The Saga Magazine Puzzles Guide

Puzzles are a great way to keep your brain on its toes, and they’ve been shown to have serious health benefits for us as we age.

Whether you are a Saga puzzles regular or looking to dive in for the first time, we’ve compiled a list of tips, tricks, and technical advice to help you make the most of our brain teasers.

Make sure your device has been updated

Whatever your device of choice for puzzling, it’s important to keep it as up to date as possible.

Whilst the majority of operating systems are supported, including both iOS and Android, some older operating systems and devices might not be, and you may encounter issues with Saga puzzles as a result.

Try updating to the latest available OS version for your device. If you’re still having difficulties, try some of our other tips below.

Make sure your internet browser is set up properly

Whether you have a preferred browser or are happy to use whatever comes pre-installed on your device, you can optimise your experience in a couple of ways.

Check Your Zoom

Having your browser zoomed to more or less than 100% will affect the layout of our puzzles on your screen.

Using levels of zoom other than 100% can lead to overlapping and other issues, so if you are having issues, follow these instructions:

• Open browser.
• Open the settings menu.
• Use the + and - buttons to amend the zoom to 100%. 

Clear your cookies

Cookies are the means by which  your puzzle progress is saved and stored in your browser. This information, like all digital information, can be corrupted and cause issues.

If you’re experiencing issues inputting letters or numbers into grids, if the grid becomes corrupted, or if the puzzle keeps freezing, then closing the browsing window and clearing your cookies should reset the puzzle.

While the term ‘Clearing cookies’ may seem like a peculiar one, actually doing it is not as complicated as its naming might suggest. 

Just go into your browser settings and clear your cache and browsing history if you’re running into problems.

Just be warned, this will likely result in your current state of play being lost, so it’s best to do this before or after your puzzling session to prevent all your hard work going to waste.

Check your internet connection

If you’re presented with a white screen with a ‘Loading…’ message in the bottom right, your device may be struggling with slow internet speeds.  

In most cases our puzzle should load within 4 to 12 seconds depending on your connection speed, and any longer might suggest a problem with your connection. 

If you do see the ‘Loading…’ message, you may just be able to wait for the interactive menu screen to load.

If not, consider our tips for improving your internet connection. 

Issues for our Saga puzzles veterans

If you’ve been a long-term Saga puzzler and you’re suddenly experiencing issues, then the problem might be with your device storage. 

For some internet browsers there is a hard limit on how much information can be stored about a certain website, and if you’ve been with us for the long haul, then you might be hitting that limit. 

However, we have a solution, tried and tested by our loyal long-term players:

• Load Safari.
• Choose the 'Safari' option in the top menu bar.
• Choose the 'Preferences' option.
• When the new window appears, select the 'Privacy' tab.
• Make sure the 'Block cookies and other website data' option is set to anything other than 'always'.
• Choose the 'Details' button under the 'Cookies and other website data' item.
• Use the search dialogue to search for 'puzzler'.
• Once the search is complete, choose the 'puzzler.com' item and select the 'Remove' button.
• Choose the 'Done' button.
• Close the window.

Tips and Tricks

Finally, we bring you a handful of handy tips to help you get the most out of our interactive puzzles. 

Need help?

Look out for the '?'  symbol - here you'll find the hint options for when you need a little help with a clue.

You'll also find written instructions here, so whether you're new to this type of puzzle or just looking for a refresher, we've got you covered. 

Sudoku

• You can use the cross-hair icon to toggle on or off the highlighted row/column feature. Super handy for checking your numbers! 
• Clicking the pencil lets you place up to nine numbers in a single cell, perfect for those tricky cells. Once you've figured out the right answer, just switch back to the pen icon and you'll be able to override your pencil notes. 

Crosswords/Cryptic Crosswords

• On desktop, you can navigate the puzzle by either clicking on the row/column you want to solve, or by clicking on the clue list on the right hand side. 
• If you just want to work in order, you can instead use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to select the previous or next clue respectively.
• Selecting a cell within the grid will automatically highlight the associated clue, and selecting the clue will highlight the associated cells in the grid. We recommend using whichever method you find the most natural. 
• On mobile devices, you can either click on the puzzle as above, or use the left and right arrows next to the clue to navigate.
• If you're clicking on a junction in the grid, you can click on it a second time to switch your selection orientation.

Codewords

• To enter a letter into a cell, either select a cell or a keypad number, and enter your chosen letter. This will then automatically fill the linked cells with the same number.
• Clicking on a cell or on the keypad number will highlight all the cells of the same number.