Q. Why is this program free? Does this mean that it's not of very high quality?
A. We have the philosophy that people should enjoy their computers, and if we are able to write software that will enable people to do this, then we are happy to do this for free. We do hope that you'll find it to be a quality program, but if not, please email us and let us know how it can be made better.
Q. I find ticking and unticking the "Pencil Mark" box to be tedious. Is there a quick way to switch between pencil marks and entering the numbers?
A. Yes. You can do this by pressing the spacebar or right clicking the mouse.
Q. How are the pencil marks determined for each level?
A. We've tried to design the pencil marks to emulate the various levels of strategy that people use when solving su doku. Please see our Strategies page for more information about these.
Q. How can I use Su Doku Solver to help me become a better player?
A. Once you've had a puzzle rated and it has determined the level required to solve it, play with the pencil marks in automatic mode one level below the rating. If you want to work on a specific level, download our puzzle pack which contains games at various levels. Alternatively, you can jump between different levels of automatic pencil marks, noticing how they change and then trying to figure out why they changed.
Q. When I save to a "txt" file or "csv" file, I lose my pencil marks. How can I avoid this?
A. Only the native "sds" files will save pencil marks.
Q. Is there a certain format puzzles in text files need to be in order to be imported properly?
A. Yes, the following are examples of text files that will import properly into Su Doku Solver. Note: any character besides the period (except "|", "-" and "+") can be used as a placeholder for empty squares.
.9.823.7.
53.....26
..8...9..
2..3.6..7
7...8...1
9..7.4..5
..2...7..
37.....52
.4.972.3.
or
.9.|823|.7.
53.|...|.26
..8|...|9..
---+---+---
2..|3.6|..7
7..|.8.|..1
9..|7.4|..5
---+---+---
..2|...|7..
37.|...|.52
.4.|972|.3.
Q. What about csv files?
A. The following is an example of a csv file that will import properly into Su Doku Solver. Note: no placeholder is required between commas.
,9, ,8,2,3, ,7,
5,3, , , , , ,2,6
, ,8, , , ,9, ,
2, , ,3, ,6, , ,7
7, , , ,8, , , ,1
9, , ,7, ,4, , ,5
, ,2, , , ,7, ,
3,7, , , , , ,5,2
,4, ,9,7,2, ,3,
Q. Your puzzle creator doesn't give me the desired difficulty level. Why is this?
A. This program was originally designed to help people solve su doku puzzles, hence the name. The puzzle creator was only added at a very late stage and therefore is still under heavy development. The current algorithms for puzzle creation have a difficult time creating puzzles of higher difficulty levels, while still retaining unique solutions. We are working on refining our algorithms to better create puzzles of higher difficulty levels. One thing that might help when you want to create more difficult puzzles is to set the symmetry to none.
Q. Why does Su Doku Solver sometimes find more than one solution to a puzzle?
A. Some poorly formed su doku puzzles have more than one solution. Su Doku Solver will return all the solutions it finds, or until you stop it. You can set Su Doku Solver to stop after finding the first solution
Q. I'd like to know how long it takes me to solve a puzzle. How can I do this?
A. There is a timer on the status bar letting you know the elapsed time since you either opened a puzzle or locked one. You can start, pause or stop this timer using the controls found on the tool bar.
Q. Doesn't your program take all the fun out of solving su doku puzzles?
A. We hope this isn't the case. Instead, we've worked hard on trying to make solving su doku puzzles more enjoyable by taking some of the tediousness out of it, such as having to constantly erase your pencil marks.
Q. Your program sucks eggs. How can I get a refund?
A. Ummm...