Question types

Question Type defines how a question will be asked and written to the data file. The question types available in Survey Shaper are represented by objects in the Toolbox (Survey Editor (Legacy)) or cards in the Add to survey toolbar (Survey Editor (Beta)). Some question types have multiple question formats that control how the question appears on the screen.

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Available question types

Question Type	Description
Bucket	Used to manage quotas and control sample composition
Instruction	Used to present text and/or images with no answer required
EVE	Used to embed a Conversational AI into a survey
Single Response	Used for questions requiring a single selection
Multi Response	Allows the selection of two or more options
Verbatim	Used for open-ended questions where the respondent is free to type
Verbatims	Allows for multiple open-ended responses
Grid	Used for presenting a matrix of questions
Rank	Used for obtaining the respondent’s order of preference
Skip	Used to send the respondent to another point in the survey
Module	Defines a “mini survey”
Transfer	Sends the respondent to an external URL
Sample	Used to import fields from the sample file
Question Set	A collection of editable frequently used questions
Import	Used to import questions from another survey

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Choosing the right question type

The object you’ll need depends on how you want the question to display on the screen and how you want the data to be captured.

Note

Modules and Question Sets contain collections of questions and are applicable to building flowcharts rather than being question types themselves.

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Change question type

To change a question type, open the question’s menu and select Change Object Type. For the steps in each editor, see Change object type.

To switch between formats of the same type (for example, from Vertical Radio to Horizontal Radio), change the Question Format property instead.

In Survey Editor (Beta), Module, Sample, Bucket and EVE objects can’t be changed to another type. Delete the object and add a new one instead.

Exercise caution when changing types

Always exercise caution when changing an object type, particularly when the question you’re changing has been referred to in skips, action commands, filters, conditional text, etc.

Changing a question type can alter the underlying data structure. For example, changing a Single Response to a Multi Response transforms the underlying variables from a single categorical format to multiple binary formats. Any associated skips, filters, and conditional elements will need to be updated accordingly.