File and folder names starting with a period are hidden by default. There's probably a feature in the Finder to turn on display of hidden files; if not, ls -a (for all files) at the terminal will display them.

Thanks, Kieron. Alright, I found a handy app called Tinker Tool that reveals all hidden files in the finder. I've replaced the last deck that I used with the backup, but still Anki won't start. Do I need to replace ALL the decks in a similar fashion? I know that this may seem like an obvious thing to do, but I don't really want to muck around more than I need to and mess things up further.

Also, If a corrupt deck is the problem, then how come Anki won't start even if I delete all my decks? Again, not knowing much about computers, I realise that this may seem like a silly question to the more learned amongst you!

cheers,

d

Anki is failing to start because the last file it loaded is corrupted. It tries to autoload that file on startup but fails, and dies.

I changed Anki so that a corrupted file will not stop Anki from loading. I think I did this in 0.3.6, but perhaps my memory is failing me. You can work around it by telling Anki which file specifically you want to load. See:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?pid=7197#pid7197

I understand in principle what I have to do. What I'm not certain is how to change the command line that resolve has provided so that it applies to my deck. If the path is /Users/Django/Documents/anki/jvocab.anki, how would I append this to the following command line from resolve:

/Volumes/Anki/Anki.app/Contents/MacOS/Anki ~/Documents/tango.fc

change 'tango.fc' to 'anki/jvocab.anki'

Just downloaded Anki a few days ago and have been loving it. It is a very nicely put together program.

Before I discovered it, I was using supermemo on my Palm TX, which was ok, but rather limited in what it could display (i.e., large sentences were very awkward on the display, especially at the large font size I'm using so I can see the kanji) and entering text was a pain given the palm's lackluster touchscreen (IMO). Actually I am still using supermemo right now for single words, altho I might transfer that to anki soon since the phone interface works great for me (tho my softbank phone can't seem to run the newer interface, so I have to use the old one). The only thing preventing me from doing this right now is all the data supermemo holds (i.e., my "scores" for each card), but I suppose this isn't extremely important.

Anyways, a question: Is it possible to do kind of a rikaichan thing and hide readings (furigana) unless they are needed? What I mean by that is a specific reading won't be given unless I select that word and click on it. So for example, my question card is "school dorm", and my answer card is "学校の寮". But instead of the furigana automatically appearing with the answer, I would like them hidden unless I click on a kanji, and then only the furigana for that specific kanji would appear (or the reading for the multiple kanji if it is a word... like rikaichan does), not for all the kanji. So for my example, if I then click on 寮, then "りょう" pops up.

Now that I think of it, I suppose this would be similar to a "3rd" side to the card, and I think I saw an earlier post that said that wasn't supported yet. Anyways, can someone tell me for sure if this is possible or not?

Anyways, thanks for the great program!
-dave

Hi Dave,

Anki supports an arbitrary number of pieces of information for a card. By default the furigana is always displayed in the answer, and never in the question. I don't understand why you'd want to hide the furigana from the answer as well, but it's certainly possible. All you need to do is remove the furigana field from the card model, and then write a small plugin to provide furigana tooltips. The second plugin on this page should give you a hint on where to start:

http://repose.cx/anki/wiki/Plugins

Resolve-

Thanks for the quick reply! As to why I would want to... I don't know, to further challenge myself I guess, while still making it easy to find the answer if I need it. At this point in my studies, it almost feels like cheating if I use furigana to help me read a word. Plus I do notice that when the furigana is present, my eye is immediately drawn to it and I tend to read it instead of looking at the kanji (even if I usually know the reading of the kanji), so there is a failure to associate the kanji with the word. So instead of creating a separate deck with Q:kanji/A:prouncation it seems a better idea to combine the two.

But then again, what do you think? Using this method of learning, would it be more logical (or more useful) to create another deck to solely test kanji readings? Should each deck only have one purpose?

(When I think about it, it's really cool that reading Japanese (the furigana) can feel like cheating. But anyways, there you go.)

By default, Anki tests you in two directions. One of those directions is Kanji -> Reading + Meaning. So if you don't know the reading for the kanji, you'll fail that card. On the other card Meaning -> Kanji + Reading, the reading is there to make sure you can produce the sound of the word. The kanji is there in case you want to practice the writing by looking at the meaning. I don't see any reason to hide the reading in the latter, since it is actively tested in the former

Hi

If I have two decks (deck 'a' and deck 'b') both locally and on the internet, and WITHOUT an internet connection I use desktop Anki to work on deck 'a' then deck 'b'. Then later when I have a connection I start the desktop Anki again, it goes through the sync process, does this sync both decks that have changed since the last sync or just deck 'b' (the open deck)?

-Mex

open deck

resolve Wrote:open deck

This is what I thought. Would it be an idea to have Anki keep track of all changed/used decks and update them all when a connection is next available to it? This would avoid users forgetting to update each deck every time.

-Mex

Personally I think it seems better to just use one deck and have different tags with different priorities. That would, in effect, be the same thing, except that it works right now.

dilandau23 Wrote:Personally I think it seems better to just use one deck and have different tags with different priorities. That would, in effect, be the same thing, except that it works right now.

I currently have five different decks containing very unrelated things. I want to group like with like like when I study, As far as I can see, the best/least messy way of doing this is to run separate decks.

-Mex

Assuming that you study all of your due cards from each of your decks each day, then I still think the way I mentioned will work for you. Plus you get the added benefit of seeing your actually workload and retention rates. The only down side I could see to using one prioritized deck might possibly be is the fact that new cards in a higher prioritized are seen before due cards in a lower one. I overcome that with a simple cut out and then paste back in of the priority field. While it may not be exactly what you are looking for, you should at least look into it as an alternative.

Hello! I've combed this thread and the Anki forum for an answer and could not find one, so I will ask here. I just discovered Anki and am very excited to use it, but I want to study from work and at home. I have the Systems Admin from Hell at work, so no installing Anki, which means I need to run it from a flash drive. Can someone explain how to do this for the programming impaired? I have NO programming experience. This makes no sense to me:

<Can I run Anki from a flashdrive?

Sure. Start Anki with a command-line argument pointing to a directory you want to use for configuration files. It doesn't have to exist.

On Windows, you might want to copy c:\program files\Anki to e:\Anki. Then create a shortcut on the flashdrive, and edit the properties. Change the command line to something like:

\Anki\anki.exe -c \myankiconfig

>

Could someone explain to me how to do this? Explain it to me step by step like I am a two year old.

Also, once I'm running Anki off my flash drive, is there a way to sync my decks with my home computer? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!!!! Only 3 weeks till 1kyuu exam!!!

Ok, I got it to work on my flashdrive all by myself -- I think. So far, so good.
Now, if I add cards on my computer at home, how would I sync decks with what's on the flash drive?

Next question: Is there a way to "shuffle" the Heisig cards? When you're going through them for the first time, it just presents all the cards in order -- yuck.

Thanks!
-FM

FudoMyo Wrote:Ok, I got it to work on my flashdrive all by myself -- I think. So far, so good.
Now, if I add cards on my computer at home, how would I sync decks with what's on the flash drive?

Sync when you begin or finish reviewing on either the flash drive or the home PC, and you'll be all set.

Thanks, I just realized that "sync" means with the internet, not with other decks. I guess you have to physically move your deck files back and forth. There's no way to merge two decks together, ignorning any repeated cards?

In fact, where would be a good place to post a wish list for Anki? There doesn't seem to be on on the wiki.

For example, for the Heisig card set, you first have to look at all of them in order. If you've already done the whole book and merely want to review, then that sucks. How do you randomize the way the cards are presented? They always come at you in the same order?

Go through the deck once selecting '4' for every card, and the cards will be randomly spaced in a 3 day period. You can adjust the period before you start in the deck properties, to distribute the deck over a period of 30 days or similar.

If you think that the provided Heisig deck "sucks", then make your own. The sample decks are provided to give you an idea of what Anki is capable of, not to be an exhaustive list of all you can study.

i just tried anki on a windows machine for the first time and was quite surprised at how snappy it is. on my powerbook 12" (PPC)it is slow, almost to the point of being unusable. is this a problem with anki on apples in general or something specific to my setup?

There are two reasons Anki is slow on the Mac. One of them is that the Mac version of the graphics libraries is not very well written, and it uses a lot of CPU just to render the buttons, windows, etc. Even when Anki is idling, it uses CPU usage.

The other problem is that 'psycho', a just-in-time optimizer for python, doesn't run on the Mac. Apparently porting it is not a huge amount of work, but nobody has stepped forward to do it.

I'm not happy with Anki's performance on Mac computers, but I figure available and slow is better than not available at all.

resolve Wrote:I'm not happy with Anki's performance on Mac computers, but I figure available and slow is better than not available at all.

So do I, though I'm tempted now to go pick up a PC just for Anki.

Anki performs well enough on my Macbookpro. I think the reason it's so slow on your 12" PPC Powerbook is because, well, it's an old and slow system.

I've never programmed in Python (nor on a Mac), but if the graphics are the major bottleneck would it be difficult to use the native drawing API (which can be 100% gpu accelerated in Leopard /w QuartzGL)?

Of course it's possible to make a fast Mac app. But it would require duplicating all the interface code, which would either require making a new program, or considerably complicate the maintenance of the current interface.

I don't even own a Mac. The current Mac solution will have to do until someone comes along and writes a Cocoa version using libanki.