Basic options available for question types

This text serves to provide an explanation about the question and/or the rating (see red framed text). By default, its font is smaller than that of the question.

Note: The hint text is NOT displayed in reports.

You can include images in a hint text by using the RTE window. You can also use it for scripts which can only be made visible by means of the Code View icon on the RTE window. An example of this script is shown below:

<style type="text/css">
 .rt-container .rt-matrix-container table .rt-mtx-choice-has-open label + .rt-mtx-open-container {
  width: 100%;
 }

</style>

See further under the topic Increase text field length of matrix question incl. one column.

This setting allows you to make a question mandatory. This means that the survey participant must always answer this question before he/she

• can proceed to the next page with questions, or
• send the answers (if the appropriate mandatory question is located at the end of the survey).

If a participant skips a mandatory question and wants to continue the survey or send in the answers, a message will be displayed against a red background prompting him/her to answer the mandatory question.

Force response = Yes

• In a single response question, the participant must select only one answer.
• In a multiple response question, the participant must select at least one answer. If the Minimum and maximum setting has been activated, the participant must adhere to the preset minimum and maximum value. If the minimum value is 2, the participant must not select less than 2 answers when filling in the corresponding survey.
• In a matrix question, the participant has to select only one answer in all rows, provided that the Single response option has been enabled for the question type of the matrix question. If the Multiple response option has been enabled, he/she has to select at least one answer in all rows. In the latter case, more answers can be selected per row.

If you configure all answers as mandatory, but still want to permit the participant to skip a question, you can easily set this up using the N/A (Not applicable) option, see the explanation further on in this topic.

This setting ensures that all answer options for a question are shown to the participant in a random order. This entails that the answer order can vary from participant to participant. However, the participant does not notice that the answers have been randomized.

If randomisation has been activated, you can optionally indicate for each answer option in a question that this option should not be randomised. To do this, you must check the box next to Exclude from randomization. This setting can be found under the Answer choices.

The N/A option stands for Not applicable or No answer. When this option has been ticked, this choice will be added to the corresponding question. It allows the respondent to refrain from answering a question that is actually mandatory. When a participant selects this option, a special value will be stored. The system uses this value to indicate the number of participants who have not answered this question. The N/A option can be configured for all survey elements of the Question type; you can customize the label.

The N/A option is by default at the bottom of the option list, slightly apart from the other options.

This option is not included in the chart analysis. For some types of questions, such as the single response and multiple response questions, the number of participants who have selected the N/A option for that specific question is shown at the top of the online report. However, for a matrix question, the tables below the chart indicate per row (sub-question) the number of participants that selected the N/A option. The N/A option is only not considered to be a regular answer.

The Add text entry setting can be found for all options under the Answer choices. After clicking on the 3 vertical dots behind an option, this setting will be displayed on the screen.

If you check this setting, you will give a survey participant the option of specifying his/her own answer option or an explanation for a question. You can then, for example, leave the corresponding option from the Answer choices blank. When filling in the survey, the participant can then not only make a selection from the possible answer options predefined for the question, but he/she can also formulate his/her own answer option.

Suppose one of the answer options in your question is Other: and you would like the participant to provide an explanation, when he/she selects this answer option. You can achieve this by ticking the Add text entry setting for that option. This allows the participant to enter additional text for clarification when filling out the survey.

As soon as you have activated the Add text entry setting, the Force response (mandatory question) setting will be visible below it. If you tick this box, the participant must provide textual information when selecting the corresponding empty answer option. For this type of information, the value None must be selected under Response data type.

Setting a question placeholder for an open answer

If you want the open answer provided by the participant for a question to be reproduced in another question, e.g. open question, you can use a question placeholder. This placeholder can be inserted using the RTE window. In order to call up this window, you must click in the corresponding text box on the right-hand side of the screen and then select the Rich text editor.

The procedure for inserting a placeholder is as follows:

• Click the Placeholder icon (1).
• Select under Questions (2) the answer option from the question for which the participant has to provide an open answer, e.g. question q3, option 4, type text.
• Specify the position in the text window at which the placeholder is to be inserted (3).
• Click the question placeholder to be inserted, e.g. {{q3_4_text}}.
• Click the Save changes button (5) for the placeholder to be included in the question of the appropriate question type.

When a participant is filling out the survey, the open answer provided by this participant from another question, e.g. Option XYZ, will automatically be inserted at the position of the question placeholder in e.g. the open question.

Filters can be applied at three levels in your survey:

1. at section level
2. at question level
3. at answer option level (also at row and column level for matrix questions)

See the topic Filters: How to use them correctly? for more information on how filters work, including examples.