How to Create an Awesome Anki Deck

Caroline Sommer EN229: Technical Writing

All screenshots were taken by the author. The garbage bag icon in one of the screenshots comes from

google images. Anki is Open Source. The author is using Anki build 2.0.51; previous or future iterations of the program may appear differently, as will add-ons to the current version.

Introduction This guide is intended for those who have experience using Anki on a different device, such as a phone or other computer, or have used another, similar flashcard program, such as quizlet or Memrise. Creating flashcards using Anki is a simple and painless process, especially if you have already created flashcards using a different program.

Materials Required: - The application

- A list of things

Time Required: Varies depending on how many words you have to upload. Initial setup time for first-time users is about five minutes. Each card, depending on complexity, can take anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute. Most simple cards will not take more than twenty seconds. Adding fields, again depending on complexity, can range from a minute to more than ten minutes.

Creating a Deck

Step 0: Gather your words together for your deck

Step 1: Opening the program Double-click the icon on your desktop to open the app, or run the program from your programs menu.

Step 2: Creating the deck Click the “Create Deck” folder icon at the bottom of the app

Step 3: Type in the name of the deck

Click “OK” when you are done typing in the deck name.

Creating Cards

Step 1: Adding cards to your deck Click the “Add” button at the top of the page. This brings up the card creation page.

Step 2: choosing your card type

Choose your card type. Anki has four different initial types available, detailed below: The basic card type has a front side and a back side; like a physical notecard, one side (the

front side) will be shown and the back side will be hidden. The user guesses the back side. For this first card, ガラクタ is the front side and “trash” is the back side.

The basic (and reversed card) is similar to the basic card but creates two cards. To use the previous example, on the first card, the front will show ガラクタ and the back “trash,” and on the second card, it will show “trash” and the user will have to guess ガラクタ.

The basic (and optional reversed card) is similar to the above. If you fill out the reversed card, it will create the “basic and reversed card,” but if you leave it just with the front and the back filled out, it will only do the basic card. This option is useful if you want to plug in a lot of cards and want a healthy mix of basic and basic/reversed cards.

The cloze card has no back side; rather, it has the card and underneath the card, a note.

For the purposes of this instruction guide, basic card construction will be shown.

Step 3: choosing your deck

Choose the deck you want to save the card into. The default deck is “Default,” so highlight the deck and then click the “Choose” option. To create a new deck here, click “Add” and enter a name for the deck. See above if you need help with creating a deck.

Step 4: creating the actual card

Type in the information you want to review in the front and back of the card and then, once you’re done, click “add.” The card should go straight to your deck.

To format a card using things such as bolding, italicizing, underlining, superscripting,

subscripting, or changing the color of the font, choose the appropriate symbol in the row of options. You can record audio (if you have a microphone) or place a picture (see below) in the card.

Note! Can’t add a card? Background’s red? You’ve already added that word.

Placing pictures in your card

Step 0: Locate a picture that you want to go alongside the word Find and save the picture to your computer.

Step 1: Open the card

Click on the text you want to add a picture to so that the field surrounding the text has a blue dotted

texture to it. See how the above’s word field has that nice blue dotted line surrounding the input field? That’s what we’re going for. Click the paper clip icon above it on the list of all of the fancy options, and…

Step 2: Navigate to where the picture is saved Navigate to where the picture is saved and click on it so that the file is highlighted in blue.

Step 3: getting the image onto the card

Click “open” to place the picture in your notecard. You can also attach, as the files denote, most AV files, including audio and video.

Note! The picture takes the size of the image’s original dimensions, so it may be necessary to change the dimensions of the picture to make the notecards useable. Use a program such as Paint to change the size of an image.

Adding fields If you want your cards to have multiple headings, you can add a field to the card. In this example, we’ll use the word 壊し(break) and append the field “Furigana” to the front side of the card.

Step 1: Create a field

Go to the field settings in the “add card menu,” by clicking the “fields” button above the word input. That brings up the below menu, which currently has two fields: the front field and the back field.

Click “Add” to add an additional field.

Input the field name and click “OK.”

Step 2: Repositioning fields

Click the “reposition” button. This brings up the following screen…

Tell Anki where you want the new position to be, one being the topmost and the highest number (in this example, three) being at the bottom. Click “Close” once you’re done adding fields.

Step 3: adding the field to your cards

Click on the “Cards” tab next to the field tab. This displays the current output of the cards.

To add the furigana field, click the “Add Field.”

Step 4: Adding fields to your cards

Select the field you wish to add to your card. Then, select the font, the font size, and which side of the card you want to add it to. Click “OK” once you are done.

Step 5: Check your work

The front preview is the front side of the card; similarly, the back preview is the back side of the card. Check to make sure the fields that you want on each side of the card are present. Click “Close” when you are done editing your card.

Note! If you add a field to the front side of a card, it will automatically be displayed on the backside.

Step 6: fill out the new fields!

Click “Add” to add the card to your deck.

Note! Obviously fields can be used for more than just furigana. Get creative.

Miscellaneous: Tagging and Unused Fields Certain cards you may want to tag with certain descriptors. Tags are useful for sorting cards and, in certain cases, setting the user up to be able to differentiate between two similar-appearing, yet different, cards. For the next example, using the new furigana field, I’ll add the “noun” tag to 爆弾 (bomb).

As you can see, the tags section of the program is at its bottom. More than one tag can be applied to a card, and cards can be sorted by tag in Anki’s main menu.

For cards that do not need the furigana field, such asマネ, you can leave the furigana field empty and

it will not impact the program. When the program runs, it will be treated as if there is no furigana field associated with the card.

Conclusion With your new deck in hand, go off and study!