Import questions from a CSV

Open Import from Import CSV on Topics or a topic page.

The template

Press Download template. Each row is one question, with the columns type, stem, choices, key, explanation and topics, in any order and any case. Separate a list inside a cell with a bar, like Manila|Cebu|Davao.

• Multiple choice and multi select take the key as letters or as the choice text.
• True or false takes True or False as the key (or t, f, 1, 0, yes, or no).
• Short answer separates accepted forms in key with a bar, like PFRS 16|IFRS 16. Inside an enumeration item or a blank, separate accepted forms with a slash, like debit/dr|credit/cr.
• Numeric accepts commas, currency signs, P, PHP, pesos, a trailing %, and parentheses like (1,000) for a negative number. An optional tolerance column sets the allowed difference as a number or a percent of the key, like 0.5 or 5%. Leave it blank for an exact match.
• Matching takes each pair as left=right.
• Ordering takes the choices in their right order.
• An optional threshold column sets how much of a list, its blanks, its pairs or its picks counts as right, like 0.67 or 2/3. Leave it blank for the type's own share. Enumeration and fill in blanks count as right at two thirds, matching at three quarters, and multi select needs every pick.
• Optional why, source and notes columns hold the underlying rule (shown on request before answering and first in feedback), a reference like PAS 7 par. 6, and per choice notes separated by a bar in choice order (A note||C note).

A choices cell with a blank line splits on blank lines instead, so one choice can hold several lines or a table.

File a question under an outline part

If you follow a course outline, a topic can name one of its parts by code. Write the code with an @ in front, like @FAR.1.1, in the topics cell. The question goes under your topic linked to that part. If you have no topic for it yet, Aefing makes the topics along its path in the outline's order, as Start my topics would. A code and plain names can sit in one cell, like Cash|@FAR.1.

If a code is in an outline you do not follow, its row says which, and the page offers Follow it. That follows the outline without making topics and checks the file again. A code in two outlines you follow names both; stop following one of them and choose the file again.

A spreadsheet may read a cell that starts with @ as a formula. Type an apostrophe first, like '@FAR.1.1, and Aefing reads it off. Anything after the code's first space is ignored, so @FAR.1.1 Standard-Setting Bodies files under FAR.1.1 too.

A template for your outline

If you follow an outline, Import shows a button with its name. It downloads a template with a row for every part that has a code, in the outline's order. Each row's topics cell holds the code and the part's name. Fill in the type, the stem and the rest on the rows you want, and copy a row to add another question under the same part. A row you leave without a type and a stem is skipped, and the row numbers in the preview still match your spreadsheet.

Cases

A case is a scenario that several questions share. Start each of its rows with its label, then the scenario, then a blank line, then that row's question, like [Case PS11-14: Cromshaw Lamp Works, 2 of 4] The scenario... with the question after the blank line. Every row of a case carries the same scenario word for word, and the file holds every place from 1 to the last.

The preview shows each case's scenario once, with its questions under it. A row labelled as a case that does not group is refused with the reason, such as a missing place or no blank line after the scenario, so fix the file and choose it again. A label names one case in your account, so a label you used before for another scenario is refused; give the new case its own label.

Preview, then import

Choose the file. It may be up to 1 MB. Save it from your spreadsheet as CSV UTF-8. Every row shows as Ready or with what is wrong, grouped under the outline part it files under, with a count. Short answer keys show each accepted form, numeric keys show their tolerance, and two consecutive multiple choice rows that share the same choices with different keys show as a pair with both keys. A file where a short answer form is longer than four words or a numeric key is not a number is refused at preview with the row number so it is never half imported. Nothing enters your topics until you press Import.

The import runs on its own and shows how far it has come. You can leave the page; its result is there when you come back. It lists every row as imported, already there, or refused with the reason. If the import stops partway, for example while Aefing restarts, the page says so after two minutes, lists what it saved, and offers the file again.

A question you already have counts as already there, even one you archived, so importing the same file again saves only what is new. To fix a refused row, correct it in the file and import the whole file again. Its fixed row is new, so it is saved.

Once a row is imported, fix it in Aefing, not in the file. A row changed in the file reads as a new question, so importing it again would save a second copy beside the first.

Import only questions you wrote or have the right to use.