The deck-description dialog currently contains a checkbox labelled Anki 2.1.41+ handling. I suggest renaming it simply Markdown.
The present label does not indicate what the option actually does: 2.1.41+ refers to the Anki version in which this handling was introduced, not to the feature itself. More than five years later, that historical version seems less useful to users than the name of the feature.
The wording also caused actual confusion more than once:
In 2024, another user posted a screenshot and asked “What does this checkbox mean?”; the answer was a link back to the 2022 discussion.
Anki itself already describes the feature in terms of Markdown. The 2.1.41 change notes say that deck descriptions on the congratulations screen can be enabled by “turning markdown on”:
The implementation likewise calls the checkbox enable_markdown:
Its tooltip begins “Treats input as markdown, and cleans HTML input”.
The current Anki Manual does not appear to explain the meaning of “Anki 2.1.41+ handling” either; the Deck Options documentation contains no corresponding explanation of this checkbox:
So the current label seems to preserve a history detail at the expense of naming the feature the user is enabling.
I therefore suggest changing:
Anki 2.1.41+ handling
to:
Markdown
or perhaps:
Enable Markdown
I’d prefer Markdown, as the checkbox already conveys enable/disable, and the shorter wording names the feature directly.
Happy to open an issue and prepare a PR if this seems reasonable.
Yes, I like the idea of adding a verb, as it makes the intended operation clearer.
I’m slightly less convinced by Format as Markdown, though. Taken literally, it suggests the structure is Format [input text] as Markdown—e.g., “Format **hi** as Markdown”. But what Anki actually does is interpret**hi** as Markdown and thus render it to HTML as <strong>hi</strong>.
Interestingly, the forthcoming macOS 27 Golden Gate adds two new Apple Notes actions, Create Note and Append to Note, with a toggle labelled Interpret as Markdown. The new Apple actions therefore appear to use exactly that wording for essentially the same operation.
My preference would therefore now be Interpret as Markdown.
I think the original plan was to always display the description there, but this was changed later to only display the Markdown description for rendering consistency with the Overview screen due to an issue with image display in the Congrats screen.
Here are some references:
The change will only affect new decks and the toggle won’t be removed for now.
