Card types

Create each Kioku Card type and pick the one that fits what you’re learning.

Before you begin

• You need an Element to attach the Card to. The Create actions are available on a Topic or an Extract, but not on an Element that is already an Item.
• Open Browse and select the Topic or Extract you want to build a Card on. Each Card you create adds a child Item under that Element for FSRS scheduling.
• Every create action opens the same card editor in the matching mode. The editor title reflects the type: Create Basic Card, Create Cloze Card, Create Image Occlusion Card, or Create Audio Cloze Cards.

Note

To pull a passage out of a Topic before turning it into a Card, see Extract and cloze while reading. This guide covers authoring Cards explicitly from Browse.

Basic

A basic Card has a front (the question) and a back (the answer).

Steps

1. In Browse, select a Topic or Extract.
2. Select Create Basic Card in the Browse details panel (or run it from the command palette) to open the editor in basic mode.
3. Fill the Question (Front) rich-text field.
4. Fill the Answer (Back) rich-text field. The back must not be empty.
5. Select Create Card, or press Cmd+Enter (Ctrl+Enter).

Result

A new Item is created under the parent Element with a basic Card. If you leave the back empty, the editor blocks creation with Please enter the answer (back) content.

The editor opens with the cursor in the field to write in: the back, when the front is already filled in. If you close it with something written, it asks before discarding it. For formatting, links, pictures and sound in any field, see Write and format text.

Cloze

A cloze Card hides part of a passage and asks you to recall it. The hidden text is written as {{c1::answer}} or {{c1::answer::hint}}.

Steps

1. In Browse, select a Topic or Extract.
2. Select Create Cloze in the Browse details panel (or run it from the command palette) to open the editor in cloze mode.
3. Type or paste the passage into the rich-text body.
4. Select the text you want to hide, then select Mark cloze (c1) (or press F6). The selection is wrapped as {{cN::…}} and the index increments for the next mark.
5. Select Create Card.

Add an Extra

The optional Extra field is shown, and its audio played, only with the answer. Use it for the full sentence’s recording, a translation, or a note. Every Card of the passage shares it.

How cloze indices split into Cards

Each distinct cloze index becomes a separate Card under one Item:

• Use a new index for each blank you want reviewed as its own Card. Two marks at {{c1::…}} and {{c2::…}} produce two Cards.
• Reuse the same index for blanks that should be hidden together. Two marks both at {{c1::…}} produce one Card with two blanks.

For the full syntax, including hints and which patterns are ignored, see Cloze syntax.

Caution

Cloze parsing is strict. Patterns like {{c::x}} (no index), {{c1:x}} (single colon), and {c1::x} (single braces) are ignored and create no Card. The editor requires at least one valid {{c marker and otherwise shows Please mark at least one cloze deletion.

Result

One Item is created with a cloze Card for each distinct index you marked.

Image occlusion

An image occlusion Card hides regions of an image and asks you to recall what’s beneath them.

Steps

1. In Browse, select a Topic or Extract.
2. Select Create Image Occlusion in the Browse details panel (or run it from the command palette) to open the editor in image-occlusion mode.
3. Select Choose Image and pick an image to import.
4. Drag on the image canvas to draw a rectangular mask. Drag a mask to move it, drag its bottom-right handle to resize, and press Delete or Backspace (or Remove) to delete the selected mask.
5. Add as many masks as you need. Masks cannot overlap. An overlapping draw, move, or resize is rejected with Masks cannot overlap. Move or resize existing masks first.
6. Optionally add text in the Prompt (optional) field.
7. Optionally set Reveal to One by one or All at once.
8. Select Create Card.

Result

One Item is created with an image-occlusion Card. Creation requires an image plus at least one mask; otherwise the editor shows Please select an image for occlusion or Please draw at least one occlusion mask.

Note

Kioku auto-saves your draft (image, masks, prompt, and reveal mode). If you close and reopen the editor, it restores the draft and shows Restored unsaved occlusion draft.

Audio cloze

An audio cloze Card plays a recording with a stretch hidden and asks you to recall what was said there. Each stretch you hide becomes its own Card, so one recording of a dialogue can teach several phrases.

Steps

1. In Browse, select a Topic or Extract.

2. Select Create Audio Cloze in the Browse details panel, press O, or run it from the command palette. (New Audio Cloze in the command palette works from anywhere and files the Cards under Quick Cards.)

3. Select Choose audio file… and pick a recording, or select Record to record one from the microphone. Recordings of up to 10 minutes are supported; trim longer ones first. WAV and FLAC recordings take more memory to work with, so they can be up to 7 minutes at 48 kHz stereo (3.5 at 96 kHz); save a longer one as MP3 or M4A.

4. Drag across the waveform over a stretch you want to hide. It becomes gap 1, with a row below the waveform. Repeat for every stretch you want a Card for. Gaps can’t overlap.

   To mark gaps while you listen instead, select the waveform and press Space to play. Press M where a stretch starts and M again where it ends. Add gap adds a one-second gap at the playback position, ready to adjust.

5. In each row, type what is said in the gap. It’s shown with the answer.

6. Optionally choose how gaps are hidden under Hide each gap with: A soft tone (the default), Silence, or Stopping before it (the Card plays up to the gap and stops: “what comes next?”).

7. Optionally choose under Each card plays how much of the recording each Card plays: The whole recording (the default for recordings up to 30 seconds), or a few seconds either side of its gap.

8. Optionally add a Prompt, shown above the recording, such as “What does she order?”.

9. Select Create Cards.

Adjust gaps

• Drag a gap to move it, or drag its edges to resize it. You can also type a gap’s start and end, in seconds, in its row.
• Click the waveform to play from that point. Play plays from there to the end of what’s in view, and Pause stops where it is; each row’s Gap plays the gap alone, and Card plays it as its Card’s question.
• For long recordings, zoom with + and − (or Ctrl/⌘ and scroll, or pinch), and scroll sideways to move along it. Fit shows the whole recording again.
• With the waveform focused: Space plays or pauses, M marks a gap’s start and then its end, ← and → move the selected gap (with Shift, further), and Delete removes it.

Result

One Item is created per gap, each with an audio cloze Card, named after what is said in its gap. Creation requires a recording and at least one gap.

To adjust one Card later, open its Item’s editor from Browse. You can move or redraw its gap, and change what is said, how the gap is hidden, and the prompt.

Note

Kioku auto-saves your draft (recording, gaps, settings, and prompt). If you close and reopen the editor, it picks up where you left off.

Add audio to any Card

The rich-text editor’s Insert menu has two audio items. Audio file… adds a recording from your computer (MP3, M4A with AAC, Ogg, Opus, WebM, FLAC or WAV, up to 200 MB), and Record audio records one from the microphone. You can also drop an audio file onto the text, or type /audio or /record in the “/” menu. Files in a format Kioku can’t play, such as Apple Lossless, are refused with a message. The clip appears as a play button in the text, and Review plays it like Anki: see Cards with audio.

On macOS, the first recording asks for microphone access. If you declined, allow Kioku in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.

Choosing a type

Choose	When you want to recall
Basic	A whole answer from a prompt: a definition, a fact, a translation.
Cloze	One or a few words inside a sentence you want to keep in context.
Image occlusion	A labeled location on a diagram, map, or anatomy image.
Audio cloze	What was said in a stretch of speech: listening comprehension.

Reach for cloze when the surrounding sentence carries meaning you don’t want to lose, and basic when the question and answer are cleanly separable. Use image occlusion when what you’re learning is spatial: where a part sits on a picture rather than what a word means. Use audio cloze to train your ear: catching words in real speech, rather than reading them. To learn a word’s pronunciation instead, put its recording on the back of a basic Card.

Related

• Cloze syntax
• Extract and cloze while reading