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Importing Content (WinFlash Educator Only)

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Main|Educator|Import Content

Note: Beginning with v12, Educator can browse for, search and download files from FlashcardExchange directly without using .hc intermediate files.  The information below relating to .hc files is to support existing .hc files that the user may wish to import.

Note: If you simply want to create a new deck with exactly the contents of a .hc file (FlashcardExchange or HandyCards), it isn't necessary to go through the Import operation.  Simply use the File|Open menu.  Select the .hc file you want and a new .flu-type source file will be created using the contents and root name of the .hc file.

To import content, open the study file you wish to import to and then select Import Content from the Educator menu.

 

Note: The current release does NOT support the import of extended Unicode characters or font effects formatting - EXCEPT when imported via the Windows Clipboard or when "imported" by opening a FlashcardExchange .hc format file using File|Open or when downloading files directly from FlashcardExchange - see below for more on Windows Clipboard importing.

Otherwise, only 'single-wide' characters are supported - the 'bottom' 256 characters in a Unicode font or all of the characters in a regular, 256-character TrueType font.  While some ".txt" and ".csv" formats can contain Unicode characters, these are not really "text" files, but rather binary files with .txt or .csv extensions. If you receive a warning about "Unicode format" when attempting to import an Excel .csv file you'll need to use the Windows Clipboard method to import this content.

 

Educator can import from the following file formats:

 

FlashcardExchange (.hc extension files) *

gFlash (.csv extension text files)

HandyCards For Palm/PocketPC (.hc extension text files)

JTutor For Palm (.jt extension text files)

Text File - Excel Export Format (.csv extension text files)

Text File - Two Lines Per Pair (.txt extension text files)

Text File - User-specified Delimiter (.txt extension text files)

Windows Clipboard - Tab-separated - One Line Per Pair *

 

*Supports Unicode and font effects

 

With the exception of HandyCards, imported information is converted into standard format Q&A pairs.

 

Importing

 

Important Note: Since importing data always introduces an element of uncertainty, you may wish to create a junk file and import to IT first to observe the results before importing data into a "good" file which you have labored over.

 

After selecting one of the above formats and deciding whether to overwrite or append to the currently open file, the Import From File dialog is displayed (assuming you're not importing from the Clipboard).

 

Important Note: If you've selected the Overwrite Currently-open File mode, you MUST import at least 3 Q&A pairs because of WinFlash's eccentricity of requiring a minimum of 3 Q&A pairs in any file.

 

If the User-Specified Delimiter format is selected, an intermediate dialog box appears asking you to specify the 1-to-4 character delimiter used. Using something like "#$@$" as the delimiter reduces the chances for confusion (assuming of course that you CAN select the delimiter to use when creating the file you wish to import from).

 

If you are using the Windows Clipboard method of importing, be sure to select only two columns of content from the source table (Word or Excel) and DON'T select the column titles or you'll end up with a Q&A pair whose Q is the title of the first column and whose A is the title of the second column.  Again - be sure to try this with a junk test file before subjecting one of your 'good' files to this operation.

 

If the import is successful you will have added  the Q&A pairs contained in the file selected in the Import From File dialog to the currently open file.

 

Here are examples of small text files that are correctly formatted for importing.

 

Contents of the file to import are between the --------- lines

 

Text File - Two Lines Per Pair

 

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What is the capital of New Hampshire?

Concord

What is the capital of Vermont?

Montpelier

What is the capital of Massachusetts?

Boston

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of course, this format is not suitable for importing content where you want to include carriage returns within the question or answer.  For this type of import you'll need to use

 

Text File - User-specified Delimiter

 

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#$@$This question has two lines separated by a two carriage returns.

 

This is the second line in the question.#$@$This is the answer to Q1.

#$@$This question has two lines separated by a single carriage return.

This is the second line in the question.#$@$This is the answer to Q2.

#$@$This question has a single long line with no carriage returns. This is the second sentence in the question.#$@$This is the answer to Q3.

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Notice that each Q&A pair has an opening delimiter and a delimiter separating the Q from the A - no CLOSING delimiter. e.g.

 

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#$@$Question 1#$@$Answer 1

#$@$Question 2#$@$Answer 2

#$@$Question 3#$@$Answer 3

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Page url: http://www.openwindow.com/helpfile/importing_content.htm