Frequently Asked Questions

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Survey Shaper's Designer Pane can be conceptualized as a grid. The first question object in the survey occupies the first cell in the grid, the second question object occupies the second cell, and so on. To insert a question between the first two questions, you must drag it into the same position as the second question so that it drops into the second cell. The original second question will be moved into the third cell. If you try to insert another question object between two existing questions by dragging it onto the line connecting those questions, Survey Shaper does not know which cell to place it in,so it drops it to the next available cell, which it often at the end of the survey. For more information, see Adding Questions, and Moving Questions.

Yes! Simply right mouse-click on the question you wish to change and select Change Object Type from the Quick Menu. For more information, see Changing a Question.

You can refresh the Properties Pane by clicking on the question you wish to edit again in the Designer Pane.

The easiest way to copy an existing survey script is to open the existing survey and select Save As > New Survey and enter the client name and title for the new survey into the dialogue box and click OK. If there are quotas specified in the original survey, you will need to generate these quotas in the new survey in order for the quotas to take effect.

If your new survey is only a partial copy of the existing survey (i.e. only a few questions are the same), you may prefer to create a new survey and then import the relevant questions from the existing survey to the new survey. Again, any imported quota variables will require the generation of quotas.

It is important to conceptualize variables in terms of how they are saved in the data.  Questions requiring a single response answer (e.g. single response, single verbatim) will have their data saved in only one data field. The data in a single response question will correspond to the answer code values specified in the question (e.g. 1=Male, 2=Female). For questions requiring multiple response answers (e.g. multi response,multi verbatim), answers are saved in several data fields (the number of data fields will equal the number of possible answer codes), with each data field being represented by the question name, underscore, answer code number (e.g. Q1_4). For a multi response question, each answer field will contain a '1' if that particular answer was selected by the survey respondent, or a '0' if the answer was not selected.

In Survey Shaper, all questions specified in filters, action commands and conditional text must be prefaced with an '@' symbol (e.g. @Q1_4).

To see exactly how your survey data is being saved, you may choose to complete a survey and download the data from the Control Panel. The variable names contained in the data will help you determine what the question references should be in your filters, action commands, or conditional text. For more information, see Data Structure Guide

In the 72 Controls property field for your question, enter the following controls (where the number at the end represents the number of answers to appear in each column):

itemspercolumn=[#]

Click on the Answer Properties Tab in the Properties Pane, then select the answer code that you wish to associate the open-ended field with and check the 28 Include Verbatim property. When the respondent clicks on this answer in the survey, a compulsory verbatim field will now appear underneath the selected answer. For more information, see Other Specifies.

Click on the Answer Properties Tab in the Properties Pane, then select the 'None of these' answer code and check the 06 Force Single Answer property. This will turn your answer code into a single response radio button which will ensure that the survey respondent cannot select the 'None of these' option along with other multi response options.

The size of a verbatim field can be customized using the 20 Width, 21 Height, and 23 Multi-line properties in the Properties Tab. For more information, see Tailoring the Display of Questions.

For verbatim questions where a response is compulsory, you may wish to add a 'No Comment' checkbox underneath the verbatim input box. To do this, enter the text you wish to appear next to the checkbox (e.g. No Comment) into the 26 No Verbatim property field in the Properties Pane. This will automatically trigger the display of the checkbox and will allow those respondents who have no comment to make to progress to the next question without entering text into the verbatim field.

The 'Numbers only' validation rule (^[-+]?\d\d*$) does allow respondents to enter a negative value using the toggle buttons. At this stage it is not possible to prevent them from entering a negative value, but altering the validation rule to (^[+]?\d\d*$) will prevent them from being able to continue to the next question by highlighting the answer as an invalid response. For further information, see 27 Validation Rule.

In the 72 Controls property field for your single verbatim question, enter the following controls (where the number at the end represents the maximum number of words):

showwordsleft=bottomleft,wordlimit=25

These controls will prevent a respondent from being able to type more than the specified number of words (25 in the above example), and will display the number of words remaining at the bottom left under the verbatim field.

Select the grid question in the Designer Pane and then click on the Rows Tab in the Properties Pane. Choose the row item for which you wish to set the not applicable code/s, and then enter those codes in the 05 Excluded Answer Ids property field. Repeat for other row items as required. The codes entered should correspond to the answer codes specified in the Columns Tab for that question. In the survey, the "not applicable" cells within the grid question will be indicated by a dash, instead of a checkbox or radio button, thereby not allowing for the selection of that answer by the respondent. For more information, see Tailoring the Display of Questions.

The width of columns in a Grid Question can be controlled via the Width property field in the Columns Tab. Simply enter the desired width for each individual column item. Width may be specified as a percentage (e.g. 33%) or in terms of pixels (e.g. 100px). For more information, see Tailoring the Display of Questions.

You will need to split the large grid into smaller grids, where the answer codes at the top are always visible. There are two ways to achieve this:

1. Enter an itemsperpage control into the 72 Controls property field. This will split the question across the specified number of screens.
2. Manually split the grid up into separate, smaller grids.

If your grid is single response, consider using the horizontal radio format (rather than the default vertical radio format). This will enable you to show the lengthy answer codes within the rows, yet still ensures that only one answer is provided per sub-question (in the columns).

If your grid is multiple response, consider entering the columnvalidation=true control into the 72 Controls property field. As with the horizontal radio grid format, this will display the lengthy answer codes within the rows, yet ensures that at least one answer is provided per sub-question (in the columns).

In Survey Shaper, ensure that the survey has been published. A survey will automatically appear in the Control Panel after it has been published. For more information, see .