The look of elements

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Revision as of 12:23, 19 August 2009 by WikiSysop (talk | contribs) (Fixing broken link to "Beginner FAQ")
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After you add new elements, you will often want to make them look differently.

If you want to change the way your new items look, you will need to learn some more advanced options of SuperMemo. This way you will be able to change colors, change fonts, add pictures, add sound, use multiple choice tests, etc.

Important! You may need to change the difficulty level with File : Level to make sure that some of the options below are available.

This is the list of skills that will help you change the way your learning material looks, and the way it is organized:

  1. Component menu - if you right-click over a question or an answer, you will see a component menu. For example, select some text, right-click the selection, and choose Text : Font : Edit font on the component menu. This way you will be able to change the font in the selected text (this method will only work in HTML and RTF text components)
  2. Element menu - if you press Alt+F10 (or right-click over the element toolbar), you will see the element menu. For example, choose Color on the element menu. This way you will be able the change the color of the element
  3. Compose toolbar - if you choose Window : Toolbars : Compose you will see the Compose toolbar. It will help you add various component types to your elements (e.g. pictures, sound, video, mind maps, etc.). You can also use Edit : Add component menu for the same purpose. There is more. For example, to paste a picture from the clipboard, press Shift+Ins or Ctrl+V. If a new image does not paste, press Esc a few times (e.g. to complete the current editing operation). If the image still does not paste, make sure it is indeed stored in the clipboard. Check also if you collection is not set as Read only (Tools : Options : Access)
  4. Templates - a template is a definition of an element's appearance. For example, you can define an element that contains a description text, a picture and a spelling-test component. You can save such an element as a template and make sure all your new elements look this way. See it in action: change the colors of your element and choose Template : Save as default (Ctrl+Alt+M) on the element menu. Add new will now add elements that look like your modified element
  5. Categories - if you want to divide your learning material into sections such as Biology, Geography, Chemistry, etc. you can use categories. A category is a group of elements that have a similar look and belong to the same section of the knowledge tree

See also: Beginner FAQ