Vocabulary tab

Hello everyone,

I am new here, and Ive been using my trial subscription for two days now, and I have learned alot about the Chinese language in this time. I enjoy the podcasts, and with some misgivings that I am able to let slide for the time being, I am able to listen to them and use them to practice. There is one area that I find cumbersome, that is the vocabulary tab. I find that, while it is easy to use, it is not easy to use it efficiently. For example, I have to manually add my words from new lessons. when I attempt to use the vocabulary tab within the lesson, it simply doesnt work. There are times when I click a word I want to add, and it won't appear (in such an inconsistent manner that it is unpredictable which results in me having to continuously refresh the vocabulary tab in the 'Me' area). I guess what I am saying is that I would like to know of a way to effectively and efficiently use my vocabulary area as I think it would be of good benefit. Currently, I am writing out flash cards drawing the characters on them myself. This brings me to my next question, how precise do the drawings have to be for Chinese speakers to be able to understand them?

thanks