You don’t have to start from nothing
Your cards come about in three ways and all three lead you to the same result in the end. Which of them you take, you decide by your effort and by your material.
Way zero: take a finished deck
The app ships with a deck store, and everything in it is already on your device with the app. No account, no download, no network: you tap a deck, and it becomes an ordinary subject in your collection, with your own learning states.
The store is sorted by subject. There are languages for school and work, exam material for hunting, fishing, radio and boating, plus law, data protection and general knowledge. Which of them exist in your language you see in the app, and the decks cost you between 0.99 and 2.99 euros, once.
Once you have taken a deck over, it belongs to you. If the deck changes in a newer version of the app, your subject stays untouched: from that moment they are your cards, not ours.
Way one: type them yourself
This is the direct way and for many the best, because one card carries exactly one thought. On the front stands your question, as short as possible, and on the back your brief answer. And lists that you are meant to recite in one go, you had better break up into single cards right away.
You remember cards you formulated yourself more reliably than copied sentences, because the writing is already part of your learning. When you write down a question, you have thought beforehand about what matters in it and what can safely go. No program takes this preparation off you, not even one with AI.
Way two: with an AI
Qardbox does not generate any cards itself, and that is a deliberate decision: a built-in AI would have to send your material to somebody else’s provider. And Qardbox sends nothing away.
Instead you get the tool in your hand, namely a ready-made prompt for an AI of your choosing. And what happens there is your call: which provider you use, what you show it and which of the generated cards end up in your stack in the end.
- Copy the prompt in the import area.
- Paste it into an AI of your choosing and add your topic.
- Save the file it hands back.
- Open the file in Qardbox and import it.
A second reason for this route is quality, because automatically generated cards often turn out too long and too wordy. And when the file passes through your hands, you see beforehand what you are letting yourself in for.
Way three: a file from your computer
If you already have a collection, from another learning program or from a spreadsheet, then you simply load it straight into Qardbox and type nothing out. That way you keep your existing order of subjects and categories.
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Required columns | Question and solution. Nothing more is needed. |
| Also possible | Category, note and subject. |
| Separator | Semicolon, tab or comma. Qardbox works it out itself. |
| Column names | Found automatically, in German as well as in English. |
| Without a header row | Works too. Column one then counts as the question, column two as the solution. |
Qardbox does not work together with any other app and recognises your file purely by its format and the contents of its columns. And before the import you see exactly how many of those cards are new to you and how many Qardbox skips.
When your material is in no ready-made app
For school English and basic vocabulary there are language programs in abundance. For what you actually have to say in your job there is none. The circle of people is simply too small for that, and this is exactly where it pays off most for you to write your cards yourself.
Technical language and set phrases at work
You handle a language in everyday life and still fail at work on thirty sentences that always run the same. Your greeting on the phone belongs to them and your handover report and your formula in written correspondence. You do not learn such things from a course, but through repetition.
A card then carries your situation and the phrase that goes with it. Qardbox does not know your material and does not judge it and therefore it makes no difference to it whether a single word or a whole sentence is on the card.
Vocational training and the exam at the end
In many vocational trades there is knowledge you simply have to have. Rules belong to it and limit values and definitions and procedures. You do not need a sophisticated learning strategy for that, but simply dates on which you have to remember.
When your school or your employer hands out lists as a spreadsheet, that becomes a stack of cards in one step. And because the file stays with you, you can pass it straight on to the people learning alongside you, without anyone having to create an account for it.
Moving over from another study app
Your cards already exist somewhere. That is no reason to start again: Qardbox reads the export files of the common flashcard programs, and it reads them by their structure, not by their name. Whatever sits in two columns becomes question and answer.
The route is the same everywhere. You export there as text, open Settings, Plus, Import cards in Qardbox, and pick the file. Before the import you see how many cards were found.
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Anki | From version 1.1 the whole deck as .apkg is enough. Export notes as “Notes in Plain Text” (.txt). The header with #separator and #columns may stay in the file. |
| Quizlet | In the set, choose Export, then Tab between term and definition, New line between cards, and copy the text. |
| StudySmarter | Export flashcards as CSV. Two columns, front and back. |
| BrainYoo | Export as CSV. Semicolon between question and answer, no header line needed. |
| Repetico | Export as JSON or XML. Categories come across as categories. |
| Mnemosyne | Export as a text file, tab between question and answer. |
From version 1.1 Qardbox also reads packed collections: .apkg and .colpkg from Anki, .xlsx from a spreadsheet and .zip with a table inside. Only Anki’s newest format, .anki21b, stays out. Tick the box for older Anki versions when exporting and Qardbox reads that deck too.
Anki, Quizlet, StudySmarter, BrainYoo, Repetico and Mnemosyne are trademarks of their respective owners. Qardbox is not affiliated with them and is not endorsed by them. They are named here solely to say which export files Qardbox can read.
Backing your cards up and putting them back
Under Settings, Privacy, Save data copy you create a complete copy of your cards. Restore from data copy puts them back, and Qardbox automatically backs up your current state first. What comes out is an ordinary JSON file that you can store and open anywhere.