SOLVING A SIKAKU PUZZLE

A SIKAKU puzzle consists of a square or rectangular grid in which some of the cells contain a one or two digit number. To complete the puzzle, a Solver must divide the puzzle into a number of rectangles so that each rectangle contains exactly one of the numbers, and that number must be equal to the area of the rectangle which contains it.

Solving the puzzle is a purely mouse operation. When you have determined where one of the rectangles must be located, mouse click into one of the corner cells of the rectangle, and drag to the cell in the opposite corner. A red outline will show you the rectangle you have selected in this way. When you release the mouse, the outline of the selected rectangle will change to black.

If you make a mistake, you can remove individual segments of the outline of a rectangle by pointing to any point near the center of that segment and clicking the mouse.

Menu Functions
  • File Menu
    • Load a Puzzle
      Use this option to choose the puzzle you want to solve from the pool of SIKAKU puzzles currently available on your computer.

    • Quit Solving
      Returns you to either the SIKAKU Build screen or the Magnum Opus opening screen.

  • View Menu
    • Display Options
      This leads you to a dialog box in which you can change the colors of various elements within the puzzle, and control the fonts which will be used for the puzzle's text components. You can also decide if printing of the puzzle will be done in black and white or in color.

  • Tasks Menu
    • Reveal Errors
      If you think you may have made errors, this option will show you where they are by highlighting them for a period of 1.5 seconds.

    • Reveal Solution
      The entire solution can be seen by selecting this option.

    • Begin Again
      You can restart the entire solution process at any time by selecting this option.

  • Help Menu
    • Sikaku Help
      Displays the Help screen which you are now reading.