Is it just me or does Anki 2.0.0 actually suck お尻?

I've been trying it out for only one day, so maybe it's too early to judge it, yet the amount of frustration it has given me in the last few hours is overwhelming and I feel the urge to let out some part of it.

I don't know about you, but it always takes me hours (sometimes literally) to figure out things that were obvious in Anki 1.2, because everything is ten times more complicated for no apparent reason.

How was I supposed to know that in order to create a new deck I was supposed to use Add>Deck>Add? The main menu's Add window looks almost exactly like 1.2's Add Facts window, so why the **** is it used to create a new deck? When I first saw this window I closed it thinking that it's not what I'm looking for. I only found the solution after reading the manual for like fourth time (because it's a mess, it gives me the impression that for its author lots of basic things were obvious so he didn't bother to state them, instead rambling about everything a new user doesn't need).

In 1.2 the Create New Deck option was in the File menu. Why the **** is it gone? Why is almost everything gone from the menus at the top and from the Preferences window?! Did the authors think it's gonna be fun for the user to figure out the whereabouts of each function, hidden somewhere like friggin easter eggs?

Why do I now have to create separate decks ("filter decks") to separately review cards with different tags from the same parent deck? If I understand the manual correctly, this is now the only option for that. Wouldn't it be easier to just leave the "review cards only with these tags" function among deck options? Were the developers out of their minds?

Does someone know how to define in what order I want to study the new, due and failed cards? Does someone know how to change the daily limits of reviews and new cards? The whole thing makes me feel like an animal in a cage, unable to do anything.

One nice thing: it's finally possible to arrange decks in folders. But why do those folders also have to be decks themselves? Who knows, who cares...

Today I really felt like a moron, unable to figure out the simplest things. And I really do hope I was being a moron today, because if Anki 2 is as ****** up as it looks, then I got a serious problem - I very much rely on this software in my everyday learning. Sticking to 1.2 is out of the question, it will soon become impossible to sync old type decks.

Please post some of this stuff (the general questions) over on Anki's forums - koohii is not an Anki help site.

nohika Wrote:Please post some of this stuff (the general questions) over on Anki's forums - koohii is not an Anki help site.

I got the message before posting and ignored it deliberately because I was so out of patience and in dire need to let it all out that I didn't feel like moving my rant to some other forum. I apologize for that. Please feel free to delete it.

I haven't tried it yet, but I've only just got everything the way I like it on the old Anki and it's posts like this that are making me weary of upgrading. I'm scared I might auto update the Anki app on my iphone and my life will be ruined!

BrianG Wrote:In 1.2 the Create New Deck option was in the File menu. Why the **** is it gone?

Because in Anki 1, "Creating a new deck" was literally like creating a new file so it made sense to put it there. In Anki 2 all the decks are now contained within a single file for reduced file size and ease.

Quote:Why is almost everything gone from the menus at the top and from the Preferences window?! Did the authors think it's gonna be fun for the user to figure out the whereabouts of each function, hidden somewhere like friggin easter eggs?

"Everything is gone" I think, mostly because "minimalist designs" are "hip" these days (see: Apple). Between the manual and the Anki Forum though, I found everything I needed though, I never thought stuff was overtly hidden.

Quote:Why do I now have to create separate decks ("filter decks") to separately review cards with different tags from the same parent deck? If I understand the manual correctly, this is now the only option for that. Wouldn't it be easier to just leave the "review cards only with these tags" function among deck options? Were the developers out of their minds?

This is the coolest feature of Anki 2, you just haven't realized it yet. Filter decks now allow you to review chunks of your deck (via a tag or whatever), as if they are decks of their own.

The rest of your questions can be addressed on the Anki Forum. You increase the daily limit in a deck's option screen btw.

vix86 Wrote:

BrianG Wrote:Why do I now have to create separate decks ("filter decks") to separately review cards with different tags from the same parent deck? If I understand the manual correctly, this is now the only option for that. Wouldn't it be easier to just leave the "review cards only with these tags" function among deck options? Were the developers out of their minds?

This is the coolest feature of Anki 2, you just haven't realized it yet. Filter decks now allow you to review chunks of your deck (via a tag or whatever), as if they are decks of their own.

Yep yep! And you get to control whether the reviews in the filter deck reset the cards' review schedules or not.

The flexibility of Anki 2 allows me to control Anki, instead of vice versa. Using filter decks, I can review all of the cards I missed during my morning session by using the "all cards forgotten today" preset. Then I can use tags to select which new vocab words I want to add to my deck for the day, and study those as a tag-based filter deck.

There are some UI quirks that make Anki 2 confusing at first. But it really beats the pants off of Anki 2 in terms of both speed and flexibility. Like people said, if you have issues, post them to the Anki forum. Damien, Soren et. al. are awesome about answering questions.

There are many things I dislike about Anki 2, but there are also many things that I do like. Overall, I vastly prefer Anki 2 since it has more capabilities, but you are going to have to learn how to use them. I was also initially frustrated by it until I took the time to read the manual, which cleared up a lot of confusion.

Indeed, most of the problems appear to be usability issues more than anything else. The software isn't any less capable, but you are going to have to modify a lot of your workflows to do things the new way.

I was one of Anki's biggest fans. I recommended it to my students so often that some of them thought I was getting a commission; but I just wanted them to benefit from it as much as I have.

That was Anki 1, but Anki 2 and Ankimobile have been a source of massive frustration for me. Whereas Anki used to be somewhat intuitive, it now requires endless research to perform the simplest tasks. I'd rather spend my time on Japanese than on a bloated flashcard program. Does anyone know of a good alternative? I wish I could go back to Anki 1, but the new version has (without asking permission) deleted my thousands of media files from Dropbox, so I guess that's no longer an option.

Anki 2 only copies existing files, so it can not have deleted your media, and there must be some other explanation. If you contact Dropbox they should be able to restore the folder for you anyway.

As for the cries of the new version being non-intuitive, I think what most people mean here is "it's not what I'm used to, and I don't want to spend time learning how to use the new version". While there's certainly room for improvement, I think the program has actually become more intuitive for new users. Please also bear in mind that there have been a number of instances on the forums over the last few months where people initially complained about Anki 2 but grew to like it once they became more familiar with it.

I had the impression that Anki 2 was made to make it more accessible to new users. But after trying it I couldn't find anything that was simpler than in 1.2. In 1.2, you made a deck, configured the deck properties through a graphical interface, added cards and reviewed them. Now you have to learn CSS to format your deck (if you can call them that anymore since everything seems to be it's own deck now). Sure I understand that these things gives you a lot more power than before but I don't see where 'accessibility' makes its appearance.

As a user whose most advanced operation in Anki probably is using automated furigana from Japanese Support and using dynamic links (not very advanced), I really do not have the desire to spend time learning this new powerful Anki since I'm really not missing any functionality.

I'd also like to point out that CSS, while powerful has its backsides. As far as I know, when stylizing your deck, you can't really preview anything without knowing the color codes, exact font names etc. which is something I played around with alot in 1.2. But, however, I don't really know CSS nor Anki 2, so please correct me if anything I have said is wrong.

I do understand frustration, but we've had a lot of these threads cropping up lately. :]

I was really unnerved by it when I upgraded, but the more I played with it, the more I like it a lot better than Anki 1.2. It's definitely different (and we know how almost every human being hates change), but it's so much more streamlined and gorgeous when it's done.

And I know very little CSS and any nifty tools, I was just willing to dig around for a while and figure everything out that way. I would not go back to 1.2 if given the chance.

After enough use my opinion of Anki 2 is certainly brighter than during my first few days, but I must agree with some of the points raised here. The issue is not in the wonderful features and potential functionality Anki 2 grants users who become privy to every nuance of the program: it's to average users who expect a little more clarity with how to do simple things. There comes a point when users cannot and should not be blamed for failing to understand how to use Anki 2. It really is just too convoluted for its own good, and the thing is this confusion should be easy to remedy in future updates if the developers are so inclined. Just because a manual exists and some people get it quickly isn't cause to ignore the need for greater clarity within the program. A few simple tweaks and shortcut buttons could do wonders.

So, yeah, I could have gone and joined Anki forums but this thread existed.

Edit: I don't want to come off too ungrateful as I'm getting more and more use out of Anki 2 each day that passes. I wish the best to the dev. team to any future decisions made, as I could never come up with anything nearly so useful for JP study.

Finally got around to trying Anki 2.0.3. Looks slick, but if I can I'll stick to 1.2.8 as long as possible. It does what I want it to do, and it plays nice with the old Ankimobile that my iPod touch can handle (iOS4) because I can't upgrade that unless I buy a new iPod or an iPhone, which is rather unlikely given the price. I just hope Damien doesn't kill the sync for the old version...

Irixmark Wrote:I just hope Damien doesn't kill the sync for the old version...

It says on the website that once they have finished with the AnkiDroid upgrade they will phase out the old ankiweb sync in favour of version 2.0 decks.

I also upgraded to Anki2 around a week ago. I honestly don't know why every has a problem with it. I did everything in a very particular way in Anki 1 reliant on separate decks, cram mode and all sorts, which was completely wrecked in Anki 2. I also deleted my entire RTK deck in Anki 2 because one of the settings was bugged and wouldn't go from 400 new cards a day back to 0. It didn't ask for a confirmation and also deleted it from ankiweb so I had to re-import my old Anki1 RTK deck back into Anki 2 losing the entire days progress and causing me a great deal of stress worrying that I'd just wiped 6-8 months worth of work.

However now I have completely adjusted to Anki2 and the new timings/learn mode built in/graphs basically everything is so much better that it's worth taking the time to re-figure out how to do everything from the old Anki. The new layout may seem counter intuitive at the start, but once you get used to it the new layout actually makes a lot more sense.

I also absolutely love the way you create custom filter decks on top of your current decks which you can play about with, without messing up your actual decks.

Overall I highly recommend everyone upgrade to Anki2.0 now! It doesn't touch any of your old decks so you really have nothing to lose by upgrading!

Edit: Just to add I used to try not to use the old Anki iphone app as it would sometimes sync incorrectly and also didn't sync with my media correctly. However the Anki 2.0 App is brilliant! It's virtually identical to the desktop version and even allows you to generate the fancy graphs. Highly recommend upgrading asap if you use the iphone app as 2.0 is miles better.

I'll upgrade after the JLPT in December. I don't want to mess with my study environment right now. I don't have time for the transition. -_-

I really want to upgrade, as my 1.2 deck is getting slower and slower as i add more cards and media. It's painful how long it takes to review the first card from startup!

However, I can't take the plunge until the pinyin toolkit plugin has been ported, which is kind of happening now by a 3rd party (the original developers are AWOL). If old 1.2 Anki is turned off before the plugin is finalized then i'm screwed - yeh can always add new cards manually, but pinyin toolkit makes it about 10x quicker.

You should still be able to use Anki 1.2, you're just not going to be able to sync or download any decks or plugins.

Unfortunately I do a majority my studying via Ankiweb, so not syncing is not an option.

Also annoying is that the new developer doing the new version of the plugin has his own ideas, and seems to be basing it around generating "furigana" which i dont want (i need the pinyin in a seperate field).

Maybe i should get off my ass and just port the plugin to Anki 2.0 myself, the way i want it..

has anyone ever dealt with the error "the application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. reinstalling the application may fix the problem"

I reinstalled and it still says the same thing.