Components in SuperMemo are texts, images, sounds, buttons and other objects that can be used in composing a single page displayed by SuperMemo.

Each component can have its appearance and behavior changed by means of options available from its own pop-up menu. To open a component pop-up menu right-click over the component.

The list of options presented on this page describes all possible options you can find on component pop-up menus of different component types. As these options are often the same for various component types, they are all described here. A given component might not display an option that is irrelevant (e.g. Insert OLE object appears only in OLE components, while Delete component is common to all components).

Component shortcuts work only on the current component. In editing mode the current component is marked with a dark shadow. For example, Ctrl+K will link a registry member with the current component. You can move to editing another component by using Ctrl+T. This keyboard shortcut makes the next component the current component. After pressing Ctrl+T, all shortcuts will refer to the newly selected component.

You can switch a given component to editing mode and make it current by pressing Alt and clicking the component. If you repeat this operation, the component will be switched to the dragging mode. If you Alt+click the component again, it will return to the display mode. Alt+click is very useful; try it now several times on any component.

Important! HTML components and OLE components display their own pop-up menus in the presentation mode. HTML components display typical internet browser pop-up menu while OLE components display the menu dependent on the OLE server that handles a given OLE object (e.g. if you use an MS Word OLE object, MS Word pop-up menu will be opened if you right click over the OLE component).

Alt+click on the empty element area will act as if all components were Alt+clicked. This is the fastest way of switching all components to the editing mode (or later to the dragging mode and back to the display mode). You will also need Alt+click on the element area to switch the mode of OLE and HTML components that do not respond to Alt+click by themselves.

The component pop-up menus include a subset of the following options:

• Reading - options available from text and rich text components and used in processing reading lists and longer text components (see the articles Incremental reading and Reading the Internet to find a detailed description of how to use the options on the Reading submenu)
  • Queue extract - use the selected part of the text to create a new element and put this new element in the pending queue
  • Remember extract - use the selected part of the text to create a new element and memorize this new element
  • Schedule extract - use the selected text to create a new element and schedule its repetition on a given day (same as Remember extract but you can select the first interval)
  • Task extract - use the selected part of the text to create a new element and put this element on the current tasklist
  • Queue cloze - create a new cloze deletion element based on the current text selection and put this element in the pending queue
  • Remember cloze - create a new cloze deletion element based on the current text selection and memorize this element
  • Schedule cloze - create a new cloze deletion and schedule it for repetition on a given day
  • Ignore - ignore the selected text in reading and mark it with the ignore font
  • E-mail - send the selected text via e-mail
  • Read-points - mark or unmark a portion of text to resume reading at later time
    • Set read-point - mark the selected text as the point from which you will resume reading the next time you come to this element
    • Go to read-point - go to the text that has been selected as the read-point
    • Clear read-point - remove the read-point from the currently processed text
• View in browser - view the contents of an HTML component in your default web browser
• Insert HTML link - insert a link into the source HTML code in HTML components in editing mode
  • Element - insert a hyperlink to another element in the collection (for details see Insert HTML link)
  • Text registry - insert a hyperlink to another text in the text registry (including unformatted text and HTML text)
  • HTML file - insert a hyperlink to a stand-alone HTML file anywhere on your hard disk or a network drive
  • Web address - insert a hyperlink to a file available from the Internet
  • Registry image - insert an image from the image registry
• Insert OLE object - insert a file into your OLE component. This file might be an MS Word document, Excel spreadsheet, Mind Manager mind-map, Corel clipart, MS Equation, chemical formula, animation, video, etc. The number of files you could reuse is only limited by OLE servers installed in your Windows. Once your create a collection with OLE objects, you can redistribute your files among users who do not have corresponding server applications. For example, if you insert a Mind Manager mind map and your customer does not have Mind Manager installed, he will still be able to use your collection. He will not, however, be able to edit the mind map. This would require having Mind Manager installed. The dialog box displayed with Insert OLE object makes it possible to select one of the two options:
  • create a new OLE file (you only have to pick from the list of OLE servers available in your installation such as Bitmap Image, Wave Sound, WordPad Document, etc.)
  • create an OLE file from an original document (e.g. MS Word document or MS Excel chart)
• OLE properties - display the properties of the OLE object
• Links
  • Registry member - link the current component with a selected registry member. For example, if you have an image component and would like to display an image named Elephant: (1) choose Links : Registry member, (2) select the image in the image registry, and (3) click Accept (or press Enter). You can search for the image in the registry with Ctrl+S to narrow the number of candidate images to link. You can repeat Ctrl+S to narrow the search. Important! The image Elephant must be present in your image registry. If you would like to import a new image, use Import file instead
  • Hyperlink - select, in the contents window, the element to which the component should be hyperlinked to. After this operation, clicking the component will automatically open the hyperlinked element in the element window
  • Hyperlink number - link the current component with another element by typing in its number. Note that it is much easier to create hyperlinks using the option Hyperlink above
  • Font - choose a font for the current component from the font registry (choose Accept after you select the font)(this option is equivalent to Text : Link Font on this same menu)
  • Play on click - link the current component with another playable component (e.g. sound, video, script, etc.). When the user clicks your component, the linked component will be played
  • External file - link the current component with an external file (i.e. file that is not integrated with your collection). Note that linking to external files reduces the size of the collection but the link can be easily severed if the file is moved to a new location or when you move your collection to another computer. Unlike External file, the option Import file will integrate the external file with the collection and increase its size. You can also use Links : External file first and later use Internalize files on the registry pop up menu (e.g. to integrate all images or all sounds) 
  • Delete registry link - delete the current registry link in the current component. This operation removes links created with Links : Registry member and Links : External file. Note that if the deleted link was the last link to the registry member in question, this member may be deleted with or without warning (depending on the registry type)(compare: Edit : Delete file)
  • Delete hyperlink - delete a hyperlink from the current component (i.e. break the link with another element)
• Copy/Cut/Paste - standard copy, cut and paste operations
  • Undo - undo last text editing
  • Cut - cut the object to the clipboard (i.e. copy it to the clipboard and delete it)
  • Copy - copy text or image to the clipboard
  • Paste - paste text or image from the clipboard
  • Delete - delete text or image
  • Select all - select the entire text in the edited text component 
• Search - search long texts, rich texts or the source text in HTML components
• Import file - import a file to the registry associated with the current component (e.g. image registry in the case of an image component). Import file creates a link from the current component to the newly created registry member (e.g. the imported picture or sound). For example, if you want your sound component to play a given MP3 file, choose Import file, pick the MP3 file in the file dialog box and click Open. Your MP3 file will be integrated with the sound registry and a link to this file will be registered with the current component. Unlike the option External file, Import file will create a copy of the imported file in the elements folder and increase the size of the collection. Optionally, Import file can delete the originally imported file (e.g. to speed up integrating downloaded images with your collection)
• Image - options related to image components
  • Stretch image - display the current image stretched to the size of the current component. If the image is smaller or larger than the image component, it will be shrunk or stretched to the appropriate size
  • Edit hit-area - edit hot-spots used by scripts commands DRAGMATCH and HITTEST
  • Transparent - make the current image transparent. The image background will become transparent and will instead show the components or the background image lying underneath the current image component
  • Convert to JPG - convert the currently used BMP file to the JPEG format
  • Convert to GIF - convert the currently used BMP file to the GIF file
• Sound and video - options related to sound and video components
  • Panel - select the control panel for sound or video components
    • None - display sounds as text-only and videos as display-only
    • Buttons - display a control panel with buttons such as play, stop, rewind, etc.
    • Slider - display a control panel with a slider for easily rewinding the sound or video
    • Recorder - display the alternative control panel for sound components with buttons dedicated to comparing user recorded sound with the original sound. This panel is useful in pronunciation exercises where the user is suppose to record himself and compare his recording with the original recording of a native speaker
  • Extract section - extract a section of the sound or video file to be played by the component. For example, if you want to create a number of exercises based on the same longer video scene, you can use this option to make each exercise play only a section of the video file without wasting disk space
  • Frames - select the speed of video fast forward (i.e. the number of frames to skip in incremental rewinding or moving forward)
• Shape - options related to shape and line components
  • Line thickness - select the thickness of lines
  • Line style - select the line style (e.g. solid, dashed, dotted, etc.)
  • Brush style - select the style of the shape texture (e.g. solid, crossed, etc.)
• Script - edit the script in script components. Script can put your to life. For details see: Using scripts in SuperMemo
• Button text - change the text on buttons used in script and programmed components
  • Play - change the text displayed before the script or program is executed
  • Stop - change the text displayed when the script or program is running
• Text - change properties of various text components (text, Spell-Pad, sound, and RTF)
  • Edit font - change the currently used font. The new font is applied to the selected text in rich text components or to the whole text in plain text components
  • New font - add a new font to the font registry and use it with the selected plain text component
  • Link font - choose a font for the current component from the font registry (choose Accept after you select the font)(this option is equivalent to Link : Font)
  • Alignment - determine the text alignment
    • Left - align all texts to the left
    • Center - position all texts in the center
    • Right - align all texts to the right
  • Transparent - make text transparent in plain text components. Transparent texts show the components or the background image lying underneath the text component. Otherwise, they are displayed on the uniform background determined by the option Color
  • Case sensitive - make Spell-Pad case-sensitive
  • Plain text - convert formatted text in rich text components into plain text. Plain text takes much less space than formatted text 
  • Print - print richly formatted text in rich text components
  • Copy transcription - copy the phonetic transcription of the current text component to the clipboard. This option will have no effect if the phonetic transcription registry is empty
• Color - choose a color for the current component (this option will override the transparent attribute in text components)
• Default color - choose the default color for the component (the default color is the same as the background color in the current element)
• Border - show or hide a border around the current component
• Display at - determine when a component should be visible. If you clear all checkboxes, the component will become invisible (e.g. acting like a placeholder for sound or a script)
• Play at - determine when a sound component should play. If you clear all checkboxes, the component will become muted. If you check all checkboxes, the sound will play on each step of the repetition cycle
• Answer - make a component an answer. This will make the component invisible at the moment of asking questions during repetitions. Note that Answer is a quick way to choose an appropriate subset at Display at (click Answer and see changes in the dialog box displayed with Display at)
• MCT - determine which components will take part in a multiple-choice test
  • None - component is not used in a multiple-choice test or is only used as a question, comment, etc.
  • Wrong - component makes a wrong response in a multiple-choice test. If the user clicks this component, he will be graded Fail
  • Correct - component makes a good response in a multiple-choice test. If the user clicks this component, he will be graded Good
• Delete component - delete the current component. If this component uses the last link to a given registry member (i.e. no other components link to this member), the member will also be deleted (in case of sounds, images, videos, etc. you will first be asked to confirm deleting the registry file)
• Edit
  • Paste special - use the paste special command on an OLE object
  • Move to ClipBox - move the component to the ClipBox
  • Edit file - edit the registry file associated with the component (e.g. sound file in sound components, bitmap file in image components, rich text in rich text components, HTML text in HTML components, etc.). Edit file will use the default editor assigned for editing files of the selected type in your Windows installation. To quickly edit files, use Ctrl+T to switch to the appropriate component and press F9. For example, if you use MS Office, F9 on rich text components will launch MS Word, while F9 on HTML components will launch Front Page and open the associated HTML file
  • Delete file - delete the file associated with the current component (compare Delete registry link)
  • Select previous component - set the current component in the presentation mode and set the previous component in the editing mode (anti-clockwise)
  • Select next component - set the current component in the presentation mode and set the next component in the editing mode
• Mode - determine how the component is displayed and processed
  • Presentation mode - display the component in the way it will be seen by the user
  • Editing mode - prepare the component for editing or sizing
  • Dragging mode - prepare the component for dragging or sizing
  • Send to back - send the component to the back behind all components lying currently underneath

Frequently Asked Questions

You can add pictures to your items and make them show only at answer time
You can add a sound recorder

(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

(Gabor Schmera, USA, Dec 13, 1997)
Question:
How do I add a recorder component to my items (as it is done in Advanced English 97)?
Answer:
Add a sound component and check Sound : Panel : Recorder on this pop-up menu.

(Oct 16, 2000)