how to get started with Anki

[doug86]

Ok so i found the program and installed it, but its asking for decks or somethin... i have no idea how this thing works, can anyone help?

[bogleg]

Just go to the menu and select Deck > New. Then select 'Mandarin' for what you like to study. Click on the giant green + in the toolbar to add new cards. You can also go to the menu and select Deck > Open Sample and take a look at some pre-made decks.

Chris

[doug86]

where do i get cards from?

[shibole]

Just make your own cards. If you're trying to remember something it makes sense that you enter it yourself.

Actually you create "facts" and it creates two cards for you per fact. One is for "production" and one is "recognition". The first means "can you recall and write the word?" and the second means "can you recognize the word/character?"

There are some sample decks but they're all for Japanese I think.

Read the documentation. It's well worth doing. You can import vocab lists in CSV format also.

[ABCinChina]

How do you guys think Anki compares with Mnemosyne? I've already spend much time building up my statistics all the way to HSK level 2 and 3, so I would not like to switch to Anki unless it is much better. (Unfortunately I can't download Anki right now because the server is so slow)

Anki's graphs seem intriguing and the interface looks better. But I've also heard it is prone to crashing. Also, I don't need to write, I just need to recognize and understand the words. Any thoughts?

[shibole]

I haven't looked at Mnemosyne so I can't compare. I vaguely remember hearing some negative grumbling about Mnemosyne.

I haven't had any problems with Anki crashing, and I tend to leave it running all the time. The instance I have running now has been running for a couple of weeks without crashing.