Summary: This walkthrough takes you from an empty Crack the Lock screen to a finished set of crack-the-code pages with answer keys, ready for a puzzle book or a classroom pack. You will set the code length, the symbols and the level, choose the lock picture and the notes grid, pick numbers, letters, colours or pictures instead of digits, style the page, add a title that fills itself in, export the whole run in one pass, and assemble it into a book.
Overview
Crack the Lock builds a hidden code of three to five different symbols and a short list of guesses, each with a clue such as “One digit is correct but in the wrong place.” The solver works out the code from the clues and writes it in the answer boxes beside the padlock.
You do not write the guesses or the clues. The generator picks the code, chooses the guesses, and checks the clue set against every possible code, keeping it only when exactly one code fits. On Medium and Hard every clue is needed; on Easy the generator adds up to two helper clues on top. Each puzzle comes with its answer key, and no two puzzles in a run share the same code and guesses.
If you want the solver’s side first, read How Crack the Lock Puzzles Work.
Required Modules
Crack the Lock — the module itself. A free demo covers every current module: it makes one watermarked image at a time, so you can try the levels, the code lengths and the notes grid before buying.
Crack the Lock (Standard) makes digit locks with every code length, symbol count and level, the notes grid and your own lock picture; exports JPG, PNG, SVG and print PDF; and includes Instant Puzzle Books and Puzzle Book Studio for one puzzle collection. Creative adds the Content tab, so a lock can use numbers (for example, ten numbers drawn at random from 1 to 100), letters, colours or pictures instead of the digits 0 to 9. Productivity adds Time Saver for batch runs, JSON export, and Puzzle Book Studio Productivity for books that combine several collections. Creative + Interactive and Productivity + Interactive add online play, so the same locks become browser games on your own site. You can move up to a higher edition later — any higher edition, up the ladder or Interactive on top — so start with the one that fits what you are making today. See Puzzle Maker Pro Editions Explained.
Commercial rights: Crack the Lock, Creative and Creative + Interactive all let you sell the finished books, worksheets and printable packs you make to your own readers and customers, including KDP, Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Productivity and Productivity + Interactive include that, plus selling or supplying the generated puzzles to other publishers and sellers.
Preparation
There is nothing to gather first: the generator writes its own guesses and clues. Decide three things up front:
- Who is solving. Easy three-digit locks suit children who are new to logic puzzles, roughly from age 7. Medium four-digit locks are a good everyday level for older children and casual adults. Hard five-digit locks are for adult puzzle books. For a mixed-ability class, run one Create per level on the same code length so every group gets its own pages.
- How it will be printed. Digit, number and letter locks print well in black and white. Colour locks need a colour printer. Picture locks work in black and white when the pictures differ in shape, not just in colour.
- How many puzzles. Every puzzle comes with its own answer key, so plan the count from your book layout: a 60-page section with one puzzle per page and the keys collected at the back is about 30 puzzles plus their key pages.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Open the Module
Pick Crack the Lock from the puzzle list. The module screen opens with the preset buttons across the top, a quantity box, and the Main, Settings, Style, Layout, Content and Lock tabs. Main holds the code length, the symbol count and the level; Settings holds Notes grid and Show the lock; Content holds the symbols; Lock holds the lock picture.
Set the Code Length and the Symbols
Code length sets how many symbols the code has: 3, 4 or 5. Longer codes need more clues and take longer to solve.
Symbols to choose from sets how many different symbols the code can use, from 6 to 10. Ten, the default, means the digits 0 to 9. Fewer symbols make the puzzle easier: there are 720 possible three-digit codes from ten digits, but only 120 from six. Six is a good start for colours and pictures. With fewer than ten digits, the page prints the digits in use in a column to the left of the guesses, so the solver knows which ones are in play.
Choose the Level
Difficulty decides what the clue list looks like:
- Easy — the clues the solver needs plus up to two helper clues, including a “Nothing is correct.” clue wherever one can exist. On a three-digit lock from ten digits, that averages about six clues.
- Medium (the default) — only the clues the solver needs, and at least four of them.
- Hard — only the clues the solver needs, and never a “Nothing is correct.” clue, so there is no free elimination to start from.
Every level uses three to eight clues. Fewer clues means a harder lock, so Hard pages usually carry the fewest clues and Easy pages the most. A “Nothing is correct.” clue can only exist when there are at least twice as many symbols as the code is long — a four-symbol code from six symbols has no room for one, so Easy adds other helpers there instead.
Add the Notes Grid and Choose the Lock
On the Settings tab:
- Notes grid adds a grid to the left of the guesses for crossing out: one row per symbol, one column per code position. It helps on four- and five-symbol codes and with younger solvers. It is part of the printed page; online play shows the guesses, clues and answer boxes.
- Show the lock puts the padlock in front of the answer boxes. It is on by default.
The Lock tab sets the lock picture. Drop an image on the box — or click the box to browse — and that picture replaces the built-in padlock on every puzzle in the run: a treasure chest for a pirate book, a safe for a heist theme, a door for an escape-room worksheet. Use the built-in padlock puts the original back.
Choose Numbers, Letters, Colours or Pictures
The Content tab (Creative) decides what the symbols look like. Left on its default, the locks use the digits 0 to 9. Pick from the shared content picker to change them:
- Numbers — a range such as 1 to 100, or your own values. Choose Random and each lock draws its own numbers from the range, so one lock might use 7, 12, 23 … 97 and the next a different set.
- Letters — an alphabet for letter codes.
- Colors — coloured shapes for colour codes.
- Images and Image list — the built-in picture packs or your own picture files.
The tab needs at least as many different items as Symbols to choose from. With fewer, the run falls back to digits and tells you how many it needs. The clue sentences follow the symbols (“Two numbers are correct but in the wrong place”, “Three colors are correct…”), and the puzzle prints the full set in a column beside the clues, so the solver knows every possibility. How the content picker works is covered once in How to Use Content Variation in Puzzle Maker Pro.
Set the Quantity
Type your quantity into the box — this is the puzzle count, and each puzzle brings its own answer key. Preview always shows a single puzzle; the full run comes from Create.
No two puzzles in a run share the same code and guesses, so make a whole series in one Create and split it into volumes afterwards; two separate Creates are checked independently. Small settings have fewer codes to draw from — a three-symbol code from six symbols has 120 — so use longer codes or more symbols for a big series.
Style the Page
The Style tab sets the Symbols font, the Canvas colour, the Box fill and Box lines of the guess boxes, and the Answer box fill — the soft cream behind the answer boxes. For a black-and-white book, set the answer box fill to white or a light grey.
Set the look once and save it as a preset from the buttons at the top of the screen; Crack the Lock keeps its own preset list, so the house style comes back with one click on the next book. The full styling workflow is covered in How to Customize Puzzle Designs in Puzzle Maker Pro.
Set the Title
Titles live on the Layout tab. Pick a Smart Title option and every page in the run carries it, so a hundred pages label themselves without a hundred titles typed. Crack the Lock offers:
- Crack the Lock — e.g. “Crack the Lock”
- Crack the Lock – {Difficulty} — e.g. “Crack the Lock – Medium”
- Crack the {Length} Code — e.g. “Crack the 3-Digit Code” (or “Crack the 4-Color Code” on a colour lock)
- Instructions — e.g. “Find the code. The code has 3 different digits.”
- Custom — your own text (the default; it starts as “Crack the Lock”)
The same list fills the puzzle’s description field, which starts on Instructions, so every page explains its own rule. How the control works, and how to add page numbering, is covered once in How to Create Smart Puzzle Titles in Puzzle Maker Pro.
The Layout tab also holds the puzzle-layout control, where the crop lives, and a Use branding toggle (off unless you turn it on) that paints your branding template onto this collection’s puzzle image.
Generate and Export
Press Create in the Create Puzzles panel. Each puzzle appears with its answer key, and the run writes both to your output folder in the formats ticked in the app’s shared output settings — JPG, PNG, SVG and print PDF; image size comes from the same settings. For a print book, the PDF and SVG files stay sharp at any trim size. The answer key fills the code into the answer boxes.
On Productivity, tick JSON in the output settings and the same run writes JSON too. On Creative + Interactive or Productivity + Interactive, tick HTML and it also writes the web-playable version, so the locks you just made can go straight onto your own site as browser games: the solver taps the code into the answer boxes.
Scale Up to a Book
At every edition, one Create produces the whole run, and Instant Puzzle Books assembles it into a book PDF with a title page, a table of contents and footers that point each puzzle to its solution page; you set the trim size, the margins and the page layout. For an escape-room or classroom pack, print the puzzle images as the student pages and the solution images as a separate teacher set; the run writes them as separate files.
Puzzle Book Studio, on every edition too, turns the run into a fully edited interior — front matter, page numbering, and the answer keys collected at the back.
Productivity adds Time Saver, for a book that needs several setups in one pass. Each row is a complete Crack the Lock configuration — its own code length, symbols and level — so a graded book becomes a handful of rows: Easy three-digit locks to open, Medium four-digit locks for the bulk, and Hard five-digit locks to close. Puzzle Book Studio Productivity then combines several collections into one book. The workflow is covered in How to Batch Create Puzzles with Time Saver.
Outcome
You have a run of Crack the Lock puzzles with matching answer keys, every one checked against every possible code: exactly one code fits, every clue is true, and no two puzzles share a code and guesses. Drop the run into Instant Puzzle Books or Puzzle Book Studio and it comes out as a print-ready interior.
FAQ
Can I choose the code myself?
No — the generator picks the code and the guesses, and proves that exactly one code fits. You steer the puzzle with the code length, the symbol count and the level.
How do I make number codes such as 1 to 100?
On the Content tab (Creative), choose Numbers, set a range such as 1 to 100, and choose Random. Each lock then uses its own set of numbers from that range.
Which edition do I need for colour or picture locks?
Creative. Numbers, letters, colours and pictures come from the Content tab, which is part of Creative and above; the Standard edition makes digit locks.
Can I use my own lock picture?
Yes, on every edition. Drop an image on the Lock tab, or click the box to browse; Use the built-in padlock puts the original back.
Which edition do I need to batch-create a book?
Productivity, which adds Time Saver for running several setups in one pass. Every edition makes a whole run in one Create and includes Instant Puzzle Books and Puzzle Book Studio for one collection.
What formats can I export?
JPG, PNG, SVG and print PDF on every paid edition. Productivity adds JSON, and the Interactive editions add the web-playable version for online play.