• Importing_material_into_Anki

Importing

Feature found in: 'Deck' -> 'Import...'

Anki allows you to import material from a number of sources:

• Comma, semicolon and tab-separated text files

• Decks created with Mnemosyne.

• Decks created with previous versions of Anki

Text Files (Comma, semicolon or tab-separated)

Any file that contains fields separated by commas, semicolons or tabs can be imported into Anki, provided some conditions are met.

• Anki determines the number of fields in the file by looking at the first (non-commented) line. Any other lines in the file which don't match this number will be ignored.
• The first line also defines the separating character - if Anki finds a ';' on the first line it will use that - if it finds a comma it'll use that, etc.
• Quoted strings are not supported.

This is an example of a valid file:

field1; field2; field3
foo bar; bar baz; baz quux

This is not valid, because it contains quotes:

"field1"; "field2"; "field3"

The next example is not valid, because Anki can't guess which character should be used to separate fields. If the first and second line were swapped, it would be valid.

hello, world; field2
foo; bar

This is an example of a valid file where the first line is ignored (#):

#comment
field1; field2; field3
foo bar; bar baz; baz quux

Using Gnumeric to make text files

Save as=> Text Export (configurable), then in a new window under "Separator" select "Tab".

Suggestions for importing data from spreadsheets on Windows machines

1. After constructing a model in Anki, assemble the data in your spreadsheet such that each column represents each field in your model and each row represents one new fact.
2. Ensure that there are no empty cells in the first row in your spreadsheet.
3. Highlight the data in your spreadsheet and copy into a new text file using Notepad.
4. Save the file using UTF-8 encoding.
5. In Anki, click Deck and then Import...
6. Select the correct model and choose the file to import.
7. Ensure that the field mapping is correct.
8. Click import.