Skip card in Layout if Side 3 is empty (Japanese study)

[rrrock]

Hi Ernie,

I am using Flashcards Deluxe on iOS to study Japanese and I've run into a specific issue with my layout setup.

My cards are structured like this:

Side 1: Hiragana / Katakana

Side 2: Translation

Side 3: Kanji (if the word has one)

Since many Japanese words don't use Kanji (e.g., "こんにちは"), Side 3 is completely blank for a large portion of my deck.

I created a separate Advanced Layout (3 → 1) specifically to practice reading Kanji (Kanji on the front, Hiragana on the back). The problem is that when I switch to this Layout, the app still includes all the cards where Side 3 is blank. I end up seeing a completely empty front side of the card.

Is there any way to make the app automatically skip/exclude a card in a specific Layout if the front side (Side 3 in my case) is empty? I want these cards to be completely ignored in this mode so they don't appear and don't affect the Statistics Set for this layout.

If this is not currently possible, could you consider adding a feature/setting like "Skip card if first displayed side is empty" or "Require first side to contain text" in future updates? It would be incredibly helpful for learning languages like Japanese or Chinese.

Thank you for an amazing app!

[Ernie]

Hi,

Here's what you can do now...
Assign a category to the cards with something in side 3. if you are not using "Category 1", then you can create a a column with this header, and fill it in with something like "3 sides".
If you don't have headers for your other columns, then add them (e.g. "Text 1", "Text 2").
If you don't maintain your deck in a spreadsheet or text file, then you'd do this in the app. The important part is that you don't want to have to assign a category to each card individually, so one solution I think would be to sort by side 3, then you can use Mode, Select, and use the Range button at top to select all the card that have a side 3, and use Mode, Category 1 to create and assign the category to all select cards.
Once this is done, you can go to "cards to study" and assign that category "3 sides" to that layout.

I think that should work.
Ernie

[rrrock]

Hi Ernie,

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried it, and it does work.

I think it’s a good solution when you’re starting a new deck or when the deck is still relatively small.

However, once the deck becomes large and I update cards almost every day, it starts to become a bit time-consuming. Sometimes I add completely new cards, but more often I update existing ones by gradually adding Kanji as I learn them.

For example, a word may initially have no Kanji at all, then later I add one Kanji, and later another. Sometimes part of the word is still in Hiragana while another part has already been replaced with Kanji. Since many Japanese words contain multiple Kanji, this happens quite often.

Because of this workflow, I also have to remember to update the category every time I modify Side 3. After a while, keeping the categories synchronized with the actual content becomes an extra maintenance task.

I still think an option like “Skip card if the first displayed side is empty” would be a very useful feature. It would automatically include a card in the Kanji layout as soon as Side 3 contains any text, without requiring any manual updates to categories.

Thank you again for your help and for considering the idea.

[Ernie]

Makes sense. I've added it near the top of my Flashcards Deluxe to-do list. But I've got other stuff that is taking precedence for me right now. Not sure when I'll get to this. It probably won't be within the next few months due to current projects, and I don't think this new feature will be affecting many users. Sorry about that. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.