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Sudoku Help - Grid Display

Here's a page from the extensive help system for SudokuDragon. It is displayed as a help screen when running the program. To get the full picture Download our Sudoku Dragon and see the screen in its full context.

The Sudoku Dragon program shows the Sudoku grid made up of all its individual squares. You can resize the grid and all the squares by dragging the bottom-leftmost corner of the window or can make the grid take the full screen space by double clicking on the application title bar. The program will remember the position and size for the next time you use Sudoku Dragon.

Selected column To allocate a square you can use either the keyboard or the mouse to first select a square. When the square is highlighted just use the appropriate key '0' through '9' (or letters if you chosen this option) to allocate it to a square. If Num Lock is enabled you can use the keypad at the right of the keyboard to do this.

Navigating with the mouse

Simply click the left mouse button on the square you want to allocate. The right mouse button will show a set of commands available for that particular square. Double clicking with the left mouse button gives Details and Possibilities for the square.

Navigating with the keyboard

First use the TAB key to make sure the grid has input focus (this is indicated by a large flashing underline in the current square) you can then use the normal keyboard navigation keys to move around the Sudoku grid (up, down, left, right arrow keys). The page up/down will move by a region, if you use CTRL key at the same time this will move horizontally rather than vertically. You can use Home to get to the top-left square and End for bottom-right square. If scroll lock is off the arrow keys will wrap around to the 'other' side of the grid.

Correcting a mistake

If you make a mistake, allocating the wrong square or allocating the wrong symbol you can correct it in several ways. The easiest is to use Edit | Undo to take back the most recent square allocation. You can go back any number of Sudoku steps using Undo. Alternatively you can press the Delete or Space key to clear the allocation to the selected square. If you have an alternative allocation just make it by overwriting the current allocation. The program will stop you making an incorrect allocation by producing a special warning message.

Using the mouse wheel

If your computer's mouse has a 'wheel' in the middle you can use this to assign a number to a square. First click on the grid square you want to change. Then move the mouse wheel, all the available numbers will be displayed in turn. When the number you want to assign is displayed click with the left mouse button on the same square to make an assignment. To cancel the assignment click with the mouse anywhere else on the grid. Using the mouse wheel means that you do not need to use the keyboard in order to play Sudoku.

Changing the view

The grid uses a range of colors to give information about a Sudoku square. The currently selected square is highlighted and the currently selected possibility in the possibility bar causes all squares allocated to this symbol to be allocated. The last allocated square is given a special highlight as it often useful to look through new solution possibilities opened up by an allocation. All the grid colors and text fonts can be changed use the Options command in the View menu or the tookbar button to change the way the grid looks.

Tentative Possibilities

If you want to enter your own tentative possibilities to squares rather than letting Sudoku Dragon do this automatically, you can do this simply by pressing the CTRL key at the same time as pressing a number (or letter). So CTRL+8 will set 8 as a possibility for the current square. To clear all marked possibilities for the current square use F7 or the Edit | Clear all Possibilties menu command. The possibilities are only displayed on unallocated squares. There is an advanced user setting that automatically takes out your possibilities from those deduced by the Dragon, this lets you easily track which possibilities have been tried and which ones remain.

Annotations

You can add your own notes to individual squares. To annotate a square double click on it or press the Return or Enter key or use Details from the Game menu. Any square with notes is indicated by a star mark and if you briefly let the mouse cursor linger over the star the note will be displayed as a small tip window. An allocated annotated square is indicated in the list by a star marker.

Grid allocation list

As you play Sudoku all the square allocations are remembered with the puzzle and displayed in a list on the right hand side panel. To review the allocations you can click on an entry, the allocated square will be highlighted. If you'd prefer to work blind, without the allocation list you can choose to switch it off using the View | Options screen.