Question 1

How to use the Time Saver for Puzzle Maker Pro - Crossword

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to use the Time Saver for Puzzle Maker Pro - Crossword. This is an add-on for all crossword style puzzle in Puzzle Maker Pro, such as Puzzle Maker Pro - Criss Cross. (The add-on will not work separately).

Introduction

The time saver does exactly what it says on the tin: It saves you time. It does so by allowing you to batch create puzzles. You get less control over the details, but if you have your lists set up, you can create puzzles much faster than if you did it manually.

Sounds pretty nifty right? Let's switch to the Time-Saver tab, and see how it's done.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/3c06l0tQ5l/Time%20Saver%20Criss.jpg (Time Saver Criss)

Main Options

The main options are very similar to the style panel in the normal version. You can choose the font size. Here you can select a uniform font size for every puzzle, or a variable font size. It's automatically on variable. This way, if you create multiple criss cross puzzles with different sizes, it will automatically look for the optimal font size.

You can also select "One Size Fits All", where it uses the largest possible font size that fits in every puzzle. This can create funky looks if you're using multiple very different sizes, but it also creates a more uniform look in terms of font.

Third, you can select the fixed font size. Everything will be the font size you select. If you know how big your puzzles are, and what size font you're going to need, or if you are creating books for people with sight problems, you could want this. However, keep in mind that if your math is off, this can create very strange effects.

Next, you can select the puzzle alignment. Because it's near impossible to create puzzles that fit exactly within the grid size you chose, you can choose your own alignment for the puzzles. You can choose to have them all aligned at the top, the bottom, the middle, and if you want them aligned to the left side of the page, the right side, or, again, the middle. You can also choose to align the words with the puzzle.

Word List Options

Now for the fun part: Adding word lists! Add as many or as few word lists as you want (1).

Reminder: for this software, you want the word lists to have a colon in between the word and the description. As you can see in the starting screen of the crossword module, you want your word lists formatted like this:

BookPublisherTools: Popular software company

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/h7dt7oEZy5/time%20saver%20word%20lists.jpg (time saver word lists)

You can set if the word lists can be merged or not (3). If you have themed word lists and want to create themed puzzles, you probably don't want to mix them. However, if the puzzles do not have a theme, merging them can create more unique puzzles, which is good too.

You can also choose if a word can be re-used (2). Using auto or repeat, the wordlists will slowly be used, and words cannot be reused. With repeat, they can be reused.

Puzzle Control Options

Time for batch creation! This is the fun part of the time saver. You've done your prep work, now you can select how many puzzles you want, what the sizes of the puzzles are, you can load in presets, et cetera.

Simply change the quantity(1), select the size you want(2), and click "add" (3) to add them to the list of puzzles the software has to make.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/c4YWdAVw57/adding%20a%20puzzle.jpg (adding a puzzle)

If you've made presets for criss cross crosswords in the past, you can load those in too!

You can select which word lists each batch pulls from, or if it doesn't really matter and they can pull from everything here too, and you can change the amount of words that can be in each puzzle. Simply change those settings after you've added them to the list.

Then finally, you just click "Create (TS)" to generate all the puzzles! Don't forget to make sure you have "use Time Saver to generate puzzles" (located at the top of the screen) selected.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/9HWj6wUWdq/timesaver%20lists.jpg (timesaver lists)

The additional 'Image' output was introduced to make it possible to create puzzles with an improved layout for social media or printables. To make this possible, we created an 'Image Settings' layout option that has all the settings for these images. Here's an example of what's possible (the puzzle in this image is a Criss Cross puzzle):

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WxQGD5xMbx/Image%20Settings%20Puzzle%20Only.png (Image Settings Puzzle Only)

Setting the Title and Description

The title and description for this puzzle are part of the word list that's used for this puzzle, using the "#title" and "#description" options:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ODGv25G7ka/Image%20Settings%20Example.png (Image Settings Example)

Editing the Image Settings

When a puzzle in Puzzle Maker Pro supports these new Image Settings, there is an option on the Output Settings tab to edit the settings:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/O1fwKTFuAV/Image%20Settings%20Button.png (Image Settings Button)

In the next sections we'll explain all the different options for the Image Settings.

Layout Settings

The first tab has the Layout Settings. This is where you can enable or disable the different settings and add padding.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ysezj02Sq2/Image%20Settings%20Puzzle%20Only%20-%20Marked.png (Image Settings Puzzle Only - Marked)

Padding and sizing is specified as a percentage of the total size of the puzzle. The exact size in pixels is calculated, based on the Puzzle Size.

Top Padding - optional empty space at the top of the image
Title Height - The font for the title will be adjusted automatically to make the text fit in the allocated space
Title Bottom Padding
Description Height
Description Bottom Padding - The description can be placed at the top or at the bottom of the puzzle
Puzzle Padding - empty space on all four sides of the puzzle, when it is added to the image. The actual empty space will also depend on the size and format of the puzzle. For example, when fitting a square puzzle in a rectangular space, there will be more white space on some of the sides
Watermark Top Padding
Watermark Height - The actual watermark is set on another tab, by default it's set to "www.bookpublishertools.com"
Bottom padding

You can enable or disable the different areas, depending on your styling preferences.

Colors and Fonts

You can set background color for the entire image (the canvas color) and the background color for the puzzle. (If the puzzle module has it's own canvas color settings, these will be used as well). Additionally you can add an outer border to the image.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/hrOttMcLIv/Image%20Settings%20-%20Colors.png (Image Settings - Colors)

You can set the fonts for the Title, Description and Watermark. (The Watermark font can be found on the Watermark tab). The font name, color and case will be used when printing the Title, Description or Watermark in the image.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/7zgRuiHY0O/Image%20Settings%20-%20Fonts.png (Image Settings - Fonts)

Size Options

By default the image settings from the "Output Settings" tab in Puzzle Maker Pro are used. You can override this by selecting one of the size settings on the "Size Options" tab. This allows you to configure specific size settings for your social media platform.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/d5KWGezzvB/Image%20Settings%20-%20Size%20Options.png (Image Settings - Size Options)

Watermark

The Watermark option allows you to add an url or brand name at the bottom of each image automatically. It's best to switch off the Watermark (on the Layout tab) when you are creating puzzle books, but it's a handy feature when you are creating images for social media.

Question 3

Full Patterns in Pod Graphics Maker

Accepted Answer

POD Graphics Maker is a quick and easy way to make (mostly geometric) images with only a few presses of a button.

There are multiple modules available:

A rare third type of shape, that isn't in every pack, is the Full pattern.

Let's see what makes this type of pattern so special.

Symbol Options

The Full patterns combine the best features of both the tiles and the shapes. They don't have to adhere to the square tiles of tile patterns, but they also aren't based on a singular shape as the Shape is.

Instead, you have a pattern that can be variated in different ways.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/9xXP3m2K99/Full%20shape.jpg (Full shape)

Some of the options are very obvious. Shape size changes the size of the squares.

Mid-shift moves the mid-points of the lines out or in, turning the pattern into stars or octagons. Sounds confusing, but if you see it in action, you'll understand.

Fluidity is the same as in every other, make the lines rounded instead of square.

Pattern options

The most important option to note here is "Seamless". With this option you can turn the pattern into a seamless pattern.

You can also change the amounts of rows and columns, and the other options regarding color randomisation are also in this tab.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RF36xQXJim/full%20pattern%20seamless.jpg (full pattern seamless)

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Oblique

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

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

In this tutorial we'll explain the specific 'obliqueness' features.

Mazes 2D Oblique

The Oblique pattern was inspired by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, specifically her illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (which is definitely recommended).

Mazes 2D Oblique - Slant

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/j9KDlczj4K/Mazes%202D%20Oblique%20-%20Slant.jpg (Mazes 2D Oblique - Slant)

The slant for each line segment (each edge of a 'square') is determine by two settings:

Line Slant: the maximum slant for the line (either horizontally or vertically), and
Cell Edge Slant: the maximum slant for the cell edges

The values determine a percentage of the row height and column width. If you set it to maximum value (which actually is 30-40%), a row height (or column width) may be increased by up to that value. A row that would be 200 pixels high, may be approx 280 pixels high.

The Line Slant and Cell Edge Slant are randomized and added together for each cell segment. There's a maximum of 40% increase or decrease, to make sure that the cells are still large enough to create a maze.

The most extreme (highest / lowest) points of a line are randomly chosen along the line, but the sides are always at the set cell height or width.

This may sound complex, it's best to play with the sliders and previews yourself, and then read this again, if you need more information.

Perfect Squares / Triangles

Depending on your taste or your customer's preferences, you may want to create puzzles with squares (where each side has the same length) or rectangles.

The default setting is to use a square, an equilateral triangle, or a circle. The total height of the image will be divided by the number of rows, and this will determine the number of columns. This may cut off the sides of the image. It may also cause white bars on the sides of the image, depending on the puzzle shape you use.

Imperfect Squares / Triangles

When you uncheck the "Perfect" option, you can set both the number of rows and the number of columns.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/s6YLNqwZVb/Jigsaw%20004%20-%20Rows%20and%20Columns%20-%20Solution.png (Jigsaw 004 - Rows and Columns - Solution.png)

Setting the number of rows to 5 and the number of columns to 8 results in rectangular puzzle pieces, as you can see in the image.

The image below shows what this would look like on the page:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/JEOLW67NyA/Jigsaw%20005%20-%20Rows%20and%20Columns%20-%20Puzzle.png (Jigsaw 005 - Rows and Columns - Puzzle.png)

In this image, the puzzle pieces are also printed in a 8 by 5 grid. This is a coincidence, and depends on the puzzle size and format. Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw will always try to print all the parts as large as possible.

Another example:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NGdBlN0au5/Jigsaw%20006%20-%20Rows%20and%20Columns%20-%20Alternative.png (Jigsaw 006 - Rows and Columns - Alternative.png)

Here the difference is less extreme, but they still are not perfectly square.

Masks and Texts

There are two kinds of masks you can use with the Graphics Maker software. Three, actually, but they are hidden under two different tabs.

text masks
Graphic masks

Let's look over them.

Graphic Masks

We've set up a quick and easy pattern with 001, Tile Labyrinth. There is some fluidity, we've added bounding boxes, and some colours. Tips on how to do this are found in the Getting Started tutorial.

There are two ways to set up a graphics mask. One is very similar to masks in any other software from Bookpublishertools. You select a silhouette image and it becomes a mask.

Image Masks

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/vvYKl8uQWl/mask.jpg (mask)

Now, it's also possible to change some settings here, such as inverting the image, recolouring the image to turn the masked image parts to white, and stretching.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/E3MoDeekM8/mask%202.jpg (mask 2)

Built-in Masks

Now let's play with the other option, the Built In masks. These are unique to POD Graphics Maker, and while they are not quite as unique as custom PNG masks, you can still do some amazing things with these.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RakrjLHHvG/Masking%20Built%20In%20Masks.jpg (Masking Built In Masks)

Pretty interesting, right?

Let's see what we had to do to get these results.

Repeats horizontal and vertical. As you can tell we have both set to 5, for a total of 25 circles. You can also change the size, and their horizontal/vertical positioning.
Pen colour and mask shape. We've set the pen colour to a dark green to go with our colours in the background. We've used a circle cut out, meaning that everything is greyed out except the 5x5 circles. There are multiple mask shapes that come with the software.
Height and Width of the cutouts. We've put these both at maximum so they touch. If you want it even bigger, change the size at step 1, and you get overlap, which can look really good too.

And just like that, we've created a simple background with the built-in masks.

Text Masks

While you can combine Graphic masks and Text overlay masks, we're quickly turning off the graphic masks, so you can better see the results of the text overlay masks.

First of all, let's enable the Text Overlay. The standard word input is "LOVE".

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/d2DZPXy9Kz/Text%20overlay%20standard.jpg (Text overlay standard)

Great. Now let's try playing with the settings a bit to get something that looks better and can actually be used. You can change the text, center the text, change the colour of the text, or even use the text as a mask.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/N7XDXzruTO/2023-11-17_11-13-05.jpg (2023-11-17_11-13-05 (2024).jpg)

Interesting...

Now what we've done here is change the font to something Bold, changed the text, and selected the option to use the text as a mask. You can make the text as long as you want too.

How to use the Time Saver for Puzzle Maker Pro - Crossword

How to create Social Media Images with Puzzles using Puzzle Maker Pro

Full Patterns in Pod Graphics Maker

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Oblique

How Can I Change the Number of Puzzle Pieces in Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw?

How to use the Zoom function in POD Graphics Maker or Puzzle Maker Pro

Using Masks in POD Graphics Maker

What does Tiling Tool do?

Sticker Factory (Plugin for Powerpoint) Tutorial Video

Getting Started with Mazes 3D Isometric (Video)