Most important operations on the element that is currently displayed in the element window are available from the element pop-up menu. To open this menu press Alt+F10 in the element window, press popup button on your Win95 keyboard, or right-click over an empty element area (i.e. area not covered by components; clicking over a component will open its own pop-up menu). If your element is entirely filled out with components, you can also right click over the navigation toolbar at the top of the element window.

The element pop-up menu includes the following options:

• Learning - affects the element's place in the learning process:
  • Learn branch (Ctrl+Alt+L) - make repetitions only in the branch to which the currently displayed element belongs. SuperMemo will propose the nearest ancestor as the starting point of branch learning. Responding with Yes to Do you want to learn this branch will begin repetitions. Responding with No will make SuperMemo propose the next nearest ancestor as the starting point. Select Cancel to abort this option. If you want to manually point to the root of the branch to learn, select it in the contents window and click Learn at the bottom of that window. You can do it also by opening the ancestor window (Alt+P), double-clicking the selected ancestor and choosing Ctrl+Alt+L
  • Postpone branch (Ctrl+Alt+P) - postpone outstanding repetitions in the branch to which the displayed element belongs. SuperMemo will propose the nearest ancestor as the root of the branch that should be affected by Postpone. Responding with Yes to Do you want to postpone this branch will apply Postpone to the displayed branch. Responding with No will make SuperMemo propose the next nearest ancestor as the branch to postpone. Select Cancel to abort this option. If you want to manually point to the root of the branch to postpone, select it in the contents window and press Ctrl+Alt+P. You can do it also by opening the ancestor window (Alt+P), double-clicking the selected ancestor and choosing Ctrl+Alt+P
  • Forget (Ctrl+R) - remove the displayed element from the learning process and put it at the end of the pending queue
  • Remember (Ctrl+M) - introduce the displayed element into repetitions. Optionally you can specify the first interval, e.g. if you are sure you will remember the item in 2 months, you might save time by choosing the interval 60 without a detriment to the learning process. Once you memorize an element, you it will recur periodically for a repetition. Remember executed on a task will ask you if you would like to remove the task from the tasklist (this operation will also convert the task to a topic)
  • Dismiss (Ctrl+D) - ignore the displayed element at repetitions. It will still be available when browsing the collection but it will not enter the learning process unless you explicitly choose Remember (see above)
  • Jump interval (Ctrl+J) - decide when to make the next repetition of the element. You should use this option with caution as all attempts to override the selection made by SuperMemo may negatively affect the accuracy of the repetition spacing algorithm. You will most likely use this option if you make a repetition of an important item and you are anxious that the long interval requested by SuperMemo might make your forget this item. Similarly, in period of intense repetitions, e.g. after vacation, you might manually increase intervals of some less important items to make sure that the repetition takes place after the busy period determined with Mercy
  • Add to drill (Ctrl+Shift+D) - add the displayed element to the final drill queue
  • Show repetition history - show the history of repetitions for the currently displayed element
  • Reset repetition history - reset the history of repetitions for the currently displayed element. You can opt for using this option once you substantially change the contents of the element so that you feel like learning a completely new piece of knowledge
• E-mail - e-mail the displayed element to a colleague:
  • Q&A - e-mail the element as question-and-answer text only
  • Text - e-mail all texts included in the element
  • HTML - convert the element to HTML and send it via e-mail. Only references to object files (such as pictures) will be sent. To send the object files you will need to include them separately as attachments
  • Element - convert the element to text and send it via e-mail. Only references to object files (such as pictures) will be sent. To send the object files you will need to include them separately as attachments
• Edit
  • Element parameters - open a dialog box with element parameters. This option, also available with Ctrl+Shift+P, is most useful for the following purposes: changing the forgetting index (e.g. to increase the quality of remembering), changing the ordinal number (most often used in sorting the pending queue), changing the A-Factor of topics taking part in incremental reading, changing the element type (item, topic or task), changing the category to which the element belongs, changing the priority of a task or changing the tasklist to which the task belongs. In the case of changing the category, if you decide that your item would rather belong to Physics than to Chemistry, you can select Chemistry in Edit : Edit parameters : Category and the item will be moved to the appropriate branch of the knowledge tree. You can also use Edit parameters to add comments to an element or to view the element's repetition history
  • Duplicate (Ctrl+Alt+D) - create a copy of the currently displayed element in the same place of the knowledge tree
  • Edit title - open the title window with an editing field that makes it possible to edit the element's title. Use this option or Alt+T to quickly generate a title from text fields in the element. You can also edit titles in the contents window (click the title twice to switch it to the editing mode)
  • Swap components - swap the question with the answer (as in standard flashcard programs). More precisely, this option swaps texts and fonts between the first non-answer text component and the first answer text component. Usually you need this option to swap questions with answers when you learn bilingual pairs of vocabulary. It is most useful in conjunction with Duplicate (see above). The shortcut for swapping components is Ctrl+Shift+S
  • Copy element - copy the element to the clipboard. Please note that large files and large texts are not copied to the clipboard. These are kept in the clipboard as the reference to files or texts on the disk. In other words, if you paste the contents of the clipboard containing an element to the body of an e-mail and send it to your colleague, he will not be able to paste images, sound files, long texts, etc.
  • Paste element - paste the contents of the element stored in the clipboard to a newly added element in the current category
  • Paste template - paste the contents of the element stored in the clipboard with Copy element (above) to the current element. This option is similar to Template : Replace with template (below) with this difference that the template is taken from the clipboard instead of the template registry. Paste template can work between collections but in order to be complete it must be made on the same computer. This is because of the fact that Copy element stores element in the clipboard with some reference to files on the user hard disk. There must be a path match to source files, otherwise those references will be ignored
• Template - template operations
  • Save as template - save the currently displayed element as a template in the template registry. This makes it possible to use the looks of the element in other elements. Template objects such as pictures or texts are not saved with the template (unlike in earlier versions of SuperMemo). To save template with all objects use Save with objects
  • Save as default - save the current element as a template and make it the default template in the currently selected category. Choosing Alt+Ctrl+s is the fastest way to make sure that all new items added to the current category assume a given look. Save as default does not save template objects. If you would like to save objects in the default template, use Save with objects and then select this template as the default template for the current category (Search : Categories)
  • Save with objects - save the currently displayed element as a template in the template registry. The saved template will include references to texts, pictures, sounds and other objects associated with the element
  • Apply template - use a selected template from the template registry to modify the look of the element. The original look will remain untouched as the template source and can be inspected with View source (below) or restored with Detach template (below). After using Apply template, the template source can be overwritten with Impose template (below). When using Apply template, after selecting the template in the template registry, you should click the button Accept at the bottom of the template registry window to complete the operation. In applying a template, SuperMemo transfers all matching registry objects (e.g. texts, images, etc.) from the source template to the applied template. Source components that do not find their match in the applied template will become invisible
  • Replace with template - replace the current template source with a new template. The original look of the element will be lost. Replace with template is equivalent to Apply template and Impose template run in succession
  • Detach template - detach the template attached with Apply template. The original source template of the element will be exposed. The element will become template-less until a new template is applied. Changes to the element looks will affect no template
  • Impose template - overwrite the source template with the currently applied template. After Impose template, View source will have no effect as the source template will be the same as the applied template. Answer Yes to Detach template? if you want to detach the template without changing the look of the element. This will ensure that changes to the element will not affect the detached global template
  • Add template - add components from a selected template to the currently displayed element
  • View source - view the source template of the current element. The source template is the original look of the element before any template was applied with Apply template
  • Save to file - save the current element as a template file. This file can later be loaded into another collection with Load from file (see below). You can view template files with any text editor. Note that these files do not store registry objects but only references to appropriate files. This way a template file is useful only as long as the source collection remains in its original location on the disk. Once it is moved, references in the template file will be useless
  • Load from file - load a template file saved with Save to file (see above). Loading template file deletes all components and creates new components specified in the template
  • Copy template - copy the currently used template to the clipboard
  • Paste template - paste the template from the clipboard (currently displayed template will be overwritten)
• Selection - perform operations on a group of selected component. You select components by putting them in the editing mode or in the dragging mode
  • Link registry member - link a given registry member to all selected component. The components must be of the same type. For example, if the components are images, you will link to them an image file from the image registry. If they are texts, you will link a text registry member, etc.
  • Link registry font - link a selected font from the font registry to all selected components. The components must be of text or sound type
  • Alignment and size - align a group of components or change their size. This makes it easy to align left borders of components, spread them equally, make them of the same size, etc.
• Background - determine the background image used in the currently selected element. Only BMP format is currently supported for backgrounds. If you want to change the background in all elements, use Tools : Options : SuperMemo : Default background image
  • Import file - import an image file to use as the background in the currently displayed element. This file will first be integrated with the image registry. The file must be in BMP format
  • Link from registry - link the element with an image from the image registry. The linked image will be displayed as the background
  • Arrangement - determine the way the background image will be displayed
    • Top-left - display the background image in the top-left corner of the element display area
    • Center - display the background image in the center of the element display area
    • Tile - tile background image throughout the element display area, i.e. fill the element with many copies of tightly aligned bitmap
    • Stretch - stretch the background image to fill exactly the contents of the element display area. If the background image is smaller than the element it will be extended
  • Delete - remove the background image
• Color - determine the background color of the element
• Scaled - determine if components should automatically resize in proportion when you resize the whole element
• AutoPlay - make sure the element plays its first playable component each time the element is displayed. Playable components are: sound, video, script and programmed component
• Type - determine the type of the element: item, topic or task
  • Item - this is the basic element type used in the learning process. Very often items are just questions and answer. See: Topics vs. items
  • Topic - mark the current element as topic (as opposed to an item). This is mostly important to determine the way in which the element will be treated in the learning process. Topics are central to an important speed-reading technique pioneered by SuperMemo: incremental reading (see: Incremental reading)
  • Task - tasks are used in to-do lists and reading lists. If you select this option, the current element will be added to the current tasklist as a new task
• Components
  • Test repetition cycle - test the repetition cycle without making a repetition. This makes it possible to see if all components show up in proper stages of the cycle: show answer, grade, next repetition, etc.
  • Repeat Autoplay - play again the first playable component (the one played with Autoplay). This can be useful in pronunciation exercises when you want to hear again the learned word or sound
  • Next component - select the next component and set it in the editing mode
  • Previous component - select the previous component and set it in the editing mode (the currently selected component is set in the presentation mode)
  • Translate all - translate all text and sound components to the currently selected language (in Tools : Options : Language : Collection translation). If no language is selected or no translation is available, this option has no effect
  • Transliterate all - display the phonetic transcription of all text components in the currently selected language (in Tools : Options : Language : Phonetic transcription). If no phonetic registry is selected then this option has no effect. If the transcription of a given word is not found, a string of question marks will be displayed instead. This option can also be used for a quick spell-checking of your texts. Misspelled words will show as question marks. Naturally your phonetic transcription registry setting must match the language in which you are writing your collection. If your language is English, there is a 70,000-item phonetic transcription registry available from SuperMemo Library included in the collection: English Pronunciation
  • Component order - change the order of components. Order of components is important in tiling components one over the other. It is also important for AutoPlay (see above). AutoPlay plays the first playable component in component order. Similarly, SuperMemo automatically generates the element's title by using the text of the first text component in the component order
• Delete components - delete all components in the currently displayed element
• Delete element - delete the currently displayed element (same as Ctrl+Shift+Del). Note that all children of the current element in the knowledge tree will also be deleted
• Mode
  • Editing - set all components in the editing mode
  • Dragging - set all components in the dragging mode
  • Presentation - set all components in the presentation mode
  • Switch window - switch to the contents window (the same shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+W, will take you back from the contents window to the element window)
• Jump to - display another element in the element window
  • Next - display the next element according to the element order specified on the pop-up menu of the button Next
  • Previous - display the previous element according to the element order specified on the pop-up menu of the button Next
  • Next element - display the next element in the knowledge tree
  • Previous element - display the previous element in the knowledge tree
  • First element - display the root node of the entire collection
  • Last element - display the last element in the collection, i.e. the last child of the last child of the last child ... of the root node of the knowledge tree
  • Parent element - display the parent element of the current element
  • Ancestor (Alt+P) - open a window with the list of all ancestors of the current element in the knowledge tree. You can then select an ancestor by double-clicking its title in the Ancestors window

Frequently Asked Questions

You can create elements in which answers are pictures
Making a copy of an element is easy

(Bonnie Smithson, USA, Feb 24, 1998)
Question:
How do I put pictures into the answer part?
Answer:
After adding an image component to your item, check Answer on the image component pop-up menu

(Ryszard Kosowicz, Krakow, Poland, May 16, 1997)
Question:
How can I quickly copy the text of an item to another item without using clipboard twice (for question and for answer)?
Answer:
Use Duplicate on the element pop-up menu (or press Ctrl+Alt+D on the copied element)

Oct 24, 2000