This project is no longer maintained. It does not work with Anki2.1.

1. Get Anki at http://ankisrs.net
2. Add the n2c2.py file and the n2c2lib folder with its contents to the Anki/addons folder

That's it.

1. create your open document format text file. (ie, .odt)
2. launch Anki
3. within Anki, select Tools -> Import ODT... and then choose your file. This action immediately creates new cards within your current open deck without confirmation

Flash cards will be constructed only from the lists found in the document. All other text is ignored, so you can write whatever you want. The most nested leaves become the backs of your cards. The front is the path down to the leaf separated by colons (:).

Example:

• hypertension
  • blood pressure over 140
  • types
    • essential
    • secondary
    • malignant

will make 2 cards:

front: hypertension back: blood pressure over 140

front: hypertension: types (3) back: essential<br/>secondary<br/>malignant

(the <br/> tag will render in Anki as a line break)

Notice that in the above example, the types sublist was collapsed into one card. What would happen if the list looked like this instead?

• hypertension
  • blood pressure over 140
  • types
    • essential
    • secondary
      • hypertension caused by some other underlying condition
    • malignant

You would end up with some hideous result like so:

front: hypertension back: blood pressure over 140

front: hypertension: types back: essential

front: hypertension: types: secondary back: hypertension caused by some other underlying condition

front: hypertension: types back: maligant

No doubt, this is not what you want. Normally the program checks to see if connsecutive terminal leaves have the same front. If they do, it collapses them into one card. In this case the leaves have been split apart by a quite different card. To get around this, add the * to the end of the types bullet. This symbol forces the program to make a card at this point, using only the immediate subitems. Here it will produce a list of all the subitems.

• hypertension
  • blood pressure over 140
  • types*
    • essential
    • secondary
      • hypertension caused by some other underlying condition
    • malignant

Much better:

front: hypertension back: blood pressure over 140

front: hypertension: types (3) back: essential<br/>secondary<br/>malignant

front: hypertension: types: secondary back: hypertension caused by some other underlying condition

Now, you might find the fronts of your cards getting obnoxious. Above, hypertension: types: secondary might not sit well with you. But you wouldn't want to move that information to the top level in your notes. It is after all a subset of hypertension. Instead use the double pipe characters ||, which basically trim the front of the card such that it starts at the pipes. These must be the first two characters in the bullet list!

• hypertension
  • blood pressure over 140
  • types*
    • essential
    • ||secondary hypertension
      • hypertension caused by some other underlying condition
    • malignant

Results:

front: hypertension back: blood pressure over 140

front: hypertension: types (3) back: essential<br/>secondary hypertension<br/>malignant

front: secondary hypertension back: hypertension caused by some other underlying condition

Notice I changed the text from secondary to secondary hypertension. secondary would not make much sense as the prompt.

Like the pipes ||, put the double angle brackets << at the start of the line. This code tells the program to flip the front and back of the card. Here is an example. Notice I am using the "start" code again as well to eliminate excess verbosity.

• hypertension
  • blood pressure over 140
  • types*
    • ||essential hypertension
      • <<the most common form of hypertension
    • ||secondary hypertension
      • hypertension caused by some other underlying condition
    • malignant

Results

front: hypertension back: blood pressure over 140

front: hypertension: types (3) back: essential hypertension<br/>secondary hypertension<br/>malignant

front: the most common form of hypertension back: essential hypertension

front: secondary hypertension back: hypertension caused by some other underlying condition

A word of caution: some word processors will replace the double angle brackets with a single character (the left guillemet [aka French quotation marks]) If this happens the "reverse" code will not be interpreted. Also, if you have subitems under a reversed card, the card will not reverse correctly. The reversed bullet must be a terminal leaf.

You can find additional formatting tricks in the Wiki on Github.

The program will convert bold, underline, italics, front color, and background color (highlight) into the appropriate CSS and HTML codes. Anki will render these. Any other formatting will be ignored when the flash cards are created, but don't let that stop you from using it to decorate your notes!

Images included in the .odt are added to your collection.media folder. The image must actually be anchored within the list itself or it will be ignored. This anchoring is not the default in Libre Office. You can change an image's anchoring state by right clicking it.

I have been using it for a while with LibreOffice and it works well. Currently there is a rareish bug wherein the formatting will become screwed up. I have not gotten around to fixing it yet. I have not tested this in gdoc created documents lately, but it should work.

In LibreOffice, if you delete a bullet, but leave the text, this will cause the text to be ignored. I have not bothered to figure out why this is the case, but to avoid this problem use <shift>+<enter> to create linebreaks instead of deleting bullets.

Importing the same file again will duplicate all of the cards and images. Checking for prior existence is on my todo list. For now you will need to manage that aspect yourself.