How should I use statuses?

Lute has statuses 1 through 5, plus Well-Known, and Ignored. For some people, including me sometimes, that's a lot of statuses! Your usage of these values is totally up to you, so pick your own rating scheme and stick with it.

For me personally, as a longtime user of Lute, I'll say that beyond a certain point, statuses don't really matter much, except perhaps to filter later in the Term listing screen. I use the following levels:

• 1 for brand new or tricky things
• 3 for stuff I've seen before
• 5 for stuff I know well
• Well-Known for things that occur so frequently that I don't need to look them up
• Ignore for things like names, locations, or really specialized terms that I'm certain I'll never see again, like chemical compounds

Others have more nuanced levels:

• 1: Defined and seen at least once before, but unlikely to understand and no attempt has been made at truly understanding/memorizing
• 2: At some point I have somewhat memorized this or understood it within context. 50% chance I will remember it if I sit and think about it for a bit, but its somewhat straining.
• 3: I can recognize this word fairly quickly and understand it. Every now and again I will have to stop and think about it for a a moment.
• 4: I recognize it and I'm comfortable with it. I've seen it semi-frequently and I'd probably remember it even if I didn't see it for a while.
• 5: Instant recall, and there's almost no chance that I'll forget this word any time soon. It should probably be WKn but I like the way green looks and makes me feel.

Still others just use status 1-3.

So, pick whatever you feel is best, don't sweat it too much, and just start reading. You can always revise term statuses as you go.