Build an Anki filtered deck by clicking through your tags, decks and card
properties. No search syntax to remember.
What it does
Open it from Tools → Filtered Deck Builder… (Ctrl+Shift+T / Cmd+Shift+T),
or right-click a tag in the browser sidebar to start with that tag already
ticked.
Tags and decks are shown as trees. Both are searched by typing several
words, all of which have to match somewhere in the path — so ross histo mod
cuts straight to what you want instead of returning every tag containing
"ross". Branches load only when you open them, so it stays instant on very
large collections.
Tags combine with AND / OR / NOT. Put tags into groups; each group says
whether a card needs any, all or none of its tags, and the control
between two groups says whether they AND or OR. So this:
group 1: card has ALL of [FirstAid::Cardio, HighYield]
OR
group 2: card has ANY of [Quiz_Missed]
builds (tag:FirstAid::Cardio tag:HighYield) OR tag:Quiz_Missed — "high-yield
cardio, plus anything I missed on a quiz".
Narrow it further without typing. The Decks tab limits the deck to chosen
decks (subdecks included). The Cards tab covers card state (new, learning,
review, due, suspended, buried), flag colour, and recency — added, edited, or
answered Again in the last N days. Picks inside one facet are ORed; the
facets are ANDed onto your tag expression. You can build a deck from these
alone, with no tags at all.
It tells you what you are about to get
A line at the bottom spells the rule out in plain English and counts the cards
Anki can actually gather, which is not the same as the number of cards
matching your search:
- suspended cards are never pulled into a filtered deck — it says how many are
being skipped, and offers to unsuspend them
- a card already sitting in another filtered deck cannot be gathered — it
says how many, and names the deck holding them
That second one is the usual reason a filtered deck comes out smaller than
expected. The count runs in the background, so it never blocks the dialog.
Suspended cards
Off by default, so building a deck never changes your collection behind your
back. Tick Include suspended cards and the matching ones are unsuspended
first — only cards matching your selection, with the number reported
afterwards, and reversible from Edit → Undo.
Deck options
Name the deck in the dialog, or let it name itself from your picks. New decks
are created with Reschedule cards based on my answers switched off, which
is what you usually want for cramming. That and the preview delays, card
limit, sort order and more are all in the add-on config.
Configuration
Tools → Add-ons → select the add-on → Config. Every option is documented on
the config screen.
Credits
Derived from Filtered Deck By Tag
by Sachin Govind. Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 or later.