| Welcome to Sudoku-Help - The Sudoku Puzzler's Perfect Notepad!
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What is Sudoku-Help? Sudoku-Help is not a Sudoku Solver - that would take all the fun out of it. All it does is the boring stuff you try to do on paper! That is pencilling in the valid options according to Sudoku rules and crossing them out when they no longer apply. You know - the bits where a careless mistake means you have to start again - but this time with Sudoku-Help no errors - EVER! Apart from the application of the Sudoku Column, Row & Box rules the rest (the trickier logic) is up to you. Sudoku-Help is actually a spreadsheet and you can download it FREE! However if you plan to use it, I would appreciate payment of the nominal $5-00 fee.
Readers of mX newspaper, where my Sudoku puzzles are published daily (until 28/6/2013), should follow this link to learn about the Solving Rules referred to there.
mX Sudoku Puzzle history (with Solutions if you really need them) is available online.
To Download Sudoku-Help.xls click this link.
| Payment details are in the spreadsheet
or you can pay online with PayPal : >>>
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| Sudoku-Help-Plus now with 84 Puzzles and an improved Solver is ready.
| Find out how it can help you to learn Sudoku solving techniques HERE!
However if you just want some Tips on Solving Sudoku puzzles read this
or check out this Sudoku solving tutorial on an extremely difficult puzzle.
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| Do your Sudoku Puzzles have the Elegance Factor?
These do! |
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| The example below shows Sudoku-Help used on a difficult Sudoku puzzle.
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After applying all the Column, Row & Box rules, the Work Grid shows you the only certainty is the placement of the 4 in the bottom left Box.
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Once the 4 is entered in the Sudoku Grid, the placement of the 9, 6 and 2 quickly follow leaving us:
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From here the Work Grid clearly shows there is only one spot for each of 2 and 7 in the top left Box. Similarly there is only one spot for each of 5 and 6 in the top right box. After entering these and the other certainties that are subsequently revealed, we are thereby left with:
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From here things get pretty tricky. In the middle left box the encircled cells are really a 6~ 8 locked pair due to the 1~ 3 locked pair in the same column in the Box above. But this still doesn't help and trial and error looks the go. If you try a 7 in the cell encircled in RED, the Column Rule means the one encircled in PINK has to be 9 and the Row Rule means the one encircled in BLUE has to be 3. When the rest of the bottom right Box is completed Sudoku-Help tells us that the cell encircled in NAVY has to be 3 - but it is in the same column as the BLUE 3? Of course this breaks the Column Rule, so we have to go back and choose 9 in the cell encircled in RED. This eventually leads to a
valid solution!
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Sudoku-Help is fantastic for trial and error situations like this, because once you realise you've been taken up the garden path, you can just click the UNDO Button until you're back to where you were. However beware of Auto-Save preventing you going back as far as you might want. It might be worth saving it at the point where you have to resort to the trial and error approach. I hope you enjoy using Sudoku-Help. Furthermore I expect that if you like it, you will go to the trouble of sending me the nominal $5-00 payment.
To try to solve the Example Sudoku Puzzle shown using Sudoku-Help click this link. For the best information on Sudoku check out Wikipedia. For other online Sudoku resources you can't go past Sudoku Online. HAVE FUN and tell your friends about www.sudoku-help.com!
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| Regards Greg Shalless
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| P.S. Sorry if this is old hat to all you long term Sudoku addicts but Sudoku didn't find its way Down-Under until starting up in both the main Melbourne daily newspapers simultaneously on 23-May-2005. I had never heard of or seen these puzzles before but now I too am a full-fledged Sudoku addict. This WebSite went live one week later on 30-May-2005.
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