Using the Zudoku Program
Zudoku has over 4 billion puzzles built in with a wide range
of difficulty. Alternatively, the user can enter a new puzzle by copying it
from some other source. In addition to books devoted to Sudoku, there are many free puzzles available in newspapers,
magazines, and web sites. Puzzles can be saved as files on your computer so
that you can work them later or share them with a friend.
Why enter a puzzle into Zudoku instead of working with
pencil and paper? There are several advantages:
- If you make a mistake along the way, you are warned right
away before that mistake multiplies into many more wrong entries, making
it hard to backtrack.
- Marking all of the numbers in a tiny cell as possible or
impossible using pencil on paper is difficult, hard to read, and these
notes must be erased and changed as you progress through the solutions.
Zudoku makes this easy.
- When you reach a point where you need to make a guess, the
paper and pencil method requires you to make a copy of the puzzle so you
can remember what was correctly solved before the guess.
- If you are stuck, Zudoku can provide a hint to get you
going again.
- Zudoku can test a new puzzle and measure its difficulty
before you begin so you can avoid unpleasant surprises.
Error Indicators
The green dots turn to red if there is an error in the corresponding row, column, or box. In addition, cells with conflicts will have a red outline.
Selecting Built-in Puzzles
When Zudoku first starts, a new built-in puzzle is ready to
solve. Menu/Puzzle allows control over
the built-in puzzles:
- "Next Puzzle" loads the next built-in puzzle
- "Specific Puzzle Number" allows you to load a
specific puzzle you want to try again
- "Select Difficulty" allows you to select the
puzzles based on difficulty or strategies required. These criteria will
control which puzzles are loaded by "Next Puzzle", but will not
limit a "Specific Puzzle Number". See "Select
Difficulty" for more information.