Moodle plugins directory: Microsoft Word File Import/Export (Question Format) | Moodle.org
Microsoft Word File Import/Export (Question Format)
This plugin allows quiz questions to be imported from a Word file into Moodle. You can quickly write lots of questions in structured Word tables far more easily than in Moodle directly. The plugin also imports tables, images, and equations (when created using the Microsoft Office Equation Editor, not MathType/Wiris or the old Equation 3.0 editor). Equations are converted into MathML on import and displayed using the MathJax filter. You can also export questions from the Moodle question bank into structured tables in Word.
The table structure for each question supports all the question components (stem, answer options, option-specific and general feedback, hints, tags and question meta-data such as penalties, grades and other options). All the main question types except Numerical and Calculated questions are fully supported. Numerical and Calculated questions are exported, but cannot be imported.
The Cloze question syntax is particularly useful, as it does not require any knowledge of the arcane Moodle syntax; instead, use bold for drop-down menu items, and italic for fill-in text fields. See attached screenshot for an example.
Language support
Exported questions are labelled in the language of the current Moodle user interface, and the spell-check language is also set to the correct language. Similarly, questions can be imported in the same language, not just English. Both left-to-right and right-to-left languages (such as Arabic and Hebrew) are supported.
Equation support (import only)
Equations written using the Microsoft Equation Editor in Word can be imported into Moodle as MathML. This MathML is rendered within Moodle using the MathJax filter. Note that MathML equations in questions are not exported in a usable way.
Supporting Word templates
Word templates to go with the plugin can be downloaded from the demonstration website www.Moodle2Word.net, and are available for Word 2007 and 2010 (Windows), and Word 2011 (MacOSX).
Installation
The plugin can be installed by a Moodle Administrator using the standard Moodle plugin installation process.
Pre-requisites
- Check that your Moodle installation supports XSLT, and ideally HTMLTidy too. Log in as Administrator, go to Site Administration -> Server -> PHP info, and view the PHP configuration. Look for the package details for 'xsl'. If they are not present, then you will need to re-configure PHP and re-start the server.
- To enable XSLT and HTMLTidy on a Windows Moodle server, open your PHP configuration file (e.g. d:\winmoodle2\server\php\php.ini on Windows) and uncomment the lines containing "extension=php_xsl.dll". and "extension=php_tidy.dll" by removing the semi-colon before them, if present.
- On Linux platforms, you may need to create a symbolic link from the file , /etc/php5/apache2/mods-available/xsl.ini to , or /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/20-xsl.ini. Change directory to /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/, and use the command 'sudo ln -s ../../mods-available/xsl.ini 20-xsl.ini'. Alternatively, create a file /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/xsl.ini containing the line
extension=xsl.so
Configuration instructions
- Go to any course question bank that contains at least 1 question, and choose the Export option.
- The File format list should contain the new option 'Microsoft Word table format'. Select this item, and choose any question category containing some questions.
- You will be prompted to save or open a Word file. Save it. By default it should have a .doc suffix. If no suffix is provided, you must add it in yourself to ensure Word recognises the file format.
- If you see the error message "You need the XSLT library installed in PHP to save this Word file" (xsltunavailable in non-English installations), then your Moodle installation is not configured to support exporting to Word format, and you will need to update it. See this forum thread.
- To import questions from a Word file, open the file you just exported, and save it to Word 2010 (.docx) format. Then go to the Question Import form, and you should see a new item in the File format list, 'Microsoft Word table format'. Select this item, choose the Word file you saved, and import it.
- If all goes well, your questions in the file should be imported into your course. If not, send me an email at help@moodle2word.net and I will try to help you out.
Limitations
- The number of questions you can import in a single Word file is limited by the amount of memory allocated for processes on your Moodle server, but should be at least 1,000 questions or more.
- When you export questions they are saved in an intermediate Word-compatible format in a file with a .doc suffix. You must then save the file to the standard Word format (with a .docx suffix).
Using a Word template to create and edit questions
To edit existing questions using Word, first export them into Word. If you want to create new questions, you should install a custom Word template on your PC to assist you. You can download this template from the test website www.Moodle2Word.net. This template contains commands to create new questions by means of inserting a specific structured table for each type.
Useful links
Screenshots
We're having a couple of issues with the import-export, I hope you can help.
1. In a pre-existing category of 100 questions (multi-choice (single) and multi-response questions) only the multi-choice (Single) questions are exported into the file. The grades for these are set to A=50%, B=-100%, C=50%, D=-100%, E=-100%
If we create the multi-response questions via the import then they export ok.
2. The export is adding feedback for correct/incorrect responses on export (Your answer is correct / Your answer is incorrect). This is blank in the question on the site and isn't required as a default - can it be changed/removed?
3. There appears to be a max limit of 4 answers to uploading a multi-response question. Is there a limit built in?
Many thanks
Jon
2. I suggest you add the request to the issue tracker at https://github.com/ecampbell/moodle-qformat_wordtable/issues.
3. There is no limit in the Word table, but you have to manually add extra table rows for more answer options. The default is 4, with 2 set to grade 50, and 2 to -50, I think, but that's just for convenience.
Thanks for your reply. It's using the standard Multiple Choice question type here, with no additional plugins involved.
Your suggestion prompted me to check exporting in XML and GIFT and these formats are also in error:
- XML - multi-response questions do not export at all as per what we're seeing with wordtable
- GIFT - multi-response questions export without answers and feedback e.g.
// question: 338399 name: MR01This is the text of question MR01
// question: 338400 name: MR02This is the texct of MR02
It looks like this is actually a core Moodle issue, perhaps with our old version. We'll investigate this.
Totara version is 3.1.4, plugin version is 3.6 (Build: 2019071601).
I'll raise the second point as you suggest.
Re. the limit on answers, we have added extra table rows, they simply don't populate on import. This may be related to the first issue so we'll look at these together.
Thanks again for for your help
Regards
Jon
My import does not carry mathematics equations in to moodle. Any way out ?
Can you tell me what language Word template you are using to create the files, and what user interface language are you using in Moodle? These two must match. If the table labels in the Word file containing the questions are in Russian, then the custom property moodleLanguage in the Word file must be "ru", and the Moodle interface language must be Russian too.
See https://docs.moodle.org/36/en/Word_table_format for detailed instructions.
Otherwise, send me the Word file and I'll take a look.
I am trying to install the Moodle2Word Templates. On Mac OS and using a Microsoft Word 2021 (V16.45).
On starting Word I get a Visual Basic Error: Compile Error in hidden module: 'mdlUpload'. This error commonly occurs when code is incompatible with the version, platform, or architecture of this application.
I understand that I use a version, that is more advanced than the supported one. Do you see a way to help with the issue? Thank you!
I don't have much access to Macs, so can't keep the templates up-to-date. You can download an old version for Macs (Word 2011) from http://www.moodle2word.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=7, but you'll have to register on my test site to do so.
I tried this older version, but it does not solve the problem, there are now different Buttons, but they give me the Run-time error 9112. I will try on a Win Computer. Thank you.
Exceção - Call to undefined function get_contributed_question_labels()