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Creating Cards

A card is a short stack of audio clips called sides, played in order. This page covers making a card by hand and editing it afterwards. To create many cards at once, see Importing Cards.

Before you build a deck, two minutes with Writing Good Cards will save you hours of reviewing.

What is in a card​

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General Knowledge 1
QuestionText to Speech
Who was the first U.S. president to be impeached?
0:02
AnswerText to Speech
Andrew Johnson.
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Text to Speech
Record Audio
  1. Card name — Tap to rename the card
  2. Flags, tags and card menu — Mark the card; statistics, import, reorder sides
  3. Side name and options — ⋯ to edit, re-transcribe, or delete the side
  4. How this side was made — Text to Speech shows its text; recordings their transcript
  5. The audio itself — Tap to play
  6. Add a side — Type it for a voice to read, or record it
A card with two text-to-speech sides. The text that generated each clip is shown above its waveform.

Sides are named by how many a card has:

SidesNamed
OneComment — a single clip to listen to, such as a phrase to shadow.
TwoQuestion and Answer.
Three or moreSide 1, Side 2, Side 3… — for a hint, an example sentence, or a longer explanation.

Each side is one of:

  • A recording made in the app. Once it has been transcribed, its Transcript is shown above the waveform.
  • Text to Speech — audio generated from text you typed, shown with that text.
  • An imported audio file from your device.

Cards can also carry one flag and any number of tags. See Flags & Tags.

Make a card​

  1. Open the folder the card belongs in.
  2. Tap + > New Card. A card named Untitled Card opens straight away.
  3. Add the first side with Record Audio or Text to Speech from the bar at the bottom of the screen.
  4. The first time you keep the first side of a new card, the app asks whether it should Open the Second Side Automatically. Choose Turn On to open the same editor for the second side, or Keep Off to return to the card.
  5. Add the second side. You can mix methods — if the automatic editor opens but you want to use the other method, close it and choose Record Audio or Text to Speech from the card.

Cards save as you go; there is no separate save step. To rename the card, tap its name at the top of the screen, or use ⋯ > Rename Card.

The automatic second-side option applies only while making a new card. It does not open an editor after adding a side to an existing card or after editing a side. Change it later in Settings > Card Creation.

Record a side​

Record Audio opens the recorder.

  1. Tap Record and speak.
  2. Tap Stop. Play it back with the play button, or skip 15 seconds either way.
  3. If it is right, tap the checkmark to add it to the card.

To fix a recording before you keep it:

  • Resume carries on recording from the end.
  • Move the playhead to the middle of the clip and the record button splits into Insert, which adds new audio at that point, and Replace, which records over what follows.
  • Trim lets you drag the start and end to cut dead air or a false start.
  • Drag the waveform to move through the recording, and pinch to zoom in on it.

Record somewhere quiet, keep each side short, and use headphones with a microphone if your room echoes. The first time you record, the app asks for microphone access.

Generate a side with text-to-speech​

Text to Speech opens the composer.

  1. Type what the side should say.
  2. Check the Voice. A new side starts with the voice assigned to that position in Card Side Voices — so questions and answers can default to different languages — or your app default voice if none is assigned.
  3. Tap Generate Audio and listen to the preview.
  4. Change the text or voice and tap Regenerate Audio as often as you like.
  5. Tap the checkmark to add it to the card.

If you close the composer without keeping the audio, it asks before discarding it. Text-To-Speech Settings at the bottom of the voice list takes you to your voices without leaving the card.

Voices, including the on-device Kokoro voices and cloud voices, are covered in Voices & Text-to-Speech. If a voice mispronounces a word, see Pronunciation & SSML for ways to spell it so it comes out right.

Import a file as a side​

⋯ > Import Audio File adds an audio file from your device as a new side. It is converted to the app's format as it is added.

Edit a card​

Every side has a ⋯ button beside its name:

  • Edit reopens the recorder or the text-to-speech composer with that side loaded, so you can re-record, trim, change the text, or pick a different voice.
  • Transcribe Audio transcribes the side again — useful after changing the folder's language.
  • Delete removes that side's audio. This cannot be undone.

Tap a side's waveform to play it. To change the order sides play in, use ⋯ > Reorder Sides, drag them, then tap Done Reordering.

⋯ > Card Statistics shows that card's review history. See Statistics.

Cards you cannot edit​

Cards inside a collection downloaded from Shared Cards are read-only. Their ⋯ menu reads Linked · Read Only, and the record and text-to-speech buttons are hidden. You can still review them, flag and tag them, and see their statistics. To edit them, unlink the collection.