22/2/2015 SuperMemo: Search menu

http://www.supermemo.com/help/search.htm 1/4

ABC Demos Hints&Tips Reference Overviews Glossary Buy Support Search

SuperMemo Home

Search menuEditable (wiki) version of this page

Contents1 Search menu items

1.1 Find elements1.2 Find texts1.3 Find string1.4 Find selection1.5 Search and replace1.6 Web search1.7 Texts1.8 Lexicon1.9 Images1.10 Sounds1.11 Templates1.12 Categories1.13 Tasklists1.14 References1.15 Other registries1.16 Ancestors1.17 Go to

2 Examples2.1 Image registry2.2 Category registry2.3 Lexicon registry

The Search submenu on the main menu is available at the middle and professional levels. It can be used in searching your collection for texts, pictures, fonts, etc. Many of thosesearches are done with the help of registries. Those menu items that provide access to a registry, display the number of members in the registry in parentheses (for example, theSearch menu in the picture (click to enlarge) shows that the exemplary collection stores 870,202 texts with a lexicon of 633,724 distinct words ­ note that the number is so highbecause proper names, different numbers, etc., are all stored in the lexicon as separate words):

22/2/2015 SuperMemo: Search menu

http://www.supermemo.com/help/search.htm 2/4

Search menu items

The following menu items are available:

Find elementsFind elements (Ctrl+F) ­ find all elements containing a given text. Note that some texts in SuperMemo can be displayed by means of images or OLE objects. Those will notshow up in the search. The results of the search will be displayed in the element browser. If you quit the browser, you can always return to the results of your last search withView : Search results. The texts found in the search can also be viewed in the text registry as the first registry subset. Remember that text searches run on text membernames, not on actual HTML files. Text member names can be changed (e.g. in the text registry). This is why the search may find texts that, at first, do not seem to contain thesearched string. If this happens, check the text's member name in the registry. If it differs from the text you see in SuperMemo, you can quickly bring them to alignment by justediting the text you see in HTML text components. This means, that you can also hide HTML texts from search by changing their member names. This hiding will last,however, only until the next edit of the text. Again, all edits bring text member names back to alignment with their HTML equivalents. Too see both the member name and theHTML text, right­click the component and choose Links : Registry member on the component menu (or click and press Ctrl+Shift+K).

Find textsFind texts (Ctrl+S) ­ find all texts in the text registry that contain a given string. Once you close the text registry, the results can be viewed later on by going to the first subsetin the text registry (Search : Texts followed by Alt+Right arrow). Once the results are displayed, you can do AND­search by choosing Ctrl+S again and searching for the secondstring of the AND­search pair. Choosing Ctrl+S again will make SuperMemo search only through the results of the first search. Choosing Ctrl+R will make it possible to applyFind and replace in the currently selected subset of texts (this method is much faster than Search : Search and replace)

Find stringFind string (F3) ­ find a string in the currently selected text component. Use this option to search the contents of particularly long articles. If you use Find string after Findelements, you will be able to locate the searched string in the text of elements that include the string

Find selectionFind selection ­ search for the currently selected text in the entire collection

Search and replaceSearch and replace (Ctrl+R) ­ search all entries of the text registries and replace the occurrence of one string with another.

Web searchWeb search (Ctrl+F3) ­ search for the currently selected string using search engines (e.g. Google), Wikipedia, encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other web sources. You can alsodefine your own search tools, to search for movies, actors, scientific papers, sportsmen, etc. For example, if you want to search for movies in the Internet Movie Database addthe following line to your search tools file with Define your own tools: &Movies, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="%TheText%"+imdb

TextsTexts ­ open the text registry with all texts used in the collection. The texts for the registry are contributed by the following components: plain text, Spell­Pad, RTF rich text,HTML text, and sound component

LexiconLexicon ­ open the lexicon registry (see: picture) that makes it possible to locate individual words used in the collection (except for words used in pictures, OLE objects, etc.).Note that if on­the­fly lexicon compilation is turned off (to speed up SuperMemo), some words might be missing from the list (see: Tools : Options : Access)! In such casesrun: File : Repair collection with Rebuild lexion checked. Note also that the lexicon is built from text registry member names, not from the corresponding formatted texts. Ifthose two differ (e.g. through rename in the text registry), you may see words in HTML components that will not be listed in the lexicon. To return the member name to theoriginal text, edit the text in any way (e.g. by adding a single space)

ImagesImages ­ open the image registry. You can search for a particular image with Ctrl+S once the registry is opened

SoundsSounds ­ open the sound registry

TemplatesTemplates ­ open the template registry

CategoriesCategories ­ open the category registry

TasklistsTasklists ­ open the tasklist registry. A new tasklist can be added within the current category with Add. Tasklists can be edited in the tasklist manager (Tools : Tasklist). Youcan create a new tasklist with Edit : Create tasklist

ReferencesReferences ­ open the reference registry

Other registriesOther registries

Font ­ open the font registry with fonts that are used by plain text components, sound components and spelling components. These fonts can also be used in rich textcomponent formatting; however, they are not registered with RTF or HTML text components. Changing a given font in the registry will only affect plain text components thatuse this font. Rich text components will not be modified. Their font is coded inside the text source (e.g. inside the HTML file) or in the stylesheet definition

22/2/2015 SuperMemo: Search menu

http://www.supermemo.com/help/search.htm 3/4

Translation ­ open the translation registry if a translation language has been selected. The translation registry can be selected with Tools : Options : Language :Collection translation. The actual name of this menu item depends on the name of the translation selected (e.g. French translation, Spanish translation, etc.)Pronunciation by word ­ open the lexical twin of the phonetic transcription registry (if installed and selected in Options). The phonetic transcription registry is selectedwith Tools : Options : Language : Phonetic transcriptionPronunciation by sound ­ open the transcription twin of the phonetic transcription registry (if installed and selected in Options). The phonetic transcription registry isselected with Tools : Options : Language : Phonetic transcriptionComment ­ open the comment registry. Comments are attached to elements with Comment on the element parameters dialog box in Edit : Element parameters(Ctrl+Shift+P) on the element menuVideo ­ open the video registryBinary ­ open the binary registry, which can hold objects in all imaginable formats (incl. those that are not supported by SuperMemo or even Windows). Exemplary fileformats: XLS, PDF, CHM, EXE, HLP, DOC, etc.Style ­ open the stylesheet registryScript ­ open the script registry. Note that you can edit scripts directly in the script registryOLE ­ open the registry with OLE objects created in other applications (e.g. MS Word, MS Excel, Mind Manager, etc.)

AncestorsAncestors (Shift+Ctrl+X) ­ open the Ancestors window that makes it possible to go to a given ancestor with a click

Go toGo to (Ctrl+G) ­ go to an element of a given number, i.e. display it in the element window. All elements have unique numbers that correspond with their physical location in thecollection. You can also use this option to see the number of the currently displayed element. The number of the current element is also displayed in the caption of theElement data window as well as in the caption of Element parameters dialog box (Ctrl+Shift+P)

Examples

Image registryAn exemplary image registry available with Search : Images (click to enlarge):

Category registryAn exemplary category registry available with Search : Categories (click to enlarge):

22/2/2015 SuperMemo: Search menu

http://www.supermemo.com/help/search.htm 4/4

Lexicon registryAn exemplary lexicon registry available with Search : Lexicon (click to enlarge):

Figure: Lexicon registry. In the picture, the registry keeps 633,724 words. On the left, in the top panel, an exemplary text from the collection containing the word abbasid. In thepanel below it, the word's Arabic phonetic transcription (showcasing SuperMemo's support for Unicode). In the bottom panel, the list of text registry members with the word.

Double­clicking the selected member in the list will open its corresponding entry in the text registry.