Text editor : separate question and answer with a tab. Use enter/return key to start a new card:
        Question   {tab}   Answer   {return}
        Question   {tab}   Answer   {return}
        Text Sample

Spreadsheet : column 1 = question (side 1), column 2 = answer (side 2). Each row is a new card.
        Please see the below link for information on importing more than 2 sides or pictures/sounds:
        Import Format.xls (Spreadsheet Samples and Documentation)

After creating your flashcard text, you can transfer into the app using this website:
Upload your text to this website:
        1) Copy your flashcard text into memory (control-c or command-c)
        2) Go to the Upload page (at OrangeOrApple.com) and paste your text into the "Flashcard Text" box
        3) Enter a "Deck Code", which is way to identify and find your cards from your iPhone/iPod.
        4) Click "Upload"
Download your flashcards from within the app:
        5) At the top of the main screen, tap + (add)
        6) Tap "Private Deck" and enter your "Deck Code" (the same one you used to upload above)
        7) Tap "Download Cards"

Quizlet.com is one of the most popular flashcard sites around. If you'd rather use a more structured way to create flashcards, create a free account at Quizlet.com and make your flashcards there. (Quizlet limitations: they don't support 3 or more sides or sounds yet, and using pictures require a one-time $10 fee and they can only be shown on the back.)
After creating your flashcards at Quizlet, you can download them from within the app:
        1) At the top of the main screen, tap + (add)
        2) Tap "Quizlet Flashcards"
        3) Tap "my Quizlet.com sets"
        4) Enter your Quizlet username, and your own decks will be displayed. Tap to download.
Note that your Quizlet decks must be "public", as private decks cannot be seen from the app yet.

You can always add/edit cards to any deck within the app, but if you want to start with a completely empty deck:
        1) At the top of the main screen, tap + (add)
        2) Tap "Empty Deck"
        3) Enter a "Deck Name" and tap "Create Deck"
You now are viewing your list of flashcards, though you don't have any yet. To add your first card:
        4) At the top of this "Cards" screen, tap + (add)
        5) Tap the 1st empty row to start editing side 1, enter text. Tap Next, enter side 2, then Done.
        6) Tap the top left button (Cards) to back up to the card list screen.

These instructions are copied from the "1) in a text editor or a spreadsheet" section above:
Upload your text to this website:
        1) Copy your flashcard text into memory (control-c or command-c)
        2) Go to the Upload page (at OrangeOrApple.com) and paste your text into the "Flashcard Text" box
        3) Enter a "Deck Code", which is way to identify and find your cards from your iPhone/iPod.
        4) Click "Upload"
Download your flashcards from within the app:
        5) At the top of the main screen, tap + (add)
        6) Tap "Private Deck" and enter your "Deck Code" (the same one you used to upload above)
        7) Tap "Download Cards"

When using Google Docs, create a collection (folder) called "Flashcards Deluxe", create a spreadsheet in this collection, and add your flashcard text into the spreadsheet. See Import Format.xls on how to fill out the spreadsheet.

To add your new deck in the app, at the main Decks screen, tap +, Google Docs, enter your login info, and you should see the list of spreadsheets in your "Flashcards Deluxe" collection available for download.

If you have pictures or sound files, you can put them in a folder on Google Docs. If your spreadsheet is called "Spanish 1", create a collection at the same level called "Spanish 1 Media". Any picture/sound file names you specify in your text can now be found. If you have Dropbox, I would recommend using this instead of storing media files in Google Docs. (I find Dropbox to be faster and easier to maintain a lot of files.) See Media Directory Help on how to use Dropbox for media files.

About Dropbox
Dropbox is a free service that allows you to store your files online. While there is a web-only interface, installing their client on your PC/Mac is what makes Dropbox shine. Dropbox will create a special folder on your local hard drive, and keep this folder in-sync with their online data. So, instead of dealing with files though a web-browser, you use Windows Explorer or Finder (Mac). Here's how it works with Flashcards Deluxe...

In your Dropbox folder (on your local hard drive), create a subfolder called "Flashcards Deluxe". Inside this folder, create a .txt file with your flashcard text. Say you save it as "Spanish 1.txt". After saving, Dropbox will automatically sync this file to their servers. From within the app, you can add this new deck using the "Dropbox" option, enter your login info, and you'll see a deck called "Spanish 1" that you can download.

Creating the .txt file
The flashcard text for each deck must be saved as a .txt file in the "Flashcards Deluxe" folder in your Dropbox directory. You can create your flashcard text either using a word processor or a spreadsheet. See Import Format.xls on how to fill out a spreadsheet. When you’ve created your text, instead of copy-pasting into the Upload page in this website, you can generally copy-paste into a .txt file instead and save in the "Flashcards Deluxe" folder. These should show up as downloadable decks within the app.

Special points when saving your text file:

1) If your text uses special characters (like for Greek or Asian languages), then you’ll need to save your text with either UTF8 or Unicode encoding. Both Notepad (PC) and TextEdit (Mac) have these options when saving.

2) When using a spreadsheet, copy-pasting into a text file will usually work fine, but the risk is that if you use new-lines or double-quotes in your text, it may not copy correctly. In this case, from the spreadsheet program, do a "Save As" and choose the "Unicode" text format option. (Unicode is tab-delimited, and also supports special characters.)

Adding pictures and sounds
Put your pictures and sound files in a folder on Dropbox. If your text file is "Spanish 1.txt", create a folder in the same directory called "Spanish 1 Media". (Remove ".txt" and add " Media") Any picture/sound file names you specify in your text can now be found.

You can import text-only flashcards using iTunes.

- Save your flashcards as a .txt file. (If you use Excel, save as "Unicode Text" format.)
- Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable and open iTunes
- Click your device name along the left, then click "Apps" along the top
- Scroll down to the "File Sharing" section and click "Flashcards"
- Under "Flashcards Documents" click "Add..." and choose your text file
- After the file is transferred, go into the app and tap "+" at the Decks screen to create the decks

This website mainly exists so you can easily transfer your flashcards between your computer and your iPhone/device. You will upload your flashcard data to this website, then download it from your iPhone. You should consider this website as temporary storage for your data. As long as you keep a backup on your computer, re-transferring your text, pictures and sounds should be a very easy process if it becomes necessary.

For private decks, picture and sound files may be deleted from this server after one month, and your text may be deleted after two months of no updates/uploads to the deck. If you add new content within the app, please backup occationally. You can then go to the "Export" page here in this site to transfer your flashcard data (text, pictures and sounds) back to your computer.

New line: to create a new/blank line in the flashcard text, enter a "|" (pipe character) or use the <br> tag.
         (If you need this symbol in your text, use a similar Unicode character: ∣ )
Bold: <b>This will be Bold</b>
Italics: <i>This will be Italicized</i>
Underline: <u>This will be Underlined</u>
Strikethrough: <strike>Strikethrough</strike>
Text Color: <color red>This will be Red</color>  
         <color #0000FF>This will be Blue</color>   (You can read about color names and codes here.)
Background Color: <background-color #FFFF00>The side will have yellow background
         Only color *codes* (RGB Hex, not names) are supported for background colors. See link above for help.
         Specify this tag anywhere in the side's text.
         There is an in-app background setting for all cards, so this is only used when you want different colored backgrounds for individual cards.
Superscript: ^{^{This will be Superscript}}
Subscript: _{_{This will be Subscript}}
Center: <center>This will be centered</center> (assuming the rest of the side is left justified)
Bullet points: Just copy this into your own text: • and use | (shift \) to create new lines.

Setting font size: While you can set font size for each side within the app, if you want more control for specific text, you can use <size> tags:
         <size .5>This will be half size</size>
         <size 2>This will be double size</size>
         <size 40>This will be a 40 point font (greater than 5 is a specific size)</size>
Space without line break: <sp>   (create a space, but won't wrap text to next line)
If you have complex equations you'd like to show, the following website can create pictures to show them:
         http://www.codecogs.com/components/equationeditor/equationeditor.php

To add a picture or sound to a flashcard, you include the file name of the picture/sound in the flashcard text, then in a separate process, upload the pictures/sounds to this web site. The following workbook shows how to create your flashcard text: Import Format.xls. After you upload your flashcard text, you will be prompted to upload each picture/sound that you've defined, one at a time. (You can also upload a single zip file.) An internet connection is not needed after you download the deck to your device.

Instead of uploading media files to this server, you have a couple other options:
1) Use the "media directory" option to tell the app where to find your files. See here
2) Use full URL paths for your media files, for example: http://OrangeOrApple.com/starry night.jpg

If you have flashcards in another program or website, you can most likely transfer them over easily by exporting them to a tab delimited or CSV file. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact me and I'll try to help.
SuperMemo: This page provides a tool to convert SuperMemo's Q&A format to a tab delimated format.

The app contains a lot of in-app help. Look for a question mark (?) icon at the top for help related to the current screen you are viewing. The information on this website will generally augment the help found within the app.

At the main screen, tap on a deck description and you will be put into study mode. Cards are shown in "rounds", which is basically one pass through the deck. The idea to be aware of is that, depending on the "Card Order" option, each round might not consist of all cards in the full deck. In this case, the program has selected a set of cards that it had determined you currently need practice on. In standard quiz mode, every card needs to be answered before moving to the next card. There is a "browse mode" that will allow you to skip through the deck without keeping score.

The Card Order setting defines how cards in your deck are shown and is an important setting:

Ordered – each card is shown in order (default for new decks)
Random – cards are shuffled before each round
Short Term Goal – focus is given on cards you don't know as well.
Spaced Repetition – advanced learning method where cards are scheduled at timed intervals.

To change this setting, tap the gear icon at the top of the *study screen* (not main screen) then tap "Card Order". While the first two settings are simple, you can read more about Short Term Goal and Spaced Repetition here.

Cards in a deck can be divided into categories, which can provide a great way to break large amounts of cards into manageable study sets. You can assign categories when you create your card text by entering the category name in a "Category 1" column, as documented in Import Format.xls. You can also assign categories within the application.

To select which categories you want to study, enter the "Study Options" page, and tap "Cards to Study".

If you make changes to your cards on your iPhone, you'll probably want to backup your changes periodically. To do this, tap Edit at the main screen, tap your deck, then tap Export. Your flashcards will be uploaded back to this server. Next, go to the "Export" page on this website, which will allow you to download your flashcards from this server back to your own computer.

This app works best when you have a single master version, either on your device, or more commonly on your computer. There is no mechanism to "merge" changes from both sides, so you'll need to handle this. Personally, I make few changes on my device, but if I do, I "flag" them so I can later make the same change on my computer's master list. Maybe exporting will work better for you.

When you re-download to an existing deck (through the Deck edit screen), you can either append the new data or completely replace all cards. If you replace all cards, the only information that you'll want to keep from your old cards is the statistical data you've built up, and the app will try to do this.... The app will search for an existing card whose text matches the new card. If a match is found, the statistics are carried forward. A unique text match on side 1 OR side 2 is all it takes, so as long as you keep at least side 1 or side 2 the same, a match should happen. If you've changed the text on both sides, then the statistics for that card will be lost.

You can backup statistic data in the card text by choosing the appropriate export option. When re-importing a deck with statistic data, you will be asked whether your existing stats or the stats in your text file should have priority.

• Toggle full-screen in study view by tapping the center of the title bar.
• Use Folders (add deck: Folder) to help organize decks
• Use Combination decks to group multiple decks together to study
• Copy/Move cards between decks: From the card listing screen, tap "Mode" to get started.
• Zoom into a picture by touch and holding picture.
• Loop a sound clip by touch and holding sound play button.
• Double-tap sound play button to toggle Auto-Play on/off
• View side 3 first by using the "Card Layout" setting.
• You can specify many deck specific options in your upload text. To see how this is done, make the setting within the app and export/email the deck to yourself. You'll see special header lines for these settings.

When a card is shown that has too much text to fit on the screen, you will see a green down-arrow at the bottom. Touch and hold the text to enter text "zoom" mode so you can scroll up/down through the text. The reason for this extra mode is that swiping up and down are usually already used for responses strong-correct and wrong. If you disable the "swipe up" and "swipe down" commands, then swiping up/down will scroll your flashcard text immediately without having to enter zoom mode. The Control setting defaults "Love to Tap" and "Easy Scroll" will both allow for immediate scrolling of text. (Control setting help within the app has some more details.)

Shared decks are a copy of your private deck at the time you upload it to the library. To share a deck, tap "Edit" at the main screen, tap the deck, then "Share". You will need to enter a "User Name", which serves as both a user name AND your password, so choose something unique. This user name will give you rights to update and remove your shared library decks. To remove a shared deck, go to My Shared Decks, tap the deck then tap Remove from Library. Removing from the library does not delete your private deck. Conversely, deleting your private deck does not remove it from the shared library.

When exporting, if you include statistics you'll see data in column 6 which represents statistical data for each card. This can be imported back into the app. Normally you don't need to concern yourself with the details, but if you'd like to manipulate it manually, below is documentation on its format. Example text:
2,0,6,5,7,9,240,2010-08-25 21:00

Format:
Status, Flag, Review Count, Correct Count, Streak, Rounds until Shown (Leitner), Current Interval (in hours), Last Review Time

Status – 0) Pending 1) New 2) Active 3) Exclude
Flag – 0) not flagged 1) flagged
Review Count – number of times tested
Correct Count – number of times gotten correct
Streak – number of times in row you got it correct. This can be greater than Review Count since a strong correct will increase this by 2 for a single response.
Rounds until shown – Use for Leitner mode to delay card testing
Current Interval – current time between testing for Spaced Repetition mode, in hours.
Last Review Time – Date/time of last testing for this card. Next due date = last review + current interval.