Option to flag notes and mark / tag cards

Anki Suggestions
1

Hi all, and first of all a big thanks to Damien & all the contributors for this great program.

The tag / mark / flag system is great and offer a lot of flexibility to create custom decks, classify your cards/ notes, etc.

However, actually is only possible to flag cards (but no notes), or tag / marks notes (but no cards):

Flag cards - mark notes1
Flag cards - mark notes1415Ă—582 10.2 KB

I find this is inconsistent and counterintuitive, creates confusion, and limits the way the user can use the whole tag / mark / flag system.

I think the user should have the option of adding a tag / mark / flag notes AND cards the same way we can actually bury / suspend notes and cards:

Flag cards - mark notes
Flag cards - mark notes486Ă—586 8.53 KB

Thanks for your consideration :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

I think it would be more confusing if you had card and note tags.

Tags are usually used to categorise learning content (which is stored in notes). Since cards are only combinations of notes and templates, there should be less need for intricate categorisation.
In practice, if you could tag a card, the tags could quickly become outdated because the card can change completely if you modify its template or note.

I use flags mostly for when I encounter a mistake or missing information (like a tag). In both cases I revise the template or note later and remove the flag, so I never use it to permanently associate information with the card.
Could you share what your use case is? Maybe expanding the flag system would be an option.

3 Likes
3

Hi Rumo, thanks for responding and for your work.

Yes, I understand your points, but let me explain why I think not being able to tag individual cards can be limiting for the end user with a simple example. Let’s say I have a deck made just with a lot of small biographies like these:

Note 1:
{{c1::Winston Churchill}}, born on {{c2::November 30th, 1874}} in {{c3::Oxfordshire}}, {{c4::England}}, was one of the great world leaders of the 20th century. His leadership helped Britain to stand strong against {{c5::Hitler}} and the Germans, even when they were the last country left fighting. He is also famous for his {{c6::inspiring speeches}} and quotes.
He died on {{c7::24 January 1965}} in {{c8::London}}, England

Note 2:
{{c1::Leonardo da Vinci}} was an {{c2::artist}}, {{c3::scientist}}, and {{c4::inventor}} during the {{c5::Italian Renaissance}}. He was born on {{c6::April 15, 1452}} in {{c7::Vinci}}, {{c8::Italy}} and died on {{c9::May 2, 1519}} in {{c10::Amboise}}, {{c11::Kingdom of France}}. Leonardo is considered by many to be one of the {{c13::most talented}} and intelligent people of all time. The term {{c12::Renaissance Man}} (someone who does many things very well) was coined from Leonardo’s many talents and is today used to describe people who resemble da Vinci.

Etc…

Now , suppose I’m specially interested on five key elements of each biography (Name, Place of birth, Date of birth, Place of death, Date of death), and would like to create five filtered decks just with that information.

I can’t use tags here, because tags / marks apply to whole notes, not to individual cards, so my only option in this scenario is the use of flags: I can use red flags for “Name”, orange flags for “Place of birth” and so on, and then create custom decks with the flagged cards, but…the program only supports 4 different flags and I would need 5 (or more) of them, so…

Yes, having more than just 4 flags would also work and is, in fact a great idea!

1 Like
4

Cloze notes are a bit special because you can’t give the cards (templates) meaningful names. But you can still kind of categorise them if you reserve one number for every category. So in your example, you could always use {{c1:: ... }} for name, {{c2:: ... }} for place of birth, etc. (Note that the numbers don’t have to be continuous or consecutive.) Then you could use card:1 to filter for cards with names.
Not ideal, but may be it helps until Anki has a better solution. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
5

Yes, that’s a nice workaround that would work well in some cases, but not so well in some other situations, for instance, when some (or most) of your notes have duplicated “card categories”. Let’s say that I have in my deck notes like this:

Mother Teresa was a humanitarian. She was born in Uskub, Ottoman Empire on August 26, 1910.
In 1932, she…
In 1950, she…
In 1962, she…
In 1992, she…

…and I’d like to create a filtered deck for {{c10:: … }} important_years, this would be my note:

{{c1::Mother Teresa}} was a humanitarian. She was born in {{c2::Uskub}}, Ottoman Empire on August 26, {{c3::1910}}.
In {{c10::1932}}, she…
In {{c10::1950}}, she…
In {{c10::1962}}, she…
In {{c10::1992}}, she…

…and of course this is not a well designed note under any point of view.

I think the best and simplest solution for this and other related problems is your idea of expanding the flag system, maybe allowing the user to create as many flags as he needs.

1 Like
6

Another example to illustrate why we need the ability to flag/tag notes AND cards: actually, if you have several cards made from a single cloze note:

Some {{c1::days}} I feel like a {{c2::leprechaun}} at the end
{{c3::On other days}} I feel like the one in search for the {{c4::gold}} at the beginning.

…and card 1 gets automatically tagged as a leech, all four cards from that note will get tagged as leeches no matter how easy they actually are, which in my opinion is neither expected nor desirable behaviour.