To add a new
question-answer item
to SuperMemo press Alt+A and type in the texts. Use Esc
to move from the question field to the answer field and to finish
To review your learning material choose Ctrl+L or press the Learn button
To search for all elements containing a
given string, press Ctrl+F, type the string, and press Enter
The key Esc is used
throughout SuperMemo to close windows, dialog boxes, and to restore defaults
such as the default layout, presentation state, default element, etc.
Basic level
To move from the beginner
level to the basic level, choose File : Level : Basic
To see the calendar of repetitions, press Ctrl+W
(same as Tools : Workload on the main
menu)
If you see an important element, you can increase its priority by pressing
Ctrl+Shift+Up (same as Learning : Priority : Increase on the element
menu). This will increase the frequency with which the element will be
presented
To move an element to another branch in the contents
window, press Ctrl+Shift+V, select the new location in the tree
and choose Accept (or Enter)
To send an element via e-mail press the
e-mail button on the element toolbar
Apart from simple question-answer
repetitions, SuperMemo supports incremental
reading - a technique that makes reading and learning yet
more efficient. Read more: Incremental reading
(see also Incremental reading tips
below)
To introduce the currently displayed element into the learning process press Ctrl+M(memorize) or
choose Rememberat the bottom of the
element window.
Note that Ctrl+M during repetitions is equivalent to
re-memorizing the element and re-starting repetitions all over again
starting with short intervals. You should
use this option in case you substantially reedit the item. This will let
SuperMemo know you are dealing with an entirely new piece of information
To completely remove an element
from the learning process, choose the button Dismiss. This will make the element invisible
to the
learning process, but still available for browsing, search, etc. During repetitions, when button
Dismiss is not visible, you can choose Ctrl+D to dismiss the
current element. To
completely delete the element from the collection choose Ctrl+Shift+Del
(simple Del will also work in most contexts)
To edit texts in a previously
introduced element, find the element, click the text and use editing keys (Q, A, E,
Ctrl+E, etc.). To edit texts with a click, Tools : Options : Mouse :
Edit texts : On click must be checked (default)
If you suspect a file damage, press Ctrl+F12
and make a quick checkup of your most important files
To change the interface font used
by SuperMemo, press Ctrl+Shift+O, and choose Fonts : Interface
font
To move an element to another collection,
press Ctrl+Shift+T and choose the target collection
To create or modify the
structure of the knowledge tree read: Knowledge tree
If you change the color of your element, or
the size of the components, or their type, etc. you can preserve the
"new look" by using templates. Save the present look as the
default template with Ctrl+Alt+M (Template : Save as default
on the element menu). Use
Ctrl+Shift+M to apply a new template. Read more: Using
templates
If you want Alt+A (Add
new)to add elements
only to a given branch in the contents window, select this branch in the contents window
and press Ctrl+K. This will create a new category in
that branch. To change the category in use, choose in the category combo box
on the Tools toolbar.
Use Ctrl+Shift+P to move an element to another category by
changing the Category field. Read more: Using categories
In HTML, you can use Shift+Enter to
start a new line single-spaced (as opposed to double-spaced Enter).
This inserts the <br> tag as opposed to the <p>
tag
Professional level
To display the statistics, press F5. You can use layouts to preserve your best window layout setting:
arrange the windows the way you like it and choose Window
: Layout : Save as default or simply press Ctrl+Shift+F5
To sweep away those pesky toolbars, press Alt+F5. Return to your
original layout with Ctrl+F5
If you had a break in learning and cannot
cope with outstanding repetitions, use Learn : Postpone
To locate and get rid of the most difficult
or badly-structured material use View : Other : Leeches or Tools : Options : Leeches : Wizard.Read more: Leeches
in SuperMemo
If you prefer to use keyboard as opposed to
the mouse, read about keyboard shortcuts
If you would like to move your repetitions to another SuperMemo, read
about XML in SuperMemo
If you want to move an element to the end of
the queue of elements awaiting memorization, choose the button Forget(during repetitions, when this button is not visible,
you can choose Ctrl+R to accomplish the same). This will delay the
introduction of the element into the learning process until the time when
all elements from the pending queue
have been reviewed
To turn on and off the status bar, check or uncheck Window :
Status bar. The same refers to toolbars
used in SuperMemo
To paste an article from your web browser to
SuperMemo: (1) switch to the browser, (2) select the text (e.g. with Ctrl+A),
(3) copy the text to the clipboard (e.g. with Ctrl+C), (4) switch
back to SuperMemo (e.g. with Alt+Tab), (5) press Ctrl+Alt+N in
SuperMemo
To manually type in some notes use Ctrl+N
You should use Ctrl+N and Ctrl+Alt+N
(as above) as your primary way of adding notes and articles to SuperMemo in incremental
reading
To randomize repetitions on a given day, use Ctrl+Shift+F11
(Learn
: Random : Randomize repetitions). You should always randomize
repetitions if SuperMemo presents more material for review than you can cope
with
To review the material belonging to a single subject, open the subject in
the browser (e.g. by using Ctrl+F), and
use Learning : Review topics or Learning : Review all. Review
topics will let you review topics related to the subject. Review all will
additionally force mid-interval repetition of all items in the subset
(except those that have already been repeated today). See: Subset
learning
If you have many pages opened in Internet Explorer, you can import them
all with Shift+F8 (Edit :
Import web pages)
To postpone all outstanding articles (topics) use:
(1) View : Outstanding, (2) Child : Topics (browser
menu), and (3) Learning : Postpone (browser
menu or Ctrl+Alt+P). You can use this
procedure each time you run out of time for repetitions. This way, you will
be able to spend your last minutes on making item repetitions (see: active-recall)
To postpone all items in a branch (e.g. To Do branch):
(1) choose this branch in the contents window,
(2) choose View : Branch (contents
menu or Ctrl+Shift+Enter), (3) Child : Items (browser
menu),and (3) Learning : Postpone (browser
menu or Ctrl+Alt+P)
To ensure the optimum proportion between reading and
repetitions, you could divide your work with SuperMemo into two parts: (1)
random review of articles and items, and (2) repetitions of outstanding
items. Allocate strict time slots for both activities and postpone topics
before Step 2. You can also define more steps in which you will gradually
reduce the subset of elements subject to review. In your last stage you will
only make repetitions of the most important items