Earlier versions: version 1.8, version 1.9

The SuDoku Assistant 2.0 - 2.5

This tool can create sudoku puzzles, its main purpose, however, is to be a helper that assist you when solving a puzzle! The assistant will only help you with the repetitive but trivial calculations. You will still be the brain!

The SuDoku Assistant is available for Windows. From the download-page you may retrieve the latest version (2.5) of sudoku.exe.

Main purpose of the assistant: Display a help text in every empty sudoku square to indicate the square's candidates (pencil-marks) , ie., which figures the square may contain. (It would be trivial to derive the candidates manually, but the assistant will save you that time, leaving the brainwork to you!)

The assistant can also create new sudoku puzzles, find out if a puzzle is solvable, save a puzzle to file, export puzzle to an html-file (ex1, ex2, ex3).

News in version 2.0: A facility that lets the user eliminate candidates manually. The user interface is improved: If you move the mouse over a candidate the assistant will light up all identical candidates on the same row, column, or block. And it is now possible to select a candidate by double clicking on it. The new assistant can import puzzles in other file formats, and print puzzles.

News in version 2.5: Improved user interface. Can create Symmetric or non-symmeetric puzzles. Can get the solution from the web.

How to Play SuDoKu

The SuDoKu board is a 9x9 grid. The purpose of the game is to fill in each square with a figure between 1 and 9 according to the following restrictions: Each row, each column and every so indicated 3x3-region should contain exactly one figure of each kind (1..9)! When you start to play some squares already contain figures and the purpose of the game is to fill in the blanks without violating the above rules.

Here we describe how to think when solving a sudoku-puzzle.

How to Use The Assistant

Create a new puzzle: Issue the command File/New to create a new puzzle!

Maybe you rather like to solve a puzzle you have found in a magazine or so: Erase the board from old figures (med Edit/Erase All). Put the tool in configuration mode (Game/Config). Fill in those squares that should have figures. Verify that the puzzle has a solution and that the solution is unique (Game/Solvable), and enter play mode (Game/Play).

Enter a figure in a square: One enters a figure by selecting a candidate. The easiest way to do this is to double click in the candidate. One may also select the figure from the context-menu (the menu that pops up when one right-click in a square or on a candidate).

The figures entered while playing will get a different color from those entered in configuration mode.

Eliminate candidates: If you have found out that some candidate is impossible (for some reason) you may tell that to the Assistant by eliminating the candidate. Right-click on the candidate and select disable!

The assistant displays the disabled candidates by a weaker color and in the lower part of the square.

It is easy to eliminate the same candidate from multiple squares: Select multiple squares while pressing the SHIFT-key and then disable one of the candidates.

Color bullets: During the process of solving a puzzle one may want to place different color bullets one some squares. The humble assistant will let you do that, but only you will know their meaning...

File

The File/menu has the following commands:

New: create a new puzzle.

Save/Open: Save a puzzle or open an old one.

Export: Save the puzzle as an html-file.

Import: Import a puzzle from a different file format.

Print: Print the puzzle.

Edit

The Edit-menu has the following commands:

Undo/Redo: Undo a move (or undo the undo).

Clear Solution: Remove the solution (red figures).

Clear All: Remove all figures.

View

Here is the View-menu:

Hints: Show/hide the help text displayed in every empty square. The help text displays the candidates, i.e., which figures the square may contain according to the sudoku rules. It would be trivial to derive those figures manually, but the assistant will save you that time.

Toolbar: Show/hide the toolbar.

Game

The Game-menu:

Play: Put the assistant in Play-mode (red figures).

Config: Put the assistant in configuration mode (black figures).

Auto: Sometimes, the help text indicates that exactly one figure is allowed in some squares. And when that figure has been filled in, new such squares may appear. Issue the auto command to automate the sequence of trivial mouse clicks!

Solvable: Find out if it is possible to solve the puzzle, and if the solution is unique! The assistant will only check if the original puzzle is solvable. (That a puzzle is solvable does, in other words, not mean that one is on the right track if one has already began to enter figures in play mode).

Prefer Symetric: A manually constructed sudoku is often symetric. This means that if the cell (r,k) is uncovered then so is cell (8+1-r, 8+1-c). For example, (1,1) and(8,8) or (1,2) and (8,7). The symetry makes it somewhat easier to construct the puzzle manually, but for a computer the symetric constraint is uneccessary.

Help

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