SuperMemo Screenshot Tour

Contents

Collect information

SuperMemo makes it possible to learn knowledge represented as text, pictures, sounds, video, HTML and more:

SuperMemo: The element window displaying an extract produced from a larger article titled Chloroplast imported from Wikipedia

Forget about forgetting!

SuperMemo increases the speed of learning by using spaced repetition (see: What is SuperMemo?). It also increases the speed of collecting and formulating knowledge with the help of incremental reading. Incremental reading makes it possible to read literally thousands of articles without getting lost! You import articles from the web (e.g. Wikipedia) and convert them into manageable portions of knowledge:

SuperMemo: An extract produced from an article about the greenhouse effect (references (in pink) at the bottom are added automatically)

Read and remember

You can then easily convert imported articles to simple questions-and-answers that ensure that you do not forget what you have learned:

SuperMemo: A question-answer item (in the form of a cloze deletion) forming the final product of incremental reading used in strengthening the memory of a given fact (here: hypothetical temperature on Earth devoid of atmosphere)

Learn in context

For easy context recovery, source tracking and building a list of citations (author, date, journal, etc.), you can use reference labeling (pink text in the picture).

SuperMemo: References help you quickly recover the context of a given element as well as track its source and build a list of citations (in the picture: blue marks an incremental reading extract, yellow marks a search string (i.e. GABAergic REM-on neurons), while pink marks the reference field, which will propagate to all children elements (extracts and clozes))

View thousands of videos in parallel

SuperMemo also makes it possible to watch thousands of videos at the same time without getting lost! It enables you to process individual videos (imported from YouTube) in small portions with a view to long-term retention:

SuperMemo: Incremental video in action - Incremental learning about DNA wrapping and replication based on a video imported from YouTube

Visual learning

Download images dialog box available from the HTML component menu makes it possible for you to quickly get images embedded in local pages imported from the net and put them to the image registry (in the picture: A Wikipedia article on atherosclerosis):

SuperMemo: Download images dialog box makes it possible for you to get images embedded in local pages imported from the net and put them to the image registry (in the picture: A Wikipedia article on atherosclerosis)

In the same way as you split long articles into manageable extracts, which, in turn, are further converted to cloze deletions, you can also extract interesting details of very large pictures. The original picture can be retained (zooming) or discarded (extracting). In the picture, several portions of the panorama of Freiburg have been extracted into separate elements (extracts are marked on the original picture in yellow-red):

SuperMemo: The original picture of the Freiburg panorama (too large to view its details) from which 4 picture extracts (marked with bright yellow-red rectangles) have been produced

Organize knowledge

SuperMemo helps you organize all your knowledge into a knowledge tree for easy access and review:

SuperMemo: The contents window displaying the knowledge tree (i.e. the hierarchical structure of elements) of a collection

Search your knowledge base

You can easily locate individual pieces of knowledge by means of AND-search, OR-search, and NOT-search. In the picture: Search : Find elements (Ctrl+F) is used to find all elements that contain the word Alzheimer but which may also feature (but do not have to) one of the following texts: ApoE, PS1, Presenilin (the search definition is saved as Alzheimer's Disease):

SuperMemo: You can use AND, OR and NOT search to locate elements in your collection (in the picture: Search : Find elements (Ctrl+F) is used to find all elements that contain the word Alzheimer but which may also feature (but do not have to) one of the following texts: ApoE, PS1, Presenilin)

SuperMemo fully supports Unicode, incl. fast low-level search routines:

SuperMemo: You can use AND, OR and NOT search to locate elements in your collection (in the picture: Search : A new Unicode-enabled Find elements (Ctrl+F)

Web as the source of knowledge

To quickly import a large number of texts from the Internet you can make SuperMemo communicate directly with the Internet Explorer. You can import literal texts, live texts (i.e. texts that change when the external website is updated), hyperlinks or lists of hyperlinks:

SuperMemo: Importing articles about the microbiology of gastroenteritis from Wikipedia for incremental learning. All articles that have already been imported are marked as DUPLICATE!!!, those have been unchecked and will not be imported.

Browse your knowledge base

SuperMemo browser makes it possible to quickly review elements and their parameters:

SuperMemo: Browser with elements on History of War

Element filter helps you find material selected by difficulty, priority, number of reviews, etc:

SuperMemo: Element filter dialog box which you can use to browse all elements that meet your search criteria (e.g. in leech hunting)

Catalog pictures, sounds, articles, videos, references, etc.

Registries make it easy to reuse and search for multimedia objects, texts, fonts, HTML files, video, etc. The picture below shows an example of an image registry:

SuperMemo: Image registry which you can use to review images used in your collection

Category registry makes it easy to keep a large number of knowledge categories. These can be used to keep different subjects separate and to give all elements in a category a given look and priority:

SuperMemo: Category registry which you can use to review categories (and change their properties) used in your collection

References are kept in a dedicated registry while their individual text fields (e.g. title, author, date, source, etc.) are stored in the text registry, and thus are available for global text searches:

SuperMemo: References are kept in a dedicated registry while their individual text fields (e.g. title, author, date, source, etc.) are stored in the text registry, and thus are available for global text searches

Learning statistics

Learning statistics will help you supervise and understand the learning process:

SuperMemo: Statistics window that you can use to inspect the main learning parameters of your learning process

Each element has its own set of learning statistics that influence its place in the learning process:

Element data window after executing a repetition on an item about the Pascal programming language

User's forgetting rate and other memory characteristics can be inspected using statistical Analysis tools:

SuperMemo: Tools : Statistics : Analysis : Forgetting Curves graphs for 20 repetition number categories multiplied by 20 A-Factor categories

A cumulative forgetting curve can also be displayed using all repetitions data from a single collection:

SuperMemo: In SuperMemo 15, forgetting curves can be normalized over A-Factors at different repetition categories. As a result, you can display (1) your cumulative forgetting curve (blue dots) and (2) its negative exponential approximation used by SuperMemo (red line)

Your learning progress can be visualized by means of Analysis : Use statistics. For example, the picture below shows the reading workload in Incremental reading (one degree of smoothing):

SuperMemo: Topic workload in incremental reading

SuperMemo clearly demonstrates your processing capacity for high priority material on individual days. For example, the picture below shows worst misses amongst most important topics to review:

SuperMemo: Tools : Statistics : Analysis : Use : Priority protection : Topics shows your actual processing capacity for high-priority topics on individual days

Element parameters make it possible to quickly change the priority of elements, their category, template, etc.

SuperMemo: Item/Topic tab in the Element parameters dialog box

In SuperMemo, you decide how much of you material you want to remember (95% by default). Even though this means that you will forget some 10% of your items at repetition time, a vast majority will still never be forgotten within your lifespan (see an example statistic of forgotten elements below). With SuperMemo, your investment in learning is safe:

SuperMemo: Tools : Statistics : Analysis : Distributions : Lapses shows you how memory lapses are distributed in your collection

Learning Calendar

The calendar of repetitions makes it possible to see how much work is scheduled for individual days of the learning process. It also provides the record of past repetitions, newly memorized items, retention, and consolidation. If you double-click a day, you will see the list of elements scheduled for repetition on that day (in the future), or the list of elements reviewed on that day (in the past):

SuperMemo: Tools : Workload shows you the daily and monthly calendar of scheduled repetitions as well as the record of past repetitions and past retention (in the picture: the record of repetitions executed over a three-month period)

The calendar of repetitions makes it also possible to see the number of repetitions scheduled for particular months and years, as well as past repetitions, new items, retention data, etc.

SuperMemo: Tools : Workload shows you the daily and monthly calendar of scheduled repetitions as well as the record of past repetitions and past retention (in the picture: the record of repetitions executed over a three-year period)

Learning overload

A break in learning can be handled with Mercy rescheduling:

SuperMemo: You can use Mercy to make repetitions before a vacation period, randomize or reschedule outstanding repetitions, etc.

Rescheduling your learning process after a vacation break can be done using various criteria. You can start from top priority material or can opt for easiest material to be reviewed first:

SuperMemo: Repetition sorting criteria (for Mercy)

Learning history

You can inspect the history of your repetitions for individual elements:

SuperMemo: Repetition history dialog box displaying the history of repetitions for the current element

Managing sleep and learning

If you log your sleep data with SuperMemo, you will be able to visually inspect how sleep affects learning. For example, the picture below shows how grades decrease during the waking day:

SuperMemo: Tools : Sleep Chart : Alertness (H) graph makes it possible for you to visually inspect how grades decrease during the waking day. It also shows the impact of circadian factors with grades slightly lower immediately after waking and slightly higher after the mid-day dip in the 9th hour

Time management

Tasklists help you organize to-do lists. Not only related to learning. SuperMemo development itself is guided by an ever-growing tasklist:

SuperMemo: Task tab in the Element parameters dialog box

Options

Learning options make it possible to define the speed of learning, time when your 'memory day' ends (i.e. time you go to sleep), etc.

SuperMemo: Tools : Options : Learning tab

You can change the way you use the mouse with mouse options:

SuperMemo: Tools : Options : Mouse tab

Language options will help you adapt SuperMemo collections to local language needs:

SuperMemo: Tools : Options : Language tab

Help

Question of the Day will help you become familiar with the basics of SuperMemo:

SuperMemo: Question of the Day (equivalent of "Tip of the Day" in other programs)

Other functions

Floating toolbars make it easy to access many functions of the program with a single click:

SuperMemo: Main menu and Toolbar dock

SuperMemo: Read toolbar used in incremental reading SuperMemo: Compose toolbar for adding new components to your elements SuperMemo: Format toolbar for modifying text and component attributes of your elements

SuperMemo will assist you in quickly tiling components in your elements:

SuperMemo: Tiling Didier Drogba pictures with component tiling assistance

SuperMemo supports OLE. This means that you can include your MS Word files or your MS Excel files in your collection. The picture below presents an exemplary mind map imported via OLE from Mind Manager. This mind map can be edited in SuperMemo if you have Mind Manager installed (courtesy of John England, TeamLink Australia Pty Ltd):

SuperMemo: "6 steps to excellent memory" editable mind map created in Mind Manager and imported in an OLE component

If you have a server application installed, OLE component will allow you to edit the file in the native application without leaving SuperMemo via OLE in-place activation. The picture below presents how an Excel spreadsheet is being edited from inside SuperMemo (notice the standard Excel toolbars below the navigation bar):

SuperMemo: An Excel spreadsheet being edited inside SuperMemo via OLE in-place activation

SuperMemo supports HTML. You can even put an entire website into a single element in your collection.

SuperMemo: A topic about henipavirus in the HTML component on the left and 4 images taken from it with Download images (Ctrl+F8) in their individual image components on the right

Leech Alert Wizard and Leech Catcher make it easy to quickly find bottlenecks in the learning process (see: Leeches in SuperMemo):

A Leech Alert raised for an item that has already been forgotten 7 times which qualifies it as an intractable one requiring user's attention and action

When using incremental reading to process e-mail, you can use the selected text as a question in an FAQ. The FAQ will be sent as a reply, and stored in FAQ files (as HTML and/or Wiki):

SuperMemo: Reading : E-mail FAQ on the component menu makes it possible to use the selected text as a question in an FAQ. The FAQ will be sent as a reply, and stored in FAQ files (as HTML and/or Wiki).