This guide will help you learn SuperMemo 2006 step by step without missing
any important function. Each step may take from a day to a
week. Advanced techniques such as incremental reading may require months
of practice. Do not rush! SuperMemo can quickly lead to confusion and
disillusionment. Pick the next step to learn only after mastering all previous steps.
- ABC in 3 minutes: You
can start using SuperMemo in 3 minutes. You only need to know two
operations:
- Add new
for
adding
new material in the form of questions and answers (keyboard shortcut: Alt+A)
- Learn for learning
(keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+L). You should use Learn daily until you see the message Nothing more to
learn

Many users never go beyond the above ABC and
still benefit greatly from SuperMemo! It is recommended that you
spend a week or so in this basic mode. Simple question-and-answer
repetition is where 90% of the users get 90% of the benefit from SuperMemo!
If you only remember to use Learn regularly and frequently back up your precious knowledge (e.g.
with Ctrl+Shift+C), the
rest of this guide can be considered optional. Warning!
For the first 3-6 days, your learning schedule will be empty and you will
have nothing to review! Keep using Add new until Learn
becomes active
- Choose the proficiency level:
you can explore SuperMemo in stages by using File : Level menu.
By default SuperMemo starts at the beginner level. After a day or two, you can move to the
basic level. The middle level will later be needed to use many of the functions described in this guide. Once you fully understand the
middle level, you can switch to the professional level
that should be the ultimate destination of users who want to explore the
most advanced functions of SuperMemo.
If you find a description of the function in SuperMemo that is not available
on a given level, you can increase the level to make the function
appear among the options. Many shortcuts will work even if the function is
not available on a given level. For example, you can view the calendar of
repetitions by pressing Ctrl+W at the beginner level even though Tools
: Workload appears only on the middle level menu
- Safety of your knowledge. Backup!
Knowledge you store in
SuperMemo might belong to your most precious data on your hard disk! After all
it cost you months or years of editing, learning, and review. You must continue
using Learn indefinitely to make sure you never forget what you have learned. This is why backup
skills are so important! Use Ctrl+Shift+C to copy your learning
material to a new location. You should make a copy on a different
hard disk every few days and on other media every month or so. Read more: Safety
of your knowledge
- Help:
you can read help pages relevant to a given context in
SuperMemo by
pressing F1. If you do not have a broadband connection to the Internet, you can install
the help file on your hard disk
- Reading: if you learn from electronic
sources (e.g. the Internet), you can benefit tremendously by mastering the
technique called incremental reading. In incremental reading, you import articles
from the Internet, and convert them to questions-and-answers with a couple
of keystrokes. You can continue reading thousands of articles in parallel
without getting lost. You can add thousands of items per year and
still be able to recall 90-95%. It may take a few months of frustration
before you reach proficiency in incremental reading; however, you will
ultimately experience a seismic shift in your learning power. Invest a few
hours in reading this article: Incremental reading.
In the long run, the return on investment will be astronomic
- Regularly check if your data is not corrupted:
to be sure that your files have not been damaged by a virus, other
software, or hardware problems, use File : Repair
collection (Ctrl+F12) from time to time (e.g. once per month).
Always backup your collection before using Repair collection
- Position and size of windows:
in the beginning you often dislike the size and positions of windows and
dialogs in SuperMemo. You can change that. Your favorite
layout will depend
on your monitor's resolution, interface font used in SuperMemo,
the size the element window and your learning
habits. To save the current layout, press Ctrl+Shift+F5 (Window
: Layout : Save as default). You can save more layouts and
then choose between them by choosing an appropriate number on the Window
menu. If you would like to include learning statistics in your layout, you
might first open the statistics windows (e.g. by pressing F5). If you
would like to preview the ancestor path of the current element, you could also
open the ancestor path window with Ctrl+Shift+A. If
you open, move and/or size many windows, you
can always get back to your favorite layout by pressing Ctrl+F5 (Window
: Layout : Apply default layout). You can also add or delete layouts
with Window : Layout : Layout manager (Ctrl+Alt+Y)
- Searching your collection: to quickly
locate elements in your collection press Ctrl+F or choose the button Search
on the element toolbar. Use this option also for AND-search,
OR-search, etc.
- Make your knowledge easy to remember:
read 20 rules of
formulating knowledge in learning to review most important principles
that will make sure you will remember with minimum effort
- Principles of success in learning: with years
passing by, you will develop healthy learning habits that will make sure
your work with SuperMemo is both effective and enjoyable. You can save
months of experimenting if you read
Ten Commandments of a Highly Efficient User of SuperMemo
- Processing knowledge: you should
remember that all your learning material requires endless attention. You
should review your elements for usefulness, correct formulation, logic,
grammar, etc. When an
element comes up for a repetition, you should make a quick and nearly instinctive
assessment of the following:
- Do I really need this element?
- Do I really need to know it now? Or can
I learn it later?
- Is this element difficult to remember? If so,
why?
- Is it factually correct?
- Is it as simple and clear as possible?
Here are some typical actions you will take
depending on the answer to the above questions (some keyboard shortcuts may not work
at lower difficulty levels):
- correcting an element. In case of
questions and answers, you can use keys such as Q, A, or E
to enter a text field and change it. In more complex elements you can use Ctrl+T to circle between
components, or use Alt+click
to switch a component between editing and dragging modes
- rescheduling the element.
You can manually change the date of the next review. If you know the
element well, you can increase the interval remaining till the next
review. If the element is very important, you can reduce the interval.
Press Ctrl+J to select the
date of the next review. If you have just reviewed the element, you
should first use Ctrl+Alt+R to
inform SuperMemo about the review
- dismissing an element. If you are
sure you are not likely to need the element in the future, but you would
like to keep it in your collection for reference or archival purposes,
press Ctrl+D. Dismissed elements are removed from the learning
process (and from the pending queue)
- deleting the item or an
article. The key Del
is very useful in cleaning your collection from garbage. You can
use Done with Ctrl+Shift+Enter to delete the content of an
element without deleting its children
- forgetting an element. If you think
the element is too difficult or not important enough at the moment, you can
decide to learn it later. For this purpose, press Ctrl+R to remove it from the
learning process. This will put it at the end of the pending queue
- One body of knowledge: it is
recommended that you keep all your knowledge in one collection (you can
create new collections with File : New collection). Here are the
benefits of one body of knowledge:
- you do not have to open a number of
collections each day to make repetitions (you can still learn
only selected branches if you wish so)
- you can keep one global learning process
and one set of statistics (branch statistics are also
available to inform you of the progress in individual branches)
- repetitions of mixed-up material are more
entertaining and verifiably boost
your creativity! You will be amazed how this
affects your ability to come up with new ideas and unexpectedly associate
facts relating to completely different subjects. The fun of
diversified learning material will make it easier for you to stick with
your own learning resolutions!
- you will eliminate a very
frequent problem: neglecting some collections at the cost of others. The
only rational way of controlling the flow of knowledge and the right
proportions between branches is to use the tools provided by SuperMemo.
Neglect and procrastination do not belong to these tools. Multiple
collections make it easier for you to fail your own learning plans!
If you have already created a couple of
collections, you can merge them by using File : Merge collection.
Open the collection that is to be merged with your main body of knowledge,
choose Merge collection, and point to the collection that keeps the
main body of knowledge
- Statistics of the learning process: you will
understand your memory better if you learn to interpret the statistics of
the learning process:
- you can see the calendar of repetitions by
pressing Ctrl+W or choosing Tools
: Workload
- you can conveniently view learning
statistics by pressing F5. For interpretation of individual
parameters see: Learning statistics
and Element statistics. You can
preserve the layout with statistics windows by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F5
- you can monitor your progress with Tools
: Statistics : Analysis
(Ctrl+Alt+I). For example, the Use
tab will show you the graphs of your daily progress (e.g. number of
memorized elements, recall rate, etc.)
- Adding pictures, sound and video: you can easily
add new texts, images, sounds and other components to your elements. New
components are most conveniently added with Edit
: Add components
on
the main menu.
You can also drag components from the Compose toolbar available with Edit : Add components
or Window : Toolbars : Compose. To drag a
component click the appropriate button on the component toolbar (e.g. text
button, image button, etc.) and then click twice on the empty area in the element
window: (1) first
at the place where you want to place the top-left corner of your component,
and then (2) at the place for the bottom-right corner of the new component.
Read about templates below to learn how to automate this process. The
easiest way to add pictures to your elements is to paste them from clipboard
(Ctrl+V or Shift+Ins). The easiest way to add texts is to
paste them with Ctrl+Alt+N
- Improving the look of your items: you can easily change the attributes of
elements and their components by using menus available with a right click.
There are two menus you will need to become familiar with:
- Element menu
(Alt+F10) which can be opened by a right click over an empty element area or over
the element toolbar. Some exemplary functions
of the element menu that help you change the look of the element:
- Color changes the color of the
element
- Edit : Title (Alt+T) makes it possible to edit the
title of the element or select a text to be used as the title
- Delete components deletes
selected components from an element
- Edit : Duplicate (Ctrl+Alt+D) creates
an exact copy of the current element in your collection
- Edit : Swap Q&A (Shift+Ctrl+S)
swaps the question with the answer (e.g. when learning words of a
foreign language)
- Template : Apply template (Ctrl+Shift+M)
allows you to choose from a list of looks defined earlier and change
the style of your element
- Component
menu (Alt+F12) which can be opened by a right click over a selected component.
Some exemplary functions of the component menu that help you change the
look of components (these functions may or may not
appear on the menu depending on the context):
- Color changes the color of the
component
- Import file makes it possible to show a
given file inside the component (e.g. picture, HTML file, etc.)
- Text : Edit font changes
the font of the selected text
- Delete component removes
the
component
- Display at defines when the component should
be visible (e.g. at answer time) and when it should be hidden (e.g.
at question time)
You can use Alt+click over a component
to switch it to the editing mode. This will make it possible to resize the
component, edit texts, etc. If you Alt+click the component again, it
will switch to the dragging mode in which you will also be able to move it
to another location in the element area. Press Esc to switch the
components back to the presentation mode
- Automating changes
to the look of elements: you do
not need to change the look of elements over and over again. You do not need
to create components again and again. It is enough
you define a so-called template to be able to reuse a given component
arrangement. The
most important things to know about templates:
Remember that topics and items
should have their separate templates as these affect their behavior and look
during learning. For more information about templates see: Using
templates
- Building knowledge tree: you can organize the
structure of your knowledge in the contents window.
Choose Contents at the top of the element
window to switch to the contents window. To find out how to create the
knowledge structure see: Creating the structure of the
knowledge tree. Remember that the structure of your tree is not
essential for learning! However, a good structure can make it easier to
locate portions of materials for review
- Organizing knowledge into categories: you can give items
belonging to different branches of the knowledge tree a different look and a
different priority. This way you will easily differentiate between items
belonging to fields such as geography, biology, sociology, etc. You
can move an item to a new category by opening Element
parameters dialog box (e.g. with Ctrl+Shift+P) and choosing the
category from the list (the Category list box). When you move an item
to a category, you can choose if it should use that category's template to
determine its look. Read: Using categories
- Which text
components
are for you?
You are most likely to use HTML text components in incremental
reading (if you do not have the latest Internet Explorer, use rich text
components instead). HTML components make text processing easy due to rich formatting.
However, once your items assume their final shape, you might prefer to
convert them to plain text components which are faster and consume less
space. You can do it by selecting the Classic template as the default
template in your target category (see: Using categories).
You can use several different SuperMemo components to represent text. To
understand pros and cons of using various text components see: Text
components used in SuperMemo. See also: Fonts in
SuperMemo
- Items you hate: even with a great deal
of experience and perfect understanding of knowledge structure, you will meet items that by no means want to stick to your memory. Usually,
60% of items will not even be forgotten once! However, there are always a
few items that you might forget 10 times, or even 20 times. 5% of your items
may cost you 80% of your learning time (and 99% of frustration). In most cases, the fault
is with you, the items must simply be reformulated (see: 20
rules of formulating knowledge). However, some items just seem un-memorizable! Those do not indicate your memory is bad! They are a usual
companion of every learning process, and you must roll out the heavy guns
to deal with them. You will use whatever mnemonic
technique comes to mind: add examples, illustrations, poke fun, make it
indecent or shocking, create a mind-map, re-memorize with a longer interval (this will often break
the unhealthy memory connection) or, in most desperate
cases, delete the item altogether. Any items with above 20 memory lapses makes a good
candidate for deleting. Such an item may simply not be worth the cost in
your time. To find out which options can help you hunt for trouble-making
items see: Leeches
- The power of browsers and subsets: for managing
and reviewing large collections, you will find browsers indispensable.
Browsers are available with the View menu. Most
of all, browsers will let you work with subsets of elements in your
collection. Here are some ways in which browsers can boost your learning:
- review the subset of elements
- move a subset of elements to another SuperMemo (e.g. for repetitions
on your handheld computer)
- postpone repetitions in a subset of elements
- memorize a subset of elements, dismiss a subset of elements,
shift elements to the end of the pending
queue, etc.
- compute selected learning statistics for a subset
of elements
- change the template in a subset of elements
- transfer a subset of elements to another collection
- run random test or random learning on a subset of
elements
- move a subset of elements to a selected branch or category
- sort a subset of elements by title, priority, difficulty,
last repetition date, next repetition date, interval, etc.
- sort repetitions (e.g. from long to
short intervals, or from difficult to easy items, etc.)
- export a subset of elements as text (e.g. as
questions and answers)
- change the priority, the forgetting index or
the ordinal number in a
subset of elements (increase, spread equally, modify, shift, etc.)
- manipulate element sets (e.g. select all elements belonging to one set and not belonging to another, select only memorized
items in a set, combine two sets, save a set to a file for future use,
etc.)
- perform advanced collection searches such as
AND-search, OR-search, XOR-search, etc.
To read more about browsers and subsets see:
- browser (what parts make
a browser window)
- browser menu (what
important operations can be made on browsers)
- browser toolbar (what
shortcut buttons are available on the browser toolbar)
- subset learning (how to review only
portions of your collection)
- using subsets (how to use
element subsets in SuperMemo)
- View menu
(what kind of browsers are available)
- How much do you remember?
To choose how much you want to remember and how much work you
want to put in different
branches of knowledge, SuperMemo introduces the concept of the forgetting
index. See: Using the forgetting index
- Distributing your own learning material
among others:
if you would like others to use your learning material, you can follow these
steps:
- remove from your collection comments and elements that are specific to your own needs (you can use the comments
registry or comment filters to keep your own comments in a continually
developed collection)
- remove your learning process from the
collection by running: File : Tools : Reset
collection
- if necessary, sort your collection by
ordinals (numbers that can be used to determine the sequence of
learning), by difficulty, by priority, or by the sequence of elements in the knowledge
tree (at the end of Reset collection SuperMemo will ask you if
you would like to sort the collection by ordinals or by the knowledge
tree hierarchy)
- you can redistribute your collection
free or commercially without anybody's permission