SuperMemo

Hi Tom, Michael and whoever knows SuperMemo,

Recently, I seriously consider buying SuperMemo 2002. However, I have a few questions that I hope someone can help.

1. If I am still using IE 5.0, can I still use SuperMemo 2002? I don't understand why this prog. has anything to do with the network software.

2. Is it easy to organize "items" in SuperMemo 2002? Like, I want to subdivide the ENGLISH folder into ADJECTIVE folder and NOUN folder....I want to move those items from one folder to another.....I want to erase certain items....etc.

3. Can Supermemo show me a list of ALL items, so I can take a quick glance on what I have? Are they arranged alphabetically?

4. Is the prog. really worth buying? ( I know it's kinda like a stupid question, especially on a website which promotes the product) But, think about that....$36 for 1.53Mb.....is there absolutely no alternative choice out there in the market?.....no freeware with similar features as SuperMemo?.....cuz, I mainly use SuperMemo to organize my vocab book and review them strategically in the computer....

thanks a lot for your advice.....I hope you make no bias....:)

I just found out that they have supermemo 7 as freeware. Is it a good idea to try that first and purchase supermemo 2002 later? Will I get a totally wrong impression of supermemo 2002 by trying supermemo 7? Can items made in 7 be transfered to 2002?

thanks

I think Supermemo 2002 won't run on IE 5.0. I think it requires IE 5.5 or IE 6.0.
That program isn't worth buying. I used it few days but then I stopped. I think that swotting words isn't the best and most enjoyable way to study a foreign language.
I didn't waste any money on it since I got it from the internet for free :)

I've got a link for you.
http://www.supermemo.cz/sm2002zip.exe

You can download it there for free. However this is a limited trial version. If you want to use it freely, you gotta pay or ehm ...

This is interesting because on the English page they are saying that due to persistent hacking and cracks they stopped providing this limited version, but you can still download it from that czech page. I guess they just removed it from the english page and forgot that there is also a Czech page :) That's where I got it from :)
Grab it as long as it's still there :)

Jarec, Thank you so much for your advice.

Tom, I would still love to hear your response...

1. No you need IE 6.0. SM2002 uses the MSHTML rendering engine to display items (all items are HTML by default), and for some reason it needs the IE 6.0 engine, which is significantly different from the engine in IE 5.0 or IE 5.5.

2. You can organize items, but I wouldn't say it is "easy". Why do you think you need separate folders for nouns and adjectives? If you want to be able to find all adjectives or all nouns, you can add a short qualifier to each items e.g. (n) or (adj).

3. Yeah, you can display lists of items. Not sure if you can alphabetize them.

4. Read my post here:
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2004/3878.htm

If you have a Pocket PC, why don't you get the Pocket PC version? It costs less and you can use it while riding the Hong Kong underground to work...

I don't think it's a good idea to judge software by its size in megabytes.

I'd agree with Jarec that memorizing words is not the best way to use SuperMemo. I recommend working with sentences. Learning words in isolation (or with dictionary definitions) is very unnatural.

If you have enough reading material, it is a good idea to concentrate on reading, and use SuperMemo for stuff which doesn't stick in your head or stuff that you've made mistakes in. The software works like a charm for that sort of thing.

Tom, Thanks for your input.

The Adj. and n. folders are just examples. It will be kinda silly to make separate folders for them. I was just trying to make sure the flexibility of the prog. Say, I want to move all my animals' names to make a separate folder. So, it's still possible, right. Just not that easy.....

If I also want to work on pronunication, should I just get the Perfect pronunication? or, I can have some other choices which are actually much better than that. Check this out:

http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=pronunciation+power&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26amp%3BrequestId%3D97dac3bffeb3db9b%26amp%3BclickedItemRank%3D5%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dpronunciation%2Bpower%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.englishelearning.com%252Fen%252F%26amp%3BinvocationType%3D-%26amp%3BfromPage%3DNSCPSuggestion&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.englishelearning.com%2Fen%2F

You just create a new category and any anything you add or import will go there. You can create other categories on the same level or subcategories with the same effect. Can't get much easier than that.