Question 1

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D DIY Mazes

Accepted Answer

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D DIY Mazes

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

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

The tutorial for "Patchwork Log Cabin" describes the common features - this tutorial focuses on how to draw and create your own maze.

Mazes 2D DIY Mazes lets you design your own maze. Entirely, or as a building block that will be repeated and rotated to fill a larger grid.

This module includes:

The option to use your own maze, by creating a text file that can be selected (imported) in Puzzle Maker Pro
3 colorization options (no colors plus two ways to add color accents, dependent on the your maze specifications)
Several options to fill a larger grid (maze) with a smaller design. If you are using POD Graphics Maker as well, you'll recognize this. (this feature is described in detail in the tutorial for "Patchwork Log Cabin"

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

Note: There is no Masks Add-On available for this module. However, you can build the mask into your DIY Maze by adjusting the pattern.

Using Mazes 2D DIY Mazes

Select Mazes 2D in the main Puzzle Type dropdown menu, then select DIY Mazes 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/IBkFx743jG/DIY%20Mazes%20Overview.png (DIY Mazes Overview)

On the special DIY Maze tab, you can see several groups of settings:

File selection
Repeat settings
Colorization settings

How to use the Repeat settings and colorization settings is described in the Patchwork Log Cabin tutorial. The way it looks will completely depend on your maze.

Creating the maze

There are 6 steps to create your maze

Draw the maze
Number the different cells / shapes in your maze
Create a text file from these numbers
Select the text file in Puzzle Maker Pro
Click Preview
Adjust maze settings

Step 1 - Draw the maze

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Lo3eOJFSFz/DIY%20Maze%20-%20design.jpg (DIY Maze - design)

This example image was created in Powerpoint (using a 5x5 table), but you can draw with pencil and paper, or any way you like. The image with the different cells or shapes is just for you, it's not just by Puzzle Maker Pro.

The one thing you need to take care of, is that the grid is made out of squares, each row has the same number of squares, and each column has the same number of squares.

You obviously do not need to design the passages between the cells. These will be generated by Puzzle Maker Pro. if two shapes have multiple shared borders (such as shape 3 and 4 in the next image), Puzzle Maker Pro will randomly select one of the borders.

Each shape needs to be fully connected (in math terms: 4-connected). That means the squares in the shape should be next to each other vertically or horizontally. Otherwise no maze can be generated.

You can choose your own size, up to 100x100. However, in most cases you get create effects by using a smaller design, e.g. 5x5 to 10x10 squares, and then use the power of Puzzle Maker Pro to create randomized repeats.

Step 2 - Number the cells

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/I5kRldmEwk/DIY%20Maze%20numbered%20cells.jpg (DIY Maze numbered cells)

You can use numbers or letters or words, to identify each shape in your maze design. The example uses consecutive numbers (this is the best way for quality control, to be sure there are no duplicate numbers in different shapes).

Step 3 - Create a text file

Now create a simple text file, that can be edited in Notepad. The software can NOT handle Word, Excel or Powerpoint files!

Here's a screenshot of the file DIYMaze.txt that I created for this tutorial:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XU6nyc8ohF/DIYMaze.jpg (DIYMaze)

The commas will be used to separate the different cell/shape codes. You cannot use another symbol instead.

That's really all there's to it.

Step 4 - Select the text file

That's number (1) in the screenshot at the top of this page

Step 5 - Click Preview

You'll need to click "Next Preview" to see the results. This is done on purpose, because you may want to adjust several settings at once, and generating a custom maze can take a bit of time (a second or two, for very large mazes, depending on your computer)

Step 6 - Adjust maze settings

Depending on your design, you can now change the grid size and the repeat options, to get differently looking randomized mazes from your design.

Advanced design options

Excluding squares from the maze

There is no Masks option for DIY Mazes, but you can easily exclude cells from the maze: Just use a 0, or nothing at all to add a square that's excluded.

For example 1,1,0,2,2 - this is identical to 1,1,,2,2 (the first option is easier to read and to adjust visually).

Colorization

In addition to the numbers for your maze, you can add a separate (!) line starting with the word 'Accent1' or 'Accent2' that has the numbers that need to be colorized. The lettercase of the word Accent1 doesn't matter.

Accent1 will be used if you select Color Style 1, acccent2 will be used if you select Color Style 2.

This will use the specified accent color for shapes 1, 6 and 9. This can give you a result like the following screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Ow7ueuRR6Y/DIY%20Maze%20Accent%20Colors.png (DIY Maze Accent Colors)

Final remarks

Just like other Puzzle Maker Pro modules, it's best to play around with the settings, generate previews of the mazes, and find settings that fit your style. Don't forget to save these settings as presets, for later reuse!

First Things First - Handling Security Issues

If you get security warning from Powerpoint when you start the product, you have to tell both Windows and Powerpoint that you accept the file and the macros. We have a separate tutorial that shows you in detail how to do this: Enable Powerpoint Macros

Using LCB Book Creator

You can find LCB Book Creator on the Add-ins ribbon:

LCB Book Creator Finding the Add-In

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/2t13ML5EZa/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Finding%20the%20Add-In.png (LCB Book Creator Finding the Add-In)

LCB Book Creator Finding the Add-In

Click the "LCB Book Creator" text or icon to start the LCB Book Creator:

LCB Book Creator Main Window

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Bnja5XbYzz/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Window.png (LCB Book Creator Main Window)

LCB Book Creator Main Window

There are 5 different (small) steps:

Select the CSV File, the data file for your Low Content Book or Images,
Select the Powerpoint Template file
Verify Placeholders - Check that all placeholders in the Powerpoint file do have data in the CSV file
Set the Powerpoint Output file
Generate Slides.

Optionally you can create example files, this will save a sample CSV file and a sample Powerpoint file to your computer. (You can select the sample files for step 1 and 2, to do a first test-run with LCB Book Creator).

CSV Files

CSV means "Comma Separated Variable length". In other words: the different values, texts, on each line are separated by commas. Besides that, it's just a plain text file, that you can type in Notepad, or save in Excel (use csv as the output format).

For LCB Book Creator, the first line needs to have the 'Placeholder' names, that will be present in the Powerpoint file.

After the first line with the placeholders, you can add lines with data. The lines will be processed one at a time.

Powerpoint Templates

Powerpoint Templates for LCB Book Creator are regular Powerpoint files. You can use placeholders (like "%TITLE%") that will be replaced with text from the CSV file.

The image below is from the sample Powerpoint Template file.

PPT Sample File

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XE7n05BEIF/PPT%20Sample%20File.png (PPT Sample File)

PPT Sample File

The sample file is plain, and it is not recommended to use it 'as is'. It is intended to show you how the placeholders work. You can design the Powerpoint file any way you like, and you can even use multiple slides for each row of data in the CSV file.

Whever the text for a placeholder is an existing file on your computer (e.g. "C:/Images/Books.jpg"), LCB Book Creator will replace the placeholder with the image. Otherwise, it will only replace the placeholder text with the next text.

Output Settings

To generate a Powerpoint file, you'll always need to specify where the new file must be saved (step 4).

Additionally, you can automatically generate image files in PNG, JPG and PDF format. These will be saved in a subfolder. The value in the first column of your CSV file will be used as the filename.

Generate Powerpoint Slides

When you click Generate, a Powerpoint file will be created and saved to your computer, with the name and location that you selected in step 4. This may take a couple of seconds, depending on the complexity of your template, the number of placeholders and the size of the CSV file.

Question 3

Mazes 2D Tiles Overview (Video)

Accepted Answer

This video shows the different options in Puzzle Maker Pro – Mazes 2D Tiles.

Question 4

Will the software work on a Mac?

Accepted Answer

All our software relies on certain components of MS Windows to run properly. It will not run directly on a Mac.

There are two options for Mac users:

The software can be used on a virtual Windows system on a Mac, such as Parallels and Virtualbox.
The other solution is to buy a low-end Windows pc to run this software, especially when you're publishing books as a business. Our software requires Windows 7 or higher.

Question 5

How to set up Word Lists for Crossword Variations

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to set up Word Lists for Crossword Variations. It applies to:

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:

Introduction

Both Word Spiral and Secret Word Spiral offer you a couple of different shape variations of the spiral (also called word snake in some magazines). Because the number of letters is important for the spiral, for these puzzles you set the approximate number of letters, instead of the number of words. (The minimum number of words setting will not be used).

On the Variation tab you can find all the different settings and options.

Variation tab

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/dLniLTrXWW/Word%20Spiral%20Overview.png (Word Spiral Overview)

Letter count

The number of letters determines the length (and part of the shape) of the spiral. Common lengths for the word spiral are 70 to 100 letters in a puzzle. You can also indicate that the length can be a bit longer or shorter. This improves the results when you use a word list that is not specifically prepared for a word spiral with an exact length.

Additionally there's an option to sort the words from long to short - this way the longer words will be on the outer part of the spiral, and shorter words will be on the smaller inner side.

Spiral Style

The screenshot above shows we call a 'real' spiral. All the letter boxes are placed along a natural looking spiral. Additional you can use a "Square" spiral, as shown here:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/oYu3pTxgt9/Word%20Spiral%20Square%20Spiral.png (Word Spiral Square Spiral)

Cell Shape

Additionally, you can choose to use square or circle shapes for the lines around the letters. For the 'real' spiral, the use of circles will actually result in a slightly different shape as well.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/fD5MW4kQNA/Word%20Spiral%20Real%20with%20Circles.png (Word Spiral Real with Circles)

Smoothness

When using the "Real Spiral" with Square cells, you can adjust the shape 'smoothness'. That will align horizontal and vertical square a bit more, giving semi-straight lines, instead of jagged lines. (This way you can control the drawing style).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XIB2BT45Mo/Word%20Spiral%20Smoothness%200.png (Word Spiral Smoothness 0)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rR5jE37h5E/Word%20Spiral%20Smoothness%20100.png (Word Spiral Smoothness 100)

Layout Options

Finally there's an option to make the overall shape more rectangular / elliptic instead of square. This is especially useful if the image you're creating is rectangular, for example when you use the built in Social Media image output in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/VDc00439rt/Word%20Spiral%20Layout.png (Word Spiral Layout)

Puzzle Maker Pro - Latin Squares

Latin Squares

A Latin Square is a square where each row and column only contains distinct symbols or colors. It has a resemblance with Sudoku, but the rules are easier to understand, because there are no boxes or regions.

In Puzzle Maker Pro - Latin Squares, there are different grid sizes, ranging from 3x3 (easiest) to 9x9 (hardest). For most grid sizes there are several difficulty levels, which are derived from the difficulty levels for Sudoku.

How to Create Latin Squares puzzles

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/B8yrMBPOmB/Latin%20Sqares%20-%20Settings%20Overview.png (Latin Sqares - Settings Overview.png)

To create Latin Squares puzzles, first you have to select Latin Squares in the Puzzle Type menu at the top (1). The main areas on the screen are:

The Grid Size selection (2), here you can select a grid size from 3x3 to 9x9.
The Difficulty Level (3) - This depends on the grid size, e.g. the smallest grid size 3x3 has only one difficulty level, while the largest grid size 9x9 has 7 difficulty levels
To see the result of your changes click "Create" or "Next Preview" (4). Both will show a new puzzle, based on your settings. Next Preview is best while you're still customizing the style and puzzle settings, this will not save the puzzle on your computer. Create will create a puzzle, save it to the computer and show it in the preview panel (5)
Style options (6) - For Latin Squares there are several style option tabs: Font Settings, Grid Styling and Symbol Options.
The Info tab (6) shows which licenses you have activated for this module
At the bottom right there's the "Preview Solution" checkbox (7) - Use this to switch the preview panel from puzzle to solution and back

By settings the quantity (3) and clicking Create, you can create a large number of puzzles at once. They will be saved in the location you've set up on the Output Settings tab.

Font and Grid Styling

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uB8GxNDM95/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Font%20Styling.png (Latin Squares - Font Styling.png)

To change the font for your puzzles, click the small looking glass (1) or click the white font preview panel (2). This will open the font setup dialog.

In Puzzle Maker Pro, the font size is always relative to the available to the square or cell where the number or character should be placed. If you want to publish large print puzzle books, please check out this tutorial.

You can also customize the grid colors:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/B7AqwdK84e/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Grid%20Styling.png (Latin Squares - Grid Styling.png)

You can set the background (canvas) color (1), the color and weight of the outer border (3) and the color and weight of the inner lines / cell borders (2)

Symbol Options (Latin Squares Creative Only)

Numbers

The option to use numbers is only available in the regular Latin Squares module, all other symbol options are available as part of the Latin Squares Creative module.

Letters

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/k1yKCKYK5r/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Letters%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares - Letters Screenshot.png)

To use Letters, choose "Letters" in the Symbol dropdown list. You can edit which letters to use.

Roman Numericals

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/IxboTWc9tF/Latin%20Squares%20-%20Roman%20Numericals%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares - Roman Numericals Screenshot.png)

Roman Numericals is a built in style, it will replace 1 with "I", 2 with "II", etc, using the font you selected on the Font Styling tab.

Images

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/25Sytl9F2a/Latin%20Squares%20Images%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares Images Screenshot.png)

You can use your own images, but please be careful to use relatively simple images only: Especially at higher difficulty levels, it's hard enough to solve the puzzles with numbers or letters. With images the puzzles will be more difficult.

You can add the images one by one by clicking the image panel (the little white rectangles that show a moon and a boot in the screenshot. You can also drag one or several images onto the panels.

Colors

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/F0W0q3Qzvt/Latin%20Squares%20Colors%20Screenshot.png (Latin Squares Colors Screenshot.png)

You can also use colors. The built-in colors have been selected for their uniqueness and contrast. You can change each separate color by clicking on the colored rectangle (e.g. the red or orange rectangles in the screenshot) and selecting a different color with the color dialog window.

Question 8

How to select images for your puzzles in Puzzle Maker Pro?

Accepted Answer

Several Puzzle Maker Pro modules, like Sudoku 9x9 Creative, Sudoku Kids Edition and Sudoku Variations, Bingo and Game Maker, allow you to use your own images (cliparts) as symbols in a puzzle.

In this tutorial we will use Sudoku 9x9 Creative as an example. In other modules it works the same, although the option may have a slightly different name.

Preparing your images for use in Puzzle Maker Pro

To use images in Puzzle Maker Pro, they need to be stored on your computer in PNG or JPG format.

Puzzle Maker Pro will reduce the size of the images when they are too large, but will never increase the size. Increasing may result in blurred lines or edges, reducing the quality of your puzzles.

In most cases images can be quite small, this depends on the puzzle size and puzzle type you are using.

The puzzle type defines how many images will be put next to each other horizontally or vertically. For example, Sudoku 9x9 will use 9 images horizontally and 9 images vertically. Sudoku Kids Edition will use 4 or 6 images in each row or column.

A quick example: Let's say you create a Sudoku 9x9 puzzle, the puzzle size is set to 1800 pixels. 1800 pixels at 300 DPI means a puzzle size of 6".

Since there can be 9 images in a row or column, we can easily calculate the minimum size for each image: 1800 divided by 9 is 200. That means the images you use can be as small as 200 x 200 pixels, and still create a fairly large puzzle.

Another example: A Sudoku Samurai puzzle has 21 x 21 squares. If we create a puzzle of 2100 pixels (7" x 7" at 300 DPI), each square will be 100 x 100 pixels. Which is also the size at which your images will be printed in the puzzle.

Note 1: The puzzle sizes in the examples were chosen to make the calculations easy. However, if you will use the puzzles in a puzzle book - for example on KDP - you'll still be limited by the available trim sizes. Even for a large 8.5"x11" puzzle book, the maximum width for the page content is only 7.5", if you use 0.5" margins. 7.5" equalis 2250 pixels at 300 DPI.

Note 2: Even though Puzzle Maker Pro will resize the images to make them fit in smaller squares, this will take processing time. In other words, creating puzzles and puzzle pages will take longer if large files have to be imported and resized to fit.

How to use your images in Puzzle Maker Pro

There are two ways to select the images you want to use:

Click the little image panel to open a file selection window (the same 'dialog' you'll see in most other Windows apps), and select the file you want to use for that panel;
Use drag and drop to select multiple images at once.

How to use drag and drop to import your images to Puzzle Maker Pro

It's easy to use your own images: Just drag the images from your file explorer, and drop them onto one of the little image panels (where the domino tiles are shown).

You can select one or more images, click the left mouse button on one of them, and then move the mouse (while keeping the button pressed) to these little image panels, and let go of the mouse button. The images will be used, for one or more panels, starting at the panel you pointed at.

Question 9

What exactly is the Time Saver in Puzzle Maker Pro?

Accepted Answer

Puzzle Maker Pro started as a puzzle generator, with limited flexibility to create puzzle books. Early users requested functionality that offered more flexible creation of puzzles and puzzle books. The name "Time Saver" was suggested by those early users, because the add-ons can save a lot of time.

Time Saver Explained

Each Time Saver (add-on) consists of two parts:

Options to create more puzzles a bit faster, in a flexible way
Additional layout options

Faster Puzzle Creation

These options can be found under the "Time Saver" tab in Puzzle Maker Pro. The actual features depend on the puzzle type, for example for Sudoku you can select different sudoku types and difficulty levels, while for Word Search you can also add your own Word Lists.

To use the Time Saver to create puzzles, you'll have to make sure the "Use Time Saver" checkbox is enabled. This will also change the text of the "Create" button to "Create (TS)".

Layout Options

The "Page Layout" tab (can be found on the "Instant Puzzle Books tab" in Puzzle Maker Pro) is enabled by the Time Saver Add-on.

Conclusion

Whenever the term Time Saver is used, we refer to the functionality described here.

Question 10

Can you explain the names of the new sudoku bundles?

Accepted Answer

This FAQ clarifies the names of the recent sudoku bundles that have been released for Puzzle Maker Pro.

This tutorial applies to

Puzzle Maker Pro - Sudoku - New Grid Rules Bundle
Puzzle Maker Pro - More Clues Add-On for Sudoku 9x9 Regular
Puzzle Maker Pro - More Clues Add-On for Sudoku Multidokus
Puzzle Maker Pro - More Clues Add-On for Sudoku Other Grid Sizes
Puzzle Maker Pro - More Clues Add-On for Sudoku Bundle

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.

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D DIY Mazes

How to Use LCB Book Creator (Powerpoint product)

Mazes 2D Tiles Overview (Video)

Will the software work on a Mac?

How to set up Word Lists for Crossword Variations

How to use Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Spiral and Secret Word Spiral

How to Get Started with Puzzle Maker Pro - Latin Squares

How to select images for your puzzles in Puzzle Maker Pro?

What exactly is the Time Saver in Puzzle Maker Pro?

Can you explain the names of the new sudoku bundles?