1. This procedure works for the simpler puzzles only. It does not address intermediate and advanced solution steps.
2. I have never resorted to writing little numbers since I consider it cheating. The real way to solve sudoku is to figure it all in your head.
I did this right away when I first started – the elimination method. I found it doesn't work well written puzzles, too; the ones requiring multiple things to 'click' before the correct number is found.
I also, just for giggles, made a Flash “helper” that did all the elimination of the tiny numbers for you. Flash is all objects, and nestable, so it was easy to set up one of each concept (one 1-9 3×3 grid, one 3×3 of those for a block, one 3×3 of those for the whole puzzle), and it made choosing fast, as I designed it to enlarge the numbers a bit, and darken them as you rolled over them, so you could just move around rapidly clicking. Any number it couldn't be, you could remove with a hotkey+click, or another to bring it back into the running.
The numbers were faint enough that you didn't notice them very obviously on the grid, so the true numbers you chose, and the pre-filled-in versions popped out, and of course enlarged to fill the grid space, in different shades of grey to identify which was which (given vs. entered). Again, just for fun. I wasn't really looking to help myself beat Sudokus as much as exploring how to code some random ideas I had.
(http://livejournal.com/users/greatbiggary)
Seems to me that writing in all those numbers would take more time.
I do write in the little numbers sometimes, but usually only when I know the box is one of two options and I haven't quite gotten to the stage where I can get the correct number. Haven't really got a strategy though, which might be why sometimes a Sudoku takes me 10 minutes and sometimes 30 (particularly if I'm falling asleep at the computer). That or some of the ones the site says are easy aren't really easy.
(http://livejournal.com/users/linca)
I've *cough* never even looked at a Sudoky puzzle… much less try to figure out how it's played or what you are supposed to do with it. 😛
(http://livejournal.com/users/sylvene)