Question 1

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Other Shapes

Accepted Answer

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Other Shapes

This tutorial applies to Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Other Shapes.

The tutorial "How to use Mazes 2D Squares" describes how to use the generic options for Mazes 2D.

The Puzzle Maker Pro module Mazes 2D Other Shapes offers two additional shape styles for your mazes:

Easy Octagons, and
Small Circles

Easy Octagons

Mazes 2D Easy Octagons

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/QyQAq3WZ7v/Mazes%202D%20Easy%20Octagons.png (Mazes 2D Easy Octagons)

The maze type 'Easy Octagons' will create a maze with octagon shapes. It's called "Easy" because the little squares between the octagons are not part of the maze, making it easier to solve. This maze type is great to provide some variety in your maze or activity books.

All the maze and styling options are identical to the Mazes 2D Squares options.

By playing with the color and line styling, you can create some outstanding designs, such as:

Mazes 2D Easy Octagons

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/3ROK56FSuw/Mazes%202D%20Easy%20Octagons%20Styling.png (Mazes 2D Easy Octagons Styling)

Small Circles

Mazes 2D Small Circles

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/o3tEjFaiRA/Mazes%202D%20Small%20Circles.png (Mazes 2D Small Circles)

The maze type 'Small Circles' will create a maze with small circles instead of squares. This maze type is also great to provide variety in you rmaze or activity books.

By playing with the color and line styling, you can create some unique designs, such as:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/PNmYsHfsZe/Mazes%202D%20Small%20Circles%20Styling.png (Mazes 2D Small Circles Styling)

Small Circles - Limitations

Due to the nature of the circles, it's not currently possibly to use the Style options to configure or randomize the passages between the circles.

Creating Images/Memes

In addition to the text output that's used for Instant Puzzle Books, there's also an option to directly create Images for your puzzle words. To do this, select the "Images/Memes" tab.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/S1GQqhqTLa/Images-Memes.png (Images-Memes)

This is an easy way to create simple puzzle images that can be used on social media or elsewhere. (For more advanced images, use the CSV output and your favorite editing software).

The options you have here:

Click "Create Images" to automatically generated these images when you create puzzles.
The Description or Title can be printed at the top. You can switch this off. If there's a description for the word, that will be used. Otherwise, the title for the set of words will be used. If neither is available, the Description will be left blank.
You can select the background color or keep it transparent. If the background color is transparent, you can layer it with other images in your favorite editing software, or use the background images feature in Puzzle Maker Pro: Output Settings -> Background Images tab).
You can set the border width and color.
For social media posts, you can add your own watermark text. if you don't need this, switch it off. (Unless you want to print "www.BookPublisherTools.com" on all your images.

The settings from this tab will also be used for the puzzle preview image when you click "Next Preview".

Introduction

There are many different types of Secret Word and Letter Hints Crossword puzzles. Secret Word Grid is the name we use for words that are placed in a grid, and that include additional hints to find a secret word, or to suggest additional letters in the grid that make it easier to find all the words in the puzzle.

The example below includes a secret word:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/flJjtwTjTG/Secret-Word-Grid-Overview.png (Secret Word Grid Overview)

Hints Options for Secret Word Grid Puzzles

As mentioned in the introduction, you can use either Secret Word or Alphabet Hints (Letter Hints) for Acrostic Grid puzzles. You cannot have both at the same time.

When you use a secret word, you can set how many 'matching' letters must be available in each word, to be included in the puzzle.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/MZOE4WCK6D/Secret-Word-Grid-Min-Match.png (Secret Word Grid Minimum Matching Letters)

In the screenshot, Matching Letters is set to 2. For the words Sudoku and Sensei we have indicated some of the matching letters for the word Word Search.

Grid Style

The Secret Word Grid puzzles will always (!) have the word number in a separate square, because the letter hints are shown as small numbers in some of the squares. (You can't have both at the same time)

There are quite a few additional style options, shown on the "Variation" tab:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/tb891Sn0PJ/Secret-Word-Grid-Variation-tab.png (Secret-Word-Grid-Variation-tab)

Max Words per Row - You can set the maximum number of words that can be printed on each row of the puzzle. This allows for interesting layout effects, as you can see in the screenshot
Sort Rows - You can sort the rows by length, or use a 'Diamond' sort option, which sorts the grid rows from short to long to short. (see screenshot)
Align Rows - You can align the rows to the left, right or center.

Note: The software will try to optimize the grid to make each row of equal length, if possible. However, this depends quite a bit on the words in your word list. For best results to get a really square or rectangular grid, use words with complementary lengths, e.g. 8 and 4 letters (to get 12 letter rows).

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.

How to create Brick Mazes with Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Bricks

This tutorial applies to Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Patchwork Bricks.

The tutorial "How to use Mazes 2D Squares" describes how to use the generic options for Mazes 2D.

The module Mazes 2D Bricks for Puzzle Maker Pro contains two maze puzzle types:

Patchwork Bricks, and
Patchwork Basket Weave

This tutorial focuses on Patchwork Bricks

Mazes 2D Patchwork Bricks lets you design your own maze in a several brick bond patterns. In addition to the different patterns and customizations, you can use an accent color for some of the bricks, resulting in a more playful (or artistically fulfilling) maze.

The module includes

7 different brick bond types
3 options to customize the size and position within each bond type
6 colorization options (including randomization of the colorization pattern and randomization of the color)

In addition to the Bricks options, this module includes the 'standard' maze generation and style options in the Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D collection.

Note: The Masks Add-On is not available for this module.

Using Mazes 2D Patchwork Bricks

Select Mazes 2D in the main Puzzle Type dropdown menu, then select Patchwork Bricks in the (maze) Type dropdown menu. Click "Next Preview" to quickly get a first impression. (Changing settings does not automatically create a new preview, because you may want to change multiple settings, and the mazes, especially at larger sizes, may take some time to generate).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/u2HAbt0HhQ/Patchwork%20Bricks%20Overview.png (Patchwork Bricks Overview)

On the special Bricks tab, you can see three groups of settings

Select the brick bond type (variation)
Brick and position customization
Bricks Colorization

Bond Types

Currently there are 7 bond types included in Patchwork Bonds:

Flemish Bond
Stretcher Bond
Raking Stretcher Bond
Dutch Bond
English Cross Bond
Dearne's Bond
Rat Trap Bond

Customization Options

In general, as with most features in Puzzle Maker Pro, it's best to experiment and find out your own preferred settings.

Using slider "Height/Width Ratio" you can change the dimensions of the short brick

Using slider "Large/Small Brick Ratio" you can change the size of the large brick (relative to the short brick)

Using slider "2nd Row Shift" you can change the position of each 2nd row of bricks. In reality you shouldn't do ths for load-bearing walls... But for a simple maze, you can be creative.

The screenshot below is just one example of customized brick settings.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yZPGzJsDSg/Patchwork%20Bricks%20Customization.png (Patchwork Bricks Customization)

Note: with these settings it's possible to create bricks that have barely any width, making it hard to draw the maze. The software should not crash when you try this, but the walls and passages may overlap. Always check a couple of previews to verify that the results are perfect.

Colorization Options

There are several ways to colorize the bricks in the bricks mazes, creating a more playful and/or elegant experience:

None, no colors will be used, besides the colors on the Style tab
Small Bricks, the small bricks will be colored using the Accent Color
Uneven Bricks, this will color every other brick using the Accent Color
Uneven Rows, this will color the bricks in row 1, 3, 5, etc, using the Accent Color
All Bricks, this will use the Accent Color for all bricks. This works best with the "Randomize Colors" option (see below)
Randomize Pattern, this will use a random Colorization pattern for each puzzle that's generated

The option "Randomize Colors" will create random colors close to the chosen Accent Color, creating a lively, more or less organic, colored wall. (Randomization is done by using a random number to the R, G and B codes of the color).

Introduction

In the getting started tutorial, we discussed easy ways to quickly make a nonogram puzzle. In this tutorial, we'll be looking into how to edit your nonogram to make it fit your requirements.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uLKz4TkItx/Nonogram%20Basic%20result.jpg (Nonogram Basic result)

Where we left off last time

Advanced Options

For this tutorial we're using the same reference as before, but you're free to pick another image if you want. The first thing we can do is go to the Advanced Tab.

Here you'll see multiple options.

First of all, you can manually change the amount of rows and columns (cols) for the puzzle.

Below that, is a checkbox for small squares. This is great if you have large nonograms, so they can still fit on a page without you having to resize.

There's also the option for fixed dimensions. Let's select this option. This option will force the amount of rows and columns you have selected earlier. For this example, we have it at 30 rows, and 30 columns. We can also change this option for a bigger or smaller puzzle. Say you have a rectangular image, then maybe you want to change it to 30 by 40.

Below the fixed dimensions checkbox is also the choice for the image position. If you select center, additional empty rows will be created. If you select stretch, the image will get stretched so it fills in the puzzle properly. Below you can see the results for both options.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/O8I7lrQYpa/Stretch%20vs%20center.jpg (Stretch vs center)

This can lead to some very funny results if you force a square puzzle into a rectangular box, or the other way around. An example below.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/SpzFZD9YnS/Stretched%20out%20puppy.jpg (Stretched out puppy)

Since this isn't the result we want, no matter how funny it can be, let's reset to 30 by 30, and stretched position.

Edit Options

Time to go to the Edit tab to see what we can do for our puppy here.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/arx1aJWoiu/edit%20screen.jpg (Edit Options)

Right now, we can't do much. But once we select "Edit Mode", a world of possibilities opens up.

First, we can add rows and columns on basically every side of the puzzle. These rows and columns will be blank when we add them, and if you select "remove padding", all empty rows will be removed. It basically does the same as the "remove padding" on the left of the screen.

So why is it important that we can add and remove rows?

Because another possibility opened up when we selected Edit Mode.

We can now click on squares to add them to the puzzle, or remove them, to further finetune the result.

Try it yourself. Click on a square that is black, and it'll become white. The numbers in the rows and columns will also automatically be changed.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/fEXYqr4y78/Nonogram%20creating%20a%20puzzle%20from%20scratch.jpg (Nonogram creating a puzzle from scratch)

In the example above we opened a blank screen (essentially, we loaded a picture that had nothing on it), and manually clicked some tiles on to create a very rudimentary flower.

Now, Puzzle Maker Nonogram has no click and drag option to mass select squares, so it's probably best for your sanity if you work from a png, and don't try to create a massive nonogram by hand.

But this means we can finetune our nonogram more, to make it perfect for our purposes. One thing that is very unsatisfying about the nonogram we've been working with so far is the eyes. They aren't symmetrical and stand out a lot. So let's fix that first, and maybe change a few other small details too.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/lmlQ5IZqN7/Nonogram%20final%20doggy.jpg (Nonogram final doggy)

And there's the final appearance for our doggy. If we save the puzzle, both the puzzle and the solution get saved in the map we have selected.

Using the Tile Multiplier for mazes 2D Tiles

The Tile Multiplier Add-On can be used to create extra tiles based on the base tiles you use as input. This add-on only works with Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Tiles.

There are two main options:

Complement images if Missing - this is used for square mazes.
Convert Square Images to Isometric format - this is used for isometric mazes.

In addition to that, there's a slider you can use for troubleshooting.

Complement Images if Missing

Tile Multiplier will add tiles for you if you feed it a minimum set of five or six tiles. You don't have to buy Tile Multiplier to use Mazes 2D Tiles, you can also draw each tile yourself, or use options in File Explorer on Windows (or the Mac/Linux equivalent) to copy and rotate the images yourself.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NZYEskvKhJ/Square%20Tile%20Minimum.jpg (Square Tile Minimum)

Minimum tiles required

The minimum set consists of a tile for each of the options above:

1: dead-end
12: top-right corner
13: Tom-bottom straight line
123: Top-right-bottom split
1234: crossing
0: This tile is optional, but would be used for tiles that have no connection at all. Empty tiles in isometric mazes are an optional setting.

Note: Don't forget to create images for the start (code: s-) and end (code: e-) tiles. THese are not processed by Tile Multiplier.

From the minimum tile set it will create a full set of tiles:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/6c7sgi35s4/Square%20Tiles%20Tile%20Multiplier.jpg (Square Tiles Tile Multiplier)

It will copy and rotate tile 1, to create tiles 2, 3, and 4. It will do the same with the other tiles that it was given.

Convert Square Images to Isometric Format

The Tile Multiplier can create isometric tiles from your square tiles. It can't create new isometric tiles from other isometric tiles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/INGDEjNHem/tile%20multiplier%20for%20isometric.jpg (tile multiplier for isometric)

Complement images if missing: This will create a full set of square tiles out of the required set of 5 images.
Convert square images to isometric format: this will create isometric tiles for each available square tile (including the ones created with the complement option).
Advanced/scaling: In most cases the conversion will be perfect. In some cases, Tile Multiplier may misinterpret the exact size of the tile due to DPI differences. If this happens you can use the Scaling slider to adjust the tile size. For more info on this, see our separate tutorial: Troubleshooting Mazes 2D Tiles.

An example of the Tile Multiplier to create a full set of isometric tiles from a limited set of square tiles:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/4e6G2BYeBY/tile%20multiplier%20limited%20tile%20set.jpg (tile multiplier limited tile set)

Without the Tile Multiplier, this set of 7 tiles would result in the following maze:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/h8hHMNsNaz/Tile%20multiplier%20missing%20tiles.jpg (Tile multiplier missing tiles)

The Tile Multiplier can fix this, and add the other tiles, to create the following result:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/D9xaTiS1nC/Tile%20multiplier%20fix%20square%20tiles.jpg (Tile multiplier fix square tiles)

Something similar happens if you don't convert your tiles to isometric:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/owXO8fAdXE/isometric%20maze%20using%20square%20tiles.jpg (isometric maze using square tiles)

This maze does not look isometric at all, and the solution path is not connecting to any of the paths. After telling tile multiplier to convert the tiles to isometric, this would be the result:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/GurMzLm7Fw/Tile%20multiplier%20isometric.jpg (Tile multiplier isometric)

This looks a lot better.

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Other Shapes

Creating Isometric Tiles with Adobe Illustrator (Video)

How to create your own SVG files with Adobe Illustrator (for use in Connect the Dots)

Creating Images for Word Puzzles

How to create Secret Word and Letter Hints crossword puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Secret Word Grid

Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

How to create Brick Mazes with Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Bricks

How do I use the advanced and edit tabs of Puzzle Maker Nonogram

Using the Tile Multiplier for Mazes 2D Tiles

Creating Square Tiles with MS Powerpoint (Video)