Search menu: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Find elements: Component -> component menu)
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=== Search and replace  ===
=== Search and replace  ===


*'''Search and replace''' - search all entries of the text registries and replace the occurrence of one string with another. For large collections, it is faster to first search for the string to replace with ''Ctrl+S'' and execute '''Find and replace''' only on the subset of texts with ''Ctrl+R''
*'''Search and replace''' (''Ctrl+R'') - search all entries of the text registries and replace the occurrence of one string with another. For large collections, it is faster to first search for the string to replace with ''Ctrl+S'' and execute '''Find and replace''' only on the subset of texts with ''Ctrl+R''


=== Web search  ===
=== Web search  ===

Revision as of 10:39, 18 August 2013

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 those searches 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, the Search menu in the picture (click to enlarge) shows that the exemplary collection stores 736,683 texts with a lexicon of 633,725 distinct words - note that the number is so high because proper names, different numbers, etc., are all stored in the lexicon as separate words):

SuperMemo: Search menu which you can use to search your collection for texts, images, sounds, templates, categories, references, fonts, etc.

Search menu items

The following menu items are available:

Find elements

  • Find 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 not show 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 with View : 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 member names, 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 the searched 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 just editing the text you see in SuperMemo. This means, that you can also hide texts from search by changing their member names. This hiding will work, 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 the HTML text, right-click the component and choose Links : Registry member on the component menu (or click and press Ctrl+Shift+K).

Find texts

  • Find 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 subset in the text registry (Search : Texts followed by Alt+Right arrow). Once the results are displayed, you can do AND-search by choosing Ctrl+S again and searching for the second string of the AND-search 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 apply Find and replace in the currently selected subset of texts (this method is much faster than Search : Search and replace)

Find string

  • Find 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 Find elements, you will be able to locate the searched string in the text of elements that include the string

Find selection

  • Find selection - search for the currently selected text in the entire collection

Search and replace

  • Search and replace (Ctrl+R) - search all entries of the text registries and replace the occurrence of one string with another. For large collections, it is faster to first search for the string to replace with Ctrl+S and execute Find and replace only on the subset of texts with Ctrl+R

Web search

  • Web search (Ctrl+F3) - search for the currently selected string using search engines (e.g. Google), Wikipedia, encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other web sources. You can also define 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 add the following line to your search tools file with Define your own tools: &Movies, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="%TheText%"+imdb

Texts

  • Texts - open the text registry with all texts used in the collection. The texts for the registry are contributed by the following components: plain text, Spell-Pad, RTF rich text, HTML text, and sound component

Lexicon

  • Lexicon - 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 on-the-fly lexicon compilation is turned off (to speed up SuperMemo), some words might be missing from the list (see: Tools : Options : Access)! In such cases run: 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. If those 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 the original text, edit the text in any way (e.g. by adding a single space)

Images

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

Sounds

  • Sounds - open the sound registry

Templates

Categories

Tasklists

  • Tasklists - 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). You can create a new tasklist with Edit : Create tasklist

References

  • References - open the reference registry

Other registries

  • Other 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 text component 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 that use 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
    • 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 translationSpanish 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 selected with Tools : Options : Language : Phonetic transcription
    • Pronunciation by sound - open the transcription twin of the phonetic transcription registry (if installed and selected in Options). The phonetic transcription registry is selected with Tools : Options : Language : Phonetic transcription
    • Comment - 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 menu
    • Video - open the video registry
    • Binary - open the binary registry, i.e. the registry with objects such as executable files, help files (HLP or CHM), MPEG files, and all imaginable files (including in formats that are not supported by Windows)
    • Style - open the stylesheet registry
    • Script - open the script registry. Note that you can edit scripts directly in the script registry
    • OLE - open the registry with OLE objects created in other applications (e.g. MS Word, MS Excel, Mind Manager, etc.)

Ancestors

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

Go to

Examples

Image registry

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

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

Category registry

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

Lexicon registry

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

SuperMemo: Lexicon registry which you can use to find a word in your collection as well as all texts and elements that use this word