Sudoku

Take a Break · ribbon tool with its own window · by Jeff Jenness

Works at every ArcGIS Pro license level

Summary

A Sudoku puzzle in a window of its own, for the minutes when a long tool is running or a problem needs to be left alone for a while. The window does not block ArcGIS Pro, so the puzzle can sit beside the map and be picked up and put down. Every puzzle it makes has exactly one solution.

The Sudoku window in the Parchment skin: a cream board in a dark brown frame, the given digits in bold black serif type and the digits entered so far in a lighter slate gray, the top right cell highlighted in yellow. Difficulty Hard and Skin Parchment at the upper left, New Puzzle, Check and Reveal Cell buttons and a round help button at the upper right, and under the board the line: Hard, 31 cells to go. Click a cell, type 1-9; right-click for candidate notes. — A Hard puzzle part way through, in the Parchment skin. The given digits are bold; the digits entered so far are lighter.

The rules

Fill the grid so that every row, every column and every one of the nine 3-by-3 boxes holds each of the digits 1 to 9 exactly once. The digits printed in bold are given and cannot be changed.

Playing

The Take a Break group of the ribbon, with the Sudoku button outlined in blue — Where to find it: **Sudoku** is in the *Take a Break* group of the *Wildlife and Forestry* tab.

To do this	Do this
Choose a cell	Click it, or move with the arrow keys. The arrows wrap around from one edge to the opposite one. Tab moves to the next cell in reading order and Shift+Tab to the one before.
Enter a digit	Type 1 to 9, on the number row or the number pad.
Clear a cell	Press 0, Delete or Backspace.
Note the candidates	Right-click an empty cell. A menu lists Note 1 to Note 9: click each digit that could still go in that cell, as many as you like, then click away from the menu. Each noted digit is drawn small and in red in its own place in the cell, from 1 at the top left to 9 at the bottom right. Clear this cell's notes, at the bottom of the menu, removes them, and so does entering a digit in the cell or clearing it.

The selected cell is highlighted, and its row and column are tinted to help you scan them.

The controls

Control	Explanation
Difficulty	Easy, Medium or Hard. Harder puzzles start with fewer digits given: about 40 of the 81 for Easy, 32 for Medium and 26 for Hard. The choice applies to the next new puzzle.
New Puzzle	Starts a fresh puzzle. If you have made progress on the current one, it asks first.
Check	Colors the digits you have entered: blue for correct and red for incorrect, or green and red in the Blueprint skin. The color clears from a cell when you change it.
Reveal Cell	Fills the selected cell with its correct digit, after asking, and colors it as a correct entry. A given cell has nothing to reveal, and the window says so.
Skin	The look of the window: Parchment, Midnight Brass or Blueprint. Each has its own colors and lettering. The rules and the puzzle do not change.

Fill the last cell correctly and the board celebrates, and then stays as it is until you start a new puzzle. Fill it with a mistake somewhere and the window tells you the board is full but not right, and points you to Check. The line under the board shows the difficulty and how many cells are left to fill.

The window remembers your skin and difficulty for next time. It does not remember the puzzle: closing the window ends the game, and the window opens next time with a new one. The window can be resized, and the board scales with it.

The same puzzle in the Midnight Brass skin: a dark charcoal board in a brass frame with brass buttons, the given digits in cream block lettering and the entered digits in blue, and small red candidate notes in several empty cells, among them 4 and 8 in the selected bottom left cell, which is highlighted in brass — Midnight Brass, with candidate notes in some of the empty cells.

The same puzzle in the Blueprint skin: a navy blue board with pale blue grid lines and buttons, the given digits in white hand-drawn lettering and the entered digits in yellow, and the same small candidate notes in pink — Blueprint, the same puzzle and notes in drafting colors.

Recommended citation

Jenness, J. 2026. Sudoku. Wildlife and Forestry Tools add-in for ArcGIS Pro, v. 1.113.62.1 (October 2026). Jenness Enterprises. Available at: https://github.com/JeffJenness/Wildlife_Tools.

Credits

By Jeff Jenness, Jenness Enterprises (www.jennessent.com).

Licensing information

Works at every ArcGIS Pro license level (Basic, Standard, Advanced). No extension licenses are required.

Sliding Puzzle — a tile puzzle made from your own map.
Thought for the Day — a quotation in a card.
ArcMap Easter Egg — a small piece of ArcMap history.