Question 1

Getting Started with Sticker Factory (Plugin for Powerpoint)

Accepted Answer

Getting Started with Sticker Factory (Plugin for Powerpoint)

With Sticker Factory you can save your the shapes (or groups) on your slide(s) as separate PNG images in 96DPI or 300DPI. With Sticker Factory Pro you can also automatically add the sticker borders and even create additional slides with sticker shapes.

If you haven't installed the plugin yet, please do that first. You can find a tutorial on how to install our Powerpoint Add-ins here. Sticker Factory and Sticker Factory Pro are included in the Easy Journals download.

Sticker Factory - Saving shapes as stickers.

The standard version of Sticker Factory can save your shapes as separate PNG files. By default it uses 96DPI, but you can add 300DPI as well.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/l0ZcaiFTc2/Sticker%20Factory%2001%20Save%20Stickers.jpg (Sticker Factory 01 Save Stickers.jpg)

The screenshot shows a number of different shapes, just to illustrate how the plugin works. A regular square (top middle), a merged shape (top right), a frame (top left), a grouped shape (bottom left), Word Art text (bottom middle) and a regular text field (bottom right).

After setting the Target Folder and selecting 300DPI, the exported files will look like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/x48VfhGLj8/Sticker%20Factory%2002%20-%20Exported%20Stickers.jpg (Sticker Factory 02 - Exported Stickers.jpg)

This screenshot was taken from File Explorer, you can see the very light blue color where the PNG's are transparent, and a white border around the shapes.

Note: The basic version of the plugin will not add these white borders for you.

For convenience there's also a button to open the folder that contains the images.

Sticker Factory Pro

The Pro version of Sticker Factory can add sticker borders to your images, and generate new slides filled with stickers.

Sticker Factory Pro - Sticker Border

To add Sticker Borders, you can select the color and the border width (in Powerpoint dot size). Normally the color should be white. However, if you want to select the right border width for your stickers, you'll probably want to use a different color (if you have a white background), and change it to white once you're satisfied with the border width. For that reason we've selected purple in this example:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8kTJIWqDjO/Sticker%20Factory%2003%20-%20Add%20Border.jpg (Sticker Factory 03 - Add Border.jpg)

The purple color (1) is added to all the shapes on this slide. When you look carefully, you should see that the original shape borders (green in shape (2), dark blue in shape (3) and dark orange in shape (4)) are still there, just as you would expect.

If you want to have different border sizes for different shapes (e.g. the border for the Regular Text Field may be a bit much), you can move them to different slides and use different settings.

With "Remove Borders" you can remove the borders you just added. If you create borders again with different settings, the existing borders will also be removed.

Sticker Factory Pro - Generate Stickers

The other feature of Sticker Factory Pro is the ability to generate stickers. For example if you have some nice shapes that you want to use for stickers with different words.

This option will duplicate the current or selected slide(s) and replace replace each (dummy) text with a word from the list. Shapes that have no dummy (or placeholder) text, will not be affected.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Hz54ezrYqQ/Sticker%20Factory%2004%20-%20Template%20Setup.jpg (Sticker Factory 04 - Template Setup.jpg)

In the screenshot you can see the list of words (phrases) and the sticker templates. After clicking "Go", it will generate additional slides as can be seen in the next screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/pZTnDWdLUr/Sticker%20Factory%2004%20-%20Generated%20Result.jpg (Sticker Factory 04 - Generated Result.jpg)

As you can see here, the shapes without text are not affected. Text settings such as font size or alignment are also not changed.

To get the best results:

Add borders before generating multiple slides
Check if your longest words or phrases fit inside the shapes. Sticker Factory does not change the font settings. (e.g. the star inside the frame will not work with longer words or phrases)
Check alignment - e.g. the word art shape would look better when centered instead of left aligned.
Remove empty shapes from the template. They may not be in the way here (on the slide), but they'll result in duplicate exports (because they're the same on each slide).

Question 2

How can I quickly set up lines, squares or dots for my journal using Journal Filler Plugin for Powerpoint?

Accepted Answer

This tutorial will show you how to quickly fill a shape in Powerpoint with lines, dots or squares.

As you know, each 'page' in Powerpoint is called a slide. That's the terminology we will use in this tutorial.

Overview

The Journal Filler Plugin for Powerpoint will save you time with two different options:

To use the Journal Filler Plugin, click on the "Add-ins" option in the Powerpoint menu. This will open the Add-in ribbon, that includes the "BookPublisherTools" options. In the "More Options" menu you can find "Journal Filler". This will open a new side panel in Powerpoint.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/c2xd7twyDJ/Add-in%20menu.jpg (Add-in menu.jpg)

Add lines to a shape with Journal Filler

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/qDKcXOE391/Filler-Lines.jpg (Filler-Lines.jpg)

Adding lines, squares, dots or little plusses to shapes is straightforward:

First, make sure you're looking at the "Lines" tab in Journal Filler.

Choose the fill option you need:

Horizontal lines
Vertical lines
Both (horizontal and vertical lines), resulting in squares or rectangles
Dots
Plusses

Depending on your selection, you'll need to set the Vertical and/or the Horizontal distance between the lines or dots. You can choose to either:

Set a fixed distance between the lines or dots (in inches)
Set the number of lines you want, e.g. 5 lines. The plugin will calculate the line distance for you when you click 'Go'

There are some presets for the line distance, such as medium ruled, wide ruled, 5 per inch, etc.

Once you're done, select one or more shapes that need to be filled, and click "Go".

Question 3

Creating Images for Word Puzzles

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to create Word Scramble puzzles with Puzzle Maker Pro - Word Scramble.

This tutorial applies to:

Creating Images/Memes

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

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

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

The options you have here:

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

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

Overview

The screenshot above shows several things:

The puzzle select screen. You can select the type of puzzle you want to make here.
Grid Type. You can choose between Squares, Isometric Classic, or Isometric Full Square. For the differences between the two isometric styles, we recommend you check out our tutorial: Create Isometric Mazes with Mazes 2D Tiles
The Image Folder is where you can select a folder, using the "browse" button. You can use this to import your own tilesets. Puzzle Maker Pro is installed software, so you don't need to upload your images to use them.
Maze generator settings, to control how the maze is generated, and where the Start and End points will be located.
Preview window. This is where you can see a preview for the maze you are currently generating.

You can also see 5 tabs for this puzzle type

Setting up your maze

Puzzle Size

You can select the number of rows (horizontal) and columns (vertical) for your maze. Both have a mazimum of 100. We chose this maximum because of multiple reasons:

We want to keep the appearance of your tiles intact. If you print too many tiles on a small surface, details could be lost.
Each tile image has to be 'printed' on the maze image. Using larger puzzles will take more time to generate.

However, if you really want larger puzzles, feel free to contact us, and we can see if a larger upper limit is possible.

Empty Cells

You can add empty cells to the maze. Depending on your tile set, these tiles will be actually empty, or you can add specific tiles for these empty cells. For example, if you create a maze with road style tiles, you could add houses or small lakes in the empty cells.

Quantity

Finally, there's an option to set the quantity. This is the number of mazes you want to generate when you click the "create" button. The puzzles will be saved in the location you set up using the Output settings in Puzzle Maker Pro

Selecting the Tiles Folder

To select the Tiles Folder, click the "browse" button, and navigate to the folder where you have stored your images. Select one of the images, and click "open". This will automatically select the entire folder of images.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/6bNZxAf1hA/Mazes%202D%20Tiles%20select%20tiles%20folder.jpg (Mazes 2D Tiles select tiles folder)

The pack shown here is a free Cartography Tiles Pack from Kenney. As you can see, we've renamed the files, with each file now starting with one or more numbers. The numbers indicate the sides of the square that are connected, with 0 having no connections, 12 meaning side 1 and 2 are connected, et cetera. For more information, you can always look at our tile format and naming conventions guide.

Note: The tiles used in this preview are only 64 by 64 pixels, meaning they have to be upscaled if you want to use them in a maze.

After selecting this set, and clicking the "preview" button, you'll see something like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/TedRrqgpv6/Mazes%202D%20Tiles%20using%20your%20own%20tile%20set.jpg (Mazes 2D Tiles using your own tile set)

The straight black solution line looks out of place in this maze style, so let's change that up a bit.

Style

The screenshot below shows the style settings for Mazes 2D Tiles

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8N1WT532Nv/Mazes%202D%20Style%20Settings.jpg (Mazes 2D Style Settings)

Mazes 2D Tiles Style Settings

There are several options to customise the way the solution path is drawn:

You can change the width and colour of the solution path. Here we changed the width to 15. The width is a percentage of the square, so when a maze gets drawn the width of the solution path will now be 15%.
Curved line: This will uze Bezier curves (if you've used Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Affinity before, you may be familiar with these already), to make a curved line. The line will go through the center points of each tile.
Dotted Line: Instead of a single continuous line, you can also create a dotted line. We have chosen this style because it fits the general style of the puzzle more.

In addition to these options, you can also change the canvas colour. We haven't changed that setting here, because the tiles themselves have transparency as well.

Font Styling

You can choose any (TrueType) font on your computer for the printed coordinates. Just click the white area that has the font name (by default "Arial", in this screenshot "Artless") and the Font Setup window will be shown, where you can configure and preview the font settings.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1PQPuu1YAz/Jigsaw%20015%20-%20Font%20Styling.png (Jigsaw 015 - Font Styling.png)

Remember that not all fonts are free to use in commercial works. We have a separate tutorial to find out if you can legally use your font.

Line Width and Color

You can set the Line Width and Color for the puzzle and solution, and separately for the puzzle pieces. That way you can choose for thicker lines if the puzzle pieces are intended to be cut out.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/zGokAZ8tVW/Jigsaw%20016%20-%20Line%20Styling.png (Jigsaw 016 - Line Styling.png)

Help Lines

In addition to the puzzle piece border lines, you can also add Help Lines. These will help children (or adults) to draw parts of the puzzle piece in the right location. This can be especially helpful if you have puzzle pieces with lots of details. The next screenshot shows an example. The purple color for the Help Lines was chosen to contrast with the bright colors.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XFp9E9y0aY/Jigsaw%20017%20-%20Help%20Lines.png (Jigsaw 017 - Help Lines.png)

Puzzle Maker Pro - Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search Introduction

The Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search resembles the Time Saver for (regular) Word Search, but the way word lists are handled is a bit different.

This tutorial applies to:

The Time Saver for Zig Zag Word Search will work with the squares, diagonals, words snake and random shapes options.

Time Saver Overview

The Time Saver needs two ingredients to work correctly:

Word Lists
Jobs to do

You can set up the 'Jobs to do' on the Batch Creation tab. A job is a specific puzzle type and format, for example "Squares" 10x10 with Quantity 5. This will create 5 puzzles for each (!!!) word list. If you set up 3 word lists, with enough words in each, you will get 15 puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/6zXxjw2BoS/Time%20Saver%20Word%20Search%20Diagram.JPG (Time Saver Word Search Diagram.JPG)

Main Settings

There are a couple of layout settings that control some of the styling for Instant Puzzle Books, such as the puzzle alignment and the font size for the word lists.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/fmgnyGujJc/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Time%20Saver%20Main%20Settings.png (Zig Zag Word Search Time Saver Main Settings)

Variable Font Size - the font size is calculated for each puzzle, based on the number of words and the word length. For puzzle books this may lead to different font sizes for each puzzle, especially if you use different sizes for the puzzle (a 10x10 puzzle will have fewer words than a 25x25 puzzle)
One Size Fits All - the font size is calculated after all word lists are set up, to make sure each page looks similar

Word Lists

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/T6UYyswPDI/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Time%20Saver%20Word%20Lists.png (Zig Zag Word Search Time Saver Word Lists)

Selecting Word Lists

Each word list should be just a text file with a list of words, for example when you create a file with Notepad.

You can select as many files as you want, and it's best in general to make the wordlists larger than the strict minimum. For example, for a 10x10 grid, the combined length of the words should be at least 100. However, when you create a list of more words, with a combined length of say 500, you'll get a larger variety of puzzles from it.

Word List Control

Just like the regular Zig Zag Word Search, you can choose how the word list should be used:

Auto: This will try to create as many puzzles as the Quantity setting indicates. However, if it runs out of words in the list, it will stop.
Repeat: This will use all the words in the list, and then repeat the entire wordlist (again and again) to get to the number of puzzles in the quantity setting. Each puzzle will draw random words from the list, so each puzzle will be different
Reset: This will reset the entire word list after a puzzle is created, so every puzzle can use words from the entire word list.

Merging Word Lists

You can choose to Merge all lists, to create just 1 large list. This will basically just add all words to a single list.

You can also choose to use each word list separately, which would work like the diagram above (each 'job' will be executed for each of the word lists). In this case you can also use the file names as titles.

Segmented Word Lists

Segmented word lists are available as part of the Extras Add-On, but are also available automatically as part of the Time Saver Add-On. This will allow you to combine multiple short word lists into one larger list, while still keeping the words separate.

Basically, you can use a blank line to separate the lists:

Optionallly you can add a title to each list, which will be used for the Instant Puzzle Books

In the future there may be other options for these segmented word list, to exploit additional features of the Instant Puzzle Books

Batch Creation Settings

When you use the Time Saver, don't forget to select "Use Time Saver to generate Puzzles" and to select the options for Batch Creation you want to use (e.g. "Use Time Saver - Fast"). This will change the text of the "Create" button to "Create (TS)".

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/66Euj4Po0j/Zig%20Zag%20Word%20Search%20Time%20Saver%20Batch%20Creation.png (Zig Zag Word Search Time Saver Batch Creation)

Fast Mode

This options is called 'Fast' because it doesn't depend on you setting up specific puzzle presets, but simply select the Zig Zag Word Search variation you want to use, and set the rows, columns and quantity. Additionally you can set the Sort Order, this will control the order in which the puzzle appear in your puzzle book (and the order in which the files are listed in File Explorer, if you sort them by filename).

Preset Puzzles

With this option you can use your own presets (that you have saved on the Puzzle Settings tab for Zig Zag Word Search) to create an entire batch of puzzles.

Question 8

How to Get Started with Puzzle Maker Pro - Geometric Mazes

Accepted Answer

This tutorial will show you how to get started with Puzzle Maker Pro - Geometric Mazes.

When you select the Geometric Mazes module in Puzzle Maker Pro (1), you'll see a window similar to this screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WHaX9pO8oC/01%20Mazes%202D%20-%20Initial%20View.png (01 Mazes 2D - Initial View (2).png)

In this window you can:

Set the type of maze you want, and set the size for your maze (2),
Configure how your maze will be generated (4),
Set additional Maze properties such as style and Colors (3)
Use future add-ons for Geometric Mazes (3)
And finally - Create or Preview your maze (5).

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).

Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Overview

Mazes 2D is the 2022 update of our popular Mazes software (formerly Standard Mazes 2D/ Standard and Shaped Mazes 2D).

This option in Puzzle Maker Pro is the entry point for several current and new puzzle modules:

Standard Mazes 2D / Standard and Shaped Mazes 2D (if you have this module, the Mazes 2D Squares option will be available to you)
Mazes 2D Oblique - a Tangle / Doodle / Yayoi Kusama-style maze
Mazes 2D Other Shapes - Easy Octagons and Small Circles

Additionally there are some Add-Ons available for these mazes

The examples in this tutorial use the Mazes 2D Squares. It should be easy to use these options for the other shapes. For specifics, there are additional tutorials for each maze type.

Getting Started with Mazes 2D

Mazes 2D Squares Main Overview

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

Mazes 2D Squares Main Overview

Select Mazes 2D in the dropdown menu at the top. This will open the puzzle options for Mazes 2D
In the Puzzle Control section you can select the puzzle type, in this case Squares is selected. Here you can also set the number of puzzles (Quantity) and the puzzle size (rows and columns)
There are several tabs for the different maze and customization options. By default the Main tab is selected
On the Main tab you can control the maze generation options, such as the maze / solution complexity and the solution path (where the Start and End points will be chosen)
After changing the settings for the maze, click Next Preview to see a newly generated maze with the changed settings. (This is not done automatically, otherwise you may have to wait after each change)
The preview panel
By default the Solution is shown, use this switch to display the puzzle (without the solution path)

Info Tab

Solution Complexity

You can use the big red slider "Solution Complexity" to control how the maze is generated. There are several built-in algorithms that result in differently shaped mazes. These algorithms set some limits, within these limits the maze generation process is completely random.

To get an idea of the differences, here you see two extreme examples. It's best (and very easy) to experiment with this setting yourself.

Mazes 2D Squares - Complexity 0

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/UsISAYEcCc/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Complexity%200.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Complexity 0)

Mazes 2D Squares - Complexity 0

Mazes 2D Squares - Complexity 100

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/fCcKZpppAP/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Complexity%20100.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Complexity 100)

Mazes 2D Squares - Complexity 100

Solution Path

There are several options for the solution path (which is part of the maze generation process:

Default - Top Left to Bottom Right, this may be slightly different for certain maze types
Random - This will set a random starting point on one of the maze edges, and select an end point at an opposite edge
Longest Path - This will choose the longest possible path in a maze. Usually the Start and End points are not on the edges of the maze
Manual - you can manually select the Start and End points. To do this, right-click the preview panel on the maze cell (square/other shape) where you want the Start or End point, and select the appropriate option in the pop-up menu)

Mazes 2D Squares - Path Random

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

Mazes 2D Squares - Path Random

Mazes 2D Squares - Longest Path

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/b4rBaUYtAq/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Longest%20Path.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Longest Path)

Mazes 2D Squares - Longest Path

Mazes 2D Squares - Manual Start

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/k1md7DgoHv/Mazes%202D%20Squares%20-%20Manual%20Start.png (Mazes 2D Squares - Manual Start)

Mazes 2D Squares - Manual Start

How to get Started with Puzzle Maker Pro – Connect the Dots

After choosing Connect the Dots in the Puzzle Type menu, you’ll see a window like the one below. (Details may differ slightly, because we’re continuously improving the software)

Creating a Connect the Dots puzzle consists of two steps:

Create the dots and paths for the puzzle
Change the styling and options

Lite Edition

The next image is the default display for the Lite version of Connect the Dots.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/dGEhcGHh9L/PMP%20-%20Connect-the-Dots-101-Start-Here-1.png (PMP - Connect-the-Dots-101-Start-Here-1.png)

The properties for the current path, such as line color and dot type. We’ll explain this after creating our first path.
The preview panel contains brief instructions for Connect the Dots, telling you to Open the Path Editor (3)

Click the “Open Path Editor” button (3) to get started.

Manual Edition and SVG Edition

The Manual Edition and SVG Edition open the window with the Navigation menu visible. When starting a new puzzle, there will only be one single path shown: "New Path".

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/YTBlcfghFd/PMP%20-%20Connect-the-Dots-101-Start-Here-2-1.png (PMP - Connect-the-Dots-101-Start-Here-2-1.png)

Click the “Open Path Editor” button (3) to get started.

How to Use the Path Editor for Connect the Dots

The Path Editor contains tools and options to create the different paths for your puzzle.

Some Connect the Dots puzzles only use one single path, that is: a single chain of dots numbered from 1, where the puzzler has to connect all the dots with consecutive numbers. 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and so on.

More complex Connect the Dots puzzles may have multiple paths. Puzzle Maker Pro – Connect the Dots – Manual Edition and SVG Edition support the use of multiple paths.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yGMV6mJDvg/PMP%20-%20Connect-the-Dots-101-Path%20Editor.png (PMP - Connect-the-Dots-101-Path Editor.png)

With the Path Editor you can:

Click to add dots (1). Just click on the preview panel, that contains the tutorial text. As soon as you place your first dot, the text will disappear.
Clear all (2): If you make mistakes, or you want to continue with a blank slate, click the “New Image” button
You can select an image on your computer to use as an overlay (3). That way you can add dots along the outline (or outlines) of your image. The filename of your overlay file will be shown as well (5)
With the SVG Edition you can also open the SVG Editor (4). This is a separate window that will display your SVG image and has options to change the number of dots.
At the left you can see the path settings panel (6). You can change all the path settings here, such as the name, colors, dot type, and more.

How to Add Dots to create a puzzle

By left-clicking the mouse on the panel at the right (that initially shows the tutorial text), you can add dots. The software will keep track of the order of the dots, and display lines between the dots (the path).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/xwHaNtzTma/Connect-the-Dots-101-Path-Options.png (Connect-the-Dots-101-Path-Options.png)

In this example we’ve created a simple path with 5 dots in the shape of a house.

After you change the settings for any of the styling options, click “Preview” (bottom left) to update the preview.

The next screenshot shows the same image with totally different styling options:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/a5T7aISQwi/Connect-the-Dots-101-Path-Options-2.png (Connect-the-Dots-101-Path-Options-2.png)

How to Edit the Current Dot position

Puzzle Maker Pro - Connect the Dots is the only puzzle app where you can edit (move or delete) the individual dots in a path.

How to use the Path Data (tab)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/iNC8uP2T6X/Connect-the-Dots-101-Path-Data.png (Connect-the-Dots-101-Path-Data.png)

An additional way to see all the points, is the “Path Data” tab. This will show you co-ordinates for all the dots. The current dot is shown with a blue bar. You can use buttons to “Clear All” dots from the path, or to “Delete” the current dot. Usually you won’t need to use this information. You can also click other points in this list, and you’ll see a different dot getting selected in the image.

The option “Closed Path” will allow you to automatically add a line between the last and first dot in the path. In the puzzle this will result in a combined number for the first dot, shown as “1/73”

How to use the additional path settings

All the path settings are available in all Connect the Dots editions, however some path settings only make sense when you use multiple paths.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/gKq1Sdk0HV/PMP%20-%20Connect%20the%20Dots%20-%20Additional%20Settings.png (PMP - Connect the Dots - Additional Settings.png)

How to use Multiple Paths in Connect the Dots

You can create Connect the Dots puzzles with one or more paths if you have the Manual Edition or the SVG Edition. On the Navigation tab you can see a hierarchically ordered list of all the paths.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ufpMrOGdAp/PMP%20-%20Connect-the-Dots-101-Multiple-Paths.png (PMP - Connect-the-Dots-101-Multiple-Paths.png)

By right-clicking on the navigation panel, you’ll see a popup menu with different options: