How do I get started quickly with Anki according to the manual?

Updated

The Anki manual's answer to this is a single pointer: if you are in a hurry, skip the rest of the introduction and go straight to the Getting Started section. That is the manual's own Quickstart path, and it is aimed at new users who want to begin using Anki immediately rather than read through the full documentation first.

What the Quickstart actually tells you

The introduction page on docs.ankiweb.net is short and mostly a signpost. Its Quickstart entry contains no steps of its own — it exists only to route you to Getting Started. So "getting started quickly according to the manual" means reading one page, not several.

The same introduction page also makes a distinction worth knowing before you start clicking:

  • It is the manual for the computer version of Anki.
  • Mobile clients have separate manuals: AnkiDroid for Android and AnkiMobile for iPhone/iPad.

If your goal is to study on a phone or tablet, the Quickstart here still applies to the desktop program, and you will want the matching mobile manual for client-specific behavior.

The fastest route

  1. Open the Anki manual at docs.ankiweb.net.
  2. Find the Quickstart entry on the introduction page.
  3. Follow it to Getting Started.
  4. Work through that section before returning to the rest of the manual.

Expected result: you reach the first-steps material without reading the full manual, which is exactly what the Quickstart is designed to do.

When this path is not enough

The Quickstart is a shortcut, not a substitute for the manual. Two situations send you back to the full documentation:

  • You are not on the latest version of Anki. The manual notes that archives of older versions are available at the Internet Archive, and that information on old scheduler versions lives in a separate FAQ. A quickstart written for the current version may not match what you see.
  • You need help rather than instructions. The introduction points to a Getting Help section instead, which is the right destination for troubleshooting rather than first steps.

Other things on the same page

The introduction also lists community translations of the manual, including 简体中文, 日本語, Deutsch, Español, Français, and several others. The manual cautions that translations may not always be up to date, so if a translated page looks stale, the English version is the reference. If you want to contribute a translation, the page directs you to the translation docs.

There is also a Keyboard shortcuts entry on the introduction page, useful once you are past the first steps and want to move faster inside the program.

Bottom line

For a fast start, the manual's own advice is unambiguous: go to Getting Started. Use the introduction page only to confirm you are reading the manual for the right platform — desktop here, separate manuals for Android and iOS — and to find the help and translation sections when you need them.