Kanji Notes 1.5: Inputting Lazy Kanji in Current Anki Decks

I'm writing this post directly to those super awesome people who love the idea of Lazy Kanji but are already deep into an RTK-based Anki deck.  This is a tutorial of exactly how you can add Lazy Kanji card formats into Anki, so you can keep what you have so far and then go even further.  IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY LAZY KANJI POST GO DO THAT NOW.  That is all.

Should have seen that one coming. haha  After all, I'm one of those who switched to Lazy Kanji after learning RTK 1 and didn't want to sacrifice my current deck.  It's totally possible, but there are a few things you should be aware of that I'll point out along the way.  Alright check it out, total walk-through mode now.  Please keep in mind, however, that I'm using Anki in Japanese; some of the English parts might be a *little* off, but let me know if they're totally wrong.  I'll leave the Japanese in for reference.

1. Open your kanji deck in Anki
2. Settings (設定) > Deck Properties (単語帳プロパティ)
3. In the Basic tab, click "Add" (追加(A)), then copy the Heisig model (Heisigをコピーして追加).  Important notes: this is the model in "Heisig's Remember the Kanji (RTK) 1+ 3"; if you're using a different deck, just make sure that your model info is in line with the screen shots below.  Also, the reason why we're copying the model is so that we don't change the format of the existing cards.  If you wish to do that and accept the consequences for your actions, than simply click "Edit" (編集) as per the next step.
4. Highlight your newly copied Heisig model and click "Edit" (編集(E))
5. Change the name (名) to Lazy Kanji, and click "Card Layout"

Click the "Field" tab at the top, and you should see a screen like this:

Let's edit those fields:

1. "Kanji" should be selected; I recommend going to the bottom and changing the size for "Reviewing" to 90 or less
2. Select "On-yomi" and change the name to "Info"
3. Add (追加(A)) a field and name it "Example"

Now go back to the "Card Template" tab, and you should see this:

We'll now edit the template:

1. In the question (質問) field, erase what's there and copy-paste this (hint: delete the spaces in the HTML formatting, aka within the < >):
   
   {{Story}}
   < br >
   {{Kanji}}
   
2. In the answer (解答) field, erase what's there and copy-paste this (hint: delete the spaces in the HTML formatting, aka within the < >, except between "a href"):
   

画数: {{{Stroke count}}}, Nr: {{{Heisig number}}}
< a href="http://kanji.koohii.com/study/?framenum={{text:Heisig number}}">{{{Keyword}}}< /a>
< br >
{{Info}}
< br >
{{Example}}

It should now look like this:

When you return to your deck and go to "Add Fact," you can select Lazy Kanji from the model drop-down menu at the top.  The card layout will be ready to add cards as you desire.

Things to watch out for

If you have your deck set up to display a set number (default 20) of new cards per day in order, then when you add Lazy Kanji cards they're going to go to the end of the deck.  In other words, they won't come up for review until you've studied the first 3000+ cards. lol  To fix this, click on the magnifying glass to open up the Card Browser, and then find the last kanji that you studied.  Make sure that it's sorted in order of Heisig Number (top right), and then select all cards after that latest kanji.  Press the big pause button (Suspend), and the cards will cease to come up when you do your reviews.

Another recommendation I have when inputting new kanji cards Lazy Kanji style that are already there in Vanilla Heisig Kanji style, is to search for that kanji and copy the information into the "Add Fact" section.  This is so you don't have to start from scratch with each new card, and can concentrate on the fields that are different.

...though it occurs to me that if (as mentioned earlier) you change your existing card model rather than copy it and make a new one, the above problems no longer apply.  Interesting.

Hope this helps, and happy kanjing!

Read on:

• Kanji is Easy
• SRS FTW
• Kanji Notes 1: Lazy Kanji hax0rz in Anki