So I'm been searching through the forums for the past couple of days looking for answers to some of my questions. I used RtKana for Hiragana and will most likely be using it for Katagana as well with the Katagana Pictographs. I'm using onomatopoeia and countries for practice as that seems like it would be the most useful.

However, in preparation for my Kanji studies I've noticed a sheer number of RtK anki decks with all kinds of different information. What is the benefit of downloading a pre-made deck vs creating your own, especially if you have to customize it? What purpose does the frame order have for the deck? I have the 6th edition and it looks like due to the 2010 changes (which are only now starting to effect testing) the ordering and frame numbering has changed.

If I just want to be able to recognize the kanji and be able to write it (i.e. RTK strict method with no vocab, on/jun'yumi, etc) can I just ignore the rest? Is it faster in terms of recognition? I know that it's not efficient per say but since my focus is on recognition, I feel I can move past the elephant in the room. Several kanji I already recognize and understand even if I don't know the reading (numbers 1-99, Months, Days of the week, Japan, book, language) so I can't think of any reason to include them in my RTK deck since I already recognize them and just need to understand how to use them which isn't what I'm using RTK for.

Why are the number of strokes important? Is it better to use a stroke diagram or use the stroke font?

Welcome to the forum.
I'm afraid I cannot answer your questions, but I do like your nick. Aren't you d'Orléans?

I don't think creating your own deck is worth the time and effort. If you can find one that's in RTK 6th edition order, then you won't have to search for the kanji to add to your active list. I use this site now for kanji review.

I'm not sure what you are thinking about ignoring, but you probably mean all the pronunciations and extra fields in the decks? If so, they can be ignored while doing RTK 1.

The stroke count and stroke order are useful if you need to write the characters. As you write more quickly and become more cursive, the stroke order becomes apparent in your handwriting. The same is somewhat true of stroke count. In theory, the stroke count also can be used to look up characters, but you have to be very stuck to go such a slow route. Memorizing the stroke counts is a waste of time, in my opinion.

I can't comment on stroke order diagram vs stroke font. I only had the diagrams available. They are fine.

That's a lot of questions here. There are no definite answers for them, but here is what I'd suggest :

- On the benefits of downloading a deck as opposed to creating your own ->

Making your own helps make the stories stick better. If you want to go the vanilla Heisig way, then go for it. It's honestly not that big of an effort, but it can get tiresome in the long run. If you go ahead and download a deck, I would recommend editing the cards with mnemonics of your own choosing - if simply because everyone's imaginative memory works differently. Whatever works for you - if you get bored out of your mind creating / choosing stories, then by all means download a ready-made deck. It won't make any difference in the long run as long as you stick with it.

- "If I just want to be able to recognize the kanji and be able to write it (i.e. RTK strict method with no vocab, on/jun'yumi, etc) can I just ignore the rest?" ->

Yes you can, in fact that's what Heisig recommend. However doing vocab' and sentences on the side can have its benefits too - again, I would recommend you test it and see if that works for you. If your only focus is recognition though, then yes, focusing only on that will obviously make it faster. That's what I did, and simply focusing your efforts on one task does speed up the process, but at the risk of making it a bit monotomous.

-"Why are the number of strokes important? Is it better to use a stroke diagram or use the stroke font?"

I went through my rtk reps this way : see the card, produce the kanji on paper, looks at the mnemonic if I need help. The stroke number was simply a convenient and speedy way to see if I messed up somewhere or not (i.e, a difference in stroke number usually indicates you messed up a primitive element or mixed two similar ones or plain merged two strokes).

As for the stroke font / diagram ...I used two decks. One is my vanilla Heisig deck, and the other is my "flipped deck", that is from kanji to keyword, no stories. I used diagrams on the heisig one and stroke font on the flipped one. I personnaly prefer diagrams, I find them to be simply more readable.

Good luck =)

Thanks everyone (et bien sure , je suis la Pucelle d'Orléans)

For the basic stuff I think a pre-made deck is fine. I use a pre-made deck for RTK 1. I just don't have the time/motivation to make one myself, although I can see how it would be helpful to do so. My biggest customization is to change some of the readings on the cards to Japanese vocabulary words that I know as it helps me to remember those with similar shapes (like 忙 vs. 忘). Early vocabulary is another good thing to do pre-made for. I have another vocabulary deck that I've made (although set aside at the moment) for the words that I hear from movies/music/etc. that I think are worth remembering. That one is obviously self-made, but for some of the more basic and standard things I think that a good quality pre-made deck would be a lot more efficient, as long as it's working for you.

I do my reps in the morning after getting up, usually on my smartphone.
My new Kanji are in the evening, before going to bed, and usually on my PC.

The reason is, I'm using the Rev 6 deck with the top 2 stories from this site and make the primitive keywords in the stories italic, the meaning keyword bold.
I also shorten the stories or write new ones, and all this is faster and more comfortably done at the PC.

This method provides me with enough time with the Kanji and the stories, as I think them through.

A reason for me to not make a deck from scratch is.. well, it costs time and is just annoying, especially when you encounter Kanji you don't know how to pronounce yet, so you have to look them up, which again is time spent I'd rather use to learn some more Kanji.