Question 1

How to use More Clues for Puzzle Maker Pro Sudoku

Accepted Answer

This tutorial shows how to use the More Clues add-on. The tutorial applies to:

Introduction

We've used the name "More Clues" for sudoku puzzles where additional clues are added to the puzzle. This module adds the following options:

Odd/Even - Mark the even cells in the grid
Consecutive - Mark some of the cell borders where the cells have consecutive numbers
Difference - Show the difference between some of the cells
Compare - Show which of two bordering cells has a larger value than the other
Threshold - Innovative sudoku variation where numbers greater than a certain threshold number are marked.

You can find the More Clues options on the "More Clues" tab for Sudoku Variations in Puzzle Maker Pro:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FXZxOU13st/Sudoku%20More%20Clues.png (Sudoku More Clues)

Using More Clues

The Sudoku More Clues add-on works on all sudokus, depending on your license. There are three license variations that are explained in the next section.

If you don't have a license for the sudoku type, the results will be watermarked. If you use (test-drive) the More Clues add-on without a valid license, the results will also be watermarked.

Sudoku symbol types

The More Clues options will work for sudokus with number, hexadecimals and Roman numerals. It will give unpredictable results for sudokus with letters and images, i.e. there is no numerical 'Difference'or Çomparison' for two letters or two images.

Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive

Even though the More Clues add-on can work with the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive sudoku variations, it is not recommended to do so: Both Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive sudokus already have additional visible and invisible clues incorporated. Adding "More Clues" will reduce the difficulty level of these sudokus.

More Clues Licenses

Sudoku More Clues Add-On for 9x9 Regular: This license allows you to use all the options of the More Clues add-on on the Regular variation of Sudoku 9x9. Additionally, it will allow you to use these options on the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive variations of 9x9 sudokus.
Sudoku More Clues Add-On for Variations: This license allows you to use all the options of the More Clues add-on on Variations of the regular sudoku for sudoku sizes 4x4, 6x6, 8x8 and 9x9. Variations are the additional grid types such as Triathlon and Sensei (and all others). Additionally, it will allow you to use these options on the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive variations of these sudokus.
Sudoku More Clues Add-On for Other Grid Sizes: This license allows you to use all the options of the More Clues add-on for the Regular variations of all grid sizes except 9x9. Additionally it will allow you to use these options on the Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive variations of these sudokus.

More Clues Examples

Odd/Even

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/my2eyWEeG6/More%20Clues%20Odd%20Even.png (More Clues Odd Even)

"Odd/Even" will give all the even numbers a colored background. The color is taken from the 'Grey Cell Color' setting on the Styling tab. In contrast to the Checkerboard sudokus, the even numbers can be in all cells. The colorization results a random pattern.

When solving this sudoku, almost half the options can be removed from each cell, making the puzzle quite a bit easier to solve.

Consecutive

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RsqtQzBkzD/More%20Clues%20Consecutive.png (More Clues Consecutive)

"Consecutive" will add a small circle between some of the cells with consecutive numbers, for example 1 and 2, or 7 and 8. The clue will only be placed between cells that don't already have a clue in the sudoku puzzle.

You can select "Few Clues" or "Many Clues" for a rough indication of the number of clues. In many cases the number of cells with consecutive values is quite limited, due to the random nature of sudoku grids.

Compare

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/5RptX5Q5kR/More%20Clues%20Compare.png (More Clues Compare)

"Compare" will display the algebraic 'greater then' sign and 'smaller then' sign, to indicate the relationship between two cells. The clue will only placed between cells that do not yet have a clue in the sudoku puzzle.

You can select "Few Clues" or "Many Clues" for a rough indication of the number of clues.

Difference

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yBk8Wq6alk/More%20Clues%20Difference.png (More Clues Difference)

"Difference" will display the math difference between two cells. For example '4' means that the adjacent cells contain 1 and 5, 5 and 1, 2 and 6, etc. The clue will only placed between cells that do not yet have a clue in the sudoku puzzle.

You can select "Few Clues" or "Many Clues" for a rough indication of the number of clues.

Threshold

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/PivhaYtByV/More%20Clues%20Threshold.png (More Clues Threshold)

"Threshold" will give all the cells with a value equal or larger than a threshold a colored background. You can set the threshold. This is a new type of sudoku which may need additional explanation in your puzzle books.

When solving this sudoku, depending on your settings, almost half the options can be removed from each cell, making the puzzle quite a bit easier to solve.

New Grid Rules and More Clues

Some of the new sudoku products and bundles have names that may not be instantly clear or intuitive. We've tried to use better names than "Bundle 13" and "Bundle 14", but had to invent new names that weren't used yet for sudokus. We'll explain the logic behind this names here:

New Grid Rules means that there are new rules applied when constructing the sudoku grids. Checkerboard and Nonconsecutive both have restrictions of the values of each cell in the grid. The grid does not follow the normal sudoku rules (1-9 in each column, in each row and in each 3x3 subgrid), but has additional restrictions.
More Clues means that additional clues are added to the sudoku puzzle. The sudoku grid is constructed using the normal sudoku rules, but when the sudoku puzzle is constructed (removing clues from the grid), additional clues are added.

New Grid Rules

New Grid Rules consists of two different puzzle types:

Checkerboard Sudoku: Cells are colored in a checkerboard pattern. White cells have only odd numbers (1,3,5,7 for 8x8 sudoku), while gray cells have only even numbers (2,4,6,8 for 8x8 sudoku). Due to the nature of checkerboards, these sudokus are only available for even grid sizes (6x6, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14 and 16x16).
Nonconsecutive Sudoku: Consecutive numbers, such as 1-2, 4-5, etc can never be next to each other in the grid. For this puzzle, 9 and 1 are considered consecutive as well.

More Clues

The More Clues products each offer 5 different sudoku additions:

Odd/Even - Mark the even cells in the grid
Consecutive - Mark some of the cell borders where the cells have consecutive numbers
Difference - Indicate the difference between some of the cells
Compare - Indicate which of two bordering cells has a larger value than the other
Threshold - Innovative sudoku variation where numbers greater than a threshold are marked.

Preset Locations

All the presets that are saved from within Puzzle Maker Pro are stored on your computer, in subfolders for "Documents\BookPublisherTools\Presets\PMP".

An easy way to find that folder is to click the "Open Presets Folder" button on the Tools tab in Puzzle Maker Pro:

Tools tab Open Preset Folder

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/MLH4neHFkw/Tools%20tab%20Open%20Preset%20Folder.png (Tools tab Open Preset Folder)

When you click this button, it will open Windows File Explorer for the Presets folder:

Presets Folder Word Search

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/2SRRBHFHic/Presets%20Folder%20Word%20Search.png (Presets Folder Word Search)

In this folder you'll find subfolders for each puzzle type and Time Saver add-on. You can double- click a folder to see which presets are saved in it. For example you can double-click the Word Search folder to see all the Word Search presets.

Tips and Tricks

You can delete presets and copy them to a different computer. Please be aware that if the presets refer to other files on your computer, you'll have to copy those too, to exact the same location.

For example, if you have a Word Search preset that refers to a word file "D:/Word List/Occupations.txt": You'll need to copy that file as well, and put it in exact the same location. Otherwise it cannot be found.

For JigSaw, Sudoku and other modules that use images: You'll need to make sure that all the images that are referred to in a preset, will be available in the same locations when you copy a preset.

Question 4

Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

Accepted Answer

Welcome to the tutorial for the add-ons for Zig-Zag Word Search.

There are two add-ons available for this software.

Extras add-on: use diagonals and segmented word lists
Random Shapes: No longer are you forced to use a grid, letters now go everywhere they want.

Let's look over what these two have to offer.

Extras Add-on

Diagonals look interesting, and can create a lot of new effects.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Ms3phl3AIY/Zigzag%20word%20search%20diagonals.jpg (Zigzag word search diagonals)

The little crosses, as the diagonals go over each other, are a nice added difficulty and look really good in the solution too.

You can also use this option with the Word Snake option.

Word Snake

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1721Phn4Ed/ZigZag%20Word%20search%20snake.jpg (ZigZag Word search snake)

Word snake is a variation on the normal zig zag word search puzzles. Usually, the words can go anywhere they want, and in whatever form they want. In word snake, they will go into a single long line. This is represented in the solution by using a continuous line for the words, and the little dotted lines in between the words. You can see that the next word will always start next to, or diagonal to, the ending of the last word. This isn't a singular looping line, so there are two words that have a beginning and an end without anything connecting to them. See if you can find those the start and end point!

Random Shapes

This is by far the most interesting and unique variation on the zig zag word search puzzles. Usually, you'd only work within a grid, where each letter is directly next to its neighbours. Not in this variation. Here, the letters are placed more or less randomly on the screen.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/Xz5G2lP2no/zigzag%20random%20shapes.jpg (zigzag random shapes)

So how does this work? Well, if you go to style, and add a bit of "line width", you can see the boxes that the letters are contained in, and what boxes are neighbours.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/DEUgMzokYJ/Zigzag%20voronoi.jpg (Zigzag voronoi)

This is called a Voronoi Diagram. You can look up how this works if you want to, but the more interesting part is how this works. No longer are there three (or eight, if you use diagonals) possible routes from each letter, now it can be any random number. It adds a layer of difficulty, while looking very different from the puzzles you get with other word search options.

Getting Started with Nonconsecutive Sudoku

This tutorial applies to:

https://www.bookpublishertools.com/product/puzzle-maker-pro-nonconsecutive-sudoku-9x9
Puzzle Maker Pro - Nonconsecutive Sudoku Other Squares

Nonconsecutive Sudoku

Nonconsecutive Sudoku is a sudouk variation with additional rules for the grid: consecutive numbers cannot be adjacent. In other words, when there's a 3 in a cell, the cells next to it - horizontally and vertically - cannot contain a 2 or a 4.

In our modules for Nonconsecutive Sudoku, the highest and lowest numbers are considered consecutive as well: In a 9x9 grid, the 1 and 9 can also not be adjacent to each other.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/tEiJuBOOHT/Nonconsecutive.PNG (Nonconsecutive.PNG)

This image illustrates the impact of this rule: In a regular sudoku, if the numbers 2, 4 and 6 would be placed like this, there would be 6 available numbers for the center cell: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9. (in a 9x9 grid sudoku).

For Nonconsecutive Sudoku there are quite a few restrictions:

the 2 removes the 1 and 3 from the options
the 4 removes the 3 and 5 from the options
the 6 removes the 5 and 7 from the options

Instead of 6 different numbers, there are only 2 options for the center cell: the 8 and 9.

As you can see the nonconsecutive rule hugely diminishes the number of options for the grids. As a result, there are significantly fewer nonconsecutive sudoku puzzles available.

Find Nonconsecutive Sudoku in Puzzle Maker Pro

To create Nonconsecutive Sudoku puzzles in Puzzle Maker Pro:

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

Go to Sudoku Variations
Select one of the Sudoku Grid Sizes that are available for Nonconsecutive Sudoku (6x6, 8x8, 9x9, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14, 15x15, 16x16)
Select "Nonconsecutive" 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 Nonconsecutive Sudokus, it doesn't make much sense, and the sudokus may be impossible to solve, since there are no odd and even images.

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.

Adding your custom images

It's actually very easy to add your own images. You do need to make sure you have the appropriate amount of images ready, but adding them is not too difficult.

First, go to the Symbol Options tab in the sudoku.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1Owe7lqUOe/Sudoku%20custom%20images.jpg (Sudoku custom images)

Next, you'll see the Symbol Settings option. You can change between 1-9, A-I, Roman Numerals I-IX, Symbols, or Hexadecimal.

For what we're going to do today, select the Symbols option. Immediately you'll see 9 standard images appear, looking like the side of dice. These are the standard images that come with the software.

If you want your own images here, click on the magnifying glass just below the pictures, and a popup screen will appear.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/hbmpCvVQr7/Sudoku%20Select%20Images.jpg (Sudoku Select Images)

If you click on one of the white squares, windows explorer will open a new window, and you can search for the folder where you keep the images you want to use. Remember that because it's a sudoku, simplistic images work better. You also don't want images that look too similar, as that will cause confusion. You can either manually select each picture by clicking on the next square and selecting a singular image, or you can select multiple images at once.

Now if you click next preview, the sudoku will generate with the images you have selected. Beware that if you have "Show Solution" on, there is no difference between the hints and the solution to show which squares are part of the solution and which ones aren't.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/3ymHfDPyI2/Sudoku%20with%20custom%20images.jpg (Sudoku with custom images)

This same technique will work for several other modules as well.

Solving image sudokus

To solve a sduoku, you need to write the correct symbols in the empty squares. For regular (number) or letter sudokus that's not too hard. For harder sudokus, level 5 and up, it's also common to pencil in the optional values for each square. E.g. if you know that a square can contain only the 3, 5 and 6, you can write these in the square, but very small, as a reminder when solving other squares. (This is the only way to find hidden doubles or triples).

There are two ways to create image sudokus that are still fun to solve:

Choose symbols that are easy to draw / copy, just like the symbols in the example in the previous paragraph. Simple line art or icon style graphics, or images with a single dominant color (e.g. the person with the green hat). Even then, image sudokus with difficulty levels 6 and 7 will be really hard to solve;
Use the image sudokus as attractive magnets on social media. It's best to use the easier variations, circle one of the squares, and add a text like "which color hat has the person in this square?".

Creating a custom background

Another way to add images to your sudoku puzzle is to add a singular image to the background. This could be done as a watermark, or if you have a themed puzzle book, it could be nice to have the theme shine through in the puzzle.

For this option, we go to Output Settings all the way at the top.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/8W4RZxWpFi/Background%20image%20sudoku.jpg (Background image sudoku)

Next, select "Background Images".

Turn on the "Use Background Image(s)" checkbox, and select one or more files. Then, generate the next preview, and you'll see the image you used.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZtF66zH7rO/background%20image%20sudoku%20done.jpg (background image sudoku done)

We've also set the transparency on the background image to around 60-70%, because otherwise the black lines will make the numbers of the puzzle invisible.

Getting Started

First off, let's find ourselves that Time Saver tab.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/PEaQMF9FRO/Getting%20started%20with%20the%20time%20saver.jpg (Getting started with the time saver (1).jpg)

After you click on the time-saver tab, you'll see the above screen. Let's quickly go through it.

First, there is the option to use the Time Saver to generate puzzles. if you want to use the Time Saver, you should have this selected.

Then, there's presets. Let's assume you have no presets set up. If it's your first time using Time Saver, you won't have any presets, and even if you have used it before, you may want something different.

Below that are the puzzle settings. This is where you'll be doing most of your work in the Time Saver module. And we'll go in-depth on how this works later.

To the right are the difficulty settings. What do those do? Well, if you want to call your difficulties something different, you can adjust that here. You can see that the level 1-7 are currently named what we call them, but if you want to change it to 1-7 stars, that's possible.

So let's get started.

Adding Puzzles to generate

First things first, in order for the Time Saver to generate puzzles, it needs to know what it needs to generate. So let's add some puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/yoC9U4BgVm/Time%20Saver%20puzzles%20added.jpg (Time Saver puzzles added)

So as you can see, I've added some puzzles. I've set the "Quantity" to 20, and selected some puzzles and variations.

Immediately you see in the table what it'll generate. Because I've set the Quantity to 20, it'll generate 20 of each difficulty level for each of the puzzles I selected.

An exception is made for the 4x4 sudokus, because those can only be generated up to difficulty level 3.

Now, that's a large amount of sudokus it's generating, and perhaps you don't quite want that. Or you want to fine-tune a bit more. So let's do that. Simply click on the square you want to change, and change the number.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/EwEY9l4RKB/Time%20Saver%20customised%20amounts.jpg (Time Saver customised amounts (1).jpg)

You can see that I've changed some settings now.

So in theory, this would be good enough to export, and a ton of puzzles would appear now.

But, we can do one more thing before we generate all of this.

See, on the bottom right is the "Show Layout Options" button. We haven't discussed this one yet.

So let's click that, and see what we can change.

Things are getting interesting now. If you click the "Edit Layout" button that now appears just above the table of puzzles, you can do something very fun.

You can set multiple puzzles to a singular page.

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

As you can see, I've manually set the amount of puzzles that can go on one page to 12. 4 rows, 3 columns.

This won't work with all puzzles, and it won't look good with all puzzles. especially if you have the larger puzzles, such as the multidokus or the 25x25, you'd really want fewer sudokus on a page.

But if you have only 4x4 sudokus? Well, it would be a waste of space if you didn't add a few more sudokus to a page. If you add the Collate option, you can set up 2 layouts, one for the puzzles, and one for the solutions.

It's probably a better idea to keep those two the same for now. But if you've ever looked through puzzle books, you can see that the solutions in the back tend to have smaller solutions, so more fit on a page, and only the last few pages are solutions, instead of the latter half of the puzzle book.

You can also set up a new page for every time you move to a new section, so puzzles and solutions don't end up on the same page.

Well, with that being said, let's click "Create (TS)" in the bottom left, and have Puzzle Maker Pro generate all of this for us.

A small popup should appear showing it's done generating, and in your files you now find all of your puzzles.

Standard Sudoku

The basic module for Sudoku 9x9 standard does exactly what it says on the tin. It creates a sudoku that is 9x9 squares, which is the most common variation. With Sudoku 9x9 Creative it's also possible to create sudokus with pictures, letters, or other symbols.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/4GpsEUZxBR/Sudoku%20creative.jpg (Sudoku creative)

Different Sizes

We also have two different modules, for smaller or bigger squares. Sudoku Kids Edition has 4x4 sudokus, and 6x6 sudokus. Sudoku More Squares offers sudokus of the sizes 8×8, 10×10 and 15×15. Sudoku Large Squares 1 contains 12×12 and 16×16 sudokus, and Sudoku Large Squares 2 takes it to the extreme, with 14×14, 18×18, 20×20, 24×24 and 25×25 sudokus.

The largest we currently offer is 25x25. As it still has to be printed on a page, this is the largest option that still looks good.

Sudoku X and Hyper Sudoku

These are from the Sudoku Variations add-on. Both use the standard 9x9 shape, but they have additional difficulties.

The Sudoku X has added diagonals, where in each diagonal the numbers 1-9 appear once. The Hyper Sudoku has extra 3x3 squares overlayed, that also can only contain the numbers 1-9 once.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/xaFLJXAqQI/Sudoku%20X%20and%20Hyper%20Sudoku.jpg (Sudoku X and Hyper Sudoku)

Multidokus

Multidokus are sudokus that have multiple sudokus overlapping. We have several variations of these. For the examples we'll be using the standard 9x9, but many of these can also be combined with the different sizes, depending on the modules that you own. These sudokus look intimidating, but once you realise they're built up out of multiple normal sudokus, they become very easy to solve.

So let's look into these sudokus per module. First, the sudokus from Sudoku Multidoku 1. This contains the variations Sudoku Twins, Samurai, Marathon and Triathlon.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/abDBp5AcKL/Multidoku%20Twins%20Marathon%20Samurai.jpg (Multidoku Twins Marathon Samurai)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ycH0giecSF/Multidokus%20triathlon.jpg (Multidokus triathlon)

As a visual aid, we have colourcoded these sudokus. As you can see, each multidoku is built up out of multiple overlapping 9x9 sudokus. This actually makes the multidokus slightly easier, because for the squares in the overlapping area you can use hints from both sudokus to figure out the solutions!

Now that you understand the basics of how the multidokus work, let's see how the Multidokus from Sudoku Multidoku 2 are built up. With these it can be slightly more difficult to find the 9x9 squares that build up the sudoku, but they're still very much there. The Sudoku Multidoku 2 module contains the following sudoku forms: Sensei, Cross, Gattai, Flower and Windmill.

So let's see what those look like.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/rMxtWgUeLq/Multidoku%20Sensei%20gattai%20flower.jpg (Multidoku Sensei gattai flower (2).jpg)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/RDDttsGXrw/Multidoku%20Cross%20Windmill.jpg (Multidoku Cross Windmill)

That got complicated really quickly. The sensei has the least overlap of any multidoku, but the other ones in this set have multiple squares, and even some hidden sudoku squares in the middle of each.

However, you can still solve these the way you solve a normal sudoku. Just take it one square at a time, and use the overlapping squares to your advantage to solve all the sudokus!

How to use More Clues for Puzzle Maker Pro Sudoku

Can you explain the names of the new sudoku bundles?

How to delete or copy presets for Puzzle Maker Pro

Using the add-ons for Zig Zag Word Search

Getting Started with Nonconsecutive Sudoku

Getting Started with Checkerboard Sudoku

How to use the Time Saver for Standard Word Search

How to create a sudoku with custom images

How do I use the Sudoku Time-Saver

How do I solve the Multidokus