Answer properties

The presentation of answers can be tailored via the Answers tab in the Properties Pane.

You have two ways to edit the Answer Properties:

Quick Update Box - answer codes and labels
Properties Pane - properties are grouped into expandable sections:
- General - mandatory properties (e.g. answer codes and labels), along with frequently used properties (e.g. filters)
- Advanced - less frequently used properties (e.g. code groups, disable answer)
- System - important system properties (only advanced users should edit)

Survey Editor (Legacy)
Survey Editor (Beta)

Click the question in the flowchart, then click the Answers Tab in the Properties Pane. Select an answer to see its properties.

Click the question’s card, then click the Answers tab in the Properties pane. For grid questions the tab is called Columns (or Scale on a Stacked Slider).

The answers are listed in a table with Code, Answer text and Sort Order columns, which you can edit in the table. Click an answer to show its other properties below the table.

The buttons above the table are:

Button	What it does
Piping	Pipe answers from an earlier question
Code sets	Fill the answers from a saved code set
Media	Add an image or other file from the File Bank
Move up / Move down	Change the selected answer’s place in the list
Delete Answer	Delete the selected answer. You’re not asked to confirm.
Add Answer	Add a new answer

Survey Editor (Beta) only shows the answer properties that apply. For example, Width, Height, MaxLength and Multiline only show when the answer has Include Verbatim checked, or on a Verbatims question. They aren’t offered on Single Response - Vertical Radio or Multiple Response - Checkbox questions, because those formats don’t use them.

Properties Pane General section

Property	Description
Code	This is the value, or code number for the individual answer
Answer Text	This is the value label for the individual answer
Answer Label	An internal label for the answer, used for reference purposes (e.g. in quota management). Not visible to survey respondents
Sort Order	Controls the order in which answer codes are displayed to survey respondents
Code Filter	Enter the qualification criteria for any individual code that needs to be displayed only under certain circumstances
Compulsory?	Check this box if the answer is mandatory
Force Single Answer	In a Multi question, this field should be checked for any individual answer that needs to be limited to a single response
Multiline	Check this box to change a verbatim field to a larger memo text field that will automatically expand as the respondent types in their answer
Include Verbatim	Check this box to capture open ended, or verbatim comments with the selected answer (e.g. ‘Other (please specify)‘)

Properties Pane Advanced section

Property	Description
Code Group Label	If answers within a codeframe require grouping with a label, or header displayed, the labels for the group can be specified here
Answer Text Footer	Appears as text below the answer code frame or input box
Disable Answer	When this box is checked, the highlighted answer will be deactivated and the answer will not be displayed on the screen
Custom Style	Add any custom CSS style requirements for this individual answer
Width	Sets the width of any text input box
Height	Sets the height of any text input box
MaxLength	For any numeric or verbatim text fields for which you wish to restrict the number of characters that the survey respondent can enter, the maximum number of characters may be set here
Validation Rule	Validation rules may be set to ensure that survey respondents have entered a valid answer

Property details

Code

The answer Code is the value, or code number for the selected answer.

You can enter answer codes via the Quick Update Box (accessible by double clicking on the question object in the Flowchart), or via the Answers Tab in the Properties Pane.

Using the Quick Update Box

Enter the answers into the Answers field. The answers comprise the Code number and the Answer Text. When you’re using the Quick Update Box, it’s not necessary to enter the Code number, as Survey Shaper will automatically assign sequential codes (starting at 1) to each Answer Text you enter. However, if you want to force a specific Code number, you’ll need to enter the Code number into the Answers field first, followed by a space or fullstop and then the Answer Text.

Using the Answers Tab

The Code number may also be specified via the Code field in the Answers Tab. Codes can be updated manually at any time, however caution must be taken as any skips, recodes, piping, etc. that refer to the current question may be affected.

Answer Text

Answer Text is the value label for an individual answer.

You can enter Answer Text via the Quick Update Box (accessible by double clicking on the question object in the Flowchart), or via the Answers Tab in the Properties Pane.

Using the Quick Update Box

Enter the Answer Text into the Answers field. If you want to also enter a Code number, the code must be entered into the Answers field first, followed by a space or fullstop and then the Answer Text. When you’re using the Quick Update Box, it’s not necessary to enter the code number, as Survey Shaper will automatically assign sequential codes (starting at 1) to each Answer Text you enter.

Using the Answers Tab

Answer Text may also be specified via the Answer Text field in the Answers Tab. Answer Text can be changed manually at any time, without affecting skips, recodes, piping, etc.

Answer Label

The Answer Label is an internal label for an individual answer. It is not visible to survey respondents, but is used for reference purposes within Survey Shaper — for example, it appears alongside the answer code in quota management.

To set the Answer Label:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in the Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Enter the desired label into the Answer Label field
Save the survey

Sort Order

Sort Order controls the order that answers are displayed to survey respondents. By default, the Sort Order will correspond to the order that answers appear in the Quick Update Box (regardless of their answer Code number), and may be changed at any time without affecting skips, recodes, piping, etc. The Sort Order property is critical for questions involving randomization.

For further information, see Randomization.

Code Filter

If any individual answer needs to be displayed only under certain circumstances, the qualification criteria should be specified via the Code Filter property.

The Code Filter is specified in the same way as the Define Filter question property (in the Properties Pane). The individual answer will only be displayed to a survey respondent if the filter criteria are met. If the Code Filter field is left blank, the selected answer will always be displayed to survey respondents.

All filters need to be prefaced by the @ symbol.

Compulsory?

Check this box if the answer is mandatory.

Force Single Answer

In a Multi question, the Force Single Answer field should be checked for any individual answer that needs to be limited to a single response.

If, for example, you had a Multi question with a “None” option, survey respondents would be allowed to select as many answers as are applicable, however they should not be able to select one or more answers plus the ‘none’ option. Therefore, the ‘none’ code is automatically changed to a single response radio button when the Force Single Answer box is checked.

For further information, see Mixed Input Questions.

Code Group Label

If answers within a code frame require grouping with a label or header displayed, you can specify the labels for the group via the Code Group Label answer property.

To set up Code Group Labels:

Select the first answer in the first group and type the header text into the Code Group Label field (found in the Advanced section in the answer properties)
Select the first answer in the next group and type the header text into the Code Group Label field
Repeat for each code group required
Save and preview

Answer Text Footer

The optional Answer Text Footer appears as text below the answer code or input box for an individual answer.

To add an Answer Text Footer:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in the Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Expand the Advanced section and enter the desired text into the Answer Text Footer field
Save the survey

Disable Answer

If you’d like to effectively ignore an individual answer without having to delete it, you can Disable the answer. A disabled answer won’t be displayed on the screen.

By default, all answer codes in Survey Shaper are enabled (i.e. the Disable Answer box is unchecked). If you want to disable the answer, simply check the Disable Answer box in the Advanced section of the Answers Tab. A disabled answer can be re-enabled at any time by unchecking the Disable Answer box.

Custom Style

The Custom Style property allows you to add individual CSS styling to a specific answer code, overriding the default theme styling for that answer.

To add a Custom Style:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in the Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Expand the Advanced section and enter the desired CSS into the Custom Style field
Save the survey

Width

For Verbatims questions, the width of individual text input boxes can be set via this property.

To set the input box width for an answer:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Expand the Advanced section and enter the preferred width (either as a proportion of the width of the screen, e.g. 90%, or in terms of pixels, e.g. 150px) into the Width field
Save the survey

Height

For Verbatims questions, the height of individual text input boxes can be set via this property.

To set the input box height for an answer:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Expand the Advanced section and enter the preferred height (in terms of pixels, e.g. 150px) into the Height field
Save the survey

MaxLength

The MaxLength property can be used to restrict the number of characters that the survey respondent can enter into a multi verbatim text input field.

The property may be applied at the overall question level (as Max Length, via the Properties Pane for verbatim questions), or at an individual answer code level (via the Answers Tab for single and multiple response questions where verbatim fields are included).

To set the Max Length of an answer:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Expand the Advanced section and enter the maximum number of characters required into the MaxLength field
Save the survey

In a live survey, respondents won’t be able to enter more than the specified number of characters. For example, if survey respondents are required to enter an Australian postal code (which are always 4 digits in length), you can set the MaxLength property to 4. This will ensure that respondents can’t enter a postal code of more than four digits.

Validation Rules may also be used to ensure that a survey respondent enters a valid answer into a verbatim field.

Multiline

For multi verbatim input fields, you can choose whether to present a single line textbox, or a larger memo text field that will automatically expand as the respondent types in their answer.

To enable a memo text field:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Check the Multiline field
Save the survey

To revert to a single line textbox:

Click on the question object in the flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in Properties Pane
Select the required answer
Uncheck the Multiline field
Save the survey

Validation Rule

For verbatim or numeric fields, Validation Rules can be set to ensure that survey respondents have entered a valid answer. The validation rules are Regular Expressions which provide a powerful set of comparison features. You can choose to enter your own Regular Expressions into the Validation Rule property field (a useful site for building regular expressions is regexr.com), or you can choose one of the options currently available within Survey Shaper.

To set up a Validation Rule for an answer:

Select the question object in the survey flowchart
Click on the Answers Tab in Properties Pane
Select the desired answer
Expand the Advanced section and enter a RegEx directly into the Validation Rule field, or select a predefined RegEx from the dropdown (you can edit this directly if required)
Save the survey

For more information and RegEx examples, see the Validation Rule question property.

Include Verbatim

The Include Verbatim answer property enables the collection of ‘Other specify’ responses which are frequently used in surveys to capture responses that may not fall into one of the predefined codes.

During a survey, when the survey respondent clicks on the ‘other’ answer, the verbatim field automatically drops down to allow them to type in their response.

For instructions on how to use the Include Verbatim answer property, see Mixed Input Questions.