Storyline 3: Importing Questions from Excel Spreadsheets and Text Files

You can import questions into Storyline 3 to save development time. This is especially helpful when subject matter experts (SMEs) draft questions for you.

• Importing Questions from an Excel Spreadsheet
• Importing Questions from a Text File
• Importing Questions from Another Storyline Project
• Importing Question from Quizmaker

Importing Questions from an Excel Spreadsheet

First, populate an Excel spreadsheet with your questions and answers. Here's how:

1. Download this template. (A sample question is provided for you.)
2. Enter the Question Type, Points, Question Text, and Answer Choices for each question. See the table below for notes regarding each field.
3. Save and close the spreadsheet. (Save in XLS or XLSX format.)

Question Type	Question type is required. Use these abbreviations for supported question types: TF True/False MC Multiple Choice MR Multiple Response FIB Fill in the Blank WB Word Bank MD Matching Drag and Drop MDN Matching Drop-Down SD Sequence Drag and Drop SDN Sequence Drop-Down NUM Numeric LIK Likert PO Pick One PM Pick Many WW Which Word SA Short Answer ESS Essay RD Ranking Drag and Drop RDN Ranking Drop-Down HM How Many
Points	Points are required for graded questions. Enter points for the correct answer. Points can range from -1000 to 1000. Points for incorrect answers aren't supported via import.
Question Text	Question Text is required for all questions.
Answer Choices	Answer Choices are required for all question types except Short Answer, Essay, and How Many. Enter up to 10 answer choices for each question. Designate correct answers for true/false, multiple choice, multiple response, and word bank questions with an asterisk (*) at the beginning. Example: *True For choice-level feedback, separate each answer choice and its feedback with a pipe (|). Example: Houston | Sorry, the capital of Texas is Austin. For matching questions, separate each answer choice and its match with a pipe (|). Example: Texas | Austin For sequence questions, list the answer choices in the correct order. You can list all possible variations of the correct answer in a Fill in the Blank question, but Numeric questions only support one "Equal to" answer via import.

 

After populating an Excel spreadsheet with your questions, import it into Storyline:

1. Open an existing project or create a new one.
2. Then do any of the following:
   • On the Storyline start screen, click Import and choose Import questions from file.
   • Go to the File tab on the ribbon, scroll to Import, and choose Questions from File.
   • Go to the Home tab on the ribbon, click New Slide, scroll to Import, and choose Import Questions.
   • Go to the Slides tab on the ribbon, click Import, and choose Import Questions.
3. Browse to the Excel spreadsheet (XLS or XLSX) and click Open.
4. Storyline will display a list of questions from the spreadsheet you selected. Mark the ones you want to import.
5. Use the Insert into scene drop-down at the bottom of the window to choose where the question slides should appear in your course. You can insert them into a new scene, which is the default option, or choose the current scene in the open project. If you choose a new scene, use the Scene field to give it a name.
   
   Tip: You can't import questions directly into a Storyline question bank, but you can move them into a question bank after importing them into a Storyline scene.
6. Click Import to complete the process.

Tips for importing questions from an Excel spreadsheet:

• If there are any errors in your workbook, Storyline will list them. You can click Continue to import the questions that don't have errors and skip those that do, or you can click Cancel to correct the errors in your workbook and import it again.
• Formatting in your spreadsheet will be removed during import (italics, font size, hyperlinks, etc.).
• Text that follows two forward slashes (//) is identified as a comment. Comments will be ignored during import. (Leave the slashes in the column headers.)
• Only questions in the first worksheet (tab) of your Excel workbook will be imported. Additional worksheets will be ignored.
• The more questions you import, the longer it'll take to process and create them in Storyline.

Importing Questions from a Text File

First, populate a text file with your questions and answers. Here's how:

1. Download this template. (Tip: Right-click the download link and choose Save link as from the context menu.) A sample question is provided for you in the template.
2. Enter the Question Type, Points, Question Text, and Answer Choices for each question. Enter each item on a new line in the text file. See the table below for notes regarding each item.
3. Save and close the text file. (Save in TXT format.)

Question Type	Question type is required. Use these abbreviations for supported question types: TF True/False MC Multiple Choice MR Multiple Response FIB Fill in the Blank WB Word Bank MD Matching Drag and Drop MDN Matching Drop-Down SD Sequence Drag and Drop SDN Sequence Drop-Down NUM Numeric LIK Likert PO Pick One PM Pick Many WW Which Word SA Short Answer ESS Essay RD Ranking Drag and Drop RDN Ranking Drop-Down HM How Many
Points	Points are required for graded questions. Enter points for the correct answer. Points can range from -1000 to 1000. Points for incorrect answers aren't supported via import.
Question Text	Question Text is required for all questions.
Answer Choices	Answer Choices are required for all question types except Short Answer, Essay, and How Many. Enter up to 10 answer choices for each question. Designate correct answers for true/false, multiple choice, multiple response, and word bank questions with an asterisk (*) at the beginning. Example: *True For choice-level feedback, separate each answer choice and its feedback with a pipe (|). Example: Houston | Sorry, the capital of Texas is Austin. For matching questions, separate each answer choice and its match with a pipe (|). Example: Texas | Austin For sequence questions, list the answer choices in the correct order. You can list all possible variations of the correct answer in a Fill in the Blank question, but Numeric questions only support one "Equal to" answer via import.

 

After populating a text file with your questions, import it into Storyline:

1. Open an existing project or create a new one.
2. Then do any of the following:
   • On the Storyline start screen, click Import and choose Import questions from file.
   • Go to the File tab on the ribbon, scroll to Import, and choose Questions from File.
   • Go to the Home tab on the ribbon, click New Slide, scroll to Import, and choose Import Questions.
   • Go to the Slides tab on the ribbon, click Import, and choose Import Questions.
3. Browse to the text (TXT) file and click Open.
4. Storyline will display a list of questions from the text file you selected. Mark the ones you want to import.
5. Use the Insert into scene drop-down at the bottom of the window to choose where the question slides should appear in your course. You can insert them into a new scene, which is the default option, or choose the current scene in the open project. If you choose a new scene, use the Scene field to give it a name.
   
   Tip: You can't import questions directly into a Storyline question bank, but you can move them into a question bank after importing them into a Storyline scene.
6. Click Import to complete the process.

Tips for importing questions from a text file:

• If there are any errors in your text file, Storyline will list them. You can click Continue to import the questions that don't have errors and skip those that do, or you can click Cancel to correct the errors in your text file and import it again.
• Text that follows two forward slashes (//) is identified as a comment. Comments will be ignored during import.
• The more questions you import, the longer it'll take to process and create them in Storyline.
• Remove trailing spaces when copying text from other apps.

Importing Questions from Another Storyline Project

You can also reuse questions from other Storyline projects simply by importing them. See this user guide for details.

Importing Question from Quizmaker

You can even import question lists from Articulate Quizmaker quizzes. See this user guide for details.