Quickstart

This tutorial takes you from a blank Collection to your first scheduled review. By the end you’ll have imported a Source, read part of it, made a flashcard, and reviewed it. Follow every step in order — there are no decisions to make.

Before you begin

• Install Kioku for your platform (see Install Kioku).
• Have the URL of a web article you’d genuinely like to remember. Any normal https:// page works.

1. Open your first Collection

Kioku starts with a Default Collection — a local database that holds everything you learn: your Sources, Topics, Extracts, Items, and review history. It’s already open when you launch the app, so there’s nothing to set up. You’ll use it for the rest of this tutorial.

2. Import a Source

You’ll bring the article into Kioku as a Source, which produces a Topic you can read incrementally.

1. On the Dashboard, paste your URL into the Read bar (it shows the placeholder Paste URL…) and select Open. Kioku loads the page in the Reader.
2. In the Reader toolbar, select Import. While it works the button reads Importing…; when it’s done it becomes Imported.
3. The Import Page dialog asks how to import the page. Leave Static Import selected — it saves a cleaned snapshot you can read offline — and select Import.

Note

Static Import is the right default for this tutorial. The other choice, Live Import, reloads the real page during review instead of a snapshot. You can learn when to use it in Import a web page.

Your article is now a Topic in the Default Collection.

3. Read incrementally and highlight

You don’t have to finish the article — reading a little at a time is the whole point of incremental reading.

1. Read a few paragraphs of the Topic.
2. Find one sentence worth remembering and select it.
3. With the text selected, press M to mark it as a Highlight. A Highlight is just an annotation — it doesn’t schedule anything yet.

4. Extract and make a card

Now turn that passage into something you’ll actually be quizzed on.

1. Select the same sentence (or a tighter span within it).
2. Press X, or select Extract in the selection toolbar, to create an Extract — a smaller reading unit carved out of the Topic.
3. Select the key word or phrase you want to recall, then press Z, or select Cloze. Kioku wraps your selection in cloze syntax like {{c1::your phrase}} and creates an Item with one Card.

That Card is now a scheduled flashcard waiting in your Queue.

5. Review

Time to grade what you made.

1. Return to the Dashboard and select Begin review, or press 4 from anywhere to open the Review page. Kioku starts a session and shows your Card’s front with the prompt Press Space to reveal.
2. Press Space to reveal the answer.
3. Grade how well you recalled it under How well did you recall?. Choose 1 Again, 2 Hard, 3 Good, or 4 Easy — for a fact you just made, 3 Good is a fine choice. Each button previews the next interval.

Your Rating feeds FSRS, which computes when this Card is due again. When the session empties, Kioku shows a summary with how long until your next review.

What you learned

• The core loop: import → read → extract → review.
• Your data lives in a Collection — a single local database you can later export or switch between.
• Items are scheduled by FSRS, so each Rating changes when you’ll see a Card next.

Next steps

• Import a web page in depth, including Live Import.
• Card types beyond cloze.
• Tune FSRS retention once you have a review routine.