Chrome extensions for studying: flashcards and citations
Studying in a browser means copying things somewhere else: a card into Anki, a citation into a bibliography, a new word into a list you will forget to reopen. The extensions in this category keep that step inside the tab you are already reading.
3 of 3 are live on a store.
Anki Cards - Make Flashcards FastBuild Anki flashcards as you read, then export a .txt Anki imports directly. Type them or right-click text. Local, no account.
Cite This Page - APA, MLA, BibTeXGenerate an APA, MLA, Chicago or BibTeX citation for any web page in one click. Runs locally, editable fields, no sign-in.
Language Learning - Vocabulary & QuizSave vocabulary words and practice with quizzes.
What to look for
Know where your deck actually lives
Cards, word lists and settings in this category are saved with chrome.storage.local, which belongs to this browser profile alone. Clearing browsing data or moving to another machine loses them. Anki Cards exports a tab-separated .txt, and that export doubles as your backup, so take one before the deck gets big.
Auto-filled citations still need a human pass
A citation tool reads the page's own metadata: title, author, site, date, and a DOI when the page declares one. Plenty of pages omit the author entirely or expose a last-modified date where you expect the publication date. Pick one whose fields are editable, like Cite This Page, and check author and date against the byline before pasting.
Match the permission to the feature
Reading metadata off the current page needs activeTab plus scripting, granted at the moment you click. A popup-only vocabulary tool may need nothing but storage, and Anki Cards adds contextMenus so right-click can start a card. Language Learning declares access to all sites along with tabs and webNavigation, which is broader than the other two — worth weighing if all you want is a word list.
Test the import with three cards, not three hundred
Whatever spaced-repetition app you use, the export has to land in it cleanly. Anki imports tab-separated text natively, but field order, separator and target deck are only visible once you actually run an import. Do a tiny one first, confirm front and back are not swapped, then build the real deck.
Questions people ask
How do I make Anki cards while reading a web page?
Build them in the browser and import the file afterwards. Anki Cards lets you type a front and back in the popup, or right-click selected text to start a card and fill the answer later, then exports a tab-separated .txt that Anki reads through File, Import. Line breaks inside a field survive the export as <br>, so a multi-line answer stays one card rather than splitting into several.
How do I cite a website in APA or MLA?
Pull the details off the page instead of retyping them. Cite This Page reads title, author, site and date from the page's metadata and formats the result as APA, MLA, Chicago or BibTeX, with every field editable before you copy. Check the author and date yourself, because page metadata is frequently incomplete.
Will my flashcards and saved words sync to another computer?
No. Everything sits in this browser's local storage, which is also why there is no sign-in step. Export the deck file when you want it elsewhere, and keep that file if the deck represents real work. Uninstalling or wiping browser data removes the local copy.
What permissions do these declare?
Anki Cards declares storage and contextMenus; Cite This Page declares activeTab, scripting and storage, so it reads a page only when you open the popup. Language Learning declares access to all sites plus tabs and webNavigation, which is a wider grant than a popup word list needs — decide with that in front of you.