Grid

A Grid question is used for presenting a matrix of questions that share the same answer options. Survey respondents can be asked to provide one or more answers for each item (Sub Question) in the matrix, either by choosing from a list of choices, or by dragging a slider handle along a rating scale.

Grid questions offer a variety of question formats, each classified into two types:

Single Response — where only one response per row is allowed (e.g. rating questions)
Multiple Response — where more than one response per row is applicable (e.g. “all that apply” association questions)

Adding a Grid question

Here’s how to add a Grid question to the survey flowchart:

Add a Grid object to the flowchart. In Survey Editor (Legacy), drag it from the Toolbox, or double-click it. In Survey Editor (Beta), drag the Grid card from the Add to survey toolbar, or click it to add it at the end

Once the object is inserted into the flowchart:

Enter the items (Sub Questions) into the Rows
Enter the answers into the Columns
Save the survey

Appearance

The way the question appears on screen depends on the Properties you’ve selected.

By default, a Grid question will appear on a single page with each item presented as a row and the answers presented in columns on the screen. To tailor the presentation of a Grid question, consider editing the Question Format and Controls question properties.

You can Preview the survey at any stage to see how the question appears and behaves in the context of the survey.

Question formats

By default, any new Grid question will be set to a Horizontal Radio Grid format.

You can change the Question Format via the Question Format property dropdown box. The available question formats are:

Format	Description
Horizontal Radio Grid	Respondents required to select one response for a number of items presented in rows in a matrix on the screen
Vertical Radio Grid	Respondents required to select one response for a number of items presented in columns in a matrix on the screen
Dropdown Grid	Respondents required to select one response for a number of items presented in dropdown boxes on the screen
Slider Grid	Respondents required to drag a slider handle along a rating scale for a number of items presented one under another
Checkbox Grid	Respondents required to select one or more responses for a number of items presented in rows on the screen
Stacked Slider	Respondents required to drag and drop a selection of items onto a scale
Card Sort	Respondents required to sort items by dragging and dropping them onto the relevant response category. See Card Sort format.
Stacked Slider Grid	Respondents drag a set of cards onto a 0 to 10 scale, once for each row. See Stacked Slider Grid format.
Carousel Radio Grid	Rows are shown one at a time, each with a list of radio buttons. See Carousel grid formats.
Carousel Checkbox Grid	Rows are shown one at a time, each with a list of checkboxes. See Carousel grid formats.

Card Sort format

In a Card Sort question, respondents drag cards into categories. For example, they can sort a list of product features into “Must have”, “Nice to have” and “Don’t need”.

To set up a card sort:

Add a Grid object to the flowchart, then change its Question Format to Single Response - Card Sort
Enter the cards as the Rows (sub questions). Each card shows its row text.
Enter the categories as the Columns (answers). Each category shows its answer text.
Optionally, set Min Count and Max Count to how many cards the respondent must or can sort

The respondent sees the unsorted cards on the left and the categories on the right. They drag each card into a category, and can move cards between categories or back to the unsorted list. A Reset button puts every card back.

On a phone (a screen 600 pixels wide or less), cards that have been sorted are hidden, and each category shows how many cards it holds.

Card Sort validation

Setting	What the respondent has to do
Compulsory Question? checked, no Min Count or Max Count	Sort every card
Compulsory Question? checked, with Min Count	Sort at least that many cards
Max Count	Sort no more than that many cards. This applies even if the question isn’t compulsory.

Card Sort controls

Control	Default	What it does
`hasReset`	`true`	Shows the Reset button (Show Reset Button in Survey Editor (Beta))
`resetButtonText`	`Reset`	The Reset button’s label (Reset Button Text)

Card Sort data

Each card is stored as its own variable, named with the question code and the card’s row code, for example Q7_1. Its value is the code of the category it was sorted into. A card that wasn’t sorted is left empty. To filter on a card sort, type the filter, for example @Q7_1=3. The Survey Editor (Beta) rule builder doesn’t support card sort questions.

Randomize Rows shuffles the order of the unsorted cards.

Stacked Slider Grid format

In the Multiple Response - Stacked Slider Grid format, each row has a slider track from 0 to 10, and the respondent drags a set of cards onto each track. For example, for each brand (row) they can place statements (cards) along a scale from “Doesn’t describe it” to “Describes it perfectly”.

It works differently from the Stacked Slider format:

	Stacked Slider	Stacked Slider Grid
Cards	The Cards (rows)	The Columns (answers)
Tracks	One	One per row
Scale	Set by the answer codes on the Scale tab	Always 0 to 10
On a phone	Switches to a separate slider for each card	Same drag and drop as on a computer

To set it up:

Add a Grid object to the flowchart, then change its Question Format to Multiple Response - Stacked Slider Grid
Enter the cards as the Columns (answers)
Enter the tracks as the Rows
Optionally, turn on the allowReset control (Allow Reset) to add a reset button under each track

The respondent must place every card on every track before they can continue. There’s no Compulsory Question? property for this format.

Each card on each row is stored as its own variable, named with the question code, row code and card’s answer code, for example Q8_1_3 = 7.3. Filter on it as a number, for example @Q8_1_3>=7.

Carousel grid formats

The Single Response - Carousel Radio Grid and Multiple Response - Carousel Checkbox Grid formats show a grid one row at a time, which works well on phones. Each row is shown with its answers as a list: radio buttons for the radio grid, checkboxes for the checkbox grid.

To set one up:

Add a Grid object to the flowchart, then change its Question Format to Single Response - Carousel Radio Grid or Multiple Response - Carousel Checkbox Grid
Enter the items as the Rows. Each row is one page of the carousel.
Enter the answers as the Columns
For a checkbox grid, check Force Single Answer on any answer, such as “None of these”, that should clear the others. It’s shown as a separate radio button under the checkboxes.

What the respondent sees:

A counter at the top shows which row they’re on, with < and > buttons to move between rows
Carousel Radio Grid: choosing an answer moves to the next row automatically
Carousel Checkbox Grid: they click > to move to the next row
On the last row, a message tells them to click the survey’s Next button to continue
If the question is compulsory, they must answer each row before moving on

The data is stored in the same way as the matching standard grid:

Carousel Radio Grid: one variable per row, holding the chosen answer code, for example Q10_3 = 4. The same as Horizontal Radio Grid.
Carousel Checkbox Grid: one variable per row and answer, holding 1 if ticked and 0 if not, for example Q11_2_5 = 1. The same as Checkbox Grid.

The counter and the message on the last row can be changed with the Validation Messages control (CAROUSEL_ITEM_DISPLAY and CAROUSEL_CONTINUE_MESSAGE). There are no other carousel controls: for example, you can’t turn off moving to the next row automatically.

Other specifies

At present it’s not possible to include an “other specify” response in a Grid question.

Not applicable

For Grid questions with the Slider question format applied, you may want to add a “Not Applicable” or “Not Sure” button underneath the slider. Survey respondents are then able to select this option if they don’t feel that they can give an accurate rating on the slider scale itself.

Here’s how to create a “not applicable” option in a Slider question:

Add or select the question object in the survey flowchart
In the Columns tab, give the “not applicable” answer the code 99 — this is the answer code that the system requires to recognize that the answer should be excluded from the slider scale

You can choose whether to display the “not applicable” button to the right of the slider, or underneath it. This placement is determined by the notSureOnRight control.

None of the above

Many “select all that apply” multiple response questions require a “None of the above” or “Don’t Know” option. The “None” option must be a single select radio button rather than a checkbox to prevent it being selected along with other answer options. You can change any answer in a Checkbox Grid question from a checkbox input to radio button via the Force Single Answer property.

Here’s how to set an answer to single select radio:

Add or select the question object in the survey flowchart (close the Quick Update box if it has popped up)
In the Properties Pane, click on the Columns tab
Click on the answer you want to make single select
Check the Force Single Answer checkbox
Save the survey

Multimedia

You can add images, video, and audio to the Question Text for all question formats.

Images can also be inserted into the Sub Question text and (with the exception of Slider and Dropdown formats) Answer Text.

Data structure

For Grid questions, you’ll find one column in your dataset for each Sub Question. For example, if Q1 has 4 Sub Questions (with answer codes 1, 2, 3, and 4), the dataset will contain 4 variables, labeled Q1_1, Q1_2, Q1_3, and Q1_4. The Variable Type, however, is dependent on the Question Format.

For Checkbox grids, responses are captured in binary format, where 1=selected, and 0=not selected.

Blank (null) cells will appear in the dataset where the question or answer wasn’t presented to the respondent.

Question Format	Variable Type	Example Response
Horizontal Radio	Integer	Q1_1 = 3
Vertical Radio	Integer	Q1_1 = 3
Dropdown	Integer	Q1_1 = 3
Slider Grid	Decimal	Q1_1 = 3.0
Checkbox	Integer	Q1_1_3 = 1
Stacked Slider	Decimal	Q1_1 = 3.5
Card Sort	Integer	Q1_1 = 3
Stacked Slider Grid	Decimal	Q1_1_3 = 7.3
Carousel Radio Grid	Integer	Q1_1 = 3
Carousel Checkbox Grid	Integer	Q1_1_3 = 1

Randomize answers and rows

By default, all answers are displayed in sequential order according to their Answer Code number. To avoid potential response bias due to an order effect in questions with a categorical scale, randomization of answers is recommended. Randomization shuffles the answers so they’re presented in a different, non-sequential order to each survey respondent. You can randomize blocks of answers and exclude individual answers from being randomized.

Grid questions have two randomize properties: Randomize Column shuffles the answers (columns), and Randomize Rows shuffles the sub questions (rows). There are matching Rotate Column and Rotate Row properties.

Here’s how to randomize all answers or rows in a question:

Select the question object in the survey flowchart
In the Properties Pane, check the Randomize Column or Randomize Rows box
In Survey Editor (Legacy), click OK to confirm that you want to randomize answers. Survey Editor (Beta) doesn’t ask you to confirm.

When you check the box, the Sort Order for every answer (or row) will be automatically reset to 1, meaning that they’re all included in the randomized block. If there are answers that you want to be excluded from the randomized block (e.g. for a “none” response that you want to always appear at the end of the answer list), you’ll need to alter the Sort Order for that answer individually.

Here’s how to manually edit the Sort Order of answers:

Select the question object in the survey flowchart
In the Properties Pane, click on the Columns tab (or the Rows tab)
Select the answer or row that you want to exclude from the randomized block
Change the Sort Order to a higher value

Controls

The Controls property allows you to tailor the presentation of questions using optional keyword commands. To edit the default Controls:

Select the question object in the survey flowchart
In the Properties Pane, open the controls: in Survey Editor (Legacy), click the Edit button next to the Controls property; in Survey Editor (Beta), expand the Controls section
Edit the controls for the selected question format as required. In Survey Editor (Legacy), click OK to close the Controls dialog
Save and preview the survey

Display logic

Often in surveys, there are questions that aren’t applicable to a certain subset of respondents. Survey Shaper allows you to specify the display logic via filters so that only those who meet the filter criteria will be presented with the question.

Here’s how to create a question filter:

Select the question object in the survey flowchart
In either the Quick Update Box or Question Properties Tab, click on the Define Filter box
Enter the filter criteria by typing directly in the box (remember to preface all question references with ”@”), or by using the Filter Builder button on the far right of the property box in Survey Editor (Legacy), or Open rule builder in Survey Editor (Beta)
Save the survey — the filter description will now be visible in the survey flowchart (if filters are turned on in the flowchart display options)

All questions referred to in the filter need to precede the filtered question. Further, a filtered question can’t be placed on the same page as any questions used to define the filter.

If you have a block of questions requiring the same filter criteria, you may want to use a Skip object to skip over the block of questions, as multiple filters may negatively impact the speed of the survey.

Filters can also be applied to individual Sub Questions and Answers via the Code Filter property in the Rows and Columns Tabs. As with question filters, you define the criteria based on who you want to be able to see the answer. The Sub Question or answer choice won’t be visible to anyone who doesn’t meet the filter criteria.

Page groups

You can create page groups to display multiple questions on a single page.