PpcSoft iKnow features
Editor
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The Editor is the most powerful part of iKnow. PpcSoft iKnow is not a word processor, so it works a little different from MS Word and similar word processors.
However, there are still some similarities:
Some of the main differences are: |
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Formatting
You should only use bold and italic on single words to increase readability.
Use headings to increase readability and separate content within each note - the important part is the knowledge that you write down, not the formatting.
Headings are quick to enable (using Ctrl+H) and can be jumped to quickly (using Ctrl+G) for improved navigation.
Use of links
iKnow will automatically create links between notes when you use the title of a note in the text.
The powerful links in iKnow has different colors to easily distinguish them:
- Autolinks are red, and link to other notes
- Hyperlinks are blue, and link to web pages or files (or e-mail)
- Re-directed hyperlinks are purple, and link to other notes (with a different name)
- Tags are green, and will let you select from a list of other notes with the same tags
Autolinks
AutoLink is a very powerful concept, as it is basically ordinary words that are automatically transformed into links if you have a note with the same name as the word(s).
Once you create a note, all occurrences of this title in all previous and future notes will automatically be transformed into a link.
It is therefore very easy to connect two different notes
- if you want to connect the note 'John Doe' with 'People', all you have to do is write 'John Doe' anywhere in the 'People' note, and they will automatically be connected.
Another powerful feature is Preview of Autolinks. By hovering your mouse over an AutoLink, you'll automatically get a preview of the note it links to - often eliminating the need to click the link as you already got the information you need from the preview.
Hyperlinks
Most people are familiar with hyperlinks - these are (usually) links to web pages. They may also be links to files and mail addresses.
To create/edit a hyperlink, click the Hyperlink button in the ribbon, or use the shortcut Ctrl+K.
The hyperlink dialog consist of two edit fields; the title and the link.
The title is the name that will be shown in the note, and should always be entered - except for AutoHyperlinks.
The link field must always be filled out, and you can use it for:
- web links (www.ppcsoft.com or simply ppcsoft.com)
- redirected links (1Home will link to note '1Home' with title of your choice)
- links to files (c:\myfile.txt)
- mail address (support@ppcsoft.com)
- AutoHyperlinks (www.ppcsoft.com)
The AutoHyperlink is a special case where the actual link is the same as the name. In this case you don't need a separate name if you want the complete hyperlink to be visible (and you don't have to open the hyperlink dialog to enter it either).
The Redirect link is a special case where you want to link to a note, but use a different name:
- Title: "Link to home"
- Link: "1Home"
Tip: Hyperlinks to files stored inside the iKnow folder (and subfolders) will be stored as relative links, so if you synchronize your data with a different computer (using 3rd party synchronizing tools) the hyperlinks will still work to "sub-files". If you paste any images into iKnow, they will be stored in a subfolder named 'images' in the same directory as your datafile.
Tags
A Tag is a special kind of link, and is used for connecting notes indirectly.
If two notes are directly related, like 'People' and 'Steve Gates', you will use Autolinks to connect them.
However, you may have two notes 'MeetingXYZ' and 'ProjectABC' which are not directly related, but where you have written some tasks you need to do. If you use a tag called @todo in both of them, clicking on the tag in either will show a list of all notes that contains this tag.
You may have a note about a meeting with your boss and a note about buying an anniversary gift for your significant other - both could be tagged @important until they are completed / done.
Use a tag: Click on the tag to get a pop-up list of all notes which has the same tag.
Insert a tag: Press '@' to get a list of all tags - type a few letters to auto-highlight a tag, and press Enter to select.
Create a tag: Press '@' to get a list of all tags - type a new name and press Enter. You now have a new tag.
Delete a tag: Remove all instances of a tag, and it will automatically be removed.
Please note that tags are designed to be used sparingly - you can create max. 50 tags with max. 50 notes connected to each.
If you tried to tag hundreds of notes with @important you would a long list of notes and would probably not be able to find what you were looking for.
If you really want to 'tag' lots of notes with 'keywords', use '!keyword' (exclamation) instead to limit the number of matches found in full-text search (ex. !fun, !jokes, !meeting).
Also note that the Full-text Search is limited to a maximum of 50 matches, so if you tag/mark/categorize hundreds of notes with 'important', they are really not searchable.
