Clues Difference)

"Difference" will display the math difference between two cells. For example '4' means that the adjacent cells contain 1 and 5, 5 and 1, 2 and 6, etc. The clue will only placed between cells that do not yet have a clue in the sudoku puzzle.

You can select "Few Clues" or "Many Clues" for a rough indication of the number of clues.

Threshold

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/PivhaYtByV/More%20Clues%20Threshold.png (More Clues Threshold)

"Threshold" will give all the cells with a value equal or larger than a threshold a colored background. You can set the threshold. This is a new type of sudoku which may need additional explanation in your puzzle books.

When solving this sudoku, depending on your settings, almost half the options can be removed from each cell, making the puzzle quite a bit easier to solve.

Getting Started with Nonconsecutive Sudoku

This tutorial applies to:

Nonconsecutive Sudoku

Nonconsecutive Sudoku is a sudouk variation with additional rules for the grid: consecutive numbers cannot be adjacent. In other words, when there's a 3 in a cell, the cells next to it - horizontally and vertically - cannot contain a 2 or a 4.

In our modules for Nonconsecutive Sudoku, the highest and lowest numbers are considered consecutive as well: In a 9x9 grid, the 1 and 9 can also not be adjacent to each other.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/tEiJuBOOHT/Nonconsecutive.PNG (Nonconsecutive.PNG)

This image illustrates the impact of this rule: In a regular sudoku, if the numbers 2, 4 and 6 would be placed like this, there would be 6 available numbers for the center cell: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9. (in a 9x9 grid sudoku).

For Nonconsecutive Sudoku there are quite a few restrictions:

the 2 removes the 1 and 3 from the options
the 4 removes the 3 and 5 from the options
the 6 removes the 5 and 7 from the options

Instead of 6 different numbers, there are only 2 options for the center cell: the 8 and 9.

As you can see the nonconsecutive rule hugely diminishes the number of options for the grids. As a result, there are significantly fewer nonconsecutive sudoku puzzles available.

Find Nonconsecutive Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro

To create Nonconsecutive Sudoku puzzles in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/GYxuecZjSI/Nonconsecutive%20Sudoku%20Overview.png (Nonconsecutive Sudoku Overview)

Go to Sudoku Variations
Select one of the Sudoku Grid Sizes that are available for Nonconsecutive Sudoku (6x6, 8x8, 9x9, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14, 15x15, 16x16)
Select "Nonconsecutive" in the Variation menu.

There are quite a few tutorials about all the regular features of Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro, ranging from grid setup to symbol options, please check the tutorials below.

Note: Even though it's possible to use images for Nonconsecutive Sudokus, it doesn't make much sense, and the sudokus may be impossible to solve, since there are no odd and even images.

Checkerboard Sudoku

Checkerboard is a sudoku variation with a specific grid setup: Like a checkerboard.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FNWEI47XeO/Checkerboard%206x6.png (Checkerboard 6x6)

To solve a Checkerboard Sudoku, you apply the same rules as for regular sudoku, and additionally you have the Checkerboard rule: The white squares contain only odd numbers, the gray squares contain only even numbers.

This is a fun innovative sudoku variation. Because it's easier to solve - it has less options for each square - it's a great variation to include in activity books for children and adults.

Because Checkerboard Sudoku requires an even number of rows and columns in the grid, this variation is not available with a 9x9 grid.

Checkerboard Sudoku math

To compare the number of options of Checkerboard Sudoku with regular sudoku, here's the math for the first 3 squares in a 8x8 sudoku grid:

In a regular sudoku, you have 8 options for the first cell, 7 for the next, 6 for the next, and 5 different options for the fourth cell, which would be 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 = 1680 different options for the first 4 cells. (for a full grid, the math becomes increasingly more complex, and the number of options are bilions.

For Checkerboard sudoku, you have 4 options for the first cell: just 1, 3, 5, 7. Then 4 options for the next (2, 4, 6, 8). For the third and fourth cells there are only 3 options. For just the first 4 cells you have 4 * 4 * 3 * 3 = 144 options, which is less than 10% of the regular sudoku options. The difference gets increasingly larger when we add more cells.

Find Checkerboard Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro

To create Checkerboard Sudoku puzzles in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uoaWRSeyqD/CheckerBoard%20Sudoku%20Overview.png (CheckerBoard Sudoku Overview)

Go to Sudoku Variations
Select one of the Sudoku Grid Sizes that are available for Checkerboard Sudoku (6x6, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14, 16x16)
Select "Checkerboard" in the Variation menu.

There are quite a few tutorials about all the regular features of Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro, ranging from grid setup to symbol options, please check the tutorials below.

Note: Even though it's possible to use images for Checkerboard Sudokus, it doesn't make much sense, and the sudokus may be impossible to solve, since there are no odd and even images.

Getting Started

First off, let's find ourselves that Time Saver tab.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/PEaQMF9FRO/Getting%20started%20with%20the%20time%20saver.jpg (Getting started with the time saver (1).jpg)

After you click on the time-saver tab, you'll see the above screen. Let's quickly go through it.

First, there is the option to use the Time Saver to generate puzzles. if you want to use the Time Saver, you should have this selected.

Then, there's presets. Let's assume you have no presets set up. If it's your first time using Time Saver, you won't have any presets, and even if you have used it before, you may want something different.

Below that are the puzzle settings. This is where you'll be doing most of your work in the Time Saver module. And we'll go in-depth on how this works later.

To the right are the difficulty settings. What do those do? Well, if you want to call your difficulties something different, you can adjust that here. You can see that the level 1-7 are currently named what we call them, but if you want to change it to 1-7 stars, that's possible.

So let's get started.

Adding Puzzles to generate

First things first, in order for the Time Saver to generate puzzles, it needs to know what it needs to generate. So let's add some puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yoC9U4BgVm/Time%20Saver%20puzzles%20added.jpg (Time Saver puzzles added)

So as you can see, I've added some puzzles. I've set the "Quantity" to 20, and selected some puzzles and variations.

Immediately you see in the table what it'll generate. Because I've set the Quantity to 20, it'll generate 20 of each difficulty level for each of the puzzles I selected.

An exception is made for the 4x4 sudokus, because those can only be generated up to difficulty level 3.

Now, that's a large amount of sudokus it's generating, and perhaps you don't quite want that. Or you want to fine-tune a bit more. So let's do that. Simply click on the square you want to change, and change the number.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/EwEY9l4RKB/Time%20Saver%20customised%20amounts.jpg (Time Saver customised amounts (1).jpg)

You can see that I've changed some settings now.

So in theory, this would be good enough to export, and a ton of puzzles would appear now.

But, we can do one more thing before we generate all of this.

See, on the bottom right is the "Show Layout Options" button. We haven't discussed this one yet.

So let's click that, and see what we can change.

Things are getting interesting now. If you click the "Edit Layout" button that now appears just above the table of puzzles, you can do something very fun.

You can set multiple puzzles to a singular page.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/VDUPnRhcEt/Time%20Saver%20Layout%20Setup.jpg (Time Saver Layout Setup)

As you can see, I've manually set the amount of puzzles that can go on one page to 12. 4 rows, 3 columns.

This won't work with all puzzles, and it won't look good with all puzzles. especially if you have the larger puzzles, such as the multidokus or the 25x25, you'd really want fewer sudokus on a page.

But if you have only 4x4 sudokus? Well, it would be a waste of space if you didn't add a few more sudokus to a page. If you add the Collate option, you can set up 2 layouts, one for the puzzles, and one for the solutions.

It's probably a better idea to keep those two the same for now. But if you've ever looked through puzzle books, you can see that the solutions in the back tend to have smaller solutions, so more fit on a page, and only the last few pages are solutions, instead of the latter half of the puzzle book.

You can also set up a new page for every time you move to a new section, so puzzles and solutions don't end up on the same page.

Well, with that being said, let's click "Create (TS)" in the bottom left, and have Puzzle Maker Pro generate all of this for us.

A small popup should appear showing it's done generating, and in your files you now find all of your puzzles.

Standard Sudoku

The basic module for Sudoku 9x9 standard does exactly what it says on the tin. It creates a sudoku that is 9x9 squares, which is the most common variation. With Sudoku 9x9 Creative it's also possible to create sudokus with pictures, letters, or other symbols.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/4GpsEUZxBR/Sudoku%20creative.jpg (Sudoku creative)

Different Sizes

We also have two different modules, for smaller or bigger squares. Sudoku Kids Edition has 4x4 sudokus, and 6x6 sudokus. Sudoku More Squares offers sudokus of the sizes 8×8, 10×10 and 15×15. Sudoku Large Squares 1 contains 12×12 and 16×16 sudokus, and Sudoku Large Squares 2 takes it to the extreme, with 14×14, 18×18, 20×20, 24×24 and 25×25 sudokus.

The largest we currently offer is 25x25. As it still has to be printed on a page, this is the largest option that still looks good.

Sudoku X and Hyper Sudoku

These are from the Sudoku Variations add-on. Both use the standard 9x9 shape, but they have additional difficulties.

The Sudoku X has added diagonals, where in each diagonal the numbers 1-9 appear once. The Hyper Sudoku has extra 3x3 squares overlayed, that also can only contain the numbers 1-9 once.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/xaFLJXAqQI/Sudoku%20X%20and%20Hyper%20Sudoku.jpg (Sudoku X and Hyper Sudoku)

Multidokus

Multidokus are sudokus that have multiple sudokus overlapping. We have several variations of these. For the examples we'll be using the standard 9x9, but many of these can also be combined with the different sizes, depending on the modules that you own. These sudokus look intimidating, but once you realise they're built up out of multiple normal sudokus, they become very easy to solve.

So let's look into these sudokus per module. First, the sudokus from Sudoku Multidoku 1. This contains the variations Sudoku Twins, Samurai, Marathon and Triathlon.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/abDBp5AcKL/Multidoku%20Twins%20Marathon%20Samurai.jpg (Multidoku Twins Marathon Samurai)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ycH0giecSF/Multidokus%20triathlon.jpg (Multidokus triathlon)

As a visual aid, we have colourcoded these sudokus. As you can see, each multidoku is built up out of multiple overlapping 9x9 sudokus. This actually makes the multidokus slightly easier, because for the squares in the overlapping area you can use hints from both sudokus to figure out the solutions!

Now that you understand the basics of how the multidokus work, let's see how the Multidokus from Sudoku Multidoku 2 are built up. With these it can be slightly more difficult to find the 9x9 squares that build up the sudoku, but they're still very much there. The Sudoku Multidoku 2 module contains the following sudoku forms: Sensei, Cross, Gattai, Flower and Windmill.

So let's see what those look like.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rMxtWgUeLq/Multidoku%20Sensei%20gattai%20flower.jpg (Multidoku Sensei gattai flower (2).jpg)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RDDttsGXrw/Multidoku%20Cross%20Windmill.jpg (Multidoku Cross Windmill)

That got complicated really quickly. The sensei has the least overlap of any multidoku, but the other ones in this set have multiple squares, and even some hidden sudoku squares in the middle of each.

However, you can still solve these the way you solve a normal sudoku. Just take it one square at a time, and use the overlapping squares to your advantage to solve all the sudokus!

Grading and Difficulty Levels

There are several different Sudoku puzzle variations available in Puzzle Maker Pro:

Our Wordoku puzzles are graded with the same rules:

One of the important things when solving, publishing and creating sudoku puzzles, is to set the difficulty level. In other words: Grading the puzzle.

When you look at sudoku puzzles from different sources, such as magazines or puzzle books from mainstream or independent publishers, websites, or apps, you'll find that a 3 star or medium sudoku puzzle does not always have the same characteristics.

You may notice that sometimes you can easily solve a 6 star (very tough) sudoku puzzle, while you might get stuck at a 3 or 4 star puzzle in another puzzle book, or even in the same puzzle book.

2022 Changes

In earlier versions of Puzzle Maker Pro, we've used various websites to 'calibrate' our sudoku algorithms. At the start of 2022 we've released an update of Puzzle Maker Pro that has a brand new sudoku generation engine.

To help you, as a puzzle (book) publisher, we disclose the rules by which our sudoku puzzles are graded. We've determined these rules by examining puzzles from various sources, and we've tried to set up a balanced grading approach, that can also be logically explained.

Sudoku 9x9 Grading

First of all: Sudoku is a logic puzzle, not a math puzzle. Sudoku grading is based on the logical operations that are required to solve the puzzle.

Note: Some vendors use the number of clues (a.k.a. the number of digits in the puzzle when you start solving it) to grade the puzzle. Please be aware that this is very wrong: There are sudoku puzzles with only 17 clues that would be graded as Easy by all sophisticated grading systems.

Logical Operations

Although this article is not a Sudoku tutorial, if you want to understand difficulty levels, you'll need to understand the types of logical operations that can be used:

Naked Single: Only one number is possible in a given cell (square), all other numbers have been eliminated
Hidden Single: Even though there are several numbers in a given cell, that cell is the only location (in a row, column or box) where the number can be placed
Naked Pair, Naked Triple, Naked Quad: 2, 3, or 4 numbers that are the only possibilities for 2, 3 or 4 cells
Hidden Pair, Hidden Triple, Hidden Quad: Just like the Hidden Single, there are other numbers in the 2, 3 or 4 cells, but the 2, 3 or 4 numbers that form the Pair, Triple or Quad, can only be placed in these cells and not elsewhere.

In general, for Sudokus up to 5 star level (which is called very hard, in Puzzle Maker Pro), you can find Naked Singles, Hidden Singles, Naked Pairs, Naked Triples and Hidden Pairs.

Other operations can found on several websites and in sudoku books, such as X-Wing, Y-Wing, (Simple) Coloring, Tracing, Overlay Reduction (also called Pointing Pair / Line Box Reduction), etc etc. These operations can be needed for 6 * and up.

Difficulty Levels

Level 1: Only a 'few' Naked Singles and Removing Options (if a '7' is already present in a row, column or box, you can remove it from each cell in that row, column or box)
Level 2: Many Naked Singles
Level 3: Level 2 plus a few Hidden Singles
Level 4: Level 3 plus many Hidden Singles and possibly a Naked Pair or Naked Triple
Level 5: Level 4 plus more Hidden Singles and several Naked Pairs or Naked Triples
Level 6: Level 5 plus more Naked Pairs / Triples and possibly a 'Very Hard' technique (e.g. Hidden Triple or Overlay Reduction)
Level 7: Level 6 plus more 'Very Hard' techiques and possibly a 'Tough' technique (e.g. X-Wing, Coloring)

Is this a big change compared to the old sudoku puzzles?

No, but as part of the new (2022) sudoku 'engine', I decided to make the grading rules more explicit and to offer transparency about them.

Grading of other Sudoku Variations

For regular 9x9 Sudoku puzzles, there are quite a few websites and apps that can be used to solve and/or grade the puzzles. For other formats, ranging from 4x4 to 25x25 sudokus, and for the variations such as Twins, Triathlon, Marathon, Samurai and 3D sudoku, there is no such thing. (And, as far as I know, nobody else is transparent about their grading system. If there's any standard to be found anywhere, I'll be happy to use that for Puzzle Maker Pro)

The approach that's used in Puzzle Maker Pro is easy to use, but there are some caveats, which I'll explain after describing the main approach.

Main Approach

A 9x9 sudoku has 81 squares, while a 10x10 sudoku has 100 squares and a 16x16 sudoku has 256 squares. Sudoku variations have more squares as well. For example, a Triathlon sudoku has 189 squares and a Samurai sudoku has 360 squares.

The approach chosen for Puzzle Maker Pro is to scale the difficulty level thresholds proportionally: When a 9x9 sudoku needs 7 hidden singles to be considered Level 3, a 10x10 sudoku would need 9 or 10, a 16x16 sudoku would need 22 and a Samurai Sudoku would need 32 hidden singles to be Level 3.

Small Sudokus 4x4 and 6x6

For the smaller sudokus, there are fewer difficulty levels, since certain options (quads) cannot occur, and even in Hard 6x6 sudokus, triples will be very rare.

Caveat

However, the occurence these patterns, such as naked or hidden triples or quads, does not increase proportionally, at least not linearly, but faster than that.

For example, when you have a 9x9 sudoku, where in a given row, 5 clues are given. In that case there are 4 squares empty, which 4 possible numbers for these squares. The chances that there is a (naked or hidden) triple or quad are very small. But if you compare this to a 25x25 sudoku, where 5/9 or around 60% of the clues are given, the result is very different. You'd have 15 clues and 10 empty squares. The odds of having triples or quads are still small, but a lot bigger than for a 9x9 sudoku.

Currently, Puzzle Maker Pro does not compensate for this additional complexity.

Like the older version, the difficulty levels 3 and 4 will be reasonably easy to solve, level 5 will be comparable to regular 9x9 level 5 difficulty, but levels 6 and 7 can be relatively much harder to solve. Of course this all depends on the actual puzzle format and variation.

How to use More Clues for Puzzle Maker Pro Sudoku

Getting Started with Nonconsecutive Sudoku

Getting Started with Checkerboard Sudoku

How do I use the Sudoku Time-Saver

How do I solve the Multidokus

How do the difficulty levels for Sudoku and Wordoku work?