Secret .csv word import feature available

Updates
21

Thanks @Anna_Vernerova, that’s true.

22

Thanks, Anna! That was indeed the culprit.

23

There’s one fundamental problem I run into with the import and export mechanism: The output differs.

For importing there need to be exactly 4 or so columns, but when exporting, all the synonyms turn into their own columns. So there’s no way to import them straight into Anki, because there are going to be more columns than expected. I would need to preprocess the exported file every single time, which is far from an ideal solution.

Would it be possible to keep the synonym format in the exported file? Meaning a single column where words are separated by a slash?

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24

I’ve found a way forward. If you export your words with a different delimiter, for example, a pipe (|) symbol, then the synonyms will all be part of the same column, as the are separated by a comma. Just wanted to let anyone know for when they run into the same issue.

EDIT:

@Steve What is expected when you want to export words with multiple translations? At the moment I only see the first translation in the exported CSV. Is that as expected? Because I would love to have all translations included.

2 Likes
25

Hi. First off, I wanted to say that I discovered this program a few days ago and I think it’s brilliant. I am currently importing all the words I need to learn into it. I just came across a similar problem mentioned in this thread. Namely, the context must contain exactly the word used in the first column.

For example, one of my words:
let something drop,[translation],I was curious but he let the topic drop before I could ask more questions.

I guess the word in the first column must be the same as in the context so that the program knows what part to hide.
That’s why I’m wondering if it can be solved by adding special markings for the program in the place where it is supposed to hide the word. For example
let something drop,[translation],I was curious but he let the topic drop before I could ask more questions.

And I encountered one more problem: you can’t use commas in context. I think you can do something similar to what you suggested to separate the translations without treating them as synonyms, e.g. something like “/,”. what do you think about it?

26

@Steve Sorry to ping you again. I edited my comment earlier a week or so ago, and I’m not sure if you were informed.

What is expected when you want to export words with multiple translations? At the moment I only see the first translation in the exported CSV. Is that as expected? Because I would love to have all translations included.

Would you be able to let me know how this is supposed to work? Thank you in advance!

27

Hi @Anton , sorry for not replying sooner.

I’ve now updated the word export as follows:

  • Added an “Alternative Translations” field which will use a " / " delimiter
  • The existing “Alternatives” field now uses a " / " delimiter instead of “,”

This still doesn’t exactly match the import format. I could add 2 more fields which would allow this:

  • Original (including alternatives)
  • Translation (including alternatives)

I could add these, but I’m worried that the UI is going to get (even more) confusing with so many options. So first I’d just like to know what your use case is for requiring this. It sounds like you’re exporting from Readlang to Anki. Do you also want to export from Readlang in order to import to a different Readlang account perhaps?

28

Thanks, that’s great to hear!

Sorry but this is just how Readlang works, at least for the moment. Variants of this complaint come up often. In future I may consider ways to link different word variants which are all derived from the same base word, but for now, Readlang treats each exact form of a word (e.g. “cat” and “cats”) as a separate words (even if they have the “same” meaning or are closely related).

You should be able to use commas in the context. And if you use a comma as the delimiter then it should add a backslash in front of any commas in your contexts, turning them into \,.

29

@Steve No problem at all!

I would love to test it, but I currently have access only to a phone and the drag/drop interface doesn’t seem to work on mobile. Could this be a bug?

My use case is indeed Anki, mainly because I would like to practice L2 to L1 and the inverse, but also practicing conjugations. I can’t seem to make this work well using only Readlang.

For me the most challenging regarding Greek are the conjugations. If I see the word “cats”, I need to understand the root is “cat”. Same goes for verbs, for example, the root of “went” is “go”. I want all of this available in two decks. One deck where I focus on L2 to L1 and the second from L1 to L2.

The big difference is the presentation. For the first deck I can just highlight the word in the context on the front card. The back then shows me the root, translation and again the context.

For L1 to L2 I want to use Close. I see the context with the missing word blanked. Now I want almost the same information on the back of the flash card: the word, the root, the translation and the context.

So far, I have been quite happy with this setup, but getting the data out of Readlang currently is a bit finicky. Mainly because I need dedicated columns for their visual representation in Anki:

  • Word
  • Word in context
  • Translation of word in context
  • “Root”
  • Translation of “root”

I’ll try to figure out of there’s an easy way to populate all of this from within Readlang. Ideally, I would not need Anki, but unfortunately, I can’t use the built-in flash cards mechanism of Readlang in the way I’d like it to work.

30

I think this used to work but I haven’t tried it in ages on mobile and can confirm that it doesn’t work for me either now. I’ll look into fixing or changing this UI.

Thanks for the detailed feedback on your use case. I’ll consider this but can’t make any definite promises right now.