Note: This is an Anki 2.1-only release (for now)
The primary focus in this release was Anki 2.1 compatibility, but v1.3.0 also comes with a number of nifty new features which I would like to highlight first:
- You can now occlude images in any note type you want, either by right clicking on them and selecting the respective option, or by using the Image Occlusion button!
- As an added bonus: The new context menu introduced by the add-on will also allow you to open any image with your default system viewer – a great way to perform quick image editing tasks when needed.
- The masks editor now allows you to add hints to your occlusion shapes. In order to do so, simply create a text element on top of a shape and group it with the shape.
- You can now set a custom hotkey for invoking I/O. Gone are the days of conflicts with different keyboard locales!
- In-app help screens now guide users through the basic use of the add-on (including how to add cards, edit them, group masks, label items, etc.)
(Some of the changes above will likely also be part of a future release of v1.3.0 for Anki 2.0.)
v1.3.0 for Anki 2.1 also comes with a plethora of bug fixes (some of the bugs fixed in this update have plagued I/O ever since its original release!):
- Fix: Automatically remove accidentally drawn shapes. This addresses instances where users would end up with more cards than they should have because of invisible shapes drawn by the oversensitive editor component (especially with touch interfaces)
- Fix: Resolve issues with unicode characters in Anki path and/or image path. This should fix most of the problems users were experiencing with non-latin locales (e.g. the I/O editor screen remaining blank because SVG-Edit did not load, or various UnicodeError messages)
- Fix: More robust I/O editor instantiation. Should help address some of the stability issues users experienced over longer card creation sessions (e.g. needing to restart Anki to get I/O working again).
- and a large number of other smaller bug fixes and improvements
There also some changes to the workflow in I/O v1.3.0 that you need to be aware of:
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The default hotkey for invoking I/O is now Ctrl+Shift+O (customizable through the new settings entry)
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The card generation options have been renamed and simplified: You can now choose between "Hide All, Guess One" (used to be "Hide All, Reveal One") and "Hide One, Guess One" (used to be "Hide All, Reveal All"). My hope with these new names is that they will be more intuitive for new users. (thanks a lot to Tiago Barroso for the suggestion!)
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"Hide All, Reveal All" is no longer available as a mask generation option. With the mask reveal button introduced in recent I/O releases it no longer served much of a purpose and was mostly confusing new users as they expected it to work like a grouped occlusion of all shapes.
Just in case you were using this option and are now wondering how to cover the same use cases:
- In case you were using "Hide All, Reveal All" to uncover all labels on the back: Try to switch to using "Hide One, Guess One" coupled with the mask reveal button on the backside (hotkey:
G) - In case you were using "Hide All, Reveal All" to 'group' your shapes: Use the actual grouping feature instead
- In case you were using "Hide All, Reveal All" to uncover all labels on the back: Try to switch to using "Hide One, Guess One" coupled with the mask reveal button on the backside (hotkey:
LIMITATIONS OF THIS ALPHA RELEASE
There are a number of known limitations to this alpha release that you need to be aware of:
- Due to compatibility issues between SVG-Edit and the new Chromium renderer in Anki 2.1 some of the features in the masks editor no longer work correctly. My hope is to address these in the following beta release:
- Please do not invoke the add-on's settings menu while the I/O Editor is running. There is currently no support for updating I/O editing sessions at runtime, and while most settings will simply only not be applied, others might cause the add-on to stop working correctly until the editor session is restarted. The same applies to modifications to the add-on's note type via Anki's built-in note type manager.
Of course there also bound to be some unforeseen bugs and regressions in the alpha. If you experience any of these please make sure to either report them on the add-on's bug tracker or in the official support thread.