I heard Anki has a forum, but the community here imo, is more friendlier and faster. That and someone else here has had to relate to my delima at some point.

I cannot for the life of me make custom cards or input media in Anki.

I have the newest version.

I tried to make some sample cards. I try to change the default to Japanese instead of Basic, however all it gives me is the Basic option. Ok, tried adding in Japanese text via copy and paste, still no option to change the deault card format to Japanese. I notice on the intro video that there is a green plus sign that allows this, however, I can not find it at all, even after showing the hidden option in the card making tab.

This is nuts. How do I change the card format to Japanese if it's not giving me the option? Did Anki get glitched during the install? That is what I'm thinking at this point.

Ok, it that wasn't bad enough, I can only import ANKI files into anki, but I cannot add the accompanying media files to the cards. I add the anki file, save it. Go to the deck and it shows a question mark in a blue box in the first field. Ok, this is understandable since the media hasn't been added. I try to import a media file, and it tells me it isn't supported.

...
I look in the cards and see that the media is added to the cards themselves, but I have a feeling nothing is linking them to the proper location on my computer(of which is a file on my desktop).
So I look in the anki folder in My Documents and look at the sample decks on the Anki server that I downloaded and notice that each deck with media has a name of deck.media folder in it. I try to move the folder with media there and rename it Deckname.media(I have a feeling I am screwing up at this point) and it doesn't sync with my custom deck.

I have spent the last 4 hours on this and I don't know what else to do. I've tried googling the solution, tried searching forums here and on Anki's site, but I'm at the point where I'm just about to give up on Anki. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here and it's driving me nuts.

If it matters, I use Windows XP.

Just a quick thought but did you download the Japanese support plugin for Anki? Some time ago the Japanese support was separated from the default Anki install and added as a shared plugin that you have to download from the menu. Once you do that you should be able to add the "Japanese" type and remove the old "Basic" one from your deck.

No, I didn't know that, I'll try that now, assuming it lets me.

Downloaded the plugin and the Anki Reader.exe it told me too. Nothing.

Seriously, what the hell?

Ok, it's officially not working for me. The ONLY thing I can do right is download decks from the server, I can't make my own cards with the Japanese format and I can't import decks(media) from my local computer. The green plus sign simply isn't there, and I downloaded the plugins.

Seeing as how my options are limited, I have only these decks in which I want to tweak:

-Core 2000 and 6000 Vocabulary and Sentences(I assume it's the same as the one talked about here as it's in the description)
If someone can help me link the url to link the audio to the Smartfm site, that would be nice, because the audio cuts off about 3 seconds before each sentence is supposed to end.

Is the window expanded to an appropriate size? Just my thought when you said the green plus sign is not there is that maybe it got cut off because the Anki window is too small.

Edit: Nah, that's probably not it.

No, that's not it, at all. Maybe if I could take a screenshot and post it somewhere, that would help?

Doesn't seem like you're getting any answers here, and usually Fabrice discourages and closes general Anki troubleshooting threads. Maybe you should try the Anki support forum, where Damien typically resides?

Also, maybe try doing a clean install.

PkmnTrainerAbram Wrote:Downloaded the plugin and the Anki Reader.exe it told me too. Nothing.

Seriously, what the hell?

Settings -> Deck Properties -> (under "models) Press Add -> If you downloaded the Japanese Support Plugin properly there should be a "Japanese" option.

A screenshot would help - I don't understand what you mean by "no green plus sign". Are you missing the toolbar button for adding cards? If you don't have it, you can still go to Edit -> Add Items.

Yeah, sorry about this. I knew full well what I was doing when I posted this, so if it gets closed, so be it.

And thanks Squintox, that solved THAT problem. I relyed on the video for what I assume to be an outdated version I guess.
...
I think I'll go smash my head repeatedly into a brick wall, I don't know when I'll stop.<_<

That step was documented on the JapaneseSupport page, which is also the second link you find when searching for "anki japanese" on Google. I know the screencasts need updating, but the information isn't exactly buried away in unfindable locations...

Sorry I need a bit of help usng JapaneseSupport. I can't get the Furigana to show!

-I downloaded the JapaneseSupport plug-in.
-Went to the JS page to follow the other steps.
-Apparently I needed to install the support files? Well I installed the file under the link for Windows computers.
-The steps tell me to: "Go to Start > Control Panel > Regional Settings > Languages tab, and choose to install files for east-Asian languages." However there is no option to install files, just add more languages to the keyboard.

I'm not sure how I can get this to work. I just made a Subs2SRS deck, and it'll be incredibly difficult if I can't figure out how to get Furigana display working. Please and thank you.

The installing of east-Asian language files is for xp only, if you have vista/w7 they should be installed by default. In fact, if you can see Japanese characters anywhere then they are installed (which I'm sure is the case)

As for the furigana, im not 100% sure if it works the same on windows as it does on the mac, but here is how it goes for me:
Using the Japanese deck format, I can click once on the readings field while editing a card, and it will generate the furigana for that sentence.

TheVinster Wrote:Sorry I need a bit of help usng JapaneseSupport. I can't get the Furigana to show!

-I downloaded the JapaneseSupport plug-in.
-Went to the JS page to follow the other steps.
-Apparently I needed to install the support files? Well I installed the file under the link for Windows computers.
-The steps tell me to: "Go to Start > Control Panel > Regional Settings > Languages tab, and choose to install files for east-Asian languages." However there is no option to install files, just add more languages to the keyboard.

I'm not sure how I can get this to work. I just made a Subs2SRS deck, and it'll be incredibly difficult if I can't figure out how to get Furigana display working. Please and thank you.

I could be wrong but I think this is what is happening: You have a subs2srs deck with Japanese question side, and only the English sub answer side? On the question side it won't show furigana. If you look at other decks (i.e any sentence decks you made) it probably also has Japanese on the answer, which will show furigana.

I've never used furigana in Anki. What do you use it for? How is it different from flipping the card over and just reading the field for kana if you need to (esp. despite the audio when you have it)? Also for those who've used it, how often is it wrong, if it's from automatically generated readings? Or rather, how often are automatically generated readings wrong, and have they ever thrown you off? (I've never used those either.) Just curious. ;p