Same here. I try to keep it simple.

"Production" and "Recognition" are names that the author of Anki put into the original model, but I changed them to suit my tastes. "Recognition" in my model means "If I read this sentence full of kanji, can I recognize all of the readings and meanings?" And "Production" in my model means "If I just look at the hiragana/katakana only version of this sentence, can I reconstruct it using the proper kanji? (And do I understand what it means?)"

Expression field: Sentence full of kanji.
Meaning field: Notes on Sentence full of kanji-- readings of kanji compounds I'm learning, a translation of the sentence (if I need one), and grammar notes.
Reading field: The automatically-generated hiragana/katakana only version of this sentence.

Recognition cards:
Question Side: %(Expression)s
Answer Side: %(Reading)s
%(Meaning)s

Production cards:
Question side of card: %(Reading)s
Answer side of card: %(Expression)s
%(Meaning)s

You can go wild with creating fields if you want, but that just takes more time entering data, IMO.

I also use just the three fields - sentence, reading, notes/definitions. 

I think the main reasons to have additional fields are 1) to create multiple types of cards (I am using only recognition, though I may add some reading -> kanji later on), or 2) as in Nukemarine's Notes field, to include information that you don't necessarily want displayed, but want attached to the card.  Maybe 3) for formatting purposes, i.e. you want some parts of your answer field displayed in a different font or something.

Last edited by shaydwyrm (2008 May 22, 12:39 am)

Just having my first dip into the world of Anki after some issues I was having with my Palm.

Looks like a very nice GUI.

I'm just importing a load of stuff at the moment.

My spreadsheets have a variety of fields so I've gone and created a deck that looks like:

Expression (sentence)
Vocab 1
Reading 1
Explanation 1 (sanseido dictionary)
Vocab 2
Reading 2
Explanation2 (sanseido dictionary)

This has been working pretty well for me during my use of Twinkle. I have been thinking about keeping this structure in Anki coz I like how I can change the font size and colours for each field individually.

The challenge I have at the moment is that not all my "facts" have values in every field.

resolve wrote:

Anki determines the number of fields in the file by looking at the first (non-commented) line. Any other lines in the file which don't match this number will be ignored.

If I try to imput stuff manually Anki still seems to want a value in each field otherwise the fact can't be saved. Or so it appears.

So before I rush into anything deck layout-wise, does anyone have any suggestions?

Points that I'm keen on is to have the layout looking clean when I'm reviewing even if this costs me setup time. As in, I like seeing vocab/readings/explanations on different lines and in different colours.

One last query. Pros and cons of single vs multiple deck set up?

synewave wrote:

If I try to imput stuff manually Anki still seems to want a value in each field otherwise the fact can't be saved. Or so it appears.

If you go to edit -> model properties, you can configure various properties for each of the fields in your facts. One of these is whether the field can be empty or not. It sounds like you've got that property set to "must not be empty". You can solve that by unchecking the check-box. Let me know if that makes sense.

Of course, it's up to you how you configure your fact model but it looks pretty crowded to me. What do the cards that derive from the fact model look like? The facts - cards relationship in Anki can be confusing for new users. You may want to check out the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anki

If you go to edit -> display properties then you can set up colours and everything else. If you want to put a blank line in between the lines in your cards, you have to go to edit -> model properties, click on the cards tab and insert html code into your cards - <p> (new paragraph syntax I think). Have a play around and post again if you can't get it looking how you want it.

I keep all my Japanese stuff in one deck and distinguish between stuff using tags. If I was going to learn something else then I might create another deck but you can prioritise certain tags before others so in theory you don't need to.

If the first line of the file is

a[tab]b[tab]c

then the file is regarded as having three fields. Note that the number of tabs is important - if the file has:

a[tab][tab]c

then it's still regarded as having three fields. The problem with a differing number of fields only should occur when you have a file like:

a[tab]b
c[tab]d[tab]e