Progress buttons

Every survey needs a way for respondents to move forward—that’s where the Next button comes in. It appears on every page by default. You can also add a Back button if you want to let respondents review or change their previous answers.

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Show / hide a back button

To add a Back button to your survey:

1. Open the project properties
2. Click the Style tab
3. Check the Show Back Button property
4. Click OK (SAVE in Survey Editor (Beta))
5. Save and Preview the survey

Once enabled, the Back button appears on all pages by default. Want it on some pages but not others? Use the Show Back Button question property to disable it on specific questions.

Question-level control

The Show Back Button question property only appears when you’ve enabled Show Back Button at the project level.

To hide the Back button entirely, repeat the steps above but uncheck the Show Back Button property.

Clear on Previous

By default, Clear on Previous is checked, which means responses get reset when someone clicks Back. If you want to preserve their answers instead, uncheck this property (in the Advanced section). With it unchecked, respondents will see their previous answers retained when they navigate backwards.

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Hide next button

You should only remove the Next button from the final Instruction in your survey—removing it elsewhere can strand respondents with no way to move forward.

For surveys ending with an Instruction object, remove the Next button and set the Finish Action to something other than Next Question.

Here’s how to remove it:

1. Add or select the Instruction in the survey flowchart (close the Quick Update box if it pops up)
2. In the question Properties Pane, uncheck the Show Next Button property
3. Save the survey

If your survey ends with a Transfer object, don’t remove the Next button from Instructions that come before it—respondents need that button to reach the transfer.

Default end screen

All new surveys include an Instruction object named ‘End’ that already has the Next button removed.

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Change default language

Buttons display in English by default. To change the language:

1. In Survey Editor (Legacy), click Properties in the header bar
2. Expand the Advanced section and enter your desired language code in the Default Language property
3. Click OK
4. Save and Preview the survey

Survey Editor (Beta)

In Survey Editor (Beta), Default Language is shown in the project properties but can’t be changed there. See Single language survey.

Need language codes?

See Translations for a list of available languages.

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Disable next button temporarily

Got a lot of text for respondents to read? Consider adding a timer to the Next button. This is especially useful when you’re presenting a new concept or detailed instructions—you want to make sure people actually read it before clicking through.

The timer disables the Next button for whatever period you specify. Once the time’s up, the button automatically re-enables and they can move forward.

To add a timer:

Survey Editor (Legacy)

1. Click the object in the survey flowchart (close the Quick Update box if it pops up)

2. In the Properties Pane, enter the following in the Controls property:

   {
     "buttonsDisableForSeconds": { "NEXT": 30, "BACK": 30 }
   }

3. Adjust the seconds for either button as needed (the example above disables both for 30 seconds)

4. Save the survey

Survey Editor (Beta)

1. Click the object’s card in the flowchart (close Quick Update if it opens)

2. In the Properties pane, expand the Controls section

3. In Disable Buttons, enter the number of seconds for each button, for example:

   {"NEXT": 30, "BACK": 30}

   To disable only the Next button, leave out "BACK".

4. Save the survey

If the text isn’t valid JSON, the field shows “Enter a valid JSON object” and the setting isn’t kept. Clear the field to remove the timer.

To change the text on the Next and Back buttons, use Override Button Text in the same way, for example {"NEXT": "Continue"}. In Survey Editor (Legacy), it’s the buttonsOverride control.

Page groups

If your object is in a page group with other objects, the timer applies at the page level—not just to that individual object.

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Change button colour

Want to match your Next and Back buttons to your brand colors?

1. Click Resources in the header bar
2. Click skin.surveyspa.css
3. The CSS will display in the Contents window—scroll down to or search for the “Next Button” section
4. Replace the default background color with your hex code of choice
5. Click Save
6. Click Close