Question 1

Getting Started with Link Finder (Plugin for Powerpoint)

Accepted Answer

Getting Started with Link Finder (Plugin for Powerpoint)

The Link Finder plugin for Powerpoint is a tool to help you manage all the invisible link shapes that you (or your designer) may have added to a Powerpoint file.

If you haven't yet installed it, please do that first. You can find a tutorial on how to install Link Finder and our other Powerpoint Plugins here. (Link Finder is included in the download for Easy Journals).

##Finding Links

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FlzkMszl5R/Link%20Finder%2001%20-%20Set%20Up%20colors.jpg (Link Finder 01 - Set Up colors.jpg)

The slide that's shown in this screenshot contains a couple of invisible shapes with links to other slides. It's hard to find these, especially if you haven't created the slide yourself, or if it was created a long while ago.

In the plugin panel you can see only very few options:

The color (now set to a very bright green color). Invisible shapes will be set to this color,
Transparency, ranging from 0% to 100% transparent. Although it makes sense to make the shapes opaque, that would also mean you cannot see the shape below it (which may have meaningful text). That's why you can set transparency to e.g. 20%. (The best value depends on the color you select and the colors of the shapes in your Powerpoint file).
A selector for "Current Slide" or "All Slides".

Click "Find Links" to find the invisible (transparent) shapes that contain link. It will show something like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IfR4VZLk8I/Link%20Finder%2002%20-%20Results.jpg (Link Finder 02 - Results.jpg)

Once you've done your inspection or editing, you can make the links transparent again by using "Hide Links". This will make the shapes fully transparent again, but it only works for shapes previously found with "Find Links".

Question 2

How to create Full Page Word Search puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro

Accepted Answer

This tutorial will show how to create Full Page Word Search puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro.

The Tutorial applies to:

Note: You can create full page word search puzzles with either Word Search module, but if you want to create entire puzzle books with the full page layout, you'll need the Time Saver Add-On.

Introduction

Full page word search puzzles are printed on a spread consisting of 2 pages. The puzzle itself is printed on one page, the word list is printed on the second page. In Puzzle Maker Pro it's easy to generate the puzzles, but it takes a little bit of math to get it right. An example of the pages in Powerpoint could look like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZctWy8np1D/Full%20Page%20Example.png (Full Page Example)

First we'll explain a bit of background, next we'll show you how to do it in Puzzle Maker Pro in several steps.

Page and Puzzle Dimensions

The entire layout depends on your page setup, the trim size and margins. The puzzle dimensions should be adjusted to this. Or the other way around, if you want a certain size for the puzzle, say 30x40 or 34x44, you may want to adjust the page settings accordingly.

As you can see on the previous image, the puzzle page consists of several parts:

The title
The puzzle itself
The margins

Optionally you may want to add a page number as well.

Trim Size and Margins

There are several trim sizes that are commonly used for KDP books. For printables, you may use slightly different dimensions, corresponding to common paper sizes (Letter Size in the USA, A4 in Europe).

Let's say you want to use margins of 0.5" on each side. (This is not a requirement for Puzzle Maker Pro). This will have an impact on the printable area for each trim size:

A trim size of 6x9" will have a printable area of 5x8"
A trim size of 8x10" will have a printable area of 7x9"
A trim size of 8.5x11" will have a printable area of 7.5x10"

The horizontal:vertical ratio is important, because it determines how many letters you can use horizontally and vertically. It gets slightly more complex if we add a title, but luckily you only need to do the math once.

Adding room for the title.

In Puzzle Maker Pro, the space for the title is allocated as a percentage of the total height for each puzzle. In this tutorial we have just one puzzle per page. Let's say we set the title percentage to 5%, that means:

A trim size of 6x9", printable area 5x8", title area is 5% * 8" = 0.4". The puzzle area will be 5x7.6"
A trim size of 8x10", printable area 7x9", title area is 5% * 9" = 0.45". The puzzle area will be 7x8.55"
A trim size of 8.5x11", printable area 7.5x10", title area is 5% * 10" = 0.5". The puzzle area will be 7.5x9.5"

As you can see, the sizes are different, and more importantly, the ratio between horizontal and vertical is different. This means that the number of letters horizontally and vertically will be different:

5x7.6" has a horizontal:vertical ratio of 1:1.52, which means 1.52 letters vertically for each letter horizontally
7x8.55" has a horizontal:vertical ratio of 1:22, which means 1.22 letters vertically for each letter horizontally
7.5x9.5" has a horizontal:vertical ratio of 1:27, which means 1.27 letters vertically for each letter horizontally

For the larger trim size 8x10", the 1:1.22 ratio means a hor/vert ratio of 30x37 or 33x40 letters.

If you change the margins, you'll get slightly different calculations.

Using a fixed grid size

On the other hand, if you want to use a fixed grid size, say 30x40 or 34x44, you can also do that. Puzzle Maker Pro will resize the puzzle (image) to fit into the space that's reserved for the puzzle. This may result in a tiny bit of additional white space next to the puzzle.

Page Setup in Puzzle Maker Pro

You'll need to set up the Trim Size, the Page Layout, and the Titles.

Trim Size and Margins

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IHUyJmo9Gy/full%20page%20word%20search%20trim%20size.png (full page word search trim size)

You can set the Trim size on the Instant Puzzle Books -> Page Format tab.

Set the Trim Size, and optionally select Bleed. (Bleed will affect the printable area, Puzzle Maker Pro will take this into account)
Set the Margins. Optionally you can use different margins for left and right pages. In that case:
Click "Mirror Margins", and you'll also want to make sure "First is Right Page" is not enabled. This will ensure that each full page word search puzzle and its word are printed on facing pages. You'll have to add a first page later on, since KDP requires that the first page is always a 'right' page.

Page Layout

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/5d1Y0Gf0ce/full%20page%20word%20search%20Page%20Layout.png (full page word search Page Layout (1).png)

You can set the Full Page layout on the Instant Puzzle Books -> Page Layout -> Word Search Layouts tab. (This is only available with the Time Saver Add-On for Word Search).

First, make sure to click Collate Setting "B". This will print all the puzzles first, and the solutions at the end of the book. (The solution layout can be set on the tab "General Layouts").
Layout types 7 and 8 are used for full page word search puzzles
You can set the number of word columns to 3 or 4.

Titles Setup

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/43xHIOxl1Y/full%20page%20word%20search%20titles%20setup.png (full page word search titles setup)

You can set the titles setup on the Instant Puzzle Books -> Titles Setup tab in the Title Layout Settings area.

Set the "Puzzle Title Height" to the number you used in your calculations. 5-10% is enough to have a clearly printed title. The font size for the title will automatically be adjusted for the space you set.
The solution title height is usually not important, but you can set this as well.
If you want, you can change the font for the titles. This font does not apply to the word list.

Puzzle Setup in Puzzle Maker Pro

The previous steps were more or less the boring part. Important, but you still have nothing to show for it.

The options for Word Search are explained in other tutorials. For full page word search puzzles, you'll need to set the grid size, and have a large enough word list.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/g17ILUuRSc/full%20page%20word%20search%20preview.png (full page word search preview)

In this example we've set the grid size to 40 rows and 32 columns.

As with all modules in Puzzle Maker Pro, you can use the mouse scroll wheel on the Preview panel to zoom in (or out) and see more details of the puzzle.

Don't forget to set the right settings on the Advanced tab, such as spaces.

Creating the Puzzle Book - Time Saver

There are several techniques to create the entire puzzle book: Obviously there is the Time Saver, and some people prefer to create the puzzles manually, one by one, and then assemble them into a puzzle book using a separate module of Puzzle Maker Pro.

When you use the Time Saver, you have some additional options for the puzzle titles, and the whole process is faster. However, you'll have less control over the individual puzzles.

Make sure to click the "Use Time Saver to generate Puzzles" to make sure the Time Saver is used. When this is enabled, the "Create" button will change into "Create (TS)".

Time Saver - Main

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZEoat0GPdZ/full%20page%20word%20search%20ts%201%20main.png (full page word search ts 1 main)

On the "Main" tab you can set some preferences:

Merge All Word Lists - this will merge all your separate word list into one huge set of words. Use this if you have many themed word lists and want to mix them all up for the word search puzzles
Separate Puzzles Per Word List - this will create puzzles for each word list. This will also allow you to use the titles of the word list files as puzzle titles.

Time Saver - Word List

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/paLkfJB3Sr/full%20page%20word%20search%20ts%202%20word%20lists.png (full page word search ts 2 word lists)

Select all your word files on the "Word Lists" tab. Each word list file should contain just the words, one on each line. No headings, no additional information. Just the words in plain text. Just be careful when you copy word lists from the internet, you may by accident copy additional characters that cannot be processed by Puzzle Maker Pro.

Time Saver - Puzzle Setup

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IiDRaEaPMF/full%20page%20word%20search%20ts%203%20puzzle%20formats.png (full page word search ts 3 puzzle formats)

Finally the Puzzle Setup. Use the dimensions you calculated at the start of this tutorial (or the ones you just want to use). Optionally select the other options in each row. Just click on the cell (e.g. where it says 40 or 32 or 20 in the screenshot) to edit the number or switch an option on or off.

When you click "Create (TS)", Puzzle Maker Pro will generate puzzles and a puzzle book. (Don't forget to select Powerpoint and/or PDF on the Instant Puzzle Books -> Output Type tab).

The way Puzzle Maker Pro handles these settings:

For each word list, it will process the table with puzzle formats, and generate the quantity of puzzles you've set here.

If you have 10 word lists, and just one puzzle format with quantity 10, you'll get 100 puzzles
If you used "Merge All Word Lists", it counts as 1 single (large) word list. In that case you would get just 10 puzzles.

Creating the Puzzle Book - Manually

Another option to create a Word Search puzzle book (or any other type of puzzle) is to manually create puzzles that appeal to you visually. Puzzle Maker Pro will create a completely randomized new puzzle each time you click "Next Preview".

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sNPJzh5r1x/full%20page%20word%20search%20-%20manual%201.png (full page word search - manual 1)

Click "Next Preview" to generate a new puzzle
Optionally switch between Puzzle and Solution Preview, by clicking the "Preview Solution" option
Click "Save Preview", this will save the puzzle files in the project folder, exactly the same way it would be saved when you click "Create".

The next step would be to create the puzzle book from all the saved puzzles:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IeL7BFWvau/full%20page%20word%20search%20manual%202.png (full page word search manual 2)

On the "Output Settings" tab you can find an option "Skip Puzzle Creation". When you switch this option on, and click "Create" (or "Create (TS)"), Puzzle Maker Pro will not generate new puzzles, but will only create the Powerpoint file or PDF from the existing puzzles in your project folder. (You have to make sure there are no additional puzzles or other files that you don't want to appear in the book).

Introduction

There are quite a few options to add information to your word lists and word list files. If you want more and specific control over the puzzles that are created, you can use all of the options. Alternatively, Puzzle Maker Pro - Crossword Variations can also generate puzzles when you only provide the words.

For example, a word list consisting of just a list of animals:

You can save it just like this in a text file, e.g. animals.txt, and use this to create puzzles. Puzzle Maker Pro can use the built-in dictionary to retrieve clues (descriptions). You can use the word fill or word scramble options, which only need these words.

Word Descriptions

For more control, you can also add the clues for each word, like this:

As you can see, the words and clues are separated by a colon (":"). Optionally you can add multiple clues for each word, Puzzle Maker Pro will randomly pick one of the clues when needed.

Adding Secret Words or Phrases

For certain puzzle types, such as the acrostic puzzles, you can add a secret word or phrase. Use the tag "#secret", as in this example:

For acrostic puzzles, you can also choose to randomly use a word from the word list as the secret word.

Word Sets in a single file

It's possible to add multple word lists in a single file, however, it is usually more flexible to save each word list in its own file.

For each word set, wether it's in a separate file or combined in a single file, you can set a title and description, which can be used with certain puzzle types.

Multiple word lists in a single file can be separated by blank lines:

New Grid Rules and More Clues

Some of the new sudoku products and bundles have names that may not be instantly clear or intuitive. We've tried to use better names than "Bundle 13" and "Bundle 14", but had to invent new names that weren't used yet for sudokus. We'll explain the logic behind this names here:

New Grid Rules means that there are new rules applied when constructing the sudoku grids. Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive both have restrictions of the values of each cell in the grid. The grid does not follow the normal sudoku rules (1-9 in each column, in each row and in each 3x3 subgrid), but has additional restrictions.
More Clues means that additional clues are added to the sudoku puzzle. The sudoku grid is constructed using the normal sudoku rules, but when the sudoku puzzle is constructed (removing clues from the grid), additional clues are added.

New Grid Rules

New Grid Rules consists of two different puzzle types:

Checkerboard Sudoku: Cells are colored in a checkerboard pattern. White cells have only odd numbers (1,3,5,7 for 8x8 sudoku), while gray cells have only even numbers (2,4,6,8 for 8x8 sudoku). Due to the nature of checkerboards, these sudokus are only available for even grid sizes (6x6, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14 and 16x16).
Nonconsecutive Sudoku: Consecutive numbers, such as 1-2, 4-5, etc can never be next to each other in the grid. For this puzzle, 9 and 1 are considered consecutive as well.

More Clues

The More Clues products each offer 5 different sudoku additions:

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

What is a Preset

A Preset is basically the list of all the settings you can use for a puzzle. What is saved in a preset for Sudoku is different than for Word Search. In general, all the settings and options that are shown on the Puzzle Settings tab are part of it.

Time Saver Presets

In the Time Saver tab you can also find presets. These contain all the settings on the Time Saver tab (and sub-tabs) for that puzzle type. For example, for Sudoku, it will contain the entire table of sudoku variations and quantities. For Word Search it will include the word list and the table of puzzle sizes, along with the Main settings.

It is not required to use presets at all, but in some cases it can make your workflow more efficient.

Presets and Word Puzzles

A specific use case is when you generate word puzzles, such as Word Search: The word list you select for Word Search is part of the preset. When you 'load' that preset, you should see the same word list or word list file displayed.

When you use the Time Saver for Word Search, you can use select these (word search puzzle) presets to generate a puzzle book, and choose the option to use the word list that's included in that preset.

Please note: Puzzle Maker Pro supports different workflows. You don't have to use the presets, it's an option that may work for you.

Alternatively you can use a single preset for consistent styling of your puzzles, and use the Time Saver to override the word list.

Question 6

How to use the Masks Add-On for Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Squares

Accepted Answer

The Masks Add-On for Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Squares

With the Masks Add-On for Mazes 2D Squares you can create shaped mazes. Mazes in the shape of anything you want.

This add-on supports three different styles of mask creation:

Quick Masks
Create masks in the Mask Editor using a silhouette
Create masks in the Mask Editor manually

Of course you can also combine the two: Use a silhouette first, and then manually edit the resulting mask.

You can find the mask options under the Mask tab.

Mazes 2D Squares - Mask Tab

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/MtMjI9wSGg/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Mask%20Tab.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Mask Tab)

To use a Mask, the first step is to click the “Use Mask” checkbox. That will let the software know that it should use a mask. (You can also uncheck it, to temporarily disable a mask that you’ve set up).

Whenever you switch the Maze Type, the mask will reset.

Note: the details may work slightly different for different shapes, but the main mechanics are the same.

This tutorial applies to the following products:

Masks Add-On for Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D

Quick Masks

The easiest option to create a mask, is the Quick Mask option.

First, you need to select an image. Either beither clicking the white panel below the “Use Quick Mask” checkbox, or by dragging your image onto that panel.

Next, click the “Use Quick Mask” button, and click “Next Preview”.

Mazes 2D Squares - Quick Mask

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rGIxqazIvV/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Quick%20Mask.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Quick Mask)

When you do this, there can be different outcomes:

You get a shaped maze, like the example screenshot.
Nothing happens
You get a result, but it’s underwhelming

After the Quick Mask is generated, the “Use Quick Mask” checkbox will be unchecked automatically – Generating a mask from a bitmap image takes time, and you may not want to generate the same mask over and over, while you’re adjusting style settings (or selecting different tiles).

However, if you want to create a new mask with the Quick Mask feature, because you changed the grid size or the image, you have to manually check this checkbox again.

Quick Mask - Nothing Happens

The Quick Mask option will try to generate a mask, using the grid settings (the number of rows) and the image you selected. It will do so by analyzing the silhouette image, using AI to find settings that result in a "Connected Mask" is created.

Connected Mask – To create a maze, all the cells in the grid must be connected. When you use a mask that results in separate ‘islands’ of cells that are not connected, the mask cannot be used.

If the AI cannot find a Connected Mask the Quick Mask generator will give up, and there will be no mask.

Underwhelming Results

In many cases, especially when you’re first starting to use the Masks Add-On, the result may be a bit underwhelming. The screenshot shows an example of what can happen:

Mazes 2D Squares - Mask Underwhelming Result

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/UXRLQg5SpU/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Mask%20Underwhelming%20Result.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Mask Underwhelming Result)

Even though we started with the silhouette of a car, and a mask was created, the resulting image and the maze do not resemble a car. This is not a bug: The mask generator did what it’s supposed to do – each cell that has enough colored (in this case black) pixels, will be added to the maze.

However, when the grid is too small (in this case 12 rows) and the lines of the silhouette are too thin, the cells won’t be part of the mask. In this case the roof of the car, and the top of the headlights are not part of the mask.

You can increase the number of rows for the grid, to create a better mask, or optionally use the Mask Editor to manually create a good mask based on the silhouette.

Mask Editor - Using a Silhouette

To create a mask from an image, you’ll need an image that can work as a silhouette: You can set which background color(s) to remove from the mask, and all other colors will be part of the mask. The masks feature won’t work well with line-art images.

When you click “Edit Mask”, you’ll see the Mask Editor:

Mask Editor Overview

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RQbQUfYO33/Masks%20Add-On%20Mask%20Editor.jpg (Mask Editor Overview)

The resulting mask. If you already had a mask selected, it will be shown here, otherwise all cells will be part of the mask,
The image selection panel. Either click here to select an image, or drag and drop an image onto the white panel
Depending on the image, you may need to adjust the background color
At the top you can see a status message. In the screenshot it’s green “Cells are connected”. If there are disconnected ‘islands’ of cells in your mask, it will show a warning in red.
After selecting an image, you can change the Mask Sensitivity to create a better result,
After changing the grid size or Mask Sensitivity, click “Scan Image” to create the new mask from the current image. This will overwrite any manual changes that you’ve made.

You can toggle each square (or tile) in the mask by clicking on it, or by using the advanced editing options:

Setting the background color

For regular silhouette images, the background will be either white or transparent. You can also select a different color, or even switch the foreground and background for a silhouette image. It’s also possible to use white and a selected other color and transparent as three different options to determine the background.

Changing the Mask Sensitivity

The Mask Sensitivity is the threshold for background pixels in each cell (square or isometric). If there are more background pixels than that threshold, it will be excluded from the mask. Otherwise it will be included. You can manually adjust the threshold to create a slightly different mask from your image.

Three examples of different Mask Sensitivity settings:

Mask Editor - Scan Sensitivity

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/I3rpsYCuEO/Masks%20Add-On%20Sensitivity.jpg (Mask Editor - Scan Sensitivity)

Create Masks Manually

Click on the “Manual Editing” tab (in the Mask Editor) to reveal the advanced editing options:

Masks Add-On Manual Mask Editing Options

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/zLPM5rq2AZ/Masks%20Add-On%20Manual%20Mask%20Editing%20Options.jpg (Masks Add-On Manual Mask Editing Options)

Action - Toggle will switch the color from black to white and vice versa. This will include or exclude the cell or range from the mask.
Action - Copy Color will copy the color of the clicked cell to all the cells in the range
Range Type: When you click on a single cell (tile), you can select whether just the cell, the row or the column have to change color
Range Size: Adjust 1, 3 or 5 cells, rows or columns at a time

The screenshot shows the result after two mouse-clicks:

Click on a cell with Action “Toggle”, Range type “Row” and Range Size “3”
Click on a different cell with Action “Toggle”, Range type “Column” and Range Size “3”

You can see that by using Toggle, some of the white cells in the rows have turned black again. By using “Copy Color” you can prevent this.

You can also see that the result of these two actions is a maze that is NOT connected (see the red warning at the top of the window). I’d have to do more editing to make this into a good shape for a maze.

Note: clicking the cells for editing is somewhat sensitive. If you move the mouse while clicking, the software will not know whether you want to move or click. (If you zoom in, using the mouse wheel, you can click and drag the image, to view exactly the part that you need to see best).

Overview of the Manual process

The "Manual" way of creating puzzle books consists of a number of steps:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/N5EaNwfdcq/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20044%20-%20Manual%20Panel.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 044 - Manual Panel.jpg)

Some of the steps are identical to the "Auto" approach, some are different:

Select Puzzles - Select puzzles and solutions (identical), and set up the placeholder codes for the puzzles (optional)
Create Puzzles Page - Set up the grid (identical), and Create the Puzzles template slide (new)
Create Solution Page - Set up the grid (identical) and Create the Solutions template slide (new)
Select Slides (New) - Select which template slides to use for puzzles, and which for solutions
Create Puzzle Book - (identical)

Step 2 and 3 include creation of the template slides, and manually editing (changing) them. This diagram illustrates the steps.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/QeCv0UcQaB/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20050%20-%20Manual%20Overview.PNG (Easy Puzzle Books 050 - Manual Overview.PNG)

Placeholders

Part of this process is creating "Placeholders" that will be replaced by puzzles and puzzle titles later. There are three steps that affect the placeholders. For Easy Puzzle Books this is mostly automatic, because there's only one puzzle type involved. The three steps are shown in this diagram:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8J40NaqEh7/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20051%20-%20Manual%20Placeholders.PNG (Easy Puzzle Books 051 - Manual Placeholders.PNG)

Set up Puzzles - As part of the puzzle setup, you can specify the specific placeholders for the puzzle. There are four different placeholders: Puzzle, Puzzle Title, Solution, Solution Title. Each of these will be used in the template that you can edit.
Create Grid - A new slide will be created that contains placeholders for the puzzles, solutions and titles.
Create Puzzle Book - Will create as many copies of the template slides as needed, and replace the placeholders with the actual puzzles, solutions and titles.

The diagram below shows examples for the different steps. We'll cover all of these in detail.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/BLxUQcVCL3/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20052%20-%20Manual%20Examples.PNG (Easy Puzzle Books 052 - Manual Examples.PNG)

Set up Puzzles - Placeholders

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qHVgFjX8da/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20040%20-%20Manual%20Placeholders.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 040 - Manual Placeholders.jpg)

The tab "Titles" in The Puzzle Setup window will let you edit the Placeholders. As you can see, there are four of them, Puzzle (Image), Puzzle Title, Solution (Image), Solution Title. These are the four different items that will be placed on your puzzle pages.

There's a "Placeholder Code" which is set to "%%" by default. However, if you need to use "%%" in your titles, you can set it to a different value.

You can also set the number of Puzzles per Page and the number of Solutions per Page. For example, if you want to create a 2x3 puzzle grid, you'll have 6 puzzles and 6 puzzle titles on a puzzle page.

To keep track of which title belongs to which puzzle, they are numbered: {Puzzle Title 1} belongs to {Puzzle 1}, {Puzzle Title 4} belongs to {Puzzle 4} etc. (See the example screenshot in the next paragraph).

Remember: These are just temporary numbers on a page. For example, the third page with puzzles that's generated in step 5, will have replace {Puzzle Title 1} with "Puzzle 13", and {Puzzle 1} with the image file for puzzle 13.

Note: If this dazzles your mind, just remember not to edit these placeholders.

Create Grid and Edit Layout

You can set up the grid just like you did for "Auto", but in this case you need to click "Create Grid" to actually create a template slide. With a 2x3 grid, it can look like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NTqUsi9n1K/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20041%20-%20Manual%20Create%20Grid.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 041 - Manual Create Grid.jpg)

Here you can see the 6 different placeholders for puzzles, and 6 for puzzle titles. (You'd see the same type of placeholders on the solution template.

As long as these placeholders remain in place, you can completely change the look and feel of this template slide. For example, change the position of titles and puzzles, change the font and color of the titles. You can also change the size of the puzzle placeholders.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/equTmkIObX/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20042%20-%20Manual%20Edit%20Grid.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 042 - Manual Edit Grid.jpg)

You could even copy the template slide and remove some of the puzzles, to have 2 puzzles on the first page, and 4 on the second page.

You can repeat this step for the Solution Grid, so you'll end up with at least one Puzzle Page Template, and one Solution Page Template.

Select Slides

You can create 1 or more template slides for the puzzles, and 1 or more tempate slides for the solutions. That means the plugin cannot really know which is which, and you have to specify which slides to use. (That means you can even create one master Powerpoint file with all your templates, and just select the ones you need for this session).

When you use more than 1 template slide for puzzles or solutions, you can also include slides that do not have any placeholders, but other text, images, etc.

In the screenshot below we've used 1 puzzles template slide and 1 solutions template slide:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sJRcL1WK2t/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20045%20-%20Manual%20Select%20Slides.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 045 - Manual Select Slides.jpg)

First select the puzzle slide (or slides) in 'Slides Pane'. In the example that's slide 2. With this slide selected, click the green "Set Puzzle Slides" button (Step 4).

Next select the solution slide or slides. In this example that's slide 3. Click "Set Sol Slides".

You can now see a small status text (the red rectangle in the screenshot): "Selection P 2 S 3". P is for Puzzles, S for Solutions, the numbers are the slide numbers.

Create Puzzle Book

Just like in "Auto" mode, you can select whether you want to collate the puzzles and solutions, and whether you want the puzzle book to be created as a new Powerpoint file. Click "Create Puzzle Book" to use the slide templates and create your book. Here's an page created with the template from the earlier example:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Q1T3DIbT5P/Easy%20Puzzle%20Books%20043%20-%20Manual%20Puzzles%20Page.jpg (Easy Puzzle Books 043 - Manual Puzzles Page.jpg)

Final remarks

Feel free to play with the options, and it's best to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. (That's what I do as well).

The selected puzzle files and titles, and the grids, are shared between the "Auto" and "Manual" workflows. That means that you can start with an "Auto" approach, see how the puzzle book turns out, and if needed, use the "Manual" to finish the product.

Puzzles / Solutions per Page

The settings for Puzzles per Page and Solutions Per Page is part of the puzzle settings, but it can be adjusted when creating the grids: If you set it to 1, and the grid is 2x3, you'll need 6 puzzles / solutions per page. It will be automatically set to 6. (It's only adjusted when CREATING the grids, not in other steps)

However, there's no automatic check later on, so if you manually adjust these numbers, e.g. set the Puzzles per Page to 4, you may get an incomplete set of puzzles in your book, or worse, you get duplicates.

An example: For the first page, the first puzzle number will be 1. Then 2, etc. For the second page (more precisely: the second copy of the puzzles template slides, the first puzzle number will be 1 + the number of Puzzles per Page. When the Puzzles per Page are set to 4, the second page will start with puzzle 5. When Puzzles per Page is set to 8, the second page will start with puzzle 9.

If you use a grid with 6 puzzles on a page, the first example (with 4 puzzles per page) will result in duplicates, while the second example (with 8 puzzles per page) will never print puzzles 7 and 8.