Question 1

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 2

How to Enable Macros and Install Add-In's in Powerpoint

Accepted Answer

This tutorial describes how to Enable Macros and Install Add-In's in Powerpoint. It applies to:

Whenever you use a Powerpoint file that contains macros, you'll receive a warning in Powerpoint. There are two steps to take (just once) to allow the macros to work:

Tell Windows that the file can be trusted
Tell Powerpoint that the macros can be trusted
Add the Add-In

Security Step 1 - Windows

To let Windows know that you trust the downloaded file, right-click the Powerpoint file and select Properties.

Unblock File in Windows

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/5Tk3PaDOK8/Windows%20Unblock.png (Unblock File in Windows)

Make sure "Unblock" is checked, then click OK.

Security Step 2 - Powerpoint

After you double-click the Powerpoint file, Powerpoint may show a warning that Macros are disabled. In that case, you have to enabled macros to use the LCB Book Creator on your computer:

In Powerpoint, click the File menu-option, then click "Options", at the bottom. In the Options window, find the Trust Center options (at the bottom), and click "Trust Center Settings".

How to find the Powerpoint Trust Center

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/0NMByXbpKG/Powerpoint%20Trust%20Center%201.png (Powerpoint Trust Center)

Powerpoint Trust Center

In the Trust Center, find the Macro Settings, then click either "Disable all macros except digitally signed macros", or "Enable all macros".

Powerpoint Trust Center - Enable Macros

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8uWjC3gkuF/Powerpoint%20Trust%20Center%202.png (Powerpoint Trust Center - Enable Macros)

Powerpoint Trust Center - Enable Macros

Step 3 - Install Add-In

Please be aware, if the security settings (Step 2) are set to "Disable all macros", you won't be able to install the add-ind.

Open the Powerpoint Add-Ins Manager

Open the Powerpoint Options window by clicking the File menu, then click Options (at the bottom left).

LCB Book Creator Manage Add-In's

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sqyv4o12bN/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Manage%20Add-In%27s.png (LCB Book Creator Manage Add-In's)

LCB Book Creator Manage Add-In's

In the Options window, click the Add-Ins option, and select "PowerPoint Add-ins" in the dropdown menu at the bottom.

Add the new Add-In

The Add-Ins window may look different if you already have other add-in's installed.

LCB Book Creator Add New Add-In

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/YOsxR0LJHq/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Add%20New%20Add-In.png (LCB Book Creator Add New Add-In)

LCB Book Creator Add New Add-In

Click "Add New" and navigate to the folder where you saved the LCB Book Creator addin. Please be aware that the plugin should stay in this location, otherwise Powerpoint will not be able to use it in the future.

Depending on your security settings, you may get a security notice (see below).

Handle the Security Notice

Powerpoint will let you know that you're installing something new, and let you decide whether to accept this.

LCB Book Creator Security Notice

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XPHiX2fbr2/LCB%20Book%20Creator%20Security%20Notice.png (LCB Book Creator Security Notice)

LCB Book Creator Security Notice

The add-in file is signed with a digital certificate owned by "Core Insights" (click Show Signature Details to verify this). You can either "Trust all from publisher" or "Enable Macros". If you decide to "Trust all from publisher", Powerpoint will never show you the security notice again for future add-ins or updates.

Once this is done, you're ready to use the add-in in Powerpoint.

Question 3

How can I set the Page Layout in Puzzle Maker Pro?

Accepted Answer

You can use the Page Layout tab to choose the layout for your additional output. This is part of the Time Saver extension for the puzzle type you are using.

Puzzle Maker Pro Workflow explains the difference between puzzles and additional output.

How to set up the page layout for your puzzle pages

For most puzzles the general layouts will be used. For Word Search there are special layout settings, which are discussed below.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZDnAQQ5qAf/PMP%20-%20General%20-%20Page%20Layout.png (Puzzle Maker Pro Page Layouts for Puzzle Pages)

Collate setting: You can choose to print each solution directly with the puzzle (option A), or to print all the puzzles first and the solutions after. For collation option A, the number of puzzles on a page needs to be identical to the number of solutions on a page;
Puzzles Layout: You can select the layout you need, ranging from 1 puzzle on a page, up to 12 puzzles on a page. (The exact number of layouts may be different from the screenshot, since we add additional options on demand)
Solutions Layout: This works the same as the Puzzles layout, and sets how the solutions will be printed on output pages. For both the Puzzle and the Solution layout, you can click the little circle next to the number, or click the miniature layout symbol, to select a layout style.

How to set up the page layout for your Word Search puzzle pages

Word Search puzzles consist of a puzzle and a word list, requiring a different layout than, for example, mazes or sudokus.

You can choose from several page layouts for your Word Search puzzle pages:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/znLP52ae8X/PMP%20-%20Word%20Search%20-%20Page%20Layout.png (Puzzle Maker Pro Page Layouts for Word Search Puzzle Pages)

Choosing a layout style works just like the general layouts. As you can see in the miniatures, you can choose several placements for the puzzle and the word list
You can set the ratio between puzzle and word list. This can be adjusted manually to create a better visual result. By default, the puzzle gets 75% (3/4) of the available space, the word list gets 25% (1/4). For long word lists you can either change the number of columns, or this space ratio;
To get a little bit of variety, you can choose to mirror the pages. Each left page will get the selected layout, the right page will get a mirrored layout;
Word Columns: The number of columns to print the word list in. Together with the other options, you can use this to create well-designed puzzle pages.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

This tutorial describes how to use the Time Saver for Puzzle Maker Pro - Letterbox. It applies to:

Introduction

With the Time Saver for Letterbox you can combine multiple word lists, randomise word lists, and use more flexible layout settings for your Instant Puzzle Books. To use the Time Saver, you should have a basic understanding of Puzzle Maker Pro - Letterbox. The Time Saver will overwrite the grid size and the word list, all other options of Letterbox will be used as set in the Puzzle Settings.

Time Saver for Letterbox

With this Time Saver, you can select multiple word lists. Each word list will add one row to the 'job' table. You can then edit some settings for each row, and when you're done, generate all the puzzles.

Letterbox Time Saver

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/lRv14SRvgv/Letterbox%2050B%20Time%20Saver.png (Letterbox Time Saver)

Letterbox Time Saver

To use the Time Saver, you have to click the "Use Time Saver" option, to let Puzzle Maker Pro know what you want to create. The button "Create" [8] will then change into "Create (TS)"
Set the Rows and Columns setting for your puzzles. By default it's set to 6 by 5, but you can use different sizes to change the complexity of the puzzle, or to accomodate shorter or longer words. (This value will be used in each row when you click "Select/Add Word Lists")
Set the number of puzzles or choose Unlimited to use the entire word list. (This value will be used in each row when you click "Select/Add Word Lists")
Select word lists to use for your puzzles. Each word list should be TXT file, as described in the Letterbox tutorial. You can select multiple files at once.
After selecting word lists, rows will be added to the table. You can edit the Rows, Columns, Quantity and Unlimited settings for each word list
If you selected too many files, you can delete rows from the table
Optionally you can randomize the word order for each file, to create puzzles in a different order each time you use the same word list
Create all the puzzles and optionally the Instant Puzzle Book.

Layout Options

In addition to the Time Saver automation features, the Time Saver also unlocks the advanced layout options in Puzzle Maker Pro. On the Instant Puzzle Books -> Layout tab, you can select the number of puzzles and solutions on each page.

Time Saver Layout Setup

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

Time Saver Layout Setup

TXT file output

The TXT file output consists of one line for each word or phrase, for example:

This file is for your own use, you can copy the words to other software, or not use it at all, if you create Instant Puzzle Books as well.

CSV file output

CSV is a standardized file format that can be used with many applications. The example above in CSV format would look like this:

You can import this file in Excel (or other spreadsheets), for example to use it with our Replicator software, and you can even import this file into Canva (with a Pro subscription) to quickly generate a batch of images. (Note: at the moment of writing, somehow the automatic import into Canva doesn't work properly, but as a work-around, manual import will work - Open the CSV file in Excel, then select all the rows / columns and past it in the manual bulk import area in Canva).

Getting Started

This tutorial explains the steps to create puzzle books using Mixed Puzzle Books (plugin for Powerpoint).

If you are using Puzzle Maker Pro, you can quickly create puzzles and puzzle books with a single mouse-click. However, there is a lot of puzzle-software available - free and commercial - that only creates the puzzles, not the books. That's where Mixed Puzzle Books comes in. (Fair warning: the Easy Puzzle Book plugins may not work properly with certain Puzzle Maker Pro puzzle types, such as Word Search or JigSaw).

Install the Plugin

First of all, you'll need to install the software: Easy Puzzle Books is a plugin for Powerpoint - it requires MS Windows and MS Powerpoint to be installed on your computer. It does not work with the cloud (browser) version of MS Office / Powerpoint.

If you haven't installed the plugin yet, you should do that first. There's a tutorial for downloading and installing the plugin here.

Start the Plugin

To start Easy Puzzle Books, open the "Add-ins" ribbon in Powerpoint (this is a menu option, usually just to the left of the Help Menu).

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

The Add-ins ribbon should contain the BookPublisherTools group of options. Click "More Options" to open the dropdown menu, and select "Mixed Puzzle Books".

Mixed Puzzle Books - Overview

If you have used the Easy Puzzle Books plugin for Powerpoint, please be aware that Mixed Puzzle Books is designed slightly differently.

The Mixed Puzzle Books plugin will open a panel at the right (just like the shape edit panel in Powerpoint). The panel has two tabs:

Mixed Puzzle Books - All the options to create your puzzle book. This tutorial describes all the steps for automatic puzzle book creation, there's a separate "Manual Book Creation" tutorial that explains how to manually edit the layout;
Page Setup - Quickly set up the proper trim size for Powerpoint.

First things first: Page Setup

Always set up the page size first, otherwise you'll be generating grids and puzzle page in the wrong format later.

Automatic Book Generation

As you can see in the screen shots, there are 4 steps to set up and create your puzzle book:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/sMpP6hL201/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20001%20Overview.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 001 Overview.jpg)

At the top of the tab page is a "Preset" section: You can save the entire book setup as a preset, and retrieve it later. This will NOT save the Powerpoint contents, and saving the Powerpoint file will NOT save the Easy Puzzle Books data!

Step 1: Set up the puzzles

Select puzzle and solution files on your computer for your puzzle book. Click the green button "Select Puzzles". More details can be found in the Puzzle Setup Tutorial.

After selecting the puzzles and solutions, you should see the status information next to the green button.

There are two additional options:

"Start At" - The first puzzle number to use. In most cases this will be 1 (one), but if you want to create parts of a puzzle book to combine later, you can enter a different number here,
"Balance Puzzle Sets" - Use this option to make sure each page will contain an equal number of puzzles from each set. An example: if you have 4 sets of 50 puzzles and want to balance them, the four puzzles will be used in a random order. The order can be A-B-C-D C-A-B-D D-A-C-B, but it will never be A-A-B-C D-A-C-D.

Note: For Mixed Puzzle Books it makes sense to name the puzzle sets properly, to prevent making mistakes.

Note: If you select just one set of puzzles, Mixed Puzzle Books create books that are identical to Easy Puzzle Books output.

Step 2: Set up the Puzzles Grid

Easy Puzzle Books will use a grid-style layout for your puzzles, e.g. 1 per page, 2x2, 3x4, etc. Click the green button "Set Up Grid (Puzzles)" to set up the number of puzzles per page and the margins and padding. Details can be found in the Grid Setup Tutorial

When the grid setup for the puzzles is done, the selected grid size should be shown next to the green button.

Step 3: Set up the Solutions Grid

There are two options for the solutions grid:

It can be identical to the puzzles grid. Click the "Use Puzzles Grid" option and make sure it's checked. This is usually the best format if you want to create a solutions page right after each puzzles page;
Set up a separate grid for the solutions - for example you can have 6 puzzles on a page and 12 solutions on a page

Setting up the solutions grid is done identical to the puzzle grid.

Step 4: Create Puzzle Book

The final step is to create a puzzle book, using the settings specified in the previous steps.

There are three options here:

Keep Aspect Ratio - If you use different types of puzzles, with different shapes, e.g. rectangles and squares, you want to keep the original size of the puzzle. By default, images are stretches to fit in the shapes of the grid. However, adjusting the size of each shape (based on the shape of the puzzle or solution) strongly affects the processing time;
Collate - Print the puzzles first and the solutions later. if unchecked, it will print a puzzle page, then a solution page, then the next puzzle page, etc;
New Powerpoint File: It's possible to create the puzzle pages in a new Powerpoint file. It will automatically copy the page setup (width and height) from the current file. Otherwise the new pages will be appended at the end of the current Powerpoint file.

Example

To show you what it can look like, this screenshot shows the setup for a sudoku puzzle book with 50 puzzles. The next screenshot shows the pages that have been generated in Powerpoint.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/L2NEj8vewb/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20002%20Auto%20Filled%20Overview.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 002 Auto Filled Overview.jpg)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/9o3nAexdjc/Mixed%20Puzzle%20Books%20003%20Example%20Powerpoint.jpg (Mixed Puzzle Books 003 Example Powerpoint.jpg)

Next steps

In many cases the automatic puzzle book creation will be just what you need. It's fast.

Once you have a configuration that works for you, with the proper grid sizes and margins, you can even save the entire setup as a preset, to use for several books. Each time you create a new book, you can load the preset, and just clear the puzzle sets and select different puzzles.

It's possible to have many presets, for example if you publish different book sizes or different puzzle types.

Manual Puzzle Book Creation

With Easy Puzzle Books you can also customize the grids, page style, fonts, etc before filling the templates with puzzles and solutions. This is called Manual Puzzle Book Creation. You can find a tutorial here.

Question 7

How to use the Layout Options in Time Saver

Accepted Answer

Layout Options for Time Saver

This tutorial presents a short overview of the Layout Options in Time Saver. Currently this feature is available in:

Time Saver for Sudoku

Using the Layout Options

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rfFO6lmpgA/Layout%20Options%20for%20Time%20Saver%20Overview.jpg (Layout Options for Time Saver Overview)

Click "Show Layout Options" to show the Layout Options section. By default, the main Layout settings for Puzzle Maker Pro will be shown.

There are four different options:

Layout: the actual Page Layout for the puzzles. This can change for each row in the table with puzzles. The value shown at the top (in the Layout Options section) will be used when you add a new row
Collate: Print puzzles first, and solutions later
New Page for Section (Puzzle / Solution): start puzzles and/or solutions for the new puzzle type (row in the table) on a new page. This allows you to add pages, e.g. with a chapter heading or with a short tutorial for the puzzle type

Editing the Page Layout

The Layout will be shown as P:3x2, S3x2 or P/S:3x2. P stands for Puzzle pages, S for Solution pages. If you don't use collation, the code "P/S" will be used - in that case puzzles and solutions will be printed using the same layout.

To change the default layout (in the Layout Options section), click "Edit Layout". To change the layout for a single row in the table, click the cell containing the layout. (In the example that would be the last cell in each row, containing the text "P:3x2, S3x2".

This will display the window to edit the layout:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/3vMAnBq5Iv/Page%20Layout%20Setup.jpg (Page Layout Setup)

In this window you can set the layout for puzzle pages by setting the number of rows and columns on the page. A schematic image will update when you change the settings. If you use collation, you can also set the page layout for the solution pages.

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 does Tiling Tool do?

Accepted Answer

Tiling Tool is more or less a lightweight version of Pattern Maker. It can create a pattern from only 1 single tile (and that's all it does), including several options for repeats, reflecting and color changing.

The purpose of Pattern Maker is to create grid/half-drop patterns from a collection of clip art. Tiling Tool is better when you have one seamless (or even non-seamless) tile / image and you want to fill the entire canvas with it.

It's included as a bonus when you buy POD Pattern Maker Complete.

Question 10

Creating Isometric Tiles with Adobe Illustrator (Video)

Accepted Answer

This video demonstrates how to transform a square tile into an isometric tile in Adobe Illustrator. Of course there are many ways to do this, and you can do this in most drawing and image editing programs.

When you use the Tile Multiplier, you only need to draw some square tiles. However, if you create your own isometric tiles, you’ll be able to add unique features, such as building or symbols that stick out at the top of the tile, overlapping with other tiles. Mazes 2D Tiles makes it easy and fun to experiment, creating a tile at a time and check how it looks in a maze.