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Grid Items

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    A Grid question is a number of related questions presented in tabular format, where the respondent can select an answer for each question from a score.

    The question details page for this item includes a number of fields and property options. All the properties available for this question type are described in the Question Properties documentation (go to Accessing Question Properties for more information).

    Figure 1 - The Grid item’s question details page

    • Prompts - these are the questions presented to the respondent. The grid can contain any number of prompts.
    • Scale - these are the answer options that the respondent can select between. Note that the same scale will be used for each question in the grid.

    Important
    It is not recommended to use triggers to re-mask the current/same question. If the grid is masked on itself using a trigger, then any data entered in the masked answer may not be saved.

    A variation of the Grid item is the 3D-Grid.

    Multi Choice Grid

    The standard 3D-grid item has multi questions as the columns. It is therefore normally inadvisable to use the standard 3D-grid in surveys that are intended for mobile responses, as the rendition may cause problems for the respondent.

    The Multi Choice Grid item is a 3D-grid item in which the Multi questions are the rows of the grid instead of the columns – it is effectively a transposed 3D-grid. The Multi Grid item is supported in all rendering modes; desktop, mobile, CATI and CAPI.

    The question details page for this item includes a number of fields and options. All the properties available for this question type are described in the Question Properties documentation (go to Accessing Question Properties for more information).

    Figure 2 - The Multi choice grid item’s question details page

    Note that this question’s Type is always “Normal” and this cannot be changed. This means that a Multi choice grid cannot be set to for example Hidden or Background.

    Outside of Authoring, (in Reportal, Data Editing/Exporting, Data Processing etc…) this question type appears as a clickable node that expands to the individual multi questions contained within the grid. There is no special handling of the Multi Grid question types in Reportal; it behaves the same as a 3D-grid containing multis. From a data perspective, Multi Grids are treated as a set of individual multi questions.

    The naming convention used for the labeling is:

    Multi Grid question id + underscore + code in the “questions” list.

    For example; if the Multi Grid is “g1”, the underlying multi questions in the multi grid are “g1_q1”, “g1_q2”, “g1_q3” etc. and the answer codes are 1, 2, 3, etc. then the columns in the database for the individual answers will then be:

    g1_q1_1, g1_q1_2, g1_q1_3 …

    g1_q2_1, g1_q2_2, g1_q2_3 …

    g1_q3_1, g1_q3_2, g1_q3_3 … etc.

    The Multi Grid item supports the following question/answer properties and options:

    • Order of the questions/answers (rows/columns)
    • Keep position for questions (rows)
    • Exclusive answers (columns)
    • Other answers (these appear in the column headers)
    • Answer buttons (Advanced WI setting)
    • Column, row and question masking
    • Can be used in the condition builder
    • Repeat headers (entry of answer Others is only possible in the first header row)
    • Bottom headers (entry of answer Others is only possible in the first header row)
    • Carousel appearance type

    Important
    It is not recommended to use triggers to re-mask the current/same question. If the grid is masked on itself using a trigger, then any data entered in the masked answer may not be saved.

    The following functionality is not supported:

    • Answer group support
    • Loop reference lists

    Note: In the event more than one language is selected for your survey, the Question Text field is not available in the Translate tab for the question. If you need to translate the Question text you have two options; you can go to the Edit in... language drop-down and select the language you wish to work with, then write the question text into the field, or you can translate using the Excel export functionality (go to Managing Translations for more information).

    3D-Grid Item

    A 3D-grid item allows you to combine various question types into one item with a grid layout, thus enabling a more compact rendering. In a 3D-Grid, all questions share the same answer list.

    The question details page for this item includes a number of fields and options. All the properties available for this question type are described in the Question Properties documentation (go to Accessing Question Properties for more information).

    Figure 3 - The 3D-Grid item’s question details page

    To add an item into the 3D-Grid item, click the + Inside button above or below the overlay; the new item is added at the bottom of the 3D-grid's contents (below any existing items). The 3D-grid item can contain the following question types:

    • Single.
    • Multi.
    • Grid.
    • Ranking.
    • Open text list.
    • Numeric list.

    Important
    It is not recommended to use triggers to re-mask the current/same question. If the grid is masked on itself using a trigger, then any data entered in the masked answer may not be saved.

    Note: The standard 3D-grid item has multi questions as the columns. It is normally not advisable to use the standard 3D-grid in surveys that are intended for mobile responses as the rendition may cause problems for the respondent. In this situation the Multi Grid can be used.