Anki Frequently Asked Questions

Copyright (c) 2007 Copera, Inc.
All rights reserved.


Note : Anki is now freeware


Anki for Palm OS®-specific Questions


Anki-Builder for Windows-specific Questions


Anki for Palm OS®-specific Questions


Do I really need to install all the fonts and databases in order to use Anki?

No. You only need to install the Anki fonts that are needed for the databases you want to view. If your database contains only Ascii text, then no additional fonts are required. Installing the BaseFont fonts will cover most European languages. Only install the Asian fonts if you want to display Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. And, you can always delete individual fonts (and databases) using the Delete... item in the Options Menu.


Why does an 'X' appear in place of some characters?

An 'X' is drawn by Anki when you attempt to display a character which none of your installed fonts can support. For example, if you try to display Chinese text without having installed any of the Asian_* fonts, X's will be drawn in place of the Chinese characters. In most cases you can fix this by installing additional fonts. If none of the available fonts contain the characters you need, please let us know by sending an e-mail to support@anki.com, and we'll see if there's anything we can do.


Why are some characters appearing larger than others in the same line?

This can happen when some of the characters in the text you are displaying are being drawn with one font, and the rest are being drawn with a different font that is a different size. Most of the time this should not happen because all the characters needed to display a particular language are grouped into the same font and are thus all the same size. One notable exception is if you are using the large Asian_24x24 font and have text with kanji and hiragana or katakana in it. The Asian_24x24 font does not contain any hiragana or katakana, so they will be pulled from the smaller Asian_16x16 font and will be smaller than the kanji.


Anki-Builder for Windows-specific Questions


How do I get the database I just created onto my Palm device?

Anki-Builder saves your database as a .PDB (Palm DataBase) file. You can then sync this .PDB file onto your device just like any normal Palm application or database. To put a .PDB file onto your device, use the Palm Install Tool application.

  1. Launch Install Tool from your desktop PC by clicking on Start, Programs, Palm Desktop, Install Tool.
  2. Select your HotSync® username from the dropdown list next to the User: label.
  3. Click the Add... button and select your .PDB file.
  4. Click the Done button, then click the OK button when it appears.
  5. Make sure your HotSync cradle is plugged into your desktop computer, then put your handheld device into the cradle and push the HotSync button on the cradle.
  6. A dialog box should appear showing you the status of the installation procedure. When this dialog disapears, the installation is complete.


How do I import text from my Excel spreadsheet into Anki-Builder?

It is possible to import text from an Excel spreadsheet by first saving the contents of the spreadsheet to a tab-delimited text file, then importing that text file into Anki-Builder. From inside Excel, select File -> Save As... from the Main Menu. Then for Save As Type select Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt) from the dropdown list. Then select a location for your exported text file, and use File -> Import -> Text (Tab-delimited) inside Anki-Builder.


Why is my character being displayed incorrectly?

In order for your character to be displayed correctly by Windows, the character must be present in your currently-selected font. Try selecting different fonts using the View -> Font dialog to see if one of them has the character you are looking for. Try the Arial Unicode MS font first if you have it on your system. If that fails, try searching the web for free truetype fonts for your language.


How do I input Japanese and Chinese text?

There are several ways to do this. All of the ones discussed here first require that you have Unicode support in your OS.

The first way is to use a Microsoft IME (Input Method Editor). You can enable various IME's by going to the Settings -> Control Panel and opening the Regional Options Dialog, then adding input locales from the Input Locals tab. Then, by default you can switch between IME's using Left Alt+Shift. The operation of each IME varies greatly depending on what language it supports. Check your Windows Help for more information about Microsoft IME's.

The second way is to use a third-party OS extension package like NJStar Communicator. This program adds its own IME to your system, which can then be used in a way similar to the Windows IMEs to input Chinese and Japanese text. Go to http://www.njstar.com for more information about this product.


Why are all the Unicode-related functions disabled on my computer?

In order to use Unicode, your operating system must support it. If you are using Anki-Builder on Windows 95, 98, or Me, Unicode support is not present and so all the Unicode functions will be disabled.


The latest version of this document can be found at http://www.anki.com/support.html.