Excel to Moodle Glossary

Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Julian Bekker -
Number of replies: 17

I have searched and found some information about this , but no updated detailed information. Could someone kindly assist me.

I have a few question regarding exporting a word list from excel to a Moodle glossary.

I want to have all the words in the glossary searchable by Part of English speech (verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc.) as well as category (fruit , transport, color, tools etc.)

1. Is this file ready to export to XML?

1.1 Should I write the categories on the first line in the excel sheet and do I need to create the categories in Moodle first before importing this file?

1.2 I'm using WPS excel , which is not MS Word . should I save the file as .xlsx before converting it into a xlm file?

1.3 How many categories can I create in excel , and like Q 1.1 should I create the categories in Moodle first?

1.4 Can I add pictures to the excel file and then export it? and what format should they be in.

1.5 Can I use Chinese and does the font in excel matter? How to ensure it gets exported and imported correctly?

Kind regards

Have a Great day

Redphi

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In reply to Julian Bekker

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Julian Bekker -
I found this xls sheet , https://moodle.org/pluginfile.php/159/mod_forum/attachment/310982/MoodleGlossaryPrepSheetWithCategory.xls?forcedownload=1
from 2007 by David Fountain
Does this still work, are there instructions on how to use it , and how to add extra fields of categories , for example, the words in Chinese , an example sentence , and category Eg. Verb 
all the above questions are still vital information . Big please , someone kindly help. I am sure there are hundreds of Moodle users who have the same question. 
In regards to creating questions in excel for Moodle , I found this video ,

 I had to use a translate function , but it layed out the format for questions very well , thanks to the author.
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In reply to Julian Bekker

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by John Provasnik -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

I've attached some documentation that may help you. In Moodle, trial and error a good friend. Try things out and see the outcome.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Julian Bekker -
John
Thank you so much for your reply. The instructions you sent me was a little helpful. But most of my questions are still unanswered.

1. I want to create 5 columns (A) Concept, (B) Definition, (C) Category, (D) Keywords (this column I will use for the Chinese translation of the word) (E) Example sentence.
For example : (A) Accept, (B) to agree to take something, (C) Verb, (D)接受, (E) I offered her an apology, but she wouldn't accept it.
2. How to add pictures.
3. The above attached excel spreadsheet my David Fountain seems way more complex, I am sure this is the proper way to make it, as it will integrate into Moodle much better in terms of Linking keywords throughout the course. I just need to add a few extra columns . but I think it might mess up the formula of the original spreadsheet
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In reply to Julian Bekker

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Jon Bolton -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Julian - you can have spreadsheet columns for A, B, C and D but the example sentence (E) would also need to be in the Definition (B).

You can't upload (new) pictures in bulk to a Glossary - you would need to edit the individual entries and add the files manually.

Have a look at http://www.eaglesvn.com/xml.html which I wrote a few years ago, based on the work of Yasu Imao - copy and paste your spreadsheet data into that webpage and the XML format will be generated for your import file. John mentioned it above, and also wrote you a helpful step by step guide.

Also, I did get your PMs on Moodle Messaging, but like many others, I don't have time to respond to all direct messages, and therefore rarely respond to any. It's better to keep the conversations flowing in the forums for everyone else to contribute to and benefit from smile
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In reply to Jon Bolton

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by John Provasnik -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Thank you for your work on this Jon - I use your page alllllll the time these past few years. I did just make a bug tracker (MDL-72337) about glossary Categories -- the Auto Link for categories is not respected in .xml files when importing into a glossary -- they always "autolink" even if you have "0" for USEDYNALINK in the category tags. This is both for your site and for exporting/importing directly from the Moodle glossary (the export shows the desired setting, but the import ignores it for Categories only).
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In reply to Jon Bolton

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Ernani da Silva -
It is working except by ALIAS field!
Why does it have to be XML? Why is it so difficult to import directly from EXCEL?
Anyway, thanks to all developers
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In reply to Ernani da Silva

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Jon Bolton -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Aliases in the Moodle Glossary need to be added as Keywords. What have you tried so far? Are you getting any error messages?
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In reply to Jon Bolton

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Ernani da Silva -
Thank you.
The keyword is not in the " http://www.eaglesvn.com/xml.html "
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In reply to Ernani da Silva

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Jon Bolton -
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Yes it is ;)



You can have multiple categories and/or keywords for each entry. Just make sure that each category or keyword is separated by commas, and make sure you tick the box in the Advanced Settings.

Columns -
1st: Concept
2nd: Definition
3rd (optional): Category
4th (optional): Keywords
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In reply to Julian Bekker

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Eoin Campbell -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
If you really want to be able to bulk upload glossary entries including pictures, you could consider using a Word file instead of Excel. I developed the Microsoft Word file Import/Export (Glossary) plugin which imports Word files into an existing  glossary. Each glossary entry is in a separate structured table in Word, and each cell in the table contains a different component of the entry. It's not as space-efficient as Excel, but it does allow for much richer text definitions, including tables, pictures, equations, and multiple languages. A sample file is located at https://github.com/ecampbell/moodle-local_glossary_wordimport/blob/master/tests/fixtures/glossarytable.docx. You can also export an existing glossary into a Word file for editing all the entries in bulk, and then re-import it.
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In reply to Eoin Campbell

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Julian Bekker -
How would I add pictures to that example ?
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In reply to Julian Bekker

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Eoin Campbell -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

just do a standard insert in Word, i.e.: Insert > Picture > This Device (Word 2020). JPG or PNG images are best, although GIF and WMF (Windows Metafile) are also supported, but get converted to PNG. Edit the picture outside Word first (width and height, cropping, annotations, etc.) before inserting it. You can include alternate text once the image is imported. The picture must be in the "Definition" cell in the Word table for the glossary entry.

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In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by Julian Bekker -
For example this Template , can I just add custom columns after A & B , will the top bar name of those column categories ( for example C = Chinese D = Word type (verb, adverb , adjective) E = Example , and then make F = Format and the rest of those parameters . How do I go about adding to this template .
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In reply to Julian Bekker

Re: Excel to Moodle Glossary

by John Provasnik -
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I do not believe it's possible to add on to that particular template without building something that can convert it to whatever Moodle can recognize.
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