first of all:
I have only been using Anki for a few days, so I am not very familiar with it yet.
I have downloaded the excellent deck: “Spanish 9000 sentences with audio” Spanish <> English.
I would like to modify this deck: for example, change the card type.
Learning in both directions.
Unfortunately, I cannot change the card type in the downloaded deck because the card type is dimmed.
Question: what do I have to do to modify the card type?
Furthermore, I would like to add another card to each record.
At the moment the card set only consists of front and back.
But I want to add one more card.
Question: what do I have to do to add another card?
Thanks
Peter El Salvador
I’ve reproduced your problem: downloaded the Spanish deck and tried to add both forward and reverse cards where the forward card is a cloze and the reverse card is not.
Unfortunatley, I failed to do that. I believe this boils down to the intended design of Cloze note types (from the docs):
The cloze note type is treated specially by Anki, and cannot be created based on a regular note type. If you wish to customize it, please make sure to clone the existing Cloze type instead of another type of note. Things like formatting can be customized, but it is not possible to add extra card templates to the cloze note type.
What I can offer you is to abandon the cloze note type and convert the deck to the Basic (with reverse) note type. To do so:
Tools -> Manage Note Types -> Add
Choose the Clone: (basic and reverse card)
Select your new cloned note type, click Fields
Add all of the fields from the “spanish sentences cloze” note type manually
Leave “Front” and “Back” fields for now, you will remove them at a later step
Select your cloned note type, click Cards
Configure front and back template for both card types (forward and reverse). Here, you will replace “Front” with “EnglishSentence” and “Back” with “SpanishSentence” and “Audio”.
When ready, go back to “Note Types”, select your cloned note type and remove “Front” and “Back” fields
Now, you have a note type to convert the “Spanish sentence cloze” type into
Back up your current progress (perhaps by using a different anki profile)
Open the note browser, use Ctrl + A to select all the cards
Right click, Notes -> Change Note Types
In the dropdown, choose your new note type. Make sure the fields align.
Click “Save”, you should see a message “9692 notes updated” (not sure about the exact number)
The disadvantage: the cards become harder. You’re no longer guessing one spanish word. Instead, you’re guessing the whole spanish sentence. Another disadvantage is that the Audio symbol is displayed. Perhaps that could be tweaked.
Perhaps you could start with the cloze-based deck to build up vocabulary, and later switch to the basic-with-reversed deck to work on entire sentences?
first, thank you very, very much for your very detailed advice.
I’m afraid that I won’t change the design of the existing deck fundamentally after all; what a pity!
It’s a pity because I think it makes sense to learn in forward and backward mode.
Why I don’t want to make a change.:
You write: The disadvantage: the cards become harder. You’re no longer guessing one Spanish word. Instead, you’re guessing the whole spanish sentence. Another disadvantage is that the Audio symbol is displayed. Perhaps that could be tweaked.
I removed the audio symbol on the front anyway - no automatic playback - and only added the audio symbol for Spanish, English and German on the back.
I spent a lot of time in the last few days editing the first approx. 450 of 9000 cards:
Partially corrected translation from Spanish to English, added translation for German, and added audio samples in English and German to all examples.
In addition, added more cards showing keywords that appear in the example sentence.
The idea that my work was now in vain keeps me from following your suggestion.
The deck “9000 Spanish sentences plus audios in Spanish” is an excellent work - thanks to the “producer”!
What I find a bit of a pity is that I can’t really do anything with the terms entered in the “ClozeWord” field.
At least I would have entered other words in the field, for example for verbs: the infinitive etc., instead of “habrías” “you would’ve”.
Maybe you have an idea why the “producer” entered such “ClozeWord”.
I don’t know how to ask him personally.
Happy new year!
The idea that my work was now in vain keeps me from following your suggestion.
Very understandable
What I find a bit of a pity is that I can’t really do anything with the terms entered in the “ClozeWord” field. At least I would have entered other words in the field, for example for verbs: the infinitive etc., instead of “habrías” “you would’ve”.
Personally, it sounds to me like you’re putting too much value into each individual card. I don’t think that a single Anki card should contain a lot of information about something (like, in your suggestion, a cloze with a verb should contain the infinitive of the verb).
Perhaps treat each card with its own simple, small purpose? For example, the “habridas” card is just that specific verb form and its example usage.
If you want a card with the infinitive of this verb, I believe it is “good enough” to be its own card, which you can add to the deck.
Maybe you have an idea why the “producer” entered such “ClozeWord”.
I know that my answer deviates from forum rules.
My answer is only indirectly related to my original question.
It is a concrete answer to Aleksandre’s hint.
It has to do with:
a) building a learning deck - here specifically with foreign language teaching - from a methodological / didactic point of view,
b) how should I proceed in order to modify a downloaded deck according to my ideas.
Hello Aleksandre,
Thank you for your advice.
I absolutely agree with you: Don’t overload cards with info.
Under normal circumstances, I would do exactly what you recommend:
In my “special” case, I deliberately deviate from the rule. (unfortunately!)
Why?
As a beginner in Anki I find:
“Spanish 9000 sentences with native audio” is a real treasure trove for advanced learners who want to brush up, improve their Spanish.
As an unpaid volunteer working in Central America, I am often asked by incoming volunteers from English, German speaking countries which e-learning system I can recommend to refresh or improve their Spanish. (All of them are not beginners!)
So far I have recommended Quizlet etc., but my first choice so far has been “Flashcard delux”.
Unfortunately, the latter is not available as a Dekstop version.
But my favourite may change since I’ve recently started getting into Anki.
“Spanish 9000 sentences with native audio” a great deck!
Unfortunately, from my point of view it has some disadvantages, e.g. it can’t be modified without a huge expenditure of time.
This already starts with the fact that the card type cannot be changed.
Hence my idea:
Add another field: German translation for the Spanish sentences, English entries corrected or added.
That was no problem.
Spanish grammar is very different from English / German.
So, under Notes, I would like to add notes about irregular verbs, different tenses, for example.
You are absolutely right, a page so full of information is to be avoided from a methodological / didactic point of view.
What I would prefer to do:
Import only the Spanish sentence including the audio files, especially important: including the native speaker voz, into another deck to be newly created, if possible also the approx. 500 translations + audio files in English and German that I have added in the meantime.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do this.
If you have an idea - a link would do - let me know.
