# Home ### What is Recall? **Recall** is an extension of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code to help you remember stuff using [spaced repetition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition). It creates flashcards directly from your Markdown notes and let’s you test yourself repeatedly to maximize your memory retention. This can be usefull when learning a new language, taking a course on a particular subject, remembering jokes or pretty much anything else you want to remember. The choice is yours 😉 ### Why use it? Spaced repetition using flashcards is one of the most effective methods to memorize things. However, creating them usually takes too much time and extra effort. **Recall** makes it super-easy by auto-detecting flashcards directly in your Markdown notes.
# Installation ### Install Visual Studio Code Go to [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) pages and download the latest version for your operating system. ### Install the Recall plugin Run Visual Studio Code and install the Recall extension by doing the following * choose View -> Extensions from the menu (or press Shift-Ctrl-X, Shift-Cmd-X on Mac) * search for Recall * tap the Install button Also make sure to install the extension “Markdown All In One”. It greatly improves Markdown writing in VS Code. ### What’s next? * Open the `demo` folder using File -> Open. * Run the flashcard review using View -> Command Palette and typing Recall to search for the “Recall: Flashcard Test” command. See [Documentation](/documentation) for more details on the extension. # Documentation ### How does it work? Write your notes in Markdown and store them in .md files. **Recall** will scan your workspace folders, identify possible “flashcards” and test you using spaced repetition. Notes: * To see your note rendered as HTML, simply use the Markdown Preview functionality of VS Code. * For more information on Markdown, please visit [Markdown Guide](https://www.markdownguide.org/). ### How are flashcards identified ![Screenshot](/files/Gqs2Iv9PoT1W0woOuw8Q) **Recall** scans all the .md files in you workspace and identifies flashcards using the following algorithm * at header level * any header marks a start of a new flashcard * any blank line marks a start of a new page (of that flashcard) * at bullet point level (when enabled) * any first level bullet point with of the configured type is a start of a new card * the bullet point is split using the line divider string (e.g. ::), configurable * the newline at the end of the bullet point also serves as a page divider * if a flashcard has at least two pages, it will be put in the testing queue To better understand the above, look at the practical examples in the [demo folder](https://github.com/frenya/vscode-recall/tree/master/demo). For example, the above screenshot comes from this paragraph ```markdown ### decir |Singular|Plural | |--------|--------| |decía |decíamos| |decías |decíais | |decía |decían | ``` Note: If you want to prevent a page break, put a single space on the line. Make sure you have the `files.trimTrailingWhitespace` set to `false`, otherwise it will get removed when saving the file. ### Testing yourself To really train your memory, you should do a daily review of your cards. To run it, simply run the “Recall: Flashcards Test” command in VSCode (easiest way is to press `Ctrl-P` to see list of commands and start typing the name). A webview will appear show you the first page of the first card to review. You then have the following options/hotkeys: * `Space` - expands the card and shows one more page (repeat until the card is fully expanded) * `Enter` - mark the card as remembered * `S` - mark the card as hard (Struggled) * `F` - mark the card as forgotten * `N` - go to the next card without logging any result * `A` - archive card - card won't show for review anymore, this needs to be confirmed by `Enter` ### Recall level Every card has a so called “recall level” which indicates how well you remember it. It also represents the number of days after which it will be queued for review again. All cards start with a default recall level of 1 which means the card will be queued for review the next day. If you mark it as remembered, the recall level will be doubled. the recall level will be doubled. If you mark it as forgotten, the recall level will go back to 1. More details on the algorithm can be find [here](/spaced-repetition) ### Reverse testing Sometimes, you would like to test yourself in both directions. Best example of this is learning a vocabulary. Recall has this capability since version 0.8.0. Here’s how it works: ```markdown --- recall: bullet+ --- - el norte :: north ``` The “+” sign indicates that you want bi-directional testing in the current file. Now, once you archive the “el norte” card (signalling to Recall that you know it well enough in one direction) it will start showing in reverse, i.e. the front page will be “north” and the back page will be “el norte”. The card’s badge will also indicate that.
### Configuration You can find the configuration options in Settings (Extensions -> Recall). Pay extra attention to these configuration options * Default Level - defines at which level to detect flashcards * **ignore** - no detection will be done * **header** - any header starts a new card * **bullet** - any “-“ bullet starts a new card (as well as a header) * **asterisk** - any “\*” bullet starts a new card (as well as a header) * Line Divider - delimiter used in single line cards (use any string that works for you - colon, semicolon, slash, etc.), can even be multi-character sequence * New Card Limit - defines the maximum number of new cards allowed in one review session * defaults to 0, i.e. unlimited * you can use it to better pace the learning, e.g. when you add a large number of new cards at the same time * Hide badges - as card are detected in the text, the editor adds a small badge with the card’s state (NEW, GOOD, HARD, etc.) depending on the review results. This setting gives you the option to hide certain states if you wish, or even all of them. If you need to override the default level of card recognition for a particular file, you can use the YAML header. For example, to tell **Recall** that individual bullets should be recognized in the file, simply add the following sequence at the beginning of your .md file. ```markdown --- recall: bullet --- ``` ### Styling VSCode allows extensions to provide own CSS styling to the Markdown preview. It has several built in plugins the provide additional styling. If you are experiencing differences between how your notes are rendered in the Markdown preview vs. how they are rendered as cards, you can experiment with applying additional styles from other extensions. To do that, simply run the `Recall: Enable CSS styles from other markdown preview extensions` command and select which additional styles should be applied. For example, if you are using inline math formulas, you will probably need to enable the `vscode.markdown-math/notebook-out/katex.min.css` style. ### Statistics This was added in v0.13.1. Running the `Recall: Show card statistics` will open a new JSON document showing the number of cards in each file, their statuses and whether or not they are due for review. This can help investigate issues with cards not showing up for review and is primarily intended for troubleshooting. ### Import from Mochi To import export files from Mochi, you can run the Recall: Convert Mochi archive command, select a .mochi archive and for every deck in it a separate new Markdown file will be created. You can then save it anywhere you want. If your Mochi deck contains media files (e.g. pictures), they will not be extracted. To extract them, simply unzip the .mochi file into a `media` subfolder and correct the links in the Markdown files accordingly. You can find all the links easily by searching for “@media”. In certain cases, the import fails. This is due to a bug in the EDN parser library and would be difficult to correct. As a workaround, it is possible to unzip the .mochi file, convert the data.edn file to JSON using [this tool](http://repo.tiye.me/mvc-works/edn-formatter/), open the JSON file in VSCode and run the “Recall: Convert Mochi JSON” command. # Spaced repetition Spaced repetition using flashcards is one of the most effective methods to memorize things. If you want to learn more about it, you can start on [article on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) or check out [this wonderful comic strip](https://ncase.me/remember/) from Nicky Case. ### Recall level Every card detected in your notes has a so called “recall level” associated with it which indicates how well you remember it. It also represents the number of days after which it will be queued for review again. ### Multipliers When you are testing yourself, the recall level changes based on how well you remember the card. The theory is simple - if you remember it well the recall level goes up, otherwise it goes down. **Recall** uses a simple algorithm and multiplies the current recall level by a constant and there’s a constant defined in your configuration for each of the review results. By default, these constants are 2, 0.5 and 0, which in practice means that * if you click Remembered, the recall level will be doubled; * and if you click Struggled, the recall level will be halved; * if you click Forgot, the recall level will go back to 1 (minimum value). # Peeker This is a nifty little extension I have created to make my life easier when studying a foreign language. Peeker is a lightweight tool with a single purpose - quickly lookup currently selected text on a predefined website. The demo below uses the Urban Dictionary. For my spanish notes, I use the following config which let’s me instantly look up the definition of any word or phrase in my notes. ```json { "peeker.template": "https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/%s" } ```
For more information, go ahead and check out the extension [README](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=frenya.vscode-peeker). # Support * File bugs, feature requests in [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/frenya/vscode-recall/issues) * Leave a review on [Visual Studio Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=frenya.vscode-recall) * Check out my [other extensions](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/publishers/frenya) * If you like this extension and want to support it’s further development, you can [Buy Me a Coffee](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/frenya) [![Buy Me A Coffee](https://cdn.buymeacoffee.com/buttons/v2/default-green.png)](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/frenya) # Credits Some concepts of this extension were inspired by the [Mochi](https://mochi.cards/) application. Go ahead and check it out. You may find it more suitable to your needs. Please note that I am not associated with that project in any way.