Supported File Formats
A full list of the survey document formats kicue supports, with characteristics, recommended use cases, and caveats for each.
kicue supports the following file formats. Excel and Markdown are the recommended choices.
Supported formats
| Format | Extension | Recommendation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel | .xlsx | ◎ | Clear cell structure; the best format for matrix questions |
| Markdown | .md | ◎ | Very high accuracy when questions are structured with headings and lists |
| Word | .docx | ○ | Paragraph-based documents parse well too |
.pdf | ○ | Text-based PDFs only; avoid image-only scans | |
| Text | .txt | △ | Works for simple surveys |
Recommended formats
Excel (.xlsx)
Because Excel cells are explicitly structured, AI parsing accuracy is highest. Matrix questions (row headers × column ratings) are especially well recognized.
Suggested layout:
- Column A: Question number
- Column B: Question text
- Column C: Options / response format
Markdown (.md)
Markdown structured with headings (##) and lists (-) parses with excellent accuracy.
## Q1. What is your gender?
- Male
- Female
- Other
## Q2. How old are you? (numeric input)
Caveats
Image-only PDFs
PDFs made purely of scanned images suffer significant OCR accuracy drops. Prefer text-based PDFs or the original Word / Excel files whenever possible.
File size
We recommend 10 MB or less per file. Larger files take longer to upload and may reduce parsing accuracy.
Character encoding
UTF-8 is recommended. Text files saved in legacy encodings (Shift_JIS, EUC-JP, etc.) may produce garbled text.
Other formats
Google Docs, Pages, and Numbers should be exported to Excel or Word before uploading.
Tips for higher accuracy
- Number your questions explicitly (Q1, Q2, ...)
- Use bullet points for options
- Write matrix questions as row × column tables
- State branching conditions clearly, e.g. "If X, go to Q5"
Next, see How to Upload for the actual upload steps.