Setting Up a CSV File
While we recommend using the Content Editor to edit and manage your deck's content, there are reasons why you might want to use an external content source instead—for example, to share that source online with co-designers. This page explains how to create and use a CSV file as your external content source.What is a CSV file?
As explained in About Content, content is organized into rows and columns. A CSV file is a plain-text file in CSV format. Each line of the CSV file is a row; within each line, columns (fields) are separated by commas. (Tabs or semicolons may be used instead of commas.)Creating and Editing CSV Files
You may create and edit a CSV file using any plain-text text editor (do not use a word processor such as Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, unless you know how to save your document in plain-text format). But we recommend using a spreadsheet app instead. Spreadsheets have an excellent user interface for laying out your rows and columns, and it is easy to edit their values.Unfortunately Multideck cannot read spreadsheet documents directly; they are too complex, and there are too many different document formats. So when you want to see what your cards look like, you must export your spreadsheet to a CSV file.
Exporting to CSV
Every spreadsheet app has an Export to CSV function. Use it to export your spreadsheet to a CSV file in your project folder, with a recognizable name.Important: Be sure to specify UTF-8 as the text encoding for the CSV file when you export. If your spreadsheet does not have this option, find out which text encoding it will use, and in your Multideck document you must specify that encoding when you select your CSV file. For example, if you use Microsoft Excel you may have to use Mac OS Roman as the text encoding.
The spreadsheet should do the rest. In particular, the spreadsheet will ensure that any special characters in your text content will be handled correctly. Do not attempt to quote or escape special characters yourself if you are using a spreadsheet. You don't need to, and it won't work. See Field Separators and Escapes for more information if you are editing CSV files directly.
Using a CSV File in Multideck
To use your CSV file, you will have to configure a template in your Multideck document.
2. Click the Select a CSV File button, and find and select your exported CSV file.
3. Select the text encoding that your CSV file uses from the CSV encoding popup menu.
4. Click the Select Image Folder button to choose the folder that contains your project's image files. (This step is the same no matter what your content source is, and is optional if your layouts will not use any images.)