Summary: Logic Grid puzzles are created in Puzzle Maker Pro by picking a scene (who the puzzle is about and what they own), setting how many categories and values you want, choosing a difficulty tier, and generating — every puzzle arrives with a verified single solution and its own answer key. This guide walks through making your first one, scaling it to a whole varied book, titling it, and exporting for print or the web.
Overview
A Logic Grid is a deduction puzzle: a numbered list of clues, a staircase grid to rule things out on, and an answer table. Puzzle Maker Pro does the hard part — it invents the arrangement, writes the clues in plain English, proves the puzzle has exactly one solution, strips out every clue that is not needed, and renders the page and its answer key together. New to the puzzle itself? Read How Logic Grid Puzzles Work first.
Required Modules
Puzzle Maker Pro – Logic Grid. What each edition adds:
| Lite | Creative | Creative Interactive | Productivity | Productivity Interactive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The seven built-in scenes and built-in word lists | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Print output (PNG / JPG / SVG / PDF) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Instant Puzzle Books (a book PDF from your current settings) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Your own lists, sentences and scenes, plus the AI assistant | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Puzzle Book Studio Creative (one puzzle set, full layout control) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| JSON web output and online play | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Time Saver (batch creation) + Puzzle Book Studio Productivity | ✓ | ✓ |
Two things worth saying out loud, because they are the questions people actually get wrong. Time Saver comes from the Productivity tier, not from Interactive — so if you want batch creation and online play, the edition you want is Productivity Interactive. And Interactive is an add-on rather than a rung: Productivity has everything Creative has, but only the two Interactive editions carry the web lane.
On licensing: every edition, Lite included, carries a commercial license to sell what you make to your own customers — books, worksheets and printables on Amazon KDP, Etsy, Teachers Pay Teachers or your own store. Lite and Creative differ in what you can build, not in what you may sell. Productivity is the one that extends the license further, to supplying other publishers and sellers. Full breakdown: Puzzle Maker Pro Editions Explained.
A free demo of Puzzle Maker Pro is available, so you can try Logic Grid before buying — it makes one watermarked puzzle at a time.
Preparation
Nothing is needed to make your first puzzle. Logic Grid ships its own content — seven ready-made scenes, twenty-nine word lists and twenty-six sentence types — so generation runs offline and instantly, with no word list to load. Open the module, press generate, and you have a puzzle and its answer key. (The optional AI… buttons described later are the one exception: those call out to a provider, so they need a connection plus either your own API key or a pzaas subscription.)
Pick a Scene
A scene is the subject matter: who the puzzle is about and what facts they have. The Scenes (pick any): list at the bottom of the Settings tab holds seven built-ins, available on every edition:
| Scene | Categories | What the people have |
|---|---|---|
| Kids & Pets | 4 | an age, a pet, a favourite colour |
| Neighbors on a Street | 4 | a house number, a vehicle, and the vehicle’s colour |
| Dream Jobs | 4 | an age, a profession, a favourite food |
| Gardening | 4 | a plant, a house number, a garden centre |
| Holiday Travel | 4 | a country, a month, a trip length |
| Birthday Party | 5 | an age, a pet, a colour, a favourite food |
| Neighbourhood | 5 | a house number, a profession, a vehicle, a colour |
How many you tick decides what you get:
- Nothing ticked — Puzzle Maker Pro picks the categories itself from the Categories and Values per category fields above the scene list. This is the plain default.
- One ticked — that scene, repeated for the whole run.
- Several ticked, Round robin on — a varied book: the quantity is shared out across the scenes you picked, grouped scene by scene.
- Several ticked, Round robin off — one puzzle per scene, capped by Quantity. Six scenes at Quantity 3 gives you three puzzles, not six.
A live hint under the list tells you which rule is firing and what it will produce — something like 3 scenes · round robin → 12 puzzles, or No scenes selected → automatic (1 puzzle per generate). when nothing is ticked. The middle word is the one to read: repeat, round robin or cap.
Within a run, no two puzzles repeat: each draws a fresh random selection of values from its scene’s lists, and the batch is de-duplicated. The subject matter still repeats, though — fifty Kids & Pets puzzles are fifty arrangements of the same categories — so for a book that reads as varied, tick several scenes.
Set the Size
On the Settings tab, above the scene list:
- Categories — 2 to 5 (default 4). This counts the people, so 4 means the people plus three things about them. Ticking a scene greys this out, because a scene already declares how many categories it has.
- Values per category — 3 to 8 (default 5). Five people, five ages, five pets. Bigger means longer.
- Include ordered axis (ages) — on by default. This is the numbered or ordered category — an age, a house number, a month — that lets clues say “older than”, “2 apart”, “the second-oldest”. Turn it off and the clues become matches and negatives only: noticeably easier, and more repetitive. A ticked scene greys this out too, because a scene declares its own.
Every list in a ticked scene has to hold at least as many values as Values per category. If one does not, that scene is quietly skipped and the run comes back short — see Scale It below.
Choose the Difficulty
Difficulty tier sets what the solver has to do:
- Standard (default) — direct matches, negatives and plain comparisons. Solvable by pure elimination.
- Advanced — adds even/odd, “between”, rank (“the second-oldest”) and sum (“their ages add up to 15”) clues. Still solvable by pure elimination.
- Challenging — the puzzle is verified to require at least one “suppose this, and see what breaks” step, and a hard one may need several. Needs at least a medium grid; on a small one it refuses to generate and tells you why.
Size and tier combine into the printed difficulty label, and a live Difficulty: hint on the Settings tab shows what the current combination gives. Work out your row with (categories − 1) × values per category: 6 or less is small, 7 to 12 is medium, over 12 is large.
| Grid size | Standard | Advanced | Challenging |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small — score ≤ 6, e.g. 3 categories × 3 values | Very Easy | Easy | not available |
| Medium — score 7–12, e.g. 3 × 5, 4 × 4 | Easy | Medium | Hard |
| Large — score > 12, e.g. 4 × 5, 5 × 5 | Medium | Hard | Very Hard |
One caveat worth knowing before you commit a book to Advanced: the advanced clue types need an ordered category with the vocabulary to talk about. Ages carry all four. House numbers carry even/odd, sum and between, but not rank — there is no natural “highest” or “lowest” house number to phrase. Months carry none of them, so an Advanced Holiday Travel puzzle always falls back to the Standard clue mix while the page still prints the harder label. If the difficulty label has to be honest, build that book on an age scene.
Choose the Page Layout
Two settings decide what the page looks like.
Presentation — which parts get printed:
- Staircase grid + solution table (default) — the classic magazine page.
- Solution table only — clues and an answer table, no working grid.
- Staircase grid only — clues and the grid, no answer table.
- Clue text only — just the sentences, the original zebra-puzzle look. The answer sheet still prints the answers. Pair this one with Above grid or Below grid: the page still reserves space for the (now invisible) answer table, so on the default Left of grid you get a wide sheet with a blank half.
Clue position — Left of grid (default) or Right of grid put the clues in a column beside the grid, which gives a wide landscape sheet; Above grid and Below grid run them full width, which gives a portrait page — usually what you want for a book.
Set the Quantity
Quantity: (1 to 999, above the tabs) is the target for one run. The demo and any preview make one.
It is a target rather than a promise, and it is worth knowing why before you paginate a book: if a ticked scene cannot be used — a list too short for your Values per category setting, or custom content on a Lite license, where non-built-in scenes are dropped at generation — that scene is skipped silently. No error, just fewer pages. Check the delivered count before you lay the book out.
Scale It: One Puzzle to a Whole Book
Quantity repeats one setup. A book usually wants a mix — that is Time Saver, on the Productivity edition. Each Time Saver row is its own complete setup (size, tier, scene selection, presentation, clue position and its own quantity), and one run generates every row, each puzzle paired with its own answer page. Those pages then go straight into Puzzle Book Studio to become a finished interior.
A 100-puzzle graded book, as four rows:
| Row | Scene(s) | Size | Tier | Quantity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kids & Pets | 3 × 5 | Standard | 25 |
| 2 | Dream Jobs + Gardening, Round robin | 4 × 5 | Standard | 25 |
| 3 | Neighbors on a Street + Neighbourhood, Round robin | 4 × 5 | Advanced | 25 |
| 4 | Birthday Party | 5 × 5 | Challenging | 25 |
That gives a book that gets steadily harder and changes subject as it goes, from one run. See How to Batch Create Puzzles with Time Saver.
Build Your Own Scene
Creative edition and above — on Lite the New… / Edit… / Delete buttons are not shown at all. If none of the seven built-ins fits your book, make your own. Press New… in the scene list to open the Scene editor.
You describe a scene in two kinds of pieces:
- A list is words — the names, the pets, the towns.
- A phrase is a sentence with one blank — “has a …”, “grows …”, “travels to …”, “is … years old”.
Pick a list for the subject, then up to four property rows, each with its own list and phrase. The editor shows an example sentence for every row as you build, so you can see how the clues will read before generating anything. Give it a name in Scene name: and save, and it joins the list for good.
Three things are worth knowing:
- A list can describe another list. Set a row’s “describes” to another row and the sentences change shape: instead of colours belonging to people, colours belong to vehicles, and you get “George has a pink car” and “The van is red.” That is exactly how the built-in Neighbors on a Street scene reads.
- You can edit any list. The Edit… button beside a row opens its values, one per line — add your own, remove ones you do not want, or press AI… to have a themed batch suggested. Values have to be short: up to 30 characters and 3 words, using letters, digits, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes only. Anything longer or with other punctuation is dropped when you press OK, and duplicates are merged. Editing a built-in makes your own copy of it — the button caption picks up an asterisk to show it, and a Reset to built-in button appears in the editor from then on. Numbered lists open in a two-column editor so each value keeps its number.
- You can write your own sentence types. New phrase… asks for two ordinary example sentences — one positive, one negative — and turns them into a reusable phrase. There is no template syntax to learn.
There is also an AI… button that proposes a whole scene from a theme you type. Puzzle Maker Pro only hands it to you after the design has compiled and generated a real puzzle, so a suggestion that would not work never reaches the editor. Both AI buttons need a connection and either your own provider key or a pzaas subscription.
Style It
On the Style tab, set Canvas colour (white), Cell background (white), Cell border (black, width 2 — the thin grid lines) and Primary font (Arial, black). Logic Grid adds one control the other modules do not have: Block Lines (black, width 4), the thick outlines around each block of the staircase and around the answer table — that is what gives the grid its structure at a glance. The tab also carries the layout and crop settings that size the exported image. See How to Customize Puzzle Designs in Puzzle Maker Pro for how the Style tab works.
Set the Title
On the Titles tab, choose a Smart Title. Logic Grid offers, for a default 4 × 5 puzzle on the Standard tier:
- Logic Grid Size — e.g. “Logic Grid 4×5” (the default)
- Logic Grid Size Difficulty — e.g. “Logic Grid 4×5 – Medium”
- Logic Grid Difficulty — e.g. “Logic Grid Medium”
- Size — e.g. “4×5”
- Size Difficulty — e.g. “4×5 – Medium”
- Difficulty — e.g. “Medium”
- Logigram Size — e.g. “Logigram 4×5”
- Logigram Size Difficulty — e.g. “Logigram 4×5 – Medium”
- Logigram Difficulty — e.g. “Logigram Medium”
- Custom — your own title text, used exactly as typed
“Size” is categories × values per category, and “Difficulty” is the printed label from the table above, not the tier name. Logigram is the European name for the puzzle — useful if your book is aimed at that market. The same options are available for the puzzle Description, which defaults to “Use the clues to work out which options belong together. Every option is used exactly once.” Smart Titles works the same way in every module — see the Smart Titles tutorial.
Export Your Puzzles
- Print / PDF — PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF of the puzzle and its answer key, on every edition.
- JSON web output and online play — with Creative Interactive or Productivity Interactive, export JSON for the BookPublisherTools WordPress plugin and HTML output for a self-contained playable version where solvers cross out squares in the browser; see How to Play Puzzles Online.
- Time Saver — on Productivity, batch-create rows at different sizes, scenes and difficulties in one run, then assemble the pages into a finished book in Puzzle Book Studio. See Scale It, above.
Outcome
You can now create Logic Grid puzzles end to end — any size from 2 × 3 up to 5 × 8, at three difficulty tiers, in four page layouts, using the built-in scenes or scenes you build yourself from your own words and sentences — titled, styled, and exported for print or the web, one puzzle or a hundred-page graded book from a single Time Saver run.
FAQ
Which edition do I need to batch-create a whole book?
Productivity — it adds Time Saver for batch creation across mixed scenes, sizes and difficulties. If you also want the JSON and online-play output, that is Productivity Interactive.
Do I have to supply any words?
No. Seven scenes, twenty-nine word lists and twenty-six sentence types are built in, so the module works out of the box with no word list. Adding or editing content is a Creative-and-above feature.
I asked for 50 puzzles and got fewer. Why?
A scene that cannot be used gets skipped without an error. The usual causes are a list shorter than your Values per category setting, or a custom scene on a Lite license, where non-built-in content is dropped at generation. Lower the values-per-category setting or untick the scene that is short.
How do I make a book where every puzzle is different?
Tick several scenes and turn on Round robin. Puzzles never repeat within a run — each draws a fresh random selection of values and the batch is de-duplicated — but a single scene always uses the same categories, so multiple scenes are what changes the subject matter too.
What sizes can I make?
2 to 5 categories and 3 to 8 values per category. The default is 4 × 5. Challenging needs at least a medium grid — it will not generate on a small one, and tells you so.
Can I make puzzles about my own subject — my town, my sport, my brand?
Yes, on Creative and above. Build a scene from your own word lists and your own sentences, save it, and it behaves exactly like a built-in one.
What output formats can I export?
PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF on every edition. JSON and HTML for online play need the Interactive add-on — Creative Interactive or Productivity Interactive.