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Merit Cards

Merit Cards is a new flashcard application for Windows. In Merit Cards, you create decks of notes where each note consists of individual facets. A facet is equivalent to a real-life index card on which you can put vocabulary, history facts, or other things you would like to study.

Changelog
Roadmap
Quick tutorial
Questions & Answers
About

During a study session, each note is presented facet-by-facet. You gradually reveal a facet and grade that note correct or incorrect. Merit Cards puts correct notes into higher stages, and increases the time before they are due for study again. Incorrect notes fall back a stage, and their due interval decreases slightly so that you see them again sooner.

Read more about Merit Cards’ features in the quick tutorial below, or take a look at the origins of Merit Cards here.

You can download and test a public beta version, but beware of breaking changes between beta builds.

Latest release: September 18th, 2024

Download Merit Cards Beta 32b

Beta or development versions are identified by an incrementing build number.

System requirements

Windows 11, Windows 10 (WIP); x64 architecture
1280x768 minimum display resolution

Changelog

2024-09-25	I will be travelling during October which means I can’t do many updates, but I’m working on a bigger release. I extended the test license to December, just re-download the latest release.
2024-09-18	Fixed a memory leak caused by views not being removed correctly. This mostly happened in the main window when navigating from one deck to another. Improved database management. Merit Cards won’t unnecessarily remove and add a new row to the database if the row can be updated (this prevents the row ID from being incremented). Corrected somme grammatical errors in the deck setting dialog.
2024-09-01	This release updates how facet media is organized. Make sure to keep an additional backup of `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards`! Facet media is now stored under `Media/` in Merit Cards’ app directory. Fixed a bug that still showed the old name in the sidebar when renaming a deck group. When starting a custom study session, I noticed that “Apply grading (default)” and “Only apply grading for due notes” was worded very confusingly. I changed it to “Only grade due notes (default)” and “Apply grading for all notes”, and updated how the latter option works. To summarize: Only grade due notes (default): If a note is not due (e.g. by unchecking Study only due notes), its stage will not increase if it was graded correctly. This is how it always works, but I hope is worded clearer now. Apply grading for all notes: If a note is not due but graded correctly, its stage also increases.
2024-08-01	This release performs a database migration. Make sure to keep an additional backup of `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards\Merit Cards.db`! Fixed a bug when adding facet images/audio to newly-created facets in the note editor. The sidebar’s scroll position should now be reliably restored … Take display scaling into account when restoring width and height of Merit Cards’ window. Fixed a bug around nested database transactions. Improved handling of edge cases when moving facet media. Merit Cards’ log file (if any) is now created at a platform-specific location (but on Windows, this is still in `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards` anyway). Lots of internal refactorings around state restoration!
2024-07-01	Extended June’s license to this month. Next version is coming soon, but too many bugs still need to be fixed.
2024-06-07	Fixed a bug that always displayed Auto-play audio as disabled in preferences window Fixed broken facet media
2024-04-30	Re-uploaded Beta 29 with a new license valid for ~~May~~ June. Unfortunately, too much other work to do right now.
2024-04-01	New monthly beta.
2024-03-01	New monthly beta.
2024-02-01	New monthly beta.
2024-01-01	Happy new year! Note editor now displays to which deck a note belongs at the top right Added a “Graded incorrectly” smart deck which contains all notes whose latest grading was incorrect Internal refactorings
2023-12-01	Just a maintenance release to update Merit Cards’ dependencies, but I began with some refactoring to work on some new features.
2023-11-01	When studying multiple decks with and without templates, fixed a bug that failed to clear facet styles.
2023-10-01	Only a small update: Build with JavaFX 21. Fixed broken session when note limit was set to a higher number than available notes. In related news, I published my custom-built JavaFX theme that makes Merit Cards look more like a Windows 11 application as a separate library: javafx-fluent-theme
2023-08-30	I’m on a short vacation before starting my new job, so this September’s beta arrives a little earlier. This build is valid until October 1st, 2023. End-of-session statistics now correctly take into account skipped notes. Upgraded dependencies and build with JDK 20.
2023-08-01	It’s been 1 year since Merit Cards’ first beta release! I finally created a custom icon. It’s supposed to be a cute owl in a fortune bag. Apart from that, new monthly beta with updated dependencies and bug fixes that were necessary for Kotlin 1.9.20.
2023-07-01	New monthly beta. Sorry for the lack of new updates, but I was busy looking for a new job. New things are coming soon!
2023-06-01	New monthly beta.
2023-05-01	Fixed drag area for header bar on screens with a display scaling other than 100%. Disabled adding or removing notes when multiple decks are selected in the sidebar. This is not because this is buggy (the fixes from before still apply), but I took a look at how other programs work with multiple selections, and I couldn’t make up my mind on what behavior is most familiar to users yet.
2023-04-11	Added a workaround for a bug with JavaFX’ TreeView when selecting multiple items. Investigation and workaround described here: https://github.com/Eroica/javafx-treeview-selection-bug Fixed a small bug that consumed all key events when the sidebar is focused (e.g. disabling `Esc`). Added a minor style fix for display scalings over 100%.
2023-04-01	Beta 16 release bringing: Correctly prompt Windows 11’s “snapping” when dragging Merit Cards’ main window. Manual decks now display an M in the sidebar instead of showing a due count of 0. Facets now support adding audio to them! There’s also a new setting to “Automatically play audio” in the app preferences. Revised the layout of the sidebar to be more similar to WinUI 3, including animations. Fixed a restoration bug when deleting a deck while the note editor is open. Fixed a bug that a facet’s alignment property was ignored during a study session (introduced when facets started supporting images) Some internal optimizations around database watchers. Minor style fixes. Unfortunately, I think I found a bug in JavaFX’ TreeView that can happen when selecting multiple items (and then deleting one). I have disabled support for selecting multiple items in the sidebar for now while I investigate this bug. Sorry about that.
2023-03-12	Fixed broken session when not setting a note limit.
2023-03-11	Re-uploaded Beta 15 because Merit Cards didn’t create its necessary folder in `%LOCALAPPDATA%` if it was missing; sorry about that.
2023-03-10	Re-uploaded Beta 15 because it was still showing “Beta 14” in the About dialog.
2023-03-08	I’ve been working on bringing Merit Cards closer to a public release. Notable features/bug fixes are: You can now add images to notes by dragging them onto a facet. Images are copied and stored in Merit Cards’ resources folder per deck (`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards`). [Supported image formats] Fixed a bug that allowed dragging deck groups into their inner children. Added a customizable note limit to a study session. When importing notes into an existing deck, any detail screen on the right (e.g. note list or note editor) now correctly refreshes if necessary. Some minor style fixes.
2023-01-21	Extended this month’s license to April.
2023-01-01	New monthly beta; happy new year.
2022-12-19	The color when grading a note now flashes for a short time instead of immediately switching to the next note; added a confirmation when exiting a study session with `Esc`; fixed a bug that cleared the search bar after all notes were retrieved in a note list; minor style tweaks.
2022-12-04	Fixed a bug when re-grading previously graded notes (and automatic re-grading is allowed in the settings); fixed stale cache when adding a new note in the Note editor and then returning back to the list of notes.
2022-12-01	New monthly beta; fixed a restoration bug when deleting facets during a study session.
2022-11-26	Fixed broken session when studying decks without due notes.
2022-11-19	I refactored the session screen for many small improvements: Got rid of an annoying jitter while transitioning between notes if display scaling was set to something higher than 100%. Added a non-blocking progress bar while the session is being set up. Removed a huge chunk of code from a now unusued library which also allowed adding better tests. You can exit a study session early by selecting … → End study session early. This allows you to look at this session’s statistics even if you haven’t studied all notes. And for the note list screen: Now retrieves notes more efficiently and without blocking the UI. Searching for text is now done case-insensitive. When moving between different screens or re-starting Merit Cards, the last search term and scroll position is restored.
2022-11-03	Removed “Free Notes” (this wasn’t usable anyway in the current state; it might come back in the future); fixed wrong default for Mica on non-AMD hardware (finally).
2022-11-01	New monthly beta; Merit Cards now backups its database once per day; improved the database scheme for less space usage; fixed the calculation of due notes for the “All Notes” deck; fixed a restoration bug when deleting a facet during a study session; added the option to import new notes into an existing deck; improved the workaround for Windows 11’s Mica effect on non-AMD hardware (see discussion); added an internal setting for debug logs.
2022-10-08	Fixed a severe bug when moving around notes; added a workaround for Windows 11’s Mica effect on non-AMD hardware (take a look under … → Preferences); improved how notes are being fetched from the database (this speeds up decks with several thousands of notes).
2022-10-01	New monthly beta; added a summary at the end of a study session; fixed sorting by due date in the note list screen; you can now edit a note’s due date manually if you need to; updated the Mica effect to Windows 11 22H2 (this might be unreliable, still investigating).
2022-09-01	New monthly beta; removed “Cancel session and skip grading” (this feature was actually removed before the first beta build, but not from the UI).
2022-08-19	Added a new setting to quickly allow re-grading of notes; Merit Cards now correctly shows all available fonts when editing facets; adapt to JavaFX 19’s `focus-visible` classes.
2022-08-07	Fixed a restoration issue when returning to a study session from the note editor. Only one Merit Cards instance can be launched at a time.
2022-08-01	First public beta build!

Current issues

On certain systems that don’t use a dedicated AMD graphics card, the “Mica” (transparency) effect of Merit Cards’ main window looks incorrect. I added an option in Merit Cards’ preferences with a workaround that might work on your system. Here is a GitHub issue with more information: Graphic issues on certain GPUs

Roadmap

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Quick tutorial

Here is an overview on what you need to know when using Merit Cards:

In the sidebar, you can create decks and deck groups. Deck groups can either hold decks or other deck groups by dragging them onto it. You can move any item up or down by dragging and dropping it to a new position (this will put it below the drop target).
Decks decide how its notes are being scheduled: either automatic (the default) or manual. In automatic mode, notes are scheduled in increasing intervals (“Stages”) which make them due for study or not. In manual mode, there are only 5 boxes and no due notes. This is meant to represent an old-school Leitner learning box in which you can freely move notes, and study them at your own pace.
Notes are created either in the note list or note editor. This is the area right to the sidebar. You can drag a note into another deck by moving it into the sidebar, as long as the deck modes (automatic/manual) are the same.
In the note editor, facets can be created at the beginning, end, or in between other facets. The content of a facet can be slightly styled by increasing its text size or text alignment. Every note can have an individual amount and styles of facets, no matter in which deck it is.
If you want to make all notes in a deck look the same, you can create a template from any note. This applies that note’s facet styles to all other notes (only visible during studying). If a note has more facets than the template, all remaining facets will show their own styling.
To study a deck or multiple decks, select the ▶ button in the header bar. You can also enable or disable certain notes from a study session, or ignore any grading when you only want to cram.
Inside a study session, use the buttons on the bottom or the ←, →, ↑, ↓ keys to move between notes/facets, and ⇧↑/⇧↓ (that‘s Shift and an Arrow key) to grade a note correct/incorrect. Incorrect notes are repeated at a later time, but grading the repetition does not modify that note‘s grade anymore. If required, you can reset a note‘s grade by selecting … → Reset grading of this note.
Hit Esc or the back button to close a study session. In general, you can quit Merit Cards on any screen and it will bring you back to where you left next time.

Questions & Answers

How do I install Merit Cards? How do I uninstall Merit Cards?

Merit Cards is packaged with all dependencies. After extracting the ZIP file, you can directly run Merit Cards.exe from the extracted folder. To remove Merit Cards, simply delete the folder. The only data that is left behind is the database file (see next question) and any resources your decks use (e.g. images).

Where does Merit Cards store its database?

The database is stored inside Windows’ folder for your user settings, i.e. %LOCALAPPDATA%. The location of the database file is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards\Merit Cards.db.

Is Merit Cards free?

Merit Cards is free to use for personal use during the public beta. After that, I plan to sell licenses to private individuals (non-companies) on a single-purchase basis: You buy a license for the current version of Merit Cards which you can use forever. Any future version requires a new license, but you can upgrade your existing license for a reduced price (probably 1/3rd). This way you can keep the software you bought forever, and you are free to decide whether you want to use newer features or not.

How can I import existing notes into Merit Cards?

Inside Merit Cards, select … → Import deck … to create notes from a plain-text file. The format is described here: Help: Import.

Which image formats can I add to facets?

The supported image formats depend on JavaFX, and are currently BMP, GIF, JPG, and PNG.

When I use the default font and write Chinese/Japanese characters, some characters look weird!

This seems to come from an unconventional method how JavaFX decides to use fallback fonts (falling back to another font for glyphs that the original font, e.g. the system font, does not support). I took a closer look into that problem here: Incorrect fallback font (2022-08-12)

Sadly, I think the only way to fix this currently is modifying local Windows settings: You need to prioritize what kind of font (e.g. a font for Chinese or a font for Japanese) you expect to see when writing East-Asian characters. You do this by editing Tahoma’s list of fallback fonts in the registry as described in the linked post.

Note: This setting might revert back after Windows updates.

About

Merit Cards is largely developed for my own use, but perhaps you find it useful too.

In the past, I was a big user of a flashcard application called “Mental Case” (now the “Studies” app) for OS X. After switching away from OS X (now “macOS”), I began using Anki for my language studies. However, Anki’s workflow and the way you collect notes didn’t really click with me. I decided to bring what I liked about Mental Case into a new application for Windows.

Thank you for taking a look at Merit Cards. You can see some of my other work (mostly 3D design and programming) at GROUNDCTRL.