By output · ExamSoft question import format
ExamSoft question import format, import template and upload questions file
ExamSoft tells you how to lay out a Word file for import. This writes the questions from your lecture, then hands you the .docx the Enterprise Portal reads, with every key starred and every rationale in place.
What you are looking at
Three quizzes VidQuiz generated from three real YouTube videos. They are saved output, not generated in your browser. Pick one to answer it, and open the source video to check the questions against what is actually said in it.
For your own video, the live demo on the home page runs the real generator once, free, with no account.
This box only holds saved quizzes.
It has not sent your link anywhere. The live demo on the home page does run it: one real generation, free, no account and no card, on the same engine paying customers use.
What VidQuiz reads: paste a YouTube link and VidQuiz watches the video itself. For any other source (Vimeo, an MP4, a screen recording, an upload) paste that video’s transcript and VidQuiz writes the questions from it.
Questions from your video · answers and explanations · edit before you share
Free demo: 3 quizzes, one time, no card needed
The short answer
The ExamSoft question import format for the Enterprise Portal is a Word file in which every question starts with a number and a period or closing parenthesis, an optional rationale paragraph starts with a tilde (~), choices are lettered a., b., c., and an asterisk sits directly before the letter of each correct answer, with a blank paragraph between questions, and essay items open with the code Essay: before the stem. VidQuiz writes the questions from a YouTube link, a lecture transcript or your notes, then exports that .docx with every key starred. Plans start at $49 a month, or $24 a month billed annually.
ExamSoft publishes one page that every faculty member who imports questions ends up reading: Enterprise Portal, Prepare a Question File to Import. It is a careful document. It explains that the Enterprise Portal reads DOC, DOCX and XML files but no longer accepts RTF, that a question without a number is simply not recognized, that the asterisk goes before the answer letter, and that Hotspot and Bowtie items cannot be imported at all.
What it cannot do is write the exam. In nursing, pharmacy, physician assistant and allied health programs, the material for next week's exam is usually a set of recorded lectures, and the question bank is something faculty build one evening at a time. Formatting is the last ten minutes of that job. Writing forty stems with believable wrong answers, and a rationale students can learn from, is the rest of the night.
VidQuiz does the writing. It reads the lecture, drafts multiple choice, true or false and short answer items, lets you edit every line, and exports a Word file laid out exactly the way the ExamSoft guide describes. You upload it with Import Questions, review what the filters found, and add the questions to an assessment or to your question bank.
At a glance
Ways to get questions into ExamSoft, compared
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| Route | What you start with | What you still have to do | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typing into the ExamSoft question editor | A blank question form | Write and enter every stem, choice, key and rationale by hand, one question at a time | Included in your ExamSoft license. Slow for a full exam |
| Formatting a Word file by hand | A blank document and the ExamSoft import guide | Write every question, number and letter them manually, star each key, check the import report | No extra software. Error prone when Word adds its own numbering |
| Importing an LMS export | Questions already in Canvas, Blackboard, D2L or Moodle | Export from the LMS and upload; ExamSoft says Canvas and Blackboard files need no changes | No extra cost. Only works when the questions already exist |
| A publisher test bank | A textbook test bank from Elsevier Evolve, ATI or ExamView | Export it with the vendor steps ExamSoft documents, then import and edit | Comes with the textbook or vendor subscription, where your program has one |
| VidQuiz | A YouTube link, a recording with its transcript, or up to 60,000 characters of notes | Review and edit the draft, then press ExamSoft on the export bar and upload the .docx | A one-time demo of three quizzes, then plans from $49 a month or $24 a month billed annually |
ExamSoft itself is licensed by the institution or paid per student. Our page on ExamSoft pricing collects the published per-student fees and one public contract. This table covers how the questions get made, not the license.
How do I import questions into ExamSoft?
In the Enterprise Portal, select your department and course, then choose Import Questions near the top right of the screen. Drag the .docx VidQuiz exported onto the page or use Choose File. When the status reads Ready for review, select the file: ExamSoft shows every filter that could read it, with the number of questions formatted and the number of errors for each, and you pick the version to validate.
Select the pencil icon to open the questions. Check that each correct answer was detected, fix anything the report flags, and save. The import is not finished until you complete the last step and add the questions either to an assessment or to your question bank. University guides add that importing the same file twice creates two sets of questions rather than overwriting the first.
- Select the department and course
- Import Questions, then drag in the .docx
- Wait for Ready for review and choose the filter with no errors
- Validate with the pencil icon and confirm the keys
- Add the questions to an assessment or the question bank
ExamSoft question import format example
Below are three questions exactly as the VidQuiz export writes them into the Word file, one paragraph per line: a multiple choice item, a true or false item and a short answer item sent as an essay. Each question opens with its number, the rationale paragraph starts with a tilde, and the asterisk sits in front of the correct letter. A blank paragraph separates one question from the next.
The rationale is the explanation VidQuiz wrote for the question, followed by the minute of the recording it tests. For an essay item the model answer leads the rationale, so the grader sees the expected response next to the prompt.
1. Which drug class is first line for uncomplicated hypertension in most adults?
~The lecture cites JNC 8 and ACC/AHA guidance naming thiazides as a first line option. Covered at 04:12 in the source recording.
a. Loop diuretics
*b. Thiazide diuretics
c. Beta blockers
d. Alpha blockers
2. ACE inhibitors are safe to continue in pregnancy.
~They are contraindicated because of fetal renal toxicity. Covered at 07:40 in the source recording.
a. True
*b. False
3. Essay: Name the electrolyte most often monitored after starting spironolactone.
~Model answer: Potassium. Spironolactone is potassium sparing. Covered at 09:05 in the source recording.Does ExamSoft accept RTF files?
Not in the Enterprise Portal. ExamSoft states plainly that RTF files are not supported there, and that the portal reads DOC, DOCX and XML files along with exports from learning systems and publisher test banks. RTF import belongs to the Legacy Portal, which used its own formatting sheet with Type: MA, Type: E and Type: F lines.
That is why so many campus guides contradict each other: the older ones were written for RTF and the Legacy Portal. VidQuiz exports a real .docx built for the Enterprise Portal, with plain paragraphs and no hidden list formatting.
Why are my questions not importing into ExamSoft?
The usual cause is Word numbering. When Word numbers or letters a list for you, the number is formatting rather than text, and the ExamSoft importer will not recognize a question that has no typed number. The guides say the same thing in different words: keep the document plain, with no automatic numbering, bullets, headers, footers or page numbers.
After that come a missing asterisk, a rationale placed after the choices instead of before them, two questions with no blank paragraph between them, and question types the importer does not support. Hotspot and Bowtie items cannot be imported and have to be built in ExamSoft. If the report shows errors, download it, fix the source file and import again rather than repairing forty items on screen.
- Type the question numbers and letters, never Word lists
- Put the asterisk before the correct letter
- Rationale on its own ~ paragraph after the stem
- One blank paragraph between questions
- Build Hotspot and Bowtie items in ExamSoft itself
Can I import questions into ExamSoft from Canvas or Blackboard?
Yes. ExamSoft says that a file exported from your Canvas or Blackboard instance can be imported without any changes, and it publishes export steps for D2L, Moodle, ATI, Elsevier Evolve, ExamView and PARtest as well. If your questions already live in a learning system, that is the shortest route.
VidQuiz is for the case where they do not exist yet. The same quiz that exports to ExamSoft also exports as a QTI 1.2 package for Canvas and Brightspace, a Blackboard upload file, Moodle GIFT and Aiken, and a Respondus file, so one set of questions can serve an ExamSoft exam and a weekly LMS quiz.
Can ExamSoft write the questions for me?
ExamSoft is where questions are stored, tagged by category, delivered offline through Examplify and analyzed afterward. Its import tools load questions you already have, from your own file, a learning system or a publisher test bank. VidQuiz is the step before that. Paste a YouTube link and it reads the video directly. For a Panopto, Kaltura, Zoom or Teams recording, paste the transcript the platform already produced next to the link, or paste up to 60,000 characters of lecture notes on their own.
You choose up to 30 questions per quiz and the difficulty. Each multiple choice item comes with three plausible wrong answers, the correct answer marked, a rationale and a timestamp. It is a draft for faculty to check, and every stem, choice and rationale can be edited before you export. Category tags can go in the file only when the categories already exist in your portal, so VidQuiz leaves them for you to add in ExamSoft.
Spec
ExamSoft import rules and what the VidQuiz export does about each
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| Rule in the ExamSoft Enterprise import guide | What happens if you miss it | What VidQuiz writes |
|---|---|---|
| Every question has a number followed by a period or closing parenthesis | The importer does not recognize an unnumbered question | 1. to 30. typed as text, counted over the questions actually written so a removed item leaves no gap |
| Choices are a letter and a period, up to 26 per question | A choice without its letter is read as part of the stem | a. to j. on every choice |
| An asterisk goes before the letter of each correct answer | The import report flags the item, or the key has to be set by hand during validation | *b. style keys on every multiple choice and true or false item |
| True or false items list True as a. and False as b. | The key has to be set by hand during validation | The true label first, in the language of the quiz, with the key starred |
| An optional rationale is a new paragraph after the question text, starting with ~ | The rationale does not land in the rationale field | The explanation and its lecture timestamp on one ~ paragraph, above the choices |
| Essay items start with the code Essay: | The item is not identified as an essay | Short answer items go out as Essay: with your answer as the model answer inside the rationale |
| A blank paragraph before the next question, and no automatic numbering or lists | Questions run together, or Word numbering disappears on import | Plain paragraphs only, one blank paragraph between questions |
Rules read from ExamSoft's support article Enterprise Portal, Prepare a Question File to Import, and from its legacy RTF Import Formatting Guidelines, in October 2026. The Enterprise Portal also reads DOC and XML files and exports from Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, ATI, Elsevier Evolve, ExamView and PARtest.
Related reading
- ExamSoft pricing and cost per student collects the published per-student fees and a public three year contract.
- best AI nursing question generator compares the tools nursing faculty use to draft exam items.
- Respondus question format generator is the matching export for programs that publish exams through Respondus 4.0.
- QTI converter is the format to export when the same questions also go into Canvas or Brightspace.
- Blackboard test generator covers the direct upload file for Blackboard Ultra and Original.
Why VidQuiz
What you get with examsoft question import format
Writes the questions, then the file
An import guide assumes the exam already exists. VidQuiz reads a YouTube link, a recorded lecture with its transcript, or notes you paste, and drafts the items before a single ExamSoft line is written.
Built to the Enterprise Portal Word rules
Numbered stems, lettered choices, the asterisk in front of the correct letter, a ~ rationale paragraph, Essay: on written items and a blank paragraph between questions, with no Word auto numbering anywhere.
Rationales come with every question
Each explanation is written as the ExamSoft rationale, with the minute in the recording it came from, so the item arrives ready for review and for the feedback students see after the exam.
What you can do
Everything examsoft question import format and template generator gives you
Paste a YouTube link and VidQuiz reads the video itself; for anything else, upload it with its transcript. Either way it writes the questions and you edit anything before you share. You stay in control of the final quiz.
- Build a secure exam from last week's recorded pharmacology or pathophysiology lectures
- Fill a course question bank without typing stems into the ExamSoft editor one by one
- Avoid the Word auto numbering that makes ExamSoft skip questions
- Get three plausible wrong answers on every multiple choice item
- Carry a rationale and a lecture timestamp into every imported question
- Keep the same question set as Respondus, QTI or Blackboard files for courses outside ExamSoft
Quiz Studio
Try it on a video right here
Pick a sample or paste your own link, generate the quiz, then answer the questions. Each one is tied to a moment in the video, with the answer and a short explanation.
What you are looking at
Three quizzes VidQuiz generated from three real YouTube videos. They are saved output, not generated in your browser. Pick one to answer it, and open the source video to check the questions against what is actually said in it.
For your own video, the live demo on the home page runs the real generator once, free, with no account.
This box only holds saved quizzes.
It has not sent your link anywhere. The live demo on the home page does run it: one real generation, free, no account and no card, on the same engine paying customers use.
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ExamSoft tells you how to lay out a Word file for import. This writes the questions from your lecture, then hands you the .docx the Enterprise Portal reads, with every key starred and every rationale in place. Make your first quiz in seconds.