My thoughts on Anki 2

[Guest realmayo]

It's hard to help because I don't know the deck you're referring to, I don't know how you're hoping to use Anki, and I don't know any changes you may already have made.

One thing that might help:

In the Options window, under the New Cards tab (which should be the first one open):

Change [Easy interval] to a bigger number.

When a card is in "learning mode" it's treated a bit differently than after Anki thinks you have learned it. Mainly, you see it a bit more often. After getting it correct a few times, it leaves learning mode.

But if you already know this card really well you can kick it out of learning mode immediately, by pressing 3 i.e. "easy".

This not only kicks it out of learning mode, it also gives it a new interval. That interval is the number of days specified in the [Easy interval] box. If you set that to 30 days, then if you press "easy" for a card that's still in the "learning mode", you won't see that card for 30 days. (And if you get it correct again after 30 days, the new interval will be 2.5 months and after that 6 months and after that almost 1.5 years so .... you won't be ever be seeing it too often if it really is easy.

But this only applies to new cards.

to customise things like, set a time-frame to go through my deck within 6 weeks

That's not what Anki is designed for: it's doable I think (via "cram" maybe) but the programme is designed to stop you forgetting stuff, not just to cycle cards around in a big loop.

[c_redman]

It's not designed for it, but it's an inevitable problem when you get a large list from somewhere else. Somehow, you need to sift through every card to find the ones you haven't already mastered.

Have you tried changing the new card step intervals? The default is "1 10", and if you have a lot of cards to go through, it can be annoying at that level. You could set it to "15 60" for example, and it would ask you the unfamiliar cards in a way that would seem more casual and less nagging.

You also may do better with a filtered deck. That would give you more control over avoiding the known cards until you finished the new ones. One setup I can think of is this: Create a filtered deck with criteria `deck:"originaldeckname" is:new`, limit it to a few hundred cards (or set a high limit to get all of them), check "reschedule cards based on answers", and set custom steps to 44640 minutes (i.e., 1 month). I think this will effectively let you gradually go through the cards in chunks. You probably would just need to rebuild the filtered deck whenever you start seeing the failed cards again. Cards that are marked known will go back to the original deck, and they will no longer be is:new, so they won't show up again.

[mirgcire]

@imron

If there is a program you like, feel free to start another thread discussing it

Should I take this to mean that comparing the relative strengths and weaknesses of two similar products is off-limits in this forum?

[Ruben von Zwack]

Thank you very much, realmayo and c_redman! Your answers helped a lot!

I will try your suggestions later this day. Thanks again!

[imron]

Should I take this to mean that comparing the relative strengths and weaknesses of two similar products is off-limits in this forum?

You should take my comments to mean that if you're trying to promote a new product on the forums, hijacking an existing thread with posts that are completely unrelated to the discussion at hand is not the way to do it.

For context, there was a first time poster spamming the thread saying don't use Anki 2, use my product that no-one has ever heard of because it's better. When I kept deleting those posts, he started making other posts saying "how come my posts are getting deleted", and so I left that note. That poster would have been more than welcome to start his own thread discussing that product, or to start another thread comparing his product to Anki 2 if he so desired.

So, to answer your question, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of two similar products is perfectly welcome in this forum. However there is no reason to derail an existing thread to do that. Creating new threads is free, and if someone wants to compare Anki 2 to something else they are more than welcome to do so, and doing it in a new thread helps keep things more organised.

Admin notes aside, this thread can hopefully stay focused on Anki 2

[jasoninchina]

I have an HSK deck, which is divided using tags, but I can't seem to figure out how to study by tag. I used this in the past, but I'm not sure how to make it happen with Anki 2. I tried a filtered deck, but that appears to be a one time thing.

Any ideas?

[c_redman]

It doesn't need to be a single use deck. You can fill the deck with the words, go through them, and then the next day click on Rebuild to fill it up again. If the box is checked for "Reschedule my cards based on my answers" it will function almost like the tag study in Anki 1, except that you need to rebuild the list periodically to see how many are currently due. Note that when the words are in the filtered deck, they won't exist in the original deck until you've marked them as learned.

I do most of my study from filtered decks because I'm gradually learning new characters in smaller chunks. Here is what some of them look like:

Main deck: Simplified Characters

Number of cards: 4200

New cards/day: 0

Deck: Simplified Chars 1000-2400 (filtered deck)

Search: deck:"Simplified Characters" (tag:1001->1200 or tag:1201->1400 or tag:1401->1600 or tag:1601->1800 or tag:1801->2000 or tag:2001->2200 or tag:2201->2400) is:due

Limit to: 1400 cards

Reschedule cards based on my answers in this deck

Deck: Simplified Chars 2401+ (learning)

Search: tag:"2401->2600" is:new

Limit to: 200 cards

(Off) Reschedule cards based on my answers in this deck

The drawback of filtered decks is that the program refuses to show graphs for them, even though it would seem technically possible to do so.

[jasoninchina]

Thanks for the response. This is what I ended up doing. The way it was set up before was so much easier. You just choose the tag and anki treated it as though those were the only cards in the deck. It was so easy, so effortless.

[altair-001]

hi to everyone! I would ask those who using Anki2 for iphone/ipod touch if with the last upgrade it can be syncronized with the anki desktop and viceversa, so that the progress are in both the device.

thank you in advance!

[PBolchover]

Yes. I'm using the latest Anki2, and have no difficulty in synchronisation.

Paul

[altair-001]

ok, thanks a lot! But can I add or modify decks in mobile version and then syncronize with desktop version?

[Olle Linge]

But can I add or modify decks in mobile version and then syncronize with desktop version?

That's what synchronization means, I think.

[altair-001]

Thanks, but I don't think is the same things, because on the previous version you can syncronize the progress but not a deck created or modify from the mobile versione and then syncronize.

[Guest realmayo]

Correct, there was that problem in the previous version. If no one can answer your question here I suggest you look at this site: https://anki.tenderapp.com/

[PBolchover]

With Anki2, you can edit cards and add cards on the iphone, and the changes will take effect on the desktop version.

[altair-001]

ok, thanks to everyone!!!

[putonghua73]

I think most people are talking about Pinyin Toolkit:

• The pinyin is actually correct most of the time, you exaggerate
  
• Pinyin Toolkit colours the pinyin for you
  
• Pinyin Toolkit gives you measure words
  
• Pinyin Toolkit gives you definitions automatically
  
• Pinyin toolkit has audio
  

Absolutely correct, Snigel. If the SRS application cannot perform (nearly) all of the above, then it is as useful as a chocolate teapot for aiding Chinese learning (IMO).

Anki is content-agnostic and is supported on a wide-variety of operating systems. It is the ability to extend the application i.e. add additional functionality - in conjunction with synchronisation across multiple devices - that allows Anki to be used for a wide variety of purposes. The Pinyin Toolkit add-on in Anki v1 (plus audio files) transformed my learning. Hence, my deck templates are based upon the following fields:

• Expression
  
• Reading
  
• Meaning
  
• Example
  
• Measure Word
  
• Audio
  

Pinyin Toolkit would automatically populate the Reading, Meaning, Measure Word and Audio fields, and I would populate the Example field to provide context for the term I wished to learn.

You can imagine my dismay when I learned that Pinyin Toolkit has been abandoned in Anki 2. Fortunately, it appears that the Chinese Support add-on (v 0.7.5) supports the above; albeit, it seems that I have to rename my Fields for the auto-population to work. I'll let you all know if this works once I have tried. I've just spent the past couple of hours re-reading the Anki 2 docs to refresh my memory, editing my deck tags, when I discovered that Pinyin Toolkit was abandoned.

I completely agree with the comments in this thread that Anki is complicated and that the UI in Anki 2 is not as good as Anki 1. When I originally set-up my decks in Anki v1, it was with the help of a friend (who recommended Anki, since he originally used it for Japanese and was using it for Chinese), reading the docs, watching YouTube videos, and a fair degree of robust language! I seem to recall that I 'suddenly' became the go-to guy for Anki set-up for all the other students when I was studying in Kunming! Especially because I could get them up and going - templates set-up, and add-ons installed - in around 2 minutes.

[putonghua73]

Ok folks, I've added the Chinese Support (v 0.7.5) add-on, made sure that the local dictionary in Tools/Chinese Support/Use local dictionary is set to 'English, and have created a dummy deck to play around with the Card Template ('Note Type').

The field names required to enable auto-population are different from the former Pinyin Toolkit add-on. If you used Pinyin Toolkit in Anki 1, then the process should be familiar for Anki 2 using Chinese Support i.e. your decks must contain a series of named fields in order for the add-on to auto-populate data into the fields from the initial reading (e.g. inputting '汉语' into the 'Hanzi' field, auto-populates the other fields). You can also add additional fields if you wish to capture more information on your notes.

Not a biggie for creating a new deck, but I do not know as of yet, how much work this will require changing my deck templates based upon Pinyin Toolkit to Chinese Support.

Chinese Support does not provide measure words.

The biggest hurdle - once you understand the basic conceptual architecture of Anki - is that Card Templates (front, back and style of cards) use HTML and CSS for formatting and styling respectively. This is a major difference between Anki 1 and Anki 2. Basic formatting can be fairly simple, even if one doesn't know basic HTML, providing that you have read and understood the 'Card Template' section in the Anki documentation. However, it does require a fair degree of reading, experimenting, and it is probably worth while to spend an hour or 2 learning basic HTML.

I do agree with Manuel reading the UI: far too many unintuitive and repetitive clicks required.

Anki 2 is complex, powerful, and extensible. Depending on your platform and your use, it may well be worth the high barrier to entry in understanding and using Anki. If you want a simple to use SRS application strictly for Chinese, then you may wish to examine other competing products - especially if like me, you are a fully paid-up member of the Jobsian cult i.e. you require a SRS application on iOS. Anki 2 is $25 on iOS (approx £16). Damian charges on iOS to support the free desktop versions. I paid for Anki 1 because I was already invested. If I was a new user who wanted a SRS application on iOS, then I would take a look at the competition first.

[PBolchover]

Actually, it looks as if the Pinyin Toolkit for Anki 2 has now been released.

I haven't tried it myself, but I hope that it meets your needs.

[Ruben von Zwack]

I've tried their Chinese Support about 2 months ago and it was a hot mess. I deinstalled it, but don't know why, when I create a new card, rests of it still pop up and change the layout of my fields. Maybe I have to re-install the whole Anki.

What really, REALLY bugs me is the joke that their "forum" (a google group) and "help" and "user manual" are. For God's sake, some of us have better things to do than browsing through hundreds of pages of unstructured small-printed text

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/anki-users

It's a great program, but as far as I can see, user friendliness going towards zero, nought