Import flashcards

At a glance

Import from Anki, step by step

• 1. In Anki, choose Export and Notes in Plain Text. On a deck, click the gear, then Export (or use the File menu). Anki writes one note per line, with the fields split by tabs, and keeps formatting such as bold as HTML.
• 2. In Lucida, open Import cards. It’s in Settings, under Your data, and on an empty deck. Drop the file in or choose it. Lucida takes .txt, .csv and .tsv files.
• 3. Check the count. Lucida says how many cards it found. If it finds none, each card needs its front and back on one line.
• 4. Pick the deck and import. Type a new deck name, or choose one of yours.
• About decks. Anki also writes lines that start with # at the top of the file, like #separator:tab and #deck column:3, and Lucida reads them. If your export has a deck column, the first-time setup screen after your first sign-in splits the file into its decks, with a checkbox for each. The Import screen puts everything into the one deck you choose.

Import from Quizlet, step by step

• 1. On quizlet.com, open a set you made. Quizlet’s help page says exporting only works on the website, and only for sets you created. A set you copied from another person can’t be exported.
• 2. Open the menu, choose Export, and pick how the terms and definitions are arranged. A tab between the term and the definition and a new line between cards works best in Lucida. Then choose Copy text.
• 3. In Lucida, open Import cards and paste. Pick a deck and import.
• 4. Add pictures again if you need them. Quizlet says image exports aren’t available because of copyright.

Import from a spreadsheet or pasted text

Put the front in the first column and the back in the second, then save the sheet as CSV. UTF-8 is best: Lucida reads the file as UTF-8, and Anki’s manual asks for it too. You can also paste lines straight into the box.

Lucida splits each line at a tab first. If there’s no tab, it splits at a space-dash-space, and if there’s neither, at a comma or semicolon. A field in “double quotes” can hold a comma. Blank lines and lines starting with # are skipped, and a line without both a front and a back is left out.

• To make a fill-in-the-blank card from a file, use Anki’s form: {{c1::word}} in the first column. Lucida turns it into a blank.
• The Import screen takes up to 5,000 cards at a time. For a bigger file, import it in parts. The first-time setup screen has no such cap.

What doesn’t come across

Make new cards from a file instead

Import brings in cards that already exist. If you have notes, slides or a recording instead, Lucida can make the cards for you: choose Make cards and add a PDF, a PowerPoint, Word or text file, pictures, an audio file, a YouTube link, pasted text or a topic. Lucida shows the new cards first, and you keep, edit or remove each one. See AI flashcards for the limits and what is sent to an AI service.

Export: take everything with you

• One deck: choose Export cards in the deck’s settings. You get a CSV file with the columns front, back, kind, text, note and tags.
• Everything: in Settings, under Your data, choose Export all cards. You get one file, lucida.json, with every deck, card and review, so your review history goes with you.
• Pictures and sounds aren’t packed into those files.
• Into Anki: Anki’s manual says it imports text files with fields split by commas, semicolons or tabs, in UTF-8, so a Lucida CSV can go into Anki. The first row holds the column names, and review history and media don’t come along.
• Lucida’s privacy policy says you can export your data whenever you want.

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