Import from text

Import from text turns a lesson that only exists as a document into a lesson in the editor. You can paste text from anywhere, or pick a .txt, .md or Word (.docx) file that wasn't made by this app. The result always opens as a new lesson of its own, so the lesson you were working on is left alone (see Lessons on this device).

You'll find it in the editor's Menu (the button in the editor's top bar), in the Lesson actions menu on a phone, and on the screen of an empty lesson, next to the other two imports.

Which import to use

Import	Use it for
Import JSON	A lesson file saved with Export JSON. Nothing is lost.
Import Word document	A Word file exported from this app. The question types come back, but the whole lesson arrives as one section unless the document uses Heading 2 for section names. Files from elsewhere may not work.
Import from text	Everything else: a lesson typed by hand, pasted from an email or a web page, or a Word file written somewhere else.

Using it

1. Choose Import from text. Paste the lesson into the Lesson text box, or press Choose file to read a file into it.
2. As the text changes, the dialog shows what it found: the title, how many sections, and for each section how many paragraphs, spelling words and questions it holds, and how many of the questions have an answer. If it can't find a lesson yet, it says what the text needs.
3. Press Import as a new lesson. The lesson opens in the editor with a reminder to check the question types and answers, since they were worked out from the wording. The lesson checks then work on it like any other lesson.

How to lay out the text

The import reads a document the way a person would. Each section needs its passage first, then its questions, one per line, with any answer after the question.

• The title is the first line, unless that line is already part of the passage.
• A passage is one or more ordinary paragraphs. Each becomes its own text block.
• Spelling words go on a line starting with a label such as "Spell:" or "Spelling words:", separated by commas or spaces.
• Questions go one per line, numbered, bulleted, starting with "Q:" or plain. The answer can follow in any of the usual ways: in brackets as "(Answer: ...)" or "[...]", on the next line as "A: ...", after a colon, or as a word in CAPITALS at the end. A question that ends with its question mark has no answer.
• Working out for a number question can follow it as numbered lines or a "Working out:" line.
• A VAKT line becomes a VAKT activity.
• A short heading just before a passage names the section. A new section starts wherever a passage comes after questions or a spelling line.
• Anything after the last section, such as a list of sources, is left out.

Short lines inside a section that the import couldn't make sense of (a question with no question mark or number, say) are kept in their section rather than thrown away.

The question type is worked out, since plain text doesn't say what it is. "Would you rather" makes a Would you rather question, "in your own words" makes a Paraphrase question, no answer makes an Open ended one, several answers make Multiple answers (or Suggested answers when one of them isn't in the passage), a number makes a Number answer question, and a single answer is a Single answer question when it appears in the passage and Background knowledge when it doesn't. This is the part most worth checking after an import (see Question blocks).

Tested on recent lessons from the hub laid out seven different ways, it found every passage, spelling word and question, nearly every answer, and picked the same question type as the lesson's author about nine times in ten.

When the text is hard to read

Some documents only look like a lesson to a person: questions with no question marks or numbers, answers tacked straight onto the question, or a numbered list run together on one line. When some sections look like that, the dialog says how many and offers Read with the on-device model.

The model runs in your browser and the text never leaves your device. The first time, it downloads about 640 MB, which is kept so it only downloads once (you can remove it from Settings, under Downloaded AI models). Only the sections the import couldn't read are given to the model; the rest stay as they were. While it works, the dialog shows which section it's reading, and Stop ends it. If the model can't read a section, that section is offered again.

The button only appears on computers whose browser and graphics hardware can run the model, and not on a metered (pay-per-use) connection. Documents the import reads cleanly never need it.

For how this works, see the developer notes.