Manage Anki cards with Markdown

Manage your Anki flashcards with Markdown so that you have a uniform experience within your favorite text editor if you prefer Markdown format.

You may find this useful if

1. You prefer a text editor over a GUI, and
2. You prefer Markdown to manage your documents.

If you happen to like Emacs and org-mode, then you should check out anki-editor.

Unlike anki-editor, this tool doesn't synchronize a text file contents with Anki, but it converts a card deck in simple Markdown format to Anki import files. You have to import the files to Anki manually after conversion.

Deck format

A file in Markdown format represents a deck of cards. Header (header 2) serves as a deck name followed by an unordered list. Each element of the list is a separate card.

Here is a sample of cards from a deck on Portuguese "Irregular verbs" to serve as an example:

Irregular verbs
---------------

- ver -- to watch; to see; to view
- Presente do indicativo de "ver"

    - eu __vejo__
    - tu __vês__
    - você/ele/ela __vê__
    - nós __vemos__
    - vocês/eles/elas __vêem__

- eu __vejo__ /p -> [ˈvɐjʒu]
- tu __vês__ /p -> [ˈveʃ]
- ele __vê__ /p -> [ˈve]

A bi-directional card (card and reversed card at the same time) is represented by a single paragraph list element having a dash (--) to separate a front of a card and a back of the card. For example:

- ver -- to watch; to see; to view

A single paragraph list element with an arrow (->) instead of a dash represents a uni-directional card:

- eu __vejo__ /p -> [ˈvɐjʒu]

This card looks as follows when imported. You may notice that markdown formatting and Unicode is respected.

A multi-paragraph list element represents a uni-directional card, like:

- Presente do indicativo de "ver"

    - eu __vejo__
    - tu __vês__
    - você/ele/ela __vê__
    - nós __vemos__
    - vocês/eles/elas __vêem__

Latex math support

Markdown math is supported, for example:

- Geometric progression

    $s_n = \sum_{i=0}^n q^i$

    $s_n = {q^{n + 1} - 1 \over q - 1}$

    Recurrences:

    $s_n = s_{n - 1} + q^n$

    $s_n = 1 + q \cdot s_{n - 1}$

Build

Build and execute with Haskell stack:

$ stack build
$ stack exec -- ankiMd test/valid.md
test/valid-uni written
test/valid-bi written

Or, install globally:

$ bash install.sh
[sudo] password for XXXX: *********
$ ankiMd test/valid.md
test/valid-uni written
test/valid-bi written

Usage

You provide a Markdown file with cards deck as an argument to the ankiMd command, and it outputs files with -uni and -bi suffixes in Anki import format:

$ ankiMd test/valid.md
test/valid-uni written
test/valid-bi written

You will import the resulting file with the -uni suffix to Anki as the "Basic" card type. A file with the -bi suffix -- as the "Basic (and reversed card)" type.

Run with Docker

I can create a Docker image to run ankiMd if any user is interested. Please, create a GitHub issue if you want this to be supported.

Web UI

I can create a Web UI to convert from Markdown to Anki import format if any user is interested. Please, create a GitHub issue if you want this to be supported.

Setup card styles for HTML lists

If you want Anki to render HTML lists nicely, then you should set up card CSS styles as follows.

Click "Cards..." when editing or browsing a card, select any card with "Card 1" value in "Card" column:

Click the "Styling" radio button and paste the following into a large text area:

.card {
  font-family: arial;
  font-size: 20px;
  text-align:center;
  color: black;
  background-color: white;
}
ul {
  display: inline-block;
  text-align: left;
}
ol {
  display: inline-block;
  text-align: left;
}

Update templates and styling for the "Card 2" type. Select any card with "Card 2" value in "Card" column and paste the same style.

Setup card styles for source code

An example card like this, may be rendered with source code highlighting and alignment of the source code to the lift:

- Iterate multiple indexes in Java

    ```java
    int i, j;
    for ( i = 0, j = 0
        ; i < s.length && j < t.length
        ; ++i, ++j) {
        System.out.println(s[i]);
        System.out.println(t[j]);
    }
    ```

    ```java
    for (int i = 0, j = 0 ...)
    ```

As follows:

You should update card CSS styles the same way as in "Setup card styles for HTML lists", but append (not replace) contents of this css file to that's already setup for HTML lists.