Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

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

There are two add-ons available for this software.

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

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

Extras Add-on

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

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

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

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

Word Snake

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

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

Random Shapes

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

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

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

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

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

Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

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