Speech-to-text for Anki (The Google Docs Method)

Speech to text / Voice input / Dictation for making Anki flashcards

I am a medical student & I will show you how to dictate basic (simple Q & A) Anki flashcards real fast using free tools. You can use any computer with any operating system.

🡺 To use Google’s dictation, you MUST use Chrome browser 🡺 To use Microsoft’s dictation use any browser, any OS, any computer. Don’t buy Office 365. Chromium browser derivatives work best. 🡺 Apple’s dictation can be used only on Apple devices, with ANY spreadsheet software or within Anki app itself. (Use MacOS 10.15 or above for best results)

What you’ll need –

• 1) A Linux / BSD / Mac / Chromebook / Raspberry Pi / Windows computer. (I recommend Word online + Chromium browser for Raspberry Pi. Some chromebooks support Ankidroid, but you might not be able to import flashcards you dictate (.csv files), without the computer app, not sure though, I don’t have a chromebook. Let me know if it works & I will update the post accordingly.)
• 2) Microphone, preferably external.
• 3) A broadband connection. (Connect your computer using LAN cable for faster voice input thanks to low latency, minimal signal attenuation & full duplex nature of wired technology)
• 4) Install Google Chrome browser to dictate in google docs OR Install any Chromium derivatives to dictate in Word Online / OneNote (Firefox didn’t work for me. Word online couldn’t access the microphone even when I granted permissions manually. I haven’t tested other browsers) OR Configure keyboard shortcut that activates Mac’s dictation (System Preferences ➜ Keyboard ➜ Dictation ➜ Shortcut)

• 5) Install LibreOffice / use Google Sheets
• 6) Install Anki

Let’s make some basic anki flashcards. Basic is the simplest of them all, that’s what I always use & feel comfortable with.

Flashcard Content Creation using Google Docs / Word Online / OneNote Online –

• 1) Word Processor – Open chrome & open Google Docs OR open any browser (preferably Chromium & it’s derivatives) & open Word Online / OneNote Online with word Online being more practical, I will only talk about it from now on OR open any offline Word Processor (Only Mac users have this choice, Win 10 had a crappy dictation, may have improved)
• 2) Open a new blank document
• 3) Click ‘Insert’ & insert a table with 2 columns & as many rows as you like, it doesn’t matter, you’ll know why. Left column is for questions, right for answers. (If you wish to use tags, you’ll need a third column such that column 1 is Questions, 2 is Answers, 3 is Tags. YouTube has videos on more such tips & it’s beyond the scope of this article.)
• 4) Dictate – Place the cursor in the first cell on the left & press Ctrl+Shift+S or click tools ➜ voice typing on Google sheets OR Click on Microphone icon on right upper side in Word Online OR Use keyboard shortcut that you configured, to activate Mac’s dictation

• 5) Start speaking, that’s it! Press Tab button to navigate to the adjacent cell, Tab again for next row and so on.
• 6) When you run out of cells, just press tab & continue as usual. New row of cells will automatically appear upon pressing tab, that’s why the number of rows you initially added doesn’t matter.
• 7) When you’re done, simply copy the entire table, Ctrl+A & Ctrl+C on Google Sheets / other word processor OR Press Ctrl+A thrice / select entire table with a mouse & Ctrl+C on Word Online.

The LibreOffice Calc / Spreadsheet part –

1. Open Libreoffice Calc / Google Sheets (avoid excel online, seems no .csv support)
2. Press Ctrl+V / Paste, content you created in Google Docs / Word Online / OneNote Online will appear here
3. For Libreoffice, press Ctrl+S, save in .csv format ➜ in the next step don’t change anything, the default character set is UTF-8. Click ok.
4. For Google Sheets, click File ➜ Download ➜ .csv

The Anki Part –

Anki can import .csv files as flashcards.

1. Open Anki, click ‘import file’
2. Import the .csv file that you just created
3. Choose the card type ‘basic’
4. Choose the deck / subdeck where you want the newly created cards to go. By default it’s ‘Default’ so change that if necessary.
5. Click ‘Import’, That’s it!!

Just get a hang of it. It’s super simple & very fast. Don’t be intimidated by the instructions. Text input is the most time consuming part & this method intends to make the process much faster.

If you find this helpful & if you think that your friends might as well love it, you may download & print the QR code below & stick it in your classroom or wherever appropriate.

Please use the contact form below ONLY if you have any ideas or suggestions to improve this method, have found a better method or if there is something that you really can’t figure out. Thanks.