References

Summary

For fast context retrieval, references are a very useful tool. Where you would use templates or categories in the past, you can now use references. References use a comment field that can store any type of information needed in the context.

I can not add "#Category" as a reference

I'm trying to add references to my items but I can not add "#Category" as a reference. I read in one of SuperMemo's articles:

"Important! Do not add your own non-reference texts below the horizontal bar marking the reference area. All reference field area is owned by SuperMemo. Any modifications to that area will be treated as changes to reference fields. Changes that do not conform with reference field formatting will be discarded without warning." (http://www.super-memory.com/help/references.htm)

However, I can see "#Category" in the list of references in the picture that accompanies this text, and also in the list of reference-types just below the picture.

I also read in the same article: "Reference fields #Article, #Parent and #Category are added automatically and are not stored in the reference registry. These fields are not generated in elements that have no other reference fields defined."

None of these reference fields have been added automatically to my items that I have added "#Source" references to (they should have, since defining a reference field is a prerequisite for the aforementioned reference fields to be added automatically). Only the reference I successfully added "#Source: blabla" is shown when hovering the reference link button on the navigation bar, and also when displaying the pop-up window for editing references. Could it be because I'm not doing the incremental reading thing and just adding normal items? That would definitely explain why the "#article" is not added, but what about "#Category" and "#Parent"?

By the way, I assume that there are only special words that can be #hashtagged when making a reference since I can add "#Author: blablah" as a line in my references but not something else. These seem to be "Title, Date, Source, Link, Article, and Category". My SuperMemo doesn't seem to treat "#Category" as one of those words however.

So how can I add "#Category:" as a reference field?

Changing category

SuperMemo adds the #Category reference field automatically on condition a given item belongs to any category.

To assign a category to an item:

1. Choose Edit : Element parameters (Shift+Ctrl+P) from the element menu
2. In the Element parameters dialog box, select the target category from the Category drop-down menu

Note that once you assign a category to a given element, it is going to change its location in the knowledge tree. It is going to be appended to the hook node of the chosen category.

Changing category for many elements

1. Is there any way of assigning an element to a category quickly for several elements?
2. I converted elements to the given category but the "#Category:" reference field is still not displayed in the "editing references" window, in the references registry, when hovering the "reference link" button on the navigation bar, or in an HTML component put into any of the elements (I tried this since a references field is automatically added into HTML components if the item has references). The only reference field that's displayed is the one that I added before, "#source:".

In short, nothing happened after moving the elements to the category. What do I do?

Hints

• you might try Process browser : Move : To a category on the browser menu
• #Category, #Article and #Parent are not part of reference in the registry and are not editable, this is why you do not see it at Reference : Edit
• #Article will show up only if the element has been derived from an article in incremental reading (e.g. via extract or cloze)
• perhaps what you need is rather Process browser : Reference : Set referece on the browser menu as you seem to want to mark a set of elements with tags of your choice (you can use #Comment to add all extra information that you need displayed in a set of elements)
• try: 1. select a phrase, 2. Alt+Q (for quick reference setting)

Follow up

• "Contents menu : Process branch : Move : To a category" worked very well for moving many elements to a category.
• I managed to get #Category to show in a HTML component after I added #Title, but #Category is still not shown in "reference : edit" or when hovering the reference link button, and you explained why already. Using #Comment: instead as you suggested worked wonders.