PpcSoft iKnow details
Scroll down for explanations (or click the letters to jump directly)
Take a tour to see what PpcSoft iKnow is all about, and how it can help you remember and save some time ....
(A) Quick Search
Incremental search to find a note. In the screenshot above, all you need to type is 'a' to get 'autolinks', 'b' to get 'Brain' etc. As you create more notes, you'll probably need more letters, but usually only 2-3 letters to find the note you're searching for.
Hit Enter to open the note, and Enter again to edit the note. You can also use Escape to jump back and forth between the QuickSearch and the Editor
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(B) Editor
This is where you enter the text. The PpcSoft iKnow editor is very powerful, but is not a replacement for Microsoft Word or other word processors.
The editor is optimized for usability, readability and efficiency.
The formatting options are therefore limited to:
- Bold, Italic and Strike (no underline to avoid confusion with links)
- Headings (3 different colors/sizes of headings to break up long notes)
- Hyperlinks (external links are blue, internal links are red, and tags are green)
You should not spend a lot of time formatting your text, but rather use the formatting to improve readability.
The editor has shortcuts for jumping from link to link, zooming text in/out, jumping from paragraph to paragraph etc.
Each note has a limit of 50.000 characters
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(C) Ribbon
The ribbon is where you'll find most of the commands available in PpcSoft iKnow.
The look-and-feel is similar to the Ribbon found in Microsoft Office 2007/2010, even though our ribbon is a bit simpler.
The main advantage of the ribbon vs. traditional menus is that all commands are visible and available with one click. A menu will only show the top level ('File', 'Edit' etc) and then you have to click to expand the menu (and click again to select a command).
The main difference between the ribbon in PpcSoft iKnow and the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007/2010 is that our ribbon does not automatically adjust the size when you resize the window. This means that the controls will always be in the same spot (better for muscle memory), but also that you won't see all the controls if you choose to use PpcSoft iKnow in a very small window.
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(D) Home, Options and Help tab
The ribbon in PpcSoft iKnow has three tabs: Home, Options and Help
Home is where the main commands are.
Options will let you adjust certain features of PpcSoft iKnow.
Help is where you find different help options, like seeing the introduction, shortcut keys, contacting PpcSoft etc.
If you click on the active tab (in the screenshot 'Home' is active) the ribbon will be hidden with only the tabs visible - click again to show the ribbon again.
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(E) Full-text search
If you enter a word in the quick search field which is not a title, the quick search box will change to black to indicate that full-text search is available by hitting Enter.
However, you may click the Full-text search button instead, and this may also be used if you want to search all notes for a word that is a title as well (hitting Enter for a title will open the note, not perform a full-text search) - use Ctrl+Space as shortcut.
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(F) Incremental search
The incremental search is the third search type. It is used to quickly find text inside a note.
The search is incremental, meaning that it will search and highlight matches for each key you type .
The statusbar will also show how many matches you have in total, and you may quickly jump up and down by using the up/down keys.
To activate the incremental search, you may use Ctrl + F or Caps lock. Yes, the Caps lock is no longer available for all uppercase letters. Most people don't use it, and the rest shouldn't either (well, if you absolutely must use caps lock, you may activate it using Ctrl+CapsLock) !
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(G) Back / Forward
PpcSoft iKnow uses hyperlinks to jump between notes, and therefore you have back/forward buttons to navigate, just like a browser.
They are located directly above the editor so that you can use them even if the ribbon is minimized.
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(H) Undo / Redo
As long as you stay in the same note, you can undo/redo any changes you've done.
If you jump to a new note, the changes are automatically saved, and the undo is reset for the new note.
You may therefore also use the icon as an indicator for changes
- if the undo-button is enabled (and colored yellow) it means that you have made some changes (maybe by accident).
The undo/redo buttons are located directly above the editor so that you can use them even if the ribbon is minimized.
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(i) New note / New Templated note
These are the same commands that are available in the ribbon under the Home - Notes group.
They are located directly in the editor so that you can use them even if the ribbon is minimized.
New note will create a new, empty note, while New Templated note will create a new note which keeps the current text for the new note (useful for creating a template with basic information, and then creating copies of the template where you simply fill in the remaining information).
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(J) List of notes
The list will show all notes sorted alphabetically.
You may select a note directly from the list instead of using the quick search but it is usually more efficient using the quick search.
Note that when you create new notes they will be colored red in the list, and any changed notes will be colored blue. If you delete a note, it will temporarily be colored grey.
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(K) Splitter
You may change the relative size of the list and the editor.
You cannot remove the space between them as it is provided to improve readability.
Also note that the size of the list is used for the preview window as well.
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(L) Status bar
The status bar will always show you context-sensitive help when you move the mouse over different controls. It will also show you the position of the cursor when you're editing a document.
The status bar will also show error messages and notifications.
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(M) Favorites
You can have 9 Favorite notes that you can edit by clicking this button (or using shortcut Ctr+0).
Use ctrl+ 1-9 to jump directly to a favorite note.
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