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Flashcards Study Guide

Last updated: 2026-05-26

This guide explains the Flashcards flow in Study, Manage, Create & Import, Templates, and Scheduler, including extension selected-text capture, scheduling basics, queue states, cloze syntax, and import/export formats.

Card Images

Flashcard text fields now support inline images in Front, Back, Extra, and Notes.

How to add images:

  • Use Insert image in the create drawer, edit drawer, or a document-mode row.
  • The uploaded image is stored as a managed flashcard asset.
  • The text field keeps a lightweight markdown reference instead of raw image bytes.
  • Previews and read views resolve that reference through an authenticated image fetch.

Why the 8 KB field limit did not increase:

  • The field cap still protects search indexing, list payload size, and editor performance.
  • Inline image bytes would inflate front, back, and notes beyond what those text fields are meant to store.
  • Managed asset references keep cards searchable and lightweight while letting images round-trip through export/import.

Daily Study Workflow

  1. Add cards through Manage manual creation, Create & Import import/generate/structured Q&A/image occlusion, or the extension selected-text handoff.
  2. Open Scheduler when you want to tune a deck's spaced-repetition policy.
  3. Open Study and review due cards.
  4. Reveal the answer, then rate recall (Again, Hard, Good, Easy).
  5. Use Manage when you want to inspect queue state on expanded cards or document rows while cleaning up a deck.
  6. Repeat daily. The scheduler adjusts next due dates from your ratings.

Extension Selected-Text Capture

Use this path when you find useful passages while browsing and want to save editable flashcards, generate a small draft batch without leaving the sidepanel, apply existing templates to drafts, review due cards quickly, or send selected text directly to full Flashcards generation.

Workflow:

  1. Select text on the source page.
  2. Open the extension sidepanel and choose Flashcards.
  3. Choose Capture page selection to add the selection to the sidepanel draft queue.
  4. Choose Generate draft cards to generate a small editable draft batch in the sidepanel from the selected text.
  5. Choose Apply template on a queued draft when an existing template should fill or reshape the card fields before saving.
  6. Select a deck, edit each draft's Front and Back, then choose Save card or Save all.
  7. Choose Generate from selection to open full Flashcards generation with the selected text and source page context.
  8. Choose Review due card to review the next due card for the selected deck, reveal the answer, and submit Again, Hard, Good, or Easy.
  9. Use Open full Flashcards for imports, richer review tools, or broader deck management.

Important behavior:

  • The sidepanel Flashcards route saves queued captured and generated drafts and keeps the source page URL as provenance.
  • Apply template uses templates from full Flashcards and can be applied per draft before saving.
  • Create the deck in full Flashcards first if the sidepanel shows no deck options.
  • Review due card is a compact sidepanel review loop. Use full Flashcards for cram, assistant support, analytics, undo/re-rate, and broader deck management.
  • The browser context menu path still works: choose tldw -> Save -> Save to Notes, review the selection in the sidepanel dialog, then choose Generate flashcards.
  • Use Generate from selection, the context-menu path, or full Web UI /flashcards -> Create & Import -> Generate when you want the fuller generation workflow instead of the sidepanel's compact generated draft batch.
  • If the sidepanel cannot capture on the current site, use full Web UI /flashcards and paste text into Create & Import.

Study Assistant Conflict Recovery

The flashcard study assistant and quiz remediation assistant now recover cleanly if the same thread changes in another tab or client.

What happens on a thread version conflict:

  • The latest assistant thread is reloaded automatically.
  • Your pending question or transcript is preserved instead of being dropped.
  • The panel shows Reload latest and retry actions so you can continue without reopening the card or results view.

Retry labels:

  • Text questions use Retry my message.
  • Voice transcript fact-checks use Retry transcript review.

Quiz Remediation Conversion State

Quiz-results remediation flashcards now use server-backed conversion records instead of browser-only session state.

What changed:

  • Already converted status survives reloads, browser changes, and new devices.
  • Each missed question keeps one active remediation conversion plus any superseded history.
  • Convert Again Anyway creates a fresh active conversion and leaves the older one in history as superseded.
  • If linked remediation cards were deleted later, the quiz results view marks that conversion as stale and lets you reconvert normally.

Study Linked Cards behavior:

  • If all active remediation conversions for an attempt point to the same live deck, the handoff keeps that deck filter.
  • If conversions span multiple decks, the handoff still opens Flashcards study for the quiz attempt, but without a deck filter.

Scheduler Tab

Open Scheduler from the top-level Flashcards tabs to edit deck-level review policy.

What it includes:

  • A searchable deck list with compact scheduler summaries.
  • A scheduler-type selector for SM-2+ or FSRS on each deck.
  • A per-deck editor for step timing, interval growth, leech handling, and fuzz.
  • Built-in presets:
  • Default: backend defaults for balanced daily review.
  • Fast acquisition: shorter early steps and shorter easy intervals.
  • Conservative review: slower acquisition and stronger long-term spacing.
  • High retention: FSRS preset tuned for shorter review intervals.
  • Long horizon: FSRS preset tuned for larger mature decks.
  • Copy settings to clone another deck's scheduler into the current draft.
  • Reset to defaults to restore the standard scheduler bundle.
  • Active-deck counts for Due review, New, Learning, and total due cards.

Important behavior:

  • New decks start with the default scheduler settings.
  • New decks default to SM-2+, but you can switch them to FSRS before saving.
  • Scheduler edits are deck-scoped; they do not affect other decks unless you copy them.
  • Unsaved scheduler drafts are guarded when you switch decks or leave the Scheduler tab.
  • If another client updates the same deck first, the tab shows Reload latest and Reapply my draft actions.
  • Switching an existing deck to FSRS keeps review history intact and bootstraps FSRS state conservatively as cards are reviewed.

Scheduler Settings During Deck Creation

You can now set scheduler policy at deck-creation time instead of creating the deck first and fixing it later.

Flashcards creation flows:

  • Manage manual card creation
  • Create & Import structured Q&A preview save
  • Create & Import generated flashcards save
  • Create & Import image occlusion save

How it works:

  • Existing deck selectors now include Create new deck.
  • Choosing that option opens a deck-name field plus the same scheduler preset/editor used by the scheduler UI.
  • The inline editor also lets you choose the scheduler type for the new deck.
  • Existing decks remain read-only in those flows and show a compact scheduler summary instead.
  • New decks created there start with exactly the scheduler settings you selected.

Quiz remediation:

  • Results → Create Flashcards from Missed Questions also supports Create new deck.
  • The remediation modal lets you set scheduler settings for the new deck before conversion runs.
  • If you choose an existing deck, the modal shows that deck's scheduler summary.

Later edits:

  • If you need to change a deck after creation, open the Scheduler tab and edit that deck there.

Queue States

Queue-state badges now appear on the active card in Study, on expanded cards in Manage, and on document-mode rows. The active card in Study also shows a small scheduler badge (SM-2+ or FSRS) so you can see which policy is driving the interval previews.

Meanings:

  • New: the card has not graduated into regular review yet.
  • Learning: the card is moving through short learning steps.
  • Review: the card is on the long-term review schedule.
  • Relearning: the card lapsed and is moving through relearn steps.
  • Suspended: the card is out of automatic rotation.
  • Suspended (Leech) means it hit the leech threshold.
  • Suspended (Manual) means it was suspended intentionally.

Ratings and Scheduling Basics

The review buttons map to SM-2 quality values:

Button Quality Meaning
Again 0 You forgot the card; repeat soon.
Hard 2 You recalled with effort; keep interval short.
Good 3 Normal successful recall.
Easy 5 Very easy recall; increase interval more aggressively.

Scheduling terms shown in UI:

  • Memory strength (ef): Ease factor controlling interval growth.
  • Next review gap (interval_days): Days until next scheduled review.
  • Recall runs (repetitions): Successful recall count.
  • Relearns (lapses): Times the card was forgotten after learning.

Cloze Syntax

Use cloze cards when you want blanks inside sentence context.

  • Required pattern: {{c1::answer}}
  • Multiple deletions are allowed ({{c2::...}}, {{c3::...}}, etc.)
  • At least one cloze deletion must appear in Front text for cloze cards

Example:

The powerhouse of the cell is the {{c1::mitochondrion}}.

Manage Document Mode

Use Manage → Doc when you want to review and clean up a large filtered deck in one continuous scroll instead of page-by-page cards.

Document mode supports:

  • Continuous loading of the filtered result set as you scroll
  • Inline row editing for Front, Back, Deck, Tags, Notes, and Template
  • Immediate per-row saves with row-local conflict recovery
  • Inline undo after a successful row save

Behavior notes:

  • Document mode only supports stable Due date and Created sorting.
  • If a multi-tag query hits the scan cap, a truncation banner appears and Select all across results is disabled for that view.
  • Cmd/Ctrl+Enter saves the active row.
  • Escape cancels the active row edit and restores the last saved values.
  • Use Open drawer on a row when you need the full edit surface, preview, or scheduling controls.

Import and Export Formats

Delimited (CSV/TSV)

Accepted header names include:

  • Deck, Front, Back, Tags, Notes, Extra
  • Model_Type, Reverse, Is_Cloze, Deck_Description

Notes:

  • Without headers, default column order is Deck, Front, Back, Tags, Notes.
  • Tags can be comma-separated or space-separated.
  • If imports fail by row, use row-level errors in Create & Import and jump to inline format help.

JSON / JSONL

Supported fields:

  • deck/deck_name
  • front/question
  • back/answer
  • tags (array or string)
  • notes, extra, model_type, reverse, is_cloze

Accepted payload forms:

  • JSON array of items
  • JSON object containing items
  • JSONL (.jsonl / .ndjson) with one object per line

Structured Q And A Preview

Use Create & Import -> Structured Q&A when you already wrote your own questions and answers and only want the app to convert them into flashcards without LLM rewriting.

Accepted label pairs:

  • Q: with A:
  • Question: with Answer:

Preview rules:

  • Each labeled block becomes an editable draft before anything is saved.
  • Continuation lines stay attached to the current question or answer until the next labeled block.
  • Blank lines are allowed.
  • Saving selected drafts writes standard basic flashcards into the chosen deck.
  • Unlabeled freeform notes are not inferred into cards in v1.

Image Occlusion Authoring

Use Create & Import -> Image Occlusion when you want to turn one labeled screenshot, diagram, or slide into several image-backed cards.

Workflow:

  • Upload one source image.
  • Draw rectangular occlusion regions directly on the preview.
  • Add an answer label for each region.
  • Generate drafts. The app uploads:
  • one normalized source image
  • one masked prompt image per region
  • one highlighted answer image per region
  • Review/edit the generated drafts, then save them in bulk.

Saved card shape:

  • Front contains a prompt line plus the masked image.
  • Back contains the label plus the highlighted answer image.
  • Notes store a readable [image-occlusion] metadata block with source ref and normalized geometry.
  • Cards are saved as standard basic flashcards with source_ref_type = manual.

Current limits:

  • V1 supports one source image per generation run.
  • Regions are rectangular only.
  • Each region must have a label before drafts can be generated.
  • The generation run is capped at 25 regions.
  • Existing occlusion cards do not reopen in the authoring surface yet; edit the resulting flashcards directly instead.

APKG Export

APKG export is available from Create & Import and preserves scheduling metadata for Anki import.

Image-backed cards:

  • Managed flashcard image references are converted into packaged Anki media on export.
  • APKG import rewrites packaged media back into managed flashcard asset references.
  • Notes are included in tldw APKG round-trips even though that is not part of Anki's default basic/cloze field set.
  • Large media-heavy APKG imports or exports can be rejected if they exceed the configured total media cap.

Troubleshooting

  • Missing required field: verify header mapping and ensure required values are present.
  • Invalid cloze: ensure Front includes at least one {{cN::...}} deletion.
  • Line too long: check delimiter selection and malformed line breaks.
  • Maximum import: split into smaller batches and retry.