Zing Magic Series 80 Cross hatching the board, Checking the board is still valid, Using Zingles

Using Zingles

To remove a pencil mark simply enter the piece indicator (‘1’ to ‘9’) a second time. Press the ‘0’ key to exit marking mode and return to piece placement mode.

Cross hatching the board

As an alternative aid to the solving process you may choose to use the cross hatch feature of Zingles. Simply choose which number you wish to have cross hatched from the menu. Choose none to remove the cross hatching.

The board shows the cross hatching display for ‘4’ s. Any cell that has a line drawn though it cannot contain a ‘4’ due to the presence of other ‘4’ s on the board. If you look at the top right and centre sub-grids you will notice that there is only a single board square that does not have a line drawn though it. Therefore the only square a ‘4’ can be positioned within those sub-grids is the unmarked square.

Checking the board is still valid

You can ask Zingles to check the validity of a board at any time. A valid board is one where

only a single instance of a particular piece exists in each row, column and sub-grid and

at least one piece can be placed on all the remaining blank squares.

If you have chosen to play games where all pieces in each of the diagonals need to be unique Zingles will also check to ensure only a single instance of a particular piece occurs in each of the diagonals.

If Zingles discovers a problem it will move the cursor to the first square at which finds a problem.

If the square moved to contains a piece it usually indicates that there is a duplicate of that piece in either the row, column or sub-grid. It does not necessarily mean the highlighted piece is the piece in error.

If the square moved to is blank, this usually means that Zingles has been unable to identify any piece that can be legally placed on that board square.

Zingles User Guide 5