Note types and directions

In Anki a card’s layout — its fields, its templates, its styling — belongs to its note type. Parseh’s cards use note types of their own, and it is worth knowing what they are, because they are also what you meet when you edit a card inside Anki.

1. Two kinds of card#

Vocabulary

(vocab, the default): the word on one side, its meaning on the other, with the transliteration, the context, the notes, a picture and a recording on either side, and a link back to where the word was found.

Opposites

: the card asks “what is the opposite of X?” and the answer is the opposite word. You write the opposite yourself — the card sheet’s opposites button changes the form to ask for it.

They are two note types rather than one with extra fields on purpose. Anki refuses to update the notes of a note type whose shape has changed, so the vocabulary type must keep its shape for ever; the opposites were added as a second type beside it rather than as new fields in it.

2. One pair per language#

For the same reason, every language has a pair of its own. Persian’s pair is the original one and keeps its names, ids and fields exactly; every other language’s pair is the same, with the first field named after the language:

The first field of each is named after the language — Persian, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi — except English’s, which is Headword, because its meaning field is already called English. A language whose words have a reading — Japanese, with its kana — has a Reading field right after the first one, and its opposites type an OppositeReading right after Opposite; the reading is shown in a line of its own under the word.

The fields, in order (Persian’s names; another language’s first field is its own):

The note types’ ids come from Parseh’s language registry, and a card file records its language, so a build always knows which pair a card belongs to. The package of a deck carries only the note types its cards use: a Persian deck of vocabulary cards carries Frank YouTube Persian alone, and Frank Persian Opposites only when the deck has an opposites card — never another language’s types.

The meaning is not always English#

The field is called English, and will be for ever — renaming a field would make Anki take the note type for a new one — but what is in it is the meaning in the language the book or the video is glossed in: an Italian meaning for an English book glossed in Italian, an Arabic one for a book glossed in Arabic.

The card file does not record which language that is, so the templates say nothing about it: they are the plain ones, which give the meaning and the notes no language and no direction of their own. The letters of an Arabic meaning still run right to left, but its line is set as a left-to-right one, and its notes are aligned to the left. For the same reason the templates are always named after English on the meaning side (Persian → English, English → Persian), and so are the labels of the sheet’s preview card, whatever the gloss language is.

Right to left, and the fonts#

For a right-to-left language — Persian, Arabic — the word, the context and the opposite are right-to-left fields in the note type, and the cards are set right to left. The package also carries the language’s own web font when Parseh ships one, so that the cards look as they do in the reader: Vazirmatn for Persian, Noto Naskh Arabic for Arabic, Noto Serif Devanagari for Hindi. The other languages use the fonts of the device Anki runs on.

3. Direction: which cards a note makes#

A vocabulary note has two card templates:

So the two fields are gates, and between them they give three shapes. The card sheet offers them as its direction buttons — in a Persian video glossed in English, ⇄ both, → Persian → English and ← English → Persian only:

Look at the third row: a reverse-only card still needs Reverse set, because card 2 is gated on it. ReverseOnly does not turn the reverse card on; it turns the forward card off. The card sheet sets both for you; it matters when you edit a note by hand in Anki. And a card already made stays when its gate changes later: it becomes an empty card, kept with its history until Tools → Empty Cards removes it (Editing inside Anki).

The buttons name the card’s two sides. In the book reader they read ⇆ both, and, when a book is glossed in the language it teaches (an English book with English glosses), → word → meaning and ← meaning → word only, since “English → English” would say nothing.

What the third shape is for. A meaning with two words: body is both تن tan and بدن badan. Asking body → Persian is fair only if either word may be the answer, but each word asked on its own is a question of its own. So: one note for تن and one for بدن, each → Persian → English only, and one note body → تن / بدن made ← English → Persian only, its Persian side listing both words. Three cards, no question asked twice. Editing inside Anki shows the same in Anki’s own fields.

Opposites#

An opposites note has the same two templates — the opposite of the word, and the opposite of the answer — and only the Reverse gate: its direction buttons are ⇄ both, which also asks the question the other way round, and → word → opposite. There is no reverse-only opposites card, and the third button is not shown.

4. What each side shows#

The vocabulary card’s question is the word, with the front’s picture (and its recording) above it, and its reading under it where there is one; the answer adds the meaning, the transliteration, the context, the notes, the back’s picture and recording, and the source, a link back to the book or the video. The reverse card asks with the meaning and the back’s picture, and answers with the word and the rest. An opposites card asks what is the opposite of with the word and its transliteration, and answers with the opposite, its transliteration, the notes, the back’s picture and the source.

preview card on the card sheet draws exactly this, with the templates and styling the package will carry: see Making a card.