Question Properties and Options

Each question has properties and options appropriate to the type of question that allow you to set up the question such that it looks and functions as you wish. To view and edit a question’s properties, click on the question in the survey to open the question details page. A number of the most-used properties are provided on this page, whilst the remainder are listed on a separate Properties sheet accessible via the Properties icon in the question details page toolbar.

Note that the properties are not duplicated; they will be located either on the question details page, or on the properties sheet - not both. The properties in the property sheet are updated dynamically, that is they are displayed or hidden depending on the active question type and on whether other selected properties or options make them relevant/irrelevant. For example, the Exclude Translator property only appears if more than one language has been selected for the survey.

As many of the properties on the Properties sheet are identical for the various question types, all the properties available for all the question types are listed and described here. The question types to which each property applies are noted in the property description.

• Question skin - [All] allows you to select a different question skin for the particular question. If no skin is specified here, then the default skin for the survey will be used.
• Number of columns - [Single, Multi, Ranking, Lists] Divides the answer list into several columns. If you specify only the number of columns, the appropriate number of rows will be created and the answers will be distributed evenly amongst them.
• Number of rows - [Single, Multi, Ranking, Lists] Divides the answer list into several rows. If you specify only the number of rows, the appropriate number of columns will be created and the answers will be distributed evenly across them.
• Other box columns – [Single, Multi, Grid, Multi Grid, Ranking, Lists] defines the number of columns for the 'Other' input box.
• Other box rows – [Single, Multi, Grid, Multi Grid, Ranking, Lists] defines the number of rows for the 'Other' input box. This only takes effect if set to larger than 1. Note that when using styles, the vertical alignment of the other-input determines the vertical alignment of the associated label.
• Answer column width - [Grid, Multi Grid, Lists] defines a width, in specified units, of the answer column in grid and list questions. This allows you to align the answer options in the event HTML tables are not being used due to the Accessibility functionality.
• Group display – [Single, Multi, Grid, Ranking, Lists] when the answers are put into groups, for example when Group Headers are used, this property controls the display order of the groups. The groups can be displayed:
• In order – in the order that they appear in the grid.
• Randomized – in pseudo-random order.
• Rotated – the order is shifted and rotated by one position for each new response.
• Flipped - the order will alternate between displaying the columns left-to-right and right-to-left for different respondents.
• Alphabetically sorted - will sort the columns alphabetically based on the labels (in the current language).

When the answer list contains group headings, the Answer list sorting property controls the order in which the items inside each group are displayed (go to Answer List Sorting for more information). If the list does not contain any group heading items, then the Answer list sorting property controls the order of all the items in the list. If you have more than one group in the answer list, then the order of the groups is controlled by the Group display property. Note that if some items are in groups and some are not, the position of any item that is not in a group will be controlled by the Group display property.

• Accordion - check to enable collapsible lists based on groups (go to Accordion Lists for more information).
• Button images – [Single, Multi, Grid if "Use Images in Answers" (see below) is not selected] allows you to specify images to be used instead of the standard radio buttons or check boxes. Note that the type of question you have created, for example Single or Multi, specifies whether the images will replace radio buttons or check boxes. Note also that these images may be defined globally from the Options > Layout page(go to Layout for more information). See Global Button Images in the Layout area documentation for further information.For the Button images field, three options are available:
• Global Images – the default value. The image URLs that are specified on the Options > Layout page will be used (see above).
• No Images – this setting overrides the setting from the Options > Layout page. Regular radio buttons and check boxes will now be used for this question irrespective of the settings in Global button images (see above).
• Custom Images – this setting overrides the setting from the Survey Settings > Layout page, and allows you to specify image URLs for this specific question. When you select this option, additional input fields become available to enable you to input the URLs to the desired images (see below).
• Auto check other - the Other - specify answer will be selected automatically if the respondent starts to add text to the text box.
• Vertical scroll bar - [Grid, Multi Grid] shows a vertical scroll bar so the respondent can access all of a long grid question.
• Off - no scroll bar is displayed.
• Automated - a scroll bar is displayed when required.
• Fixed - a scroll bar is always displayed whether or not it is actually required.
• Horizontal scroll bar - [Grid, Multi Grid] shows a horizontal scroll bar so the respondent can access all of a wide grid question.
• Off - no scroll bar is displayed.
• Automated - a scroll bar is displayed when required.
• Fixed - a scroll bar is always displayed whether or not it is actually required.
• Repeat headers - [Grid, Multi Grid] when selected, the headers will be repeated every specified number of rows (a field appears allowing you to input the interval).
• Bottom headers - [Grid, Multi Grid] when selected, the headers are repeated at the bottom of the grid.
• Left and right text - [Grid, reusable lists] allows you to include texts to the right of the answer fields in addition to the usual location on the left.
• Show scale bars - [Grid] when selected, a box is placed above each scale column. For example, in a “Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 10….” question, you can add a small bar to the “1” column, a slightly larger bar to the “2” column, a slightly larger bar to the “3” column etc. to give a ramp effect.
• Read only – [Not Info] used to display questions to respondents as read only. This would normally be used to display pre-selected answers set by a script (see the Forsta Scripting Manual). For example, a respondent goes to the next page of the survey where a single question is displayed. This question has one of the answers already selected, and the respondent is not allowed to modify the answer. Select this property if respondents should not be allowed to modify the pre-selected/preset answers.

Note: When a question with the Read Only property enabled is set by script within a condition, and the respondent backtracks so that the condition later evaluates to False, off-path data cleaning is not performed on the Read Only question within the condition that now evaluates to False.

• Indexed – [Single, Numeric, Date] if selected, an index will be created on this field in the database next time you generate the database (go to Indexes for more information).
• Password - [Open, Numeric] enables you to collect data where the respondent’s input is hidden from their view while they are typing, in the same way as when entering a password.
• Email - [Text] select if you want the respondent's input to be an email address. The response will then be validated to ensure it has the correct format, which removes the requirement for script.. Be aware that the system cannot check whether the address actually exists.
• Exclude from translator - [All, only if more than one language is selected for the survey] allows you to exclude specific questions from the translator interface. This gives you the possibility to hide nodes that are used for internal programming purposes from the translators in Forsta Translator. This question property can be overridden from within the Manage Translations dialog (in the Overview tab), if the Ignore "Exclude from translator" question property checkbox is selected.
• Exclude from reporting - [All] check if you wish to prevent this question and its data from being used in reports created from this survey. Note that this also includes Instant Analytics reports (go to Instant Analytics for more information).
• Clean on question masking - [All] If the question is masked and the respondents go back and modify answers earlier in the survey, answers to this question must be re-entered.
• Question Category - [Not Info] you can define categories for the question. A Reportal user can then filter on the question categories when using hit lists in single view in Reportal. Refer to the Reportal documentation for further details. Type the category name (or names) into the field. Multiple categories can be entered in the field; separate the names using the semi-colon character, for example Food;Drink.

Note: You are advised to use a maximum of 164 characters for the individual category names. Survey Designer will allow you to exceed this limit, but single file exports and export templates will then not function.

Note: The number of categories that can be viewed in the translator interface is limited to 1300.

• Character limit - specifies the number of characters assigned to responses to this question in the database and when reporting.
• Open text coding – [Single, Multi, Ranking] Here you specify the Question ID of the Open-Text question that will be coded in the Multi question.
• Do not perform data cleaning – [Condition node] you may wish to allow the respondents to modify their answers. If a respondent takes advantage of this and moves back and forth in the questionnaire changing their answers, then answers already given later in the survey may not be consistent with the changed answers. To ensure consistency in the data, if a condition evaluates to FALSE, any answers previously given to all questions inside the THEN folder are deleted. (If the condition evaluates to TRUE and has an ELSE folder, all the answers to the questions inside the ELSE folder are deleted.) However sometimes you may not want to delete the previously entered data. This could for example be in a questionnaire where the respondent is allowed to re-enter, but will only be given access to some of the questions or a set of questions different from the first time. Check this property to prevent deletion of the answers inside a THEN or ELSE folder for this condition. A check will be run to discover whether this is the first or subsequent time the user accesses the survey.
• Input prefix - [Text list and Numeric list] text entered here will appear as a prefix for the list. You can use texts or expressions for dynamic content. This property is also available for Text and Numeric lists in 3DGrids for responsive rendered surveys. In this case the input is controlled from the properties of the questions inside the 3DGrid.
• Input suffix - [Text list and Numeric list] text entered here will appear as a suffix for the list. You can use texts or expressions for dynamic content. This property is also available for Text and Numeric lists in 3DGrids for responsive rendered surveys. In this case the input is controlled from the properties of the questions inside the 3DGrid.

Action Properties

Single, Multi, Grid, Numeric list, Open text list, Ranking, Multi choice grid and 3D-grid questions have a number of Actions properties that allow you to set up the answer, scale and prompt lists. The Actions menu is located towards the right end of the questions' Answers area header bar. The properties available for a question depend on the question type.

Figure 1 - The Actions drop-down menu

The properties are:

• Add a reusable list - adds a row to the answer list below the current row and places a field in the Answer lables column. If you have only one reusable list available, that list is automatically added to the column. If you have more than one available then the field will be a selection box and you can select the list you want to use from the drop-down (go to Creating a Reusable List for more information).
• Convert answers to a reusable list - converts the entire answer list into a reusable list and saves the list in the Reusable lists pane. You can then use the same answer list as often as you need to (go to Converting an Answer List to a Reusable List for more information).
• Add a group heading - creates a row within the answer list below the current row and inserts a header field for the group. The group starts at this row, and will contain all the items in the answer list until a either a group ending or a new group heading is added. Type the desired group header text into the field.
• Add a group ending - places a ‘group end’ code in the answer list below the current row. Any answers added to the list below this code will not be included in the previous group.
• Add loop reference - adds a loop reference row to the answer list.
• dynamic answers - enables you to quickly and easily mask question answer lists based on previously asked questions (go to Dynamic Answers for more information).
• Delete all - click and then confirm to delete all the answer options in the list in one action.

Note: When the answer list contains group headings, the Answer list sorting property controls the order in which the items inside each group are displayed. If the list does not contain any group heading items, then the Answer list sorting property controls the order of all the items in the list. If you have more than one group in the answer list, then the order of the groups is controlled by the Group display order which is set in the question's Properties sheet. Note that if some items are in groups and some are not, the position of any item that is not in a group will be controlled by the Group display order.