"Multiple-Choice Questions" automated conversion

"Multiple-Choice Questions" automated conversion

Postby John » Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:39 pm

Here's the thing. There's this exam coming up in a couple of weeks and I've got hundreds of multiple choice questions from past exams that I need to start cramming yesterday. All questions have the same textual structure. I've already created a template to display them correctly on Flashcards Deluxe. I've done the math and, to copy paste them all into the template, one at a time, would take a prohibitively stratospheric amount of time. I figure there has to be some kind of automated tool out there that can streamline this herculean task in a couple of clicks.
Here's concrete example of what a prototype questions would look, both in the "factory" format and on the "Flashcards ready" one:

FACTORY FORMAT
2009-01_N10: What's the best operative system there is?
1. Apple:
2. Linux;
3. Apple is not an operative system;
4. Windows;
5. I don't like fruit, and I hate penguins and my prison cell doesn't have windows.

FLASHCARDS READY FORMAT
<center><b>YEAR</b></center><br>QUESTION<br><br>OPTION1<br>OPTION2<br>OPTION3<br>OPTION4<br>OPTION5 <size 30><color lime>ANSWER</color></size><br><br><i><size 20>REF</size></i><size 20>PAGE</size> PART CHAPTER

filling the variables with the example questions above...

<center><b>2009-01_N10</b></center><br>QUESTION<br><br>1. Apple;<br>2. Linux;<br>3. Apple is not an operative system;<br>4. Windows;<br>5. I don't like fruit, and I hate penguins and my prison cell doesn't have windows. <size 30><color lime>2. Linux;</color></size><br><br><i><size 20>page100</size></i><size 20>PAGE</size> PART CHAPTER

So, what I need is some kind of software that grabs the YEAR, QUESTION and OPTION1-5 from the "factory format", holds it all in separate variables and, for the grand finale, automatically mashes it all up into a "Flashcards ready" string, Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
John
 

Re: "Multiple-Choice Questions" automated conversion

Postby Ernie » Tue Nov 09, 2010 3:10 pm

John,

Geez, I don't have an answer for your conversion question. Can you just simply the output? What I would do is just copy-paste the entire question and answer list (1 unit), paste into a spreadsheet (formula input for cell A1, for example), and you should get the entire thing in cell A1, with new lines in a single cell. Then copy-paste the answer into cell B1. Then move on to next question. Maybe 10 seconds per question. Once you have the list in Excel, you should be able to paste into my website and keep the line-feeds intact, but you should test this out on a small number of cards to make sure your setup is working and the cards get transfered correctly.

I'm not sure if a find-replace would help you (find new-lines in your document and replace with <br>). I personally would try to stay away from getting too fancy with your html.

Sorry I don't have an automated solution for you.

Ernie
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