How to Remove HTML from Questions in Bulk

Sometimes, when Brillium questions are created by copying and pasting from web pages, Microsoft Word and Excel documents, or Google Sheets, the crucial step of using the “Clear Formatting” button on the rich text toolbar to remove hidden or intrusive formatting characters is overlooked or forgotten. Additionally, locating these “invisibles,” as they are often referred to, can become challenging later on.

Removing HTML from questions in bulk can be done more efficiently by following a few steps.

1. From the Assessments screen, select the assessment
2. Export the assessment questions using the instructions in the following knowledge article: Import and Export Assessment Questions
3. Unzip the downloaded export file (using the assigned password) and open the Excel file. Remove HTML with the following steps:

How to Remove HTML from Questions Using Excel

This method is use­ful when you export your assess­ment ques­tions and clean them direct­ly in the spread­sheet file.

Step 1: Export the Assess­ment Questions

1. From the Assess­ments screen, select the assessment.
2. Export the ques­tions using the instruc­tions in the knowl­edge arti­cle How to Import and Export Assess­ment Questions.
3. Unzip the down­loaded file using the assigned password.
4. Open the Excel file includ­ed in the export package.

Step 2: Remove HTML from the Excel File

1. Select the cells that con­tain HTML.
2. On the Home tab, choose Find and Select, then choose Replace.
3. In the Find what field, enter: <*>
4. Leave the Replace with field empty.
5. Select Replace All to remove all HTML tags, leav­ing only clean text.

Step 3: Reim­port the Cleansed Questions

Once the HTML has been removed, import the ques­tions back into Bril­li­um. You may import them into a new assess­ment or use the import‑replace option for the cur­rent assess­ment. Use the instruc­tions in the knowledge article: Import and Export Assessment Questions

Step 4: Final Text Cleanup in Brillium

If you want to add for­mat­ting, open each ques­tion in Bril­li­um and apply for­mat­ting using the Bril­li­um Rich Text Edi­tor. This ensures the for­mat­ting remains clean and com­pli­ant with Brillium’s con­tent structure.

Step 5: Add any selec­tive for­mat­ting using the Rich Text Editor

Once you have completed this step, you are finished!

Remove HTML From Questions Using Google Sheets

Google Sheets sup­ports reg­u­lar expres­sions, which makes it very effec­tive for clean­ing HTML.

Step 1: Open the Source Sheet

1. Open the Google Sheet that con­tains the HTML you want to remove.
2. Select the cells that con­tain the HTML-for­mat­ted text.

Step 2: Use Find and Replace with Reg­u­lar Expressions

1. Select Edit from the top menu, then choose Find and Replace.
2. In the Find field, enter the reg­u­lar expres­sion below. It tar­gets HTML tags of vary­ing for­mats:
   <(?:"[^"]*"['"]*|'[^']*'['"]*|[^'" >])+ >
3. Leave the Replace with field blank.
4. Enable the option Search using reg­u­lar expressions.
5. Select Replace All to remove all HTML tags from the select­ed cells.

After­ward, only the read­able text con­tent remains.

Step 3: Reim­port the Cleansed Questions

Once the HTML has been removed, import the ques­tions back into Bril­li­um. You may import them into a new assess­ment or use the import‑replace option for the cur­rent assess­ment. Use the instruc­tions in the knowledge article: Import and Export Assessment Questions

Step 4: Final Text Cleanup in Brillium

If you want to add for­mat­ting, open each ques­tion in Bril­li­um and apply for­mat­ting using the Bril­li­um Rich Text Edi­tor. This ensures the for­mat­ting remains clean and com­pli­ant with Brillium’s con­tent structure.

Step 5: Add any selec­tive for­mat­ting using the Rich Text Editor

Fol­low the same Step 5 as in the above Excel instructions to add any addi­tion­al selec­tive or tar­get­ed formatting.