Uploading a Word or Excel Discussion Guide File

Overview

Creating a Discussion Guide allows you to select and send out pre-programmed content to the group as you moderate a Live session. In a Flex session, your Discussion Guide contains the questions your participants will answer at their own pace.

You can upload your Discussion Guide directly into the platform using either a Word Document in .docx format of your choice our Discussion Guide Excel Template. Please note that Word Document upload requires Large Language Model features to be enabled, which you can read more about here.

How it Works

There are five ways to program a Remesh Discussion Guide:

1. In-Platform Discussion Guide Builder
2. Premade or Custom Templates
3. Uploading an Excel or Word Document File
4. Paste in Text
5. Duplicate, Translate or Import an Existing Discussion Guide

In this article we'll focus on uploading a Word Document or Excel Template File. Our Excel File upload requires you to download a designated template. Word Document upload does not require a template, and uses Generative AI to identify how the information should be converted into a Remesh Discussion Guide.

We recommend using the Word Document Upload if you are a newer Remesh user or if you intend to share your discussion with individuals outside your organization. Using the Excel template can be helpful if you are a more experienced Remesh user and intend to share your discussion guide with individuals outside your organization.

Included in this Article:

• Preparing to Write your Discussion Guide
• Importing a Word File
• Importing an Excel Discussion Guide Template
• Previewing and Editing Your Imported Discussion Guide
• Overview of Excel Template
• Frequently Asked Questions
• What's Next?

Preparing to Write your Discussion Guide

Before writing your Discussion Guide, we recommend reviewing Remesh's Question Types and our best practices.You can also find an overview in the platform by clicking "Guide Help."

If you'd like an basic introduction to crafting your research on Remesh, you can find that here!

Importing a Word File (.docx)

• From the Discussion Guide Builder, click “Import” at the top of the screen.
• Select “File Upload”
• From the File Upload pop-up, select “Choose File” 
• Select the Word Doc (.docx) file you’d like to upload from your computer
• A status bar will show your file’s processing progress (%) and the estimated time remaining
  • You don’t have to wait for processing to complete to exit. Click “Ok” to close the window and you’ll receive a notification to return once the process is complete
  • Click “Discard File” to stop the processing
    
    

Importing a Discussion Guide Excel Template

To access the latest version of the Discussion Guide Excel Template click “Import” then “File Upload” then “Download Blank Excel Template.”

Previewing and Editing Your Imported Discussion Guide

Once you submit your Word or Excel file, your file will process. When processing is complete, your new Discussion Guide questions are displayed in a preview pop-up for your review.

• Review questions in the preview on the left
• View “Total Words”, “Imported Messages”, “Time to Process”, and “Uploaded By” information on the right

If everything looks good:

• Select “Append these new messages to the end of my existing discussion guide” to add your new content to what you’ve already started, or
• Select “Replace my existing discussion guide with these new messages” to replace everything with your new content
• Then, click “Import” to complete

If you need to make changes:

• Select “Discard” to start over, or
• Import your content, then make modifications in the Discussion Guide Builder

Overview of Excel Template

• Column A (Notes): Enter any personal notes or comments. This information is not imported into the platform.
• Column B (Merge Tag): This can be used to tag questions that you wish to aggregate across multiple Remesh conversations.
  • Please note that this process is no longer necessary to create a merged data output, as we have released the ability to generate merges in the platform. You can find instructions for creating a merged data output here.
  • If you’d prefer to use Excel merge tags, each question you would like to merge would be assigned a merge tag in your discussion guide, and the same merge tag would be assigned to the question you would like it to be merged with in the other conversation. You can do this with up to 65 merge tags. 
• Column C (Item type): You can find a complete list of Remesh item types and descriptions here.
  • • Please note that branching is currently not supported in the Excel template but can be added to your discussion guide after importing into the platform. 
• Column D (Content): Enter the actual question or statement.
• Column E (Duration): Enter the amount of time allotted for each question. Please select the time from the drop-down menu using our suggested Question Time Duration as a guide. 
• Column G (Randomize poll options for each participant?): Choose to randomize poll options for each participant to eliminate bias
• Column H (Add "Other" as an option?): Choose to automatically add "Other" as a poll option anchored to the bottom of your entire set of options
• Column I (Add "None of the above" as an option?): Choose to automatically add "None of the above" as a poll option anchored to the bottom of your entire set of options
• Columns J-AC (Poll or Category Option): Enter the poll choices for any Onboarding Poll, Poll Single Select, or Poll Multi-Select. This is also where you'll enter the categories for Ask Experience questions.
  • Note that while the import template only includes room for 20 options, you can add more in the Discussion Guide Builder on the platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.  How do the new import capabilities — Word Document and Paste in Text — actually work?
   When you upload a Word Document, the Remesh platform extracts the document text and then uses Generative AI to identify how the information should be converted into a Remesh Discussion Guide.
   When you add text into the Paste in Text box, the system follows a similar process. The text is converted into a Remesh Discussion Guide using Generative AI.
2. Who gets access to the new import capabilities?
   Teams that have Generative AI features enabled will now be able to import Discussion Guides from Word Documents or from Pasted Text.
   If you are a Workspace Admin, you can manage access to Generative AI features here.
3. Will I still be able to import my Discussion Guide from an Excel document?
   Yes! You can absolutely import Discussion Guides using the supported Remesh Excel Template.
   To download the most up-to-date template, on the Discussion Guide page, click Import, then click File Upload, and then click “Download Blank Excel Template”.
4. Are there any features or functionality NOT supported when importing a Discussion Guide?
   If you are importing from a Word document, an Excel file, or pasted text, the system will not be able to import any Branching Asks. You can create those after your import in the Discussion Guide builder.
   If you are importing from a Word document or pasted text, the system will not import Sections or message durations (for Live conversations). You can create and edit these in the Discussion Guide builder or use the Excel Template. 
5. Can the participants navigate to a link or video outside of Remesh?
   

   Yes, you are able to navigate participants to webpages outside of Remesh by including a link through a Speak. However, we recommend keeping as much of the conversation as possible within Remesh in order to provide a seamless experience.

   You are able to embed both videos and images within the Remesh Conversation by selecting image or video in the Discussion Guide.