Downloads & Slate files

Downloading puzzles

1. Open any game — Sudoku, Number Blocks, Tents and dozens more — and press ⬇ Download next to Print and Send to Slate.
2. Pick the format: PDF or Slate file.
3. Choose how many puzzles (1 to 50), then the grid size, difficulty and any other options — the same choices as the game.
4. For a PDF, choose one, two or four puzzles a page, A4 or US Letter, and whether to put the answers at the back. For a Slate file, choose whether to add answer boards after the puzzles.
5. Press Download. Every puzzle is freshly made, so each download is a new set.

Working from a PDF

The PDF works anywhere — print it for the classroom, the train or the kitchen table, or write on it in any PDF app that supports a pen. Each puzzle shows its rules at the top, and the answers (if you asked for them) are together at the back, small enough to check without spoiling the next puzzle.

Opening a Slate file

1. Open myslate.netlify.app in your browser — on a computer, tablet or interactive whiteboard. There is nothing to install and no account.
2. Drag the .slate file onto the board. Or open the Export menu, find Replay (.slate) and press Open, then choose the file.
3. Each puzzle arrives on its own board. Move between boards with the arrows at the edge of the board, or open the Boards list in the top bar to jump straight to one.

Opening a file replaces the boards you have open, so save anything you want to keep first (Export → Save).

Solving on Slate

• Write with the pen. Use a stylus, a finger or a mouse. A bright pen colour such as blue makes your working stand out from the printed clues.
• The puzzle is locked. It cannot be moved or rubbed out by accident, so write, erase and write again as often as you like.
• Use colour. Small pencil marks in one colour, final answers in another — or the highlighter for regions you are working on.
• Undo anything. Every stroke can be undone and redone.
• Save your progress. Export → Save keeps your marks in a new .slate file, so you can carry on tomorrow on any device. Export can also make a PDF or an image of your working.

Why Slate is easier than paper

• Nothing to print. No ink, no photocopying, no lost sheets.
• Mistakes cost nothing. Rub out cleanly, as often as you like — no smudges, no holes in the page — and undo when you change your mind.
• One puzzle per board. Big and clear on any screen, with the rules on the card — no hunting through a booklet.
• Room to think. The board around the puzzle is yours for notes, sums and arrows.
• Made for sharing. Put it on a projector or TV, or share it live with a class in a Slate session so everyone sees the same board.
• Answers on their own boards. Reveal them one at a time, only when you are ready.

For teachers

Download a set at the right level before the lesson — say ten 6×6 Number Blocks at Easy — and open it on Slate at the start of class. Work the first puzzle together on the board, then let pairs take the next ones. If you teach remotely, start a Slate session and your class follows each board live. Want paper as well? Download the same kind of puzzles as a PDF with answers at the back for homework.

Slate is free and runs in the browser: myslate.netlify.app. A single puzzle can also go straight from any game to Slate with Send to Slate.

Questions