Making Anki Cards, Let's Walkthrough it Together!

A little while ago, I did a Resource Reveiw on Anki. You can read that blog post here. I promised that I would make a basic tutorial on how to create Anki flashcard decks, so here it is! I do not own a Macintosh, so this is a tutorial for Windows users. The method should be similar if not the same on Macintosh.

作りましょう！

Step One

The first step is, of course, to download Anki onto your computer. Visit Anki's homepage and click download. There's instructions there on the download process.

Once you have Anki downloaded, open up the application. The home screen will look like this (however it won't have the same cards I have here, since this is just my own personal collection).

Before we begin making the cards, we are going to add a plug-in. You don't need any plug-ins to use Anki, but the plug-in I highly suggest you use will allow you to add audio to your cards. In my opinion, hearing the words in Japanese is extremely helpful.

Step Two

In Anki, click on Tools, Add-ons, and then Browse & Install...

In the window that pops up, enter this code: 301952613 (this is the code for AwesomeTTS) Click OK.

Once you have AwesomeTTS, perfect! We're ready to begin the process of making cards!

Step Three

At the bottom of the screen, click on Create Deck. A pop-up will appear asking what you to name the new deck. Give it any name you like, you can always change it later. I will be naming the one for this tutorial "Example."

Click on Add at the top of the screen, then this pop-up will appear.

Next to were it says Deck on the pop-up, click on the button that says Default. Select the name of the deck you just created. (Remember I named mine "Example.") Now, click on the button that says Basic. This window will open.

Click on Manage on this window. On the next pop-up, click on Add.

From the list, select on Add: Basic (and reversed card) and click OK. You can name the Note Type whatever you wish, but I suggest Basic Japanese Cards.

Step Four

Perfect! Now let's go back to this window and click on Fields...

A new window will pop-up. Use the buttons on the right to complete the following actions. Select Front from the list, click Rename and type "English" into the box which comes up. Select Back from the list, click Rename and type "Japanese" into the box which comes up. Click on Add and type "Audio" into the box which comes up. Select Japanese from the list and click the bubble next to Sort by this field in the browser. Great! Check to make sure your window looks just like the one below and click Close.

Step Five

Now you'll see the changes that have been made! Take the vocabulary words and enter the words into the appropriate boxes. The box for audio should be left blank for now, we're going to add sound later. Once you click Add, the card will be added to the deck and you start on the next card!

Step Six

Once you are done adding cards, you will click on Cards... This screen will pop-up.

Follow these steps:

Delete all text in the box labeled Styling (shared between cards).

Copy this code and paste it into the box labeled Styling (shared between cards):

.card {

font-family: helvetica;

font-size: 50px;

text-align: center;

color: white;

background-color: #55CAE5;

}

Delete all text in the box labeled Back Template.

Copy this code and paste it into the box labeled Back Template:

<p>

{{FrontSide}}

</p>

<p>

<b>

<div style="font-family:Yu Gothic; font-size: 55px; ">

{{Japanese}}

{{Audio}}

</p>

The preview should look like this. Check to be sure. (The word Audio will be present below Japanese)

Click on Card 2 at the top and follow these steps:

Delete all text in the box labeled Front Template.

Copy this code and paste it into the box labeled Front Template:

<b>

<div style="font-family:Yu Gothic; font-size: 55px; ">

{{Japanese}}

Delete all text in the box labeled Back Template.

Copy this code and paste into the box labeled Back Template:

<p>

{{FrontSide}}

</p>

<p>

</b>

<div style="font-family:helvetica; font-size: 50px; ">

{{English}}

{{Audio}}

</p>

The preview should look like this. Check to be sure. (The word Audio will be present below English)

Step Seven

Click close on all open windows until you are back on the home screen. Click on Browse at the top of the screen.

This new pop-up window will appear. Now we're going to add sound to our cards!

Select the name of the deck you've created from the list on the left. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on all the cards you see on the list in the middle. Then at the top, click on AwesomeTTS and Add Audio to Selected...

The AwesomeTTS window will pop-up. Here's how to set it up. Under Configure Service, select VoiceText under Generate using. Set Voice to Hikari (female), Emotion to none [default], Speed to 85%, Pitch to 100%, and Volume to 100%. Under Fields and Handling, set Source Field to Japanese and Destination Field to Audio. Be sure that "Overwrite the Destination Field w/ Media Filename" and "Wrap the filename in [sound:xxx] Tag" are selected. The window will look like the one shown below. Click Generate when you are finished.