Flashcard automation

Question

I would like to prepare flashcards. For example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=32pc, paperheight=18pc, margin=5pc]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{empty}
\newenvironment{vertcent}
{\newpage\topskip0pt\vspace{\fill}}
{\vspace{\fill}\newpage}
\begin{document}
\begin{vertcent}
    \begin{center}
        \Huge
        a book
    \end{center}
\end{vertcent}
\newpage
\begin{vertcent}
    \begin{center}
        \Huge
        a chair
    \end{center}
\end{vertcent}
\end{document}

Is it possible to automate this process? Say I have a list of words (comma-separated, or a new entry in every line, etc.) and each entry is processed?

DG' · Answer 1 · 2021-01-02T15:34:55.640

csvsimple allows you to process a file containing your entries as CSV:

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.csv}
entry            ,
a book           ,
a chair          ,
a very long term ,
\end{filecontents*}
% This is a CSV file with only one column: each entry must be on it's own line and be followed by a comma 
% The first line is the header: the name of the column ("entry") will be assigned to command \entry below
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=32pc, paperheight=18pc, margin=5pc]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec}
  \setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
  \pagestyle{empty}
\usepackage{csvsimple}
\newenvironment{vertcent}
  {\newpage\topskip0pt\vspace{\fill}}
  {\vspace{\fill}\newpage}
\begin{document}
\csvreader{\jobname.csv}{entry=\entry}{%
  \begin{vertcent}
    \begin{center}
      \Huge\entry
    \end{center}
  \end{vertcent}}
\end{document}

If you have latex code in your entries, enclose them in braces { \somecommand{text} } ,:

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.csv}
entry               ,
{ \arb{ muslimuN} } ,
{ \arb{muslimAni} } ,
{ \arb{muslimUna} } ,
\end{filecontents*}
% This is a CSV file with only one column: each entry must be on it's own line and be followed by a comma 
% The first line is the header: the name of the column ("entry") will be assigned to command \entry below
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=32pc, paperheight=18pc, margin=5pc]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage[fullvoc]{arabluatex}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
  \pagestyle{empty}
\usepackage{csvsimple}
\newenvironment{vertcent}
  {\newpage\topskip0pt\vspace{\fill}}
  {\vspace{\fill}\newpage}
\begin{document}
\csvreader{\jobname.csv}{entry=\entry}{%
  \begin{vertcent}
    \begin{center}
      \Huge\entry
    \end{center}
  \end{vertcent}}
\end{document}

sgmoye · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-31T20:43:10.920

Something like this? Usage, a comma-separated list: \makecards{card 1, card 2}:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=32pc, paperheight=18pc, margin=5pc]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec,pgffor}
%\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{empty}
\newenvironment{vertcent}
{\newpage\topskip0pt\vspace{\fill}}
{\vspace{\fill}\newpage}
\newcommand{\makecards}[1]{%
    \foreach \c in {#1}{%
        \begin{vertcent}
           \begin{center}
                \Huge
                \c
            \end{center}
    \end{vertcent}%
    }%
}
\begin{document}
\makecards{a book,a chair}
\end{document}

Update

If the desired comma-separated list is in an external file (in this case listtext.txt, which contains a comma-separated list) then this works (thanks to Rmano in Tikz foreach does not work with \input or \directlua):

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=32pc, paperheight=18pc, margin=5pc]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec,pgffor,catchfile}
%\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{empty}
\newenvironment{vertcent}
{\newpage\topskip0pt\vspace{\fill}}
{\vspace{\fill}\newpage}
\newcommand\loaddata[1]{\CatchFileDef\loadeddata{#1}{\endlinechar=-1}}
\newcommand{\makecards}[1]{%
    \loaddata{#1}
    \foreach \c in \loadeddata{%
        \begin{vertcent}
           \begin{center}
                \Huge
                \c
            \end{center}
    \end{vertcent}%
    }%
}
\begin{document}
\makecards{listtext.txt}
\end{document}

Update 2

It is simple to have a more complex \foreach statement using a forward slash to separate elements. The file listtext2.txt contains this:

a chair/living room,
a table/kitchen,
a lamp/bedroom,
something else/elsewhere,
and some more/some unknown place,
a horse/on a farm

And the code that typesets this:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=32pc, paperheight=18pc, margin=5pc]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec,pgffor,catchfile}
%\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{empty}
\newenvironment{vertcent}
    {\newpage\topskip0pt\vspace{\fill}}
    {\vspace{\fill}\newpage}
\newcommand\loaddata[1]{\CatchFileDef\loadeddata{#1}{\endlinechar=-1}}
\newcommand{\makecards}[1]{%
    \loaddata{#1}%
    \foreach \c/\d in \loadeddata{%
        \begin{vertcent}
          \begin{center}
                \Huge
                \c\par

                \vspace{.2in}
                \d
            \end{center}
    \end{vertcent}%
    }%
}
\begin{document}
\makecards{listtext2.txt}
\end{document}

...and produces the following:

I'd wondered how to do this -- now I know! Thanks.

I hope this does not warrant a separate question: Is it possible to have a flexibility such as: each line, say, contains two comma-separated entries, and I want them, say, displayed one below the other on the same page. — blackened, Dec 31 '20 at 20:14

Flashcard automation

2 Answers2

Update

Update 2