building your first custom Anki deck, the fields that matter
what to add from day one so you're not rebuilding the whole deck in month three
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1
start from the Basic note type
2
Sentence field first
the whole point is context, a bare word card teaches you nothing
3
Target word field, isolated
4
Definition field
5
Audio field
record it yourself if you can't find native audio, robotic TTS works but not by much
6
Image field (optional)
7
Sentence translation, hidden behind a toggle
(input > output), try recalling before you peek
8
tags for grammar point, not topic
topic tags i never used once, grammar tags constantly
9
cards straight from netflix subtitles, absurdly good for mining
10
AnkiWeb sync
11
Forvo for pronunciation
12
read the Anki manual once
sounds boring, skipped it for 2 years and rebuilt my deck twice because of it
13
card template, front/back design
the one people skip. show too much on the front and you're just reading, not recalling. stripped mine down, retention jumped
14
Yomitan for pop-up dictionary lookups
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