Question 1

How can I create Large Print books using Puzzle Maker Pro?

Accepted Answer

A question that often comes up, is the font size that's used for puzzles that are generated with Puzzle Maker Pro.

Especially when you want to mark a book as Large Print on KDP/Amazon, you really want to know the font size in the books generated with Puzzle Maker Pro.

This is not an easy question to answer, because there are several steps involved, and additionally, not all fonts have the same size at a given font size. (Which has nothing to do with Puzzle Maker Pro).

In general, if you want to publish Large Print books, it also make sense to use a clear font like Arial, to improve readability. If you use a artful font with lots of embellishments, it may satisfy the requirements for Amazon, but still be hard to read for your target audience, resulting in negative reviews.

How are Fonts and DPI related to each other?

First, lets discuss font size and DPI.

DPI is an acronym for Dots Per Inch, and for print you’ll need 300 DPI. All Puzzle Maker Pro images are created at 300 DPI (unless you switch to 96DPI). You don’t have to worry about that.

Font size is measured in points, not in dots or pixels: One point is 1/72th of an inch. Large print, 16 points or larger, means 16/72th of an inch, which is 0.222″ (or larger).

Note: Different tools use different units. For example Microsoft Office uses points, while most image editing apps use pixels.

How do I create a puzzle book with Puzzle Maker Pro

Puzzle Maker Pro uses two steps to create puzzle books:

Create the puzzles,
Create the puzzle book from these puzzles.

Find out more about the two-step approach of Puzzle Maker Pro

How can you find out the font size that's used for a puzzle?

The font size that is used in your puzzles depends on the size of your puzzle, the puzzle type and the puzzle settings. Below you can see the method to find out your font size.

How to set the Puzzle Size

In puzzle Maker Pro, you can select how big you want your puzzle images to be. Starting at 300, up to 3000. With 300DPI that’s 1″ up to 10″.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/JOPzyUGUxP/PMP%20-%20General%20-%20Puzzle%20Size.png (How to set the puzzle size in Puzzle Maker Pro)

How to calculate the font size for a puzzle type

The size of the characters that are used to print a puzzle, depends on the puzzle size you’ve selected.

Let’s take regular 9×9 sudoku as an example:

The total puzzle size (let’s say 2700 pixels) is split into 9 rows and 9 columns. Each row has a height of 2700/9, and each column has a width of 2700/9, which is 300 pixels. Which is 1″

Puzzle Maker Pro automatically calculates the font size for each square. By default it uses 80% of the height, leaving 10% on top and 10% at the bottom as margins. For some puzzle types you can modify this ratio, resulting in a different font size.

To calculate the font size, take 80% of 300 pixels, this is 240 pixels (numbers are rounded here). This is not yet the font size in points.

To go from pixels to points, we divide by 300 (300 pixels per inch) and multiply with 72 (72 points per inch). 240 / 300 * 72 = 57.6 points.

Summarized: A 9×9 sudoku puzzle, rendered to a jpg of 2700 pixels, will use a font size of 57.6 points.

However…

That only applies if you print the image at it’s actual size.

How does the font size change when creating a puzzle book from your puzzles?

When you create your puzzle book, the puzzle images will be resized, and usually the size will be reduced.

For example, let’s create a 6×9″ book interior with 0.5″ margins left and right. 6″ minus 0.5″ (left margin) minus 0.5″ (right margin) leaves 5″ for the puzzle.

5″ at 300 DPI is 1500 pixels.

Let's say we created a puzzle of 3000 pixels, resulting in a font size of 64 points.

You can easily see that it needs to be reduced by 50% (1500 / 3000). In which case the font also will be 50% smaller. 64 points / 2 = 32 points. Still a lot more than 16.

For the 9×9 sudoku puzzles, you’ll usually be fine, but for other sudoku puzzles, you’ll need to do the math, unfortunately.

What are the steps to determine the font size?

In most cases it's enough to approximate the font size, as long as it's clearly over 16 points.

Here are the steps:

Calculate the page body width, which is the trim size minus the margins.
Divide by the number of puzzles in a row.
Calculate the number of pixels for each square in the puzzle. This depends on the puzzle type.
Calculate the font size in pixels for each square. This is 80% of the square size (with 10% padding).
Calculate the font size in points from the font size in pixels: inches * 72 = points.

For some puzzles, for example Word Search and Bingo, you can further modify the font size for each font. In that case these calculations get a bit more difficult, but the slider for the font size also shows the percentage. You can use this percentage to calculate the resulting point size.

Question 2

How to create puzzles and puzzle books with Puzzle Maker Pro

Accepted Answer

Puzzle Maker Pro can create puzzles, and additionally create puzzles books from these puzzles.

It is a two-step approach on purpose:

Create the puzzles and solutions using the settings you selected for your puzzles,
Create a puzzle book from the puzzle and solution files you created in step 1

How to create Puzzles

The primary function of Puzzle Maker Pro is to create puzzles for you.

You can set the the resulting image size and file format on the Output Settings / Puzzle Files tab, and set all specific puzzle settings on the Puzzle Settings tab.

Which files will be created by Puzzle Maker Pro?

For most puzzle types this will result in

A file containing the puzzle image in JPG or PNG format (in the project/puzzles folder)
A file containing the solution image in JPG or PNG format (in the project/solutions folder)

In some cases additional files will be created:

For Mazes, the SVG add-on will let you create the maze drawing in SVG format. This is an efficient vector format that can be used to display the puzzle on a web page, for further editing or styling in Adobe Illustrator, or to control cutter machines such as Silhouette
An XML file containing specific information about the puzzle, to use when you create puzzle books
A TXT file with the words used in a Word Search puzzle, and an additional file with the remaining words from your word list

You can use these files in any way you like. There is no obligation to create your puzzle books with Puzzle Maker Pro.

How to create Puzzle Books

After creating your puzzles, Puzzle Maker Pro will automatically create a puzzle book for you. Consider this a friendly gesture of Puzzle Maker Pro - it does not aspire to compete with professional book layout software such as Adobe Indesign, Affinity Publisher or Microsoft Publisher.

This is called "Additional Output". It will use the settings on the Output Settings / Additional Output tab, and the Output Settings / Page Format tab to create a PDF or Powerpoint file according to your specifications.

If you have set the options to create additional output, it will do so immediately after creating the puzzles (when you click the Create button).

How does the Time Saver fit in?

The Time Saver extension allow you to create puzzles a lot faster, by creating puzzles with different settings in one go. It speeds up Step 1 (see above). It will create puzzles for each setting you specified, and will create a puzzle book after all the puzzles have been generated.

Question 3

How to Use Puzzle Maker Pro - JigSaw?

Accepted Answer

Like the other Puzzle Maker Pro modules, the best way to create puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw is by quickly creating an initial preview and then customize the different options and settings.

Opening Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw

When you switch to Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw, you'll see this view. (Details may be different in future updates of the software)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/i6SyZtuvMp/Jigsaw%20001%20-%20Initial%20View.png (Jigsaw 001 - Initial View.png)

Click on the white area just below "Select Image", or drag and drop an image file on it. You can use JPG or PNG files that you have on your computer.

After setting the file, click "Next Preview" at the bottom left, and you'll see a jigsaw puzzle, which can look a bit like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/M456z7oFcV/Jigsaw%20002%20-%20First%20Preview%20-%20Solution.png (Jigsaw 002 - First Preview - Solution.png)

This will usually be the solution of the puzzle, because that makes the most sense for many puzzle types. To view the actual jigsaw puzzle and the jigsaw puzzle pieces, click the checkbox "Preview Solution" at the bottom right of the window. The view will change into something like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/lmbu7bT83K/Jigsaw%20003%20-%20First%20Preview%20-%20Puzzle%20and%20Pieces.png (Jigsaw 003 - First Preview - Puzzle and Pieces.png)

If you want to save one or more puzzles with these settings, just click "Create". To generate several different puzzles at once, you can change the Quantity (which is by default set to 1).

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).

Checkerboard Sudoku

Checkerboard is a sudoku variation with a specific grid setup: Like a checkerboard.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FNWEI47XeO/Checkerboard%206x6.png (Checkerboard 6x6)

To solve a Checkerboard Sudoku, you apply the same rules as for regular sudoku, and additionally you have the Checkerboard rule: The white squares contain only odd numbers, the gray squares contain only even numbers.

This is a fun innovative sudoku variation. Because it's easier to solve - it has less options for each square - it's a great variation to include in activity books for children and adults.

Because Checkerboard Sudoku requires an even number of rows and columns in the grid, this variation is not available with a 9x9 grid.

Checkerboard Sudoku math

To compare the number of options of Checkerboard Sudoku with regular sudoku, here's the math for the first 3 squares in a 8x8 sudoku grid:

In a regular sudoku, you have 8 options for the first cell, 7 for the next, 6 for the next, and 5 different options for the fourth cell, which would be 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 = 1680 different options for the first 4 cells. (for a full grid, the math becomes increasingly more complex, and the number of options are bilions.

For Checkerboard sudoku, you have 4 options for the first cell: just 1, 3, 5, 7. Then 4 options for the next (2, 4, 6, 8). For the third and fourth cells there are only 3 options. For just the first 4 cells you have 4 * 4 * 3 * 3 = 144 options, which is less than 10% of the regular sudoku options. The difference gets increasingly larger when we add more cells.

Find Checkerboard Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro

To create Checkerboard Sudoku puzzles in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/uoaWRSeyqD/CheckerBoard%20Sudoku%20Overview.png (CheckerBoard Sudoku Overview)

Go to Sudoku Variations
Select one of the Sudoku Grid Sizes that are available for Checkerboard Sudoku (6x6, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14, 16x16)
Select "Checkerboard" in the Variation menu.

There are quite a few tutorials about all the regular features of Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro, ranging from grid setup to symbol options, please check the tutorials below.

Note: Even though it's possible to use images for Checkerboard Sudokus, it doesn't make much sense, and the sudokus may be impossible to solve, since there are no odd and even images.

Creating a text nonogram

Welcome to the tutorial on how to create Nonograms with letters or words. This is possible with Puzzle Maker Nonogram Text.

You can use these techniques with Nonogram Complete, or Nonogram Text.

Creating a nonogram with text in it is rather easy, if you have this software. First, select the "text" button at the bottom of the program.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/4YY9vIUlAc/puzzle%20maker%20nonogram%20text%20option.jpg (puzzle maker nonogram text option)

The red square shows the Text button

If you click on this button, a screen will pop up. This screen has multiple options.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/vw1ZJpF2pY/Puzzle%20maker%20nonogram%20text%20options.jpg (Puzzle maker nonogram text options (1).jpg)

This is the standard screen you see if you're using Nonogram complete. Text will have a slightly different interface, but the same options should still be there.

the preview window. Here you can see what the font will look like with your current text.
the "your text" field. This is where you type the text you want in your puzzle. When you boot the software up, the standard word it says is LOVE.
all the fonts you can select. Most of these come pre-installed with Windows. The standard option is Arial. We have a separate tutorial on fonts, and if you're allowed to use a font in your puzzle book.
the font browser. If you have a custom font and you don't see it in the list, click here to tell the program where the information for this font is, so you can use it.

You can look through the fonts you have installed, and select one that you like. Here's the settings we've used.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/n2EKn5S0eo/Puzzle%20maker%20nonogram%20text%20selected.jpg (Puzzle maker nonogram text selected)

Bold fonts work better than thinner and more graceful fonts, because of how Puzzle Maker Nonogram generates puzzles.

The program automatically removes all padding as well, so the letters show up more clearly.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/eSMtsIwV8X/Puzzle%20maker%20nonogram%20text%20hello%20there.jpg (Puzzle maker nonogram text hello there)

You can turn this off, but there is a chance it'll become text in a large blank square. You can also fine-tune the puzzle a bit more manually. For information on how to do that, check out our tutorial on how to use the advanced and edit tabs for Puzzle Maker Nonogram

Frequent errors

There are a few things that can go wrong with creating nonograms from fonts.

No text appears, or very incomplete text appears

There are two possible causes for it. First, the Nonogram size you chose is just too small. Try out a different puzzle format. Below you see what happens if we make the puzzle in 20x20 instead of 40x40. There simply isn't enough space for all the letters to show up properly.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/7g9uDIC2kg/Hello%20there%2020x20%20nonogram%20puzzle%20maker.jpg (Hello there 20x20 nonogram puzzle maker)

The other option is that the font you chose is simply too thin. The same solution can be used here. Try a different size, and that should fix it most of the times. Sometimes it's also possible that the font is simply too thin to be picked up properly by the nonogram algorithm, in which case choosing a different font is the best solution. You can see that below.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1N9C3SIKzP/hello%20there%2090x90%20font%20doesnt%20work%20nonogram.jpg (hello there 90x90 font doesnt work nonogram)

The font selected here simply doesn't work well because the lines are too thin. Even at 90x90 it barely works.

I can't find the font I want to use

For this we recommend you try manually adding the font through the font browser, as described above. Again, not all fonts will work equally well with the program, for reasons described above.

I want a nonogram with a non-western script

This is possible! You have to make sure the language is installed on your computer for non-western scripts. You can do this by going to the Language options in your computer, and adding a preferred language.

One problem you may run into is that not all fonts support your language. In the example below we have used Japanese, which doesn't have many different fonts.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZeQ6abwVec/Japanese%20font%20Puzzle%20maker%20nonogram.jpg (Japanese font Puzzle maker nonogram)

Introduction to Puzzle Maker Pro

Welcome to Puzzle Maker Pro - the world's best puzzle maker. We've tried our best to make the software as easy and intuitive to use as possible. However, because we want you to be able to create something unique to you, we still offer a lot of options.

In this tutorial we'll show you the basics. Your first puzzle (or even puzzle book) is just one click away.

Puzzle Maker Pro - Main window.

When you start Puzzle Maker Pro, you'll see a window looking a lot like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/V3P2w4AK32/Puzzle%20Maker%20Pro%20Main%20Window.jpg (Puzzle Maker Pro Main Window)

It currently shows Sudoku, but if you purchased a different puzzle, it'll show that instead.

Puzzle Maker Pro is a framework for puzzle modules - some parts will be different for each puzzle, other parts are standard options available to all puzzles.

Let's start the tour:

Preview

Now go on and press preview, maybe change some of the settings, colors or numbers, and see what happens when you click preview again.

To find out where your puzzle files are saved, continue to Output Settings. For all other topics, go back to Tutorial Overview

Question 8

How to create Code Search puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro?

Accepted Answer

This tutorial explains how to create Code Search puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro. The tutorial applies to:

Introduction Code Search

Code Search is a puzzle where you have to find a list of codes in a randomly filled grid.

The codes can be numbers, letters, a combination of numbers, letters and other characters, Roman numerals, or even colors and images.

When you create these puzzles, you can select which symbols to use, the length of the codes, and even if multiples of the codes can be used. Details for the symbols differ, depending on the symbol type.

Code Search Overview

After selecting "Code Search" in the Puzzle Type menu, you'll see a default preview of a code search puzzle. The actual layout may differ, depending on your current settings in Puzzle Maker Pro. In the screenshot below you'll see both the puzzle preview and the solution preview, because "Both" is selected at the bottom right (5).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RUTNdXftQH/Code%20Search%2001%20-%20Overview%20-%20Annotated.png (Code Search 01 - Overview - Annotated)

If you're familiar with Puzzle Maker Pro, the puzzle layout may seem a bit different, we'll explain this in a minute.

In the screenshot you see:

The puzzle settings and the symbol settings, by default set to numbers
A puzzle preview, consisting of the puzzle grid and a list of codes
A solution preview. The previews are identical to the puzzle and solution files that can be saved as JPG/PNG files
Create / Next Preview buttons, to generate a new puzzle
Options to change which preview is shown

Symbol Selection Options

The Symbol Selection dropdown menu has different options: Numbers, Letters, Roman numerals, Colors and Images. These will be discussed in detail on separate pages:

There is a randomization option that works for all symbol options:

Number of Items for Puzzle - Here you can set how many different numbers, letters, etc can be used in the puzzle. Without randomization, these will always be the first numbers, letters, etc, in the list
"Draw x Random Values" - This allows you to use different numbers, letters, etc for each puzzle. For example if you use 5 numbers in a puzzle, but the numbers 1 to 9 are selected, it will randomly select 5 of those 9 numbers. It works the same way for letters, Roman numerals, colors and images
Max Colors / Images: This sets the maximum number of colors or images that can be selected in the color / image grid. It will also apply to the Default number range

In the screenshot you can see that all 9 numbers can be used.

Clue constraints

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1o5LDAoYGI/Code%20Search%20-%20Clues%20Options%20v2%20-%20Annotated.png (Code Search - Clues Options v2 - Annotated)

There are some flexible options to select the clues you want and how they are printed:

The minimum and maximum length of the clues (1), in the screenshot this is set to create clues with a length ranging from 2 to 5.
The number of occurences of the clues (2), here this is set to a range of 2 to 5. This setting defines how many times a code must appear in the grid to be added to the list. With a minimum of 2, codes that appear only once will not be shown in the list. For each code in the list, the number of copies is shown after the code, in parentheses.
Constraints for code placement in the grid (3), see the example below.
Clues Sort Order (4) - there are four different options: Default / Random, Alphabetic (shown in the screenshot), Length / Short First and Length / Long First. (Alphabetic is not available for Color Code or Image Code puzzles)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1HLAzLPAcL/Code%20Search%20-%20Code%20Constraints.png (Code Search - Code Constraints)

To further control the difficulty of the puzzle, there are three more options to set:

Diagonals - controls whether or not codes can be placed diagonally
Reversed - controls whether or not codes can be placed reversed (i.e. from bottom to top or from right to left)
Overlap - controls whether codes can overlap in the grid

The screenshot shows a puzzle with all three options switched off. The solution looks a lot simpler and clear, but of course when you see the puzzle grid and the codes to be placed, it's still complex.

Code Search Output and Export Options

By default all the Puzzle Maker Pro - Code Search variations will save a puzzle and a solution image, just the way they are shown in the screenshots. Additionally you can use the "Export Parts" option:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/JaFPb2rOuQ/Code%20Search%20-%20Export%20Parts.png (Code Search - Export Parts)

This will also save separate images (JPG/PNG) for the puzzle grid, the solution grid and the code list, using the Image Size settings from the 'Output Settings' tab. This way you can create these puzzles and manually add the images to your own puzzle or activity books.

Note: At release time there is no SVG export for these puzzles, because using bitmap images (for the Image Code Search) doesn't really result in useful SVG files.

Here's a screen with the parts output for a Number Search puzzle:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/7UchiUJibk/Code%20Search%20-%20Export%20Parts%20Output.png (Code Search - Export Parts Output)

Code Search Puzzle Size Options

Code Search uses a slightly different way of sizing than most other puzzle types in Puzzle Maker Pro, because the puzzle grid and the code list are included in a single image. There are two ways to use these puzzles:

Generate a puzzle book or puzzle pages using Puzzle Maker Pro's Instant Puzzle Books, and
Generate and save the separate images for the puzzle grid, code list and solution grid, and assemble your books manually (using Powerpoint, InDesign or other software).

The default settings for Code Search are set for Instant Puzzle Books, but this is easy to change.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/zviqgLo8IW/Code%20Search%20-%20Output%20Settings.png (Code Search - Output Settings)

In recent updates for Puzzle Maker Pro we have introduced a "Dynamic Size" option: This will use the settings for Instant Puzzle Books to calculate the optimal puzzle size. For example:

Trim Size - for example 8.5" x 11"
Margins - for example 0.5" on all sized, leaving a printable area of 7.5" x 10"
Page Layout - Let's say 1 Row and 2 columns, for two puzzles side by side. This would result in 3.75 x 10" for each puzzle. With 1 Row and 1 Column, you would have an area of 7.5" x 10" for the puzzle

The best layout settings depend on your puzzle size (grid size), the number of clues, and a few other settings we'll discuss in the next paragraph.

This Dynamic Size option is the default for Code Search, because in most cases a square image containing both the puzzle and the code list will not result in an attractive layout.

However, you can easily check out the options: Just click Fixed Size, and "Next Preview" to see the result, or click "Dynamic Size" and then change the Page Layout (Instant Puzzle Books -> Page Layout) and generate another preview. Puzzle Maker Pro was made for experimenting to find the best settings for your puzzle books. (There is no "one size fits all" without severely limiting some demanding users of the software).

Code Search Layout Settings

In all the screenshots so far we have used a certain layout setting, with the code list below the puzzle and aligned to the puzzle position. You can change this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yzXrJ2xHMQ/Code%20Search%20-%20Layout.png (Code Search - Layout)

On the Layout tab for Code Search you can:

Change the position of the symbol grid and the code list
Set the relative area of the grid size (e.g. 70%), which will automatically adjust the Code List area as well
Align the grid horizontally and vertically
Align the code list horizontally and vertically
Align the code list to the puzzle grid. (In the screenshot this is switched off, so the code list is wider than the grid)
Set padding between the Grid and the Code List
Set the number of Code List Columns (by default this is set to 4)

For example, if you would want a layout with two puzzles on a page on top of each other, you could set the page layout to 2 rows and 1 column, and then set the Symbol Grid Position to Left or Right:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/bAW6fzSrYR/Code%20Search%20-%20Horizontal%20Layout.png (Code Search - Horizontal Layout)

Different shape types

Puzzle Maker Pro - Geometric Mazes offers 4 different shape types, which are enabled depending on your license. (Read more about Geometric Mazes licenses here).

Squares

Mazes with squares are the most easy to understand: You can set the number of rows and the number of columns for the total maze grid, and the software will generate a nice meandering path using some of these squares. An example is the screenshot at the top of this page.

Triangles

Triangles mazes are made up from triangles, alternatingly pointing up and down. A triangle based maze can never be fully square in size (unless you do some advanced math).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qW45nPAk0J/03%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Triangles.png (03 Mazes 2D - Triangles.png)

You can see in this image that a triangles maze with 20x20 triangles is not exactly rectangular.

Circle

A circle maze consist of several concentric circles. The number of maze 'cells' in each larger circle will be larger than the smaller circles, to make sure all the cells are more or less the same size.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/aJ5l2Ta3DI/02%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Circle.png (02 Mazes 2D - Circle.png)

The number of rows and columns for circle mazes have a special logic:

Rows: The number of rings you encounter when you count from top to bottom or left to right. This setting is actually double the number of circles that are drawn.
Columns: This is the number of parts of the center circle, which can have a value ranging from 3 to 10. (This is a UNIQUE feature that you won't find in any other maze software). 4 or 6 are great values to work with, but you can experiment with the other numbers.

Hexagons

Hexagons are shapes with 6 sides. An example can be seen in this screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/iClafwvPIm/04%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Hexagons.png (04 Mazes 2D - Hexagons.png)

The number of columns that are drawn for hexagons will always be odd, to add corner shapes for bether esthetics.

Links to tutorials to configure all the different settings for Geometric Mazes can be found at the bottom of this page.

Save and Preview

For new Puzzle Maker Pro users:

At the bottom of the window, you can see three buttons and an option (checkbox)

"Create" will create new mazes. This will use the quantity setting (Basic Options, at the top of the Puzzle Settings tab), to create 1, 2, 5 up to 1000's of maze puzzles. Each puzzle consists of a puzzle image and a solution image. WARNING: for large puzzle sizes (70-100) this may take a while for each puzzle.
"Next Preview" will generate a new maze that is shown in the preview panel (the big maze image at the right side of the Puzzle Maker Pro window). This is not saved to disk, but is an easy and interactive way to play with the settings and see what happens.
"Save Preview" will save the current preview.
"Preview Solution" can be used to toggle the preview panel from solution to puzzle. For mazes it's usually convenient to preview the solution (otherwise you won't see the solution path).

Step 1: How to set the Main options

Make sure you have selected “Word Search” in the Puzzle Type menu (1). It doesn’t matter which edition you’re using.

Go to the Time Saver tab page (2), this will show you the Time Saver for Word Search options (3).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/OnxEdnOwCa/PMP%20-%20Word%20Search%20-%20Word%20Lists%201.png (Time Saver for Word Search - Main tab overview)

The red box (4) indicates the word list options. You can also set all the other options as you wish, these are not part of this tutorial.

Step 2: How to select the Word Lists

Now select the tab “Word Lists” to select all the word lists you want to use.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/9SsAyGnaU5/PMP%20-%20Word%20Search%20-%20Word%20Lists%202.png (Time Saver for Word Search - selecting word lists)

This is fairly straightforward. You can select multiple word lists at once, and select word lists from different folders on your computer.

When you have selected all the lists you want to use, go to the “Batch Creation” tab.

Step 3: How to create multiple Word Search puzzles with one mouse-click

There are two options to create multiple Word Search puzzles at once, when you are using the Time Saver:

"Fast" - Create rectangular word search puzzles with different dimensions

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qQ5dcIGh40/PMP%20-%20Word%20Search%20-%20Word%20Lists%20-%20Fast.png (PMP - Word Search - Word Lists - Fast.png)

For each row in this table you can set the number of rows and columns, the number of puzzles to be created and some other options.

For each row in this table it will use all the word lists specified in step 2. (Read step 4 for examples)

"Presets" - Create Word Search puzzles from your presets

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NPCzOuXLLY/PMP%20-%20Word%20Search%20-%20Word%20Lists%20-%20Presets.png (PMP - Word Search - Word Lists - Presets.png)

When you use presets, you can select as many presets as you like for your current project. You can set the quantity (number of puzzles) for each preset, however you should keep in mind that it will process all word lists for each puzzle (see also Step 4).

Once you’ve set the Batch Creation options you need, don’t forget to check the “Use Time Saver to generate Puzzles” at the top left of the window, and click Create to generate the puzzles.

Step 4: How many different puzzles can you expect?

The Time Saver for Word Search can create a lot of puzzles for you: It will use each preset (or each line in the “Fast” table), then take each word list in turn (unless you combine them), and create the “Quantity” number of puzzles for that combination.

An example: let’s say you use 10 different word lists, you use 5 presets, and you set the quantity for each preset to 5. That will create 10x5x5=250 puzzles (instead of 5×5, what some people expect). In most cases you’ll want only 1 puzzle for each preset or use a single preset to create many puzzles. However, it’s up to you to decide and be creative.

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