¿What is the best strategy to import a list with four fields?

Anki Card Design
1

Hello,

I have spent quite a long time learning about Notes, Cards, Decks, etc., but still cannot figure out the best strategy to achieve something that should be quite simple :slightly_frowning_face:

I start with an Excel table with four columns, say A, B, C, and D.
I want to import it to Anki notes and then create card types with the following combinations:

  • Card Type 1: Front: A, Back: C&D
  • Card Type 2: Front C&D, Back: A
  • Card Type 3: Front C, Back A
  • Card Type 4: Front D, Back A

My goal is to have a single note type with all four fields ABCD, and then four decks, each using one of the four card types above.

I would greatly appreciate some step-by-step instructions to achieve this.

Thank you for your help!

2

Create a new note type.
Go to Fields and add/remove fields so that you have 4 fields, naming them whatever you’d like them to be called (I’m going to refer to them as A, B, C and D, wherever you see {{A}} or similar, replace the letter with the name of the field you have chosen).
Go to Cards.
(S1) For the Front (Card 1): There will be some default format. Select all of it and delete it. Add {{A}} to here (along with any other information you may wish to show when seeing the question)
(S2) For the Back (Card 2): There will be some default format. Select all of it and delete it. Add {{C}}
{{D}} (you may choose to format it in a different way, it’s entirely up to you, currently this will display C on one line and then D).

Create a new card type
Repeat S1 and S2, replacing {{A}} with {{C}}
{{D}} on the front side and vice versa on the back side.

Create a new card type
Repeat S1 and S2, replacing {{A}} with {{C}} on the front side and {{C}}
{{D}} with {{A}}. Similarly for the 4th card type.

3

Hi SuhasK,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I followed your steps and created a new note type and four card types as described.

But then, when I create a deck and import the file specifying the new note type, all four card types are included in that deck. So, if my file contains 1000 lines, the deck will contain 4000 cards, and each review session will mix all card types.

What I want is a separate deck for each card type, so that, if I review the first deck, it will always show A and ask to guess C, and not any other combination.

I would like to select “Card Type” in the import options, but it is not there.

Thanks again for your time, this would really be a big help.

4

All of the cards for a note will be created in one deck – unless you set up a Deck Override for a card type – Card Templates - Anki Manual . If you set Overrides for cards 2, 3, and 4, they will be created in those separate decks.

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5

Create your three other decks, then use deck override for three of your card types (which will leave just one card type in the deck you currently have). Deck override is described in the documentation.

I don’t think deck override will move the cards you created before using deck override, however (it will automatically move the ones you create later). You will have to go to the card browser, filter by card type, select all the cards of a given type, and then move them to whichever deck you want. Double check that information when you look at the documentation.

6

That’s correct.

7

When in the cards menu, there is a way to select the default deck for a particular card type. That option is present in the same place as where you created the extra cards and is called deck override. I believe that is what you’re looking for.

8

If you wish to move the cards that you already created, then in the browse screen use the following search query for seeing all the cards of a particular card type
note:(whatever it is called) card:1
Card:1 would be 1st card, 2 would be 2nd and so on.

9

Thank you all!

I think I have achieved what I wanted without using “Deck override” (at least explicitly). This is what I did:

  • Create a note type with my four fields
  • Create four card types, each with a different combination of the four fields
  • Create four decks, each for the type of card I intend to use
  • Create a fifth, temporary deck called “All” and import all notes to it specifying the note type created above
  • Select the deck “All” and, in the Browse window, show the cards view (which contains four times the number of notes, one for each card type)
  • Select the notes of each type in turn and use “Change deck” to move them to the corresponding empty deck
  • Delete the “All” deck

I am not sure that it is the best solution, but it works…

10

If you had used Deck Override, instead of all of these steps, you would have just done – “import all notes [into Deck 1] specifying the note type created above”.

Setting up Deck Override now will prevent you from going through those steps the next time you import/add a note as well.

11

Even if you choose not to use deck override, there is no need at all to create the deck called “All”. Import the cards into one of the four decks and then use search queries (note:(name of note) card:(number)) to find the cards you’re looking for and select all that you see and move all.
Deck Override woluld certainly be the better solution however.

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