What is Anki and how to install a deck?

What is Anki?

Anki is a free open source digital flashcard learning software that supports every major operating system including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. It features some of the best Spaced Repetition Software (SRS) available on the internet and can synchronize across all platforms. It is used for a large variety of purposes from learning a new language to preparing for medical school.

I decided to use Anki for the creation of my resources because it is both free (on every platform except iOS), popular among the language learning community, as well as flexible enough to provide what I think is the necessary experience to memorize and learn foreign language vocabulary. There is similar platforms such as Memrise that offer an experience with easier setup, but course creation is far more limited on that platform and its relationship with its user base of course developers can be rather strained at time. Anki has existed for a long time and there is lots of detailed support and help that can be found online within the Anki community for all users and developers alike.

Now while the app is not free for iOS, there is an browser version of Anki that can be accessed from any platform that you can continue to use for free, but with some additional setup, however the Anki iOS app was made by the original Anki developers, and buying the app could be a good way to show support for their service. As for the amount of time most language learners get out of Anki, it is very much worth its listing price.

How do I get Anki, and how do I install a deck?

First you will need to either head to the Anki website at: https://apps.ankiweb.net/ Visit the Google Play listing at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki&hl=en_US

or visit the Itunes Store listing at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387

Be wary of third party apps as many don't support actual SRS or may be potential scams.

If you are installing Anki on your Computer:

You will open Anki after downloading the application and can then proceed to download one of the decks from my website. All my decks are hosted on Dropbox and should not require an account, but some isolated reports have been made that some phone users have needed to install the app/sign up to use Dropbox. Signup and use of Dropbox is free. Most of my Decks will have a Read Me file that can be read directly within Dropbox giving some extra information on the decks (especially if there is multiple optional courses you can download). Unless stated otherwise in the Read Me, assume that you can NOT download multiple courses of the same language. They likely use the same card type and will overwrite each other.

After installing the language course of your choice you will have a .APKG file. These can be opened directly with the Anki application, but alternatively you can open Anki first and import the file from within Anki directly via the Import File button at the bottom right.

After importing the deck you may see that you have 0 new cards and 0 due cards, if you click on the deck you may get a message saying "Congratulations! You have finished this deck for now." This doesn't mean there is no cards in the deck or you made some kind of mistake, every deck starts with 0 new cards per day by default, you just need to raise the new card limit. First you will want to click the + to the left of the deck name (To reveal the Basic Words and Phrases and Core Vocabulary sub decks) then you will click the cog to the right of each of these decks to select "Options."

Within the options menu you will change the "New cards/day" from 0 to whatever number you would like. You may notice there is a parent limit, you can change this parent limit by following the same steps for the top level deck "Xefjord's Complete XYZ." This allows you to for example: set your parent limit to 30, set your Basic Words and Phrases limit to 20, and your Core Vocabulary limit to 10 cards. This is especially good for the Japanese and Mandarin decks as their Core Vocabulary decks have two further sub decks (With one dedicated to Chinese characters)

And with that you should now be able to click on your deck and start learning. You can also make an account to sync your progress and decks across all platforms (This may be a requirement in some cases, like if you want to use the browser version of the app for free on your iPhone).

If you are installing Anki on your Phone:

You will open Anki after downloading the application and can then proceed to download one of the decks from my website. All my decks are hosted on Dropbox and should not require an account, but some isolated reports have been made that some phone users have needed to install the app/sign up to use Dropbox. Signup and use of Dropbox is free.

Most of my Decks will have a Read Me file that can be read directly within Dropbox giving some extra information on the decks (especially if there is multiple optional courses you can download). Unless stated otherwise in the Read Me, assume that you can NOT download multiple courses of the same language. They likely use the same card type and will overwrite each other.

After installing the language course of your choice you will have a .APKG file. You will need to open your Anki app then look to the top right for three dots stacked vertically. Tapping these three dots should open up a list of options with "Import" near the bottom of these options. You will then tap "Import" and find the APKG file on your phone.

Alternatively if you already have Anki set up on another device and decks saved to an account you can tap the little circle of arrows to the left of the three dots to sync your phone to your Ankiweb account.

After importing the deck you may see that you have 0 new cards and 0 due cards, if you click on the deck you may get a message saying "Daily study limit reached." This doesn't mean there is no cards in the deck or you made some kind of mistake, every deck starts with 0 new cards per day by default, you just need to raise the new card limit. First you will need to press the ">" to the left of "Xefjord's Complete XYZ" to reveal the Basic Word's and Phrase and Core Vocabulary sub decks (If they are not revealed already).

Then you will need to long press each of these decks and it will bring up a new window that should include an "Options." Tap "Options" then from the new menu tap "New cards" and then "New cards/day." Change the number to whatever amount of cards you want to study each day.

And with that you should now be able to click on your deck and start learning. If you are on iPhone and want to use the browser version for free, you will first need to follow the instructions to set a deck up on your computer, create an account, then go to https://apps.ankiweb.net/ and find the "Ankiweb" button and login. You can then do your normal deck learning via your web browser.

Hopefully this helped you and remember you can ask for additional help on the discord server here: https://discord.gg/Dne3YUJ