Multi response

A Multi Response question allows survey respondents to select one or more answers from a list of choices.

Since you’re asking respondents to select all that apply, the answer choices don’t need to be mutually exclusive.

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Adding a Multi Response question

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

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

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Appearance

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

By default, a Multi Response question will appear on a single page with the answers listed vertically on the screen. To tailor the presentation of a Multi Response question, consider editing the question properties.

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

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Question formats

Format	Description
Checkbox	Checkboxes presented vertically on screen. This is the default.
Image	Respondents click one or more images. See Image format.

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Image format

In the Multiple Response - Image format, each answer is an image, and respondents click the images they want to choose. A tick shows on each image they’ve chosen, and clicking it again removes it.

To set it up:

1. Add a Multi Response object to the flowchart, then change its Question Format to Multiple Response - Image
2. Upload the images to the survey’s Resources, or use images hosted elsewhere
3. Add one answer for each image. The Code is the value stored, and the Answer Text is the image’s description, used in the data.
4. For each answer, check Include Verbatim, then enter the image’s address in VerbatimText. Use a full address with no <img> tag. The address is changed to lower case, so file names with capital letters won’t load: rename those files first.
5. Save and preview the survey

The images are shown in a circle, at 120 by 150 pixels. With more than about 10 images they start to overlap, so keep the number of images small. On a phone, the whole circle is shrunk to fit the screen.

Known issues

• Min Count and Max Count have no effect: respondents can choose any number of images.
• Respondents must choose at least one image, even if Compulsory Question? is unchecked.
• If a respondent goes Back to the question, Next stays unavailable until they click an image again.
• Images can only be chosen by clicking or tapping, not with the keyboard.

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Other specifies

Other textboxes are frequently used in surveys to capture responses that don’t fall into one of the predefined answers. During a survey, when the respondent clicks on the “other” answer, a textbox automatically drops down for them to type in their response.

Here’s how to create an other textbox:

1. Add or select the question object in the survey flowchart (close the Quick Update box if it has popped up)
2. In the Properties Pane, click on the Answers tab
3. Click on the answer you want to make an other specify
4. Check the Include Verbatim property
5. Save the survey

Other specify textboxes have built-in validation that ensures a response is entered into the textbox when the other answer is selected. You can disable this validation by unchecking the Compulsory answer property.

While it’s not necessary to enter an instruction such as “specify” in the answer text, it’s good practice as a prompt to the survey respondent. As an alternative, you can enter the instruction into the Verbatim Text answer property which will only be visible to the respondent once they’ve clicked the answer.

There’s no limit to the number of other textboxes that can be included in a question.

If answer codes are randomized, consider setting the Sort Order for your “other” answer to a higher number so that they always appear underneath the predefined answers in the survey.

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None of the above

Many Multi 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 Multi Response question from a checkbox input to a radio button via the Force Single Answer property.

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

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

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Autocoded responses

You can use Multi Response questions to automatically enter a response without direct input from the respondent. These autocoded questions can be based on the respondent’s previous answers, system variables, or any other condition you specify.

Here’s how to create an autocoded question:

1. Add a Multi Response question to the survey flowchart
2. Open the question’s menu
3. Select Action Command
4. In the Action Command dialogue box, select the required Command Type
5. Enter the action command syntax in the box, remembering to preface all question references with an @ symbol (e.g. @Q1). Where multiple commands are required, each command should be placed on a separate line, with a comma at the end of each line
6. Click OK

The action command is indicated in the flowchart by a yellow scroll icon next to the object in Survey Editor (Legacy), or an amber bolt icon on its card in Survey Editor (Beta).

Randomizing brand lists

The SET action command in a Multi Response question is an effective way to automatically select a randomized set of answers. For example, say you have a long list of brands you want to ask your respondents to rate. The survey would be too long if you asked every respondent to rate every brand, so you’ve chosen to select 3 brands at random, presenting each respondent with a different set.

To test the action command, you’ll need to preview the survey. Once you’re satisfied that the question is functioning as intended, you should check the Hide property so that the question won’t be visible to respondents.

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Multimedia

You can add images, video, and audio to the Question Text. Images can also be inserted into Answer Text.

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Data structure

For Multi Response questions, you’ll find one variable in your dataset for each answer choice. For example, if Q1 has 4 answers (with answer codes 1, 2, 3, and 9), the dataset will contain 4 variables, labeled Q1_1, Q1_2, Q1_3, and Q1_9.

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.

For questions where an answer has Include Verbatim checked (e.g. other specify), an additional text string variable is automatically created with “_verbatim” appended to the variable name.

Question Format	Variable Type	Example Response
Checkbox	Multiple Response	Q1_1 = 1
Checkbox (with Include Verbatim)	Text	Q1_9_verbatim = green
Image	Multiple Response	Q1_1 = 1

For Image questions, the Include Verbatim answers also create _verbatim variables, but they’re always empty.

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Randomize answers

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.

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

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In the Properties Pane, check the Randomize box
3. 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 Randomize box, the Sort Order for every answer will be automatically reset to 1, meaning that all answers will be 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:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In the Properties Pane, click on the Answers tab
3. Select the answer that you want to exclude from the randomized block
4. Change the Sort Order to a higher value

Adding answers after randomization

If new answers are added to a question after the randomize property box has been checked, the Sort Order for these new answers will need to be edited manually if they’re to be included in the randomized block.

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Pipe answers from previous question

With piped text (also known as conditional text, or dynamic text), you can tailor the question or answer wording based on the respondent’s answer to a previous question. For example, say you asked the respondent to select the types of pet they have at home from a list. If the respondent gave an other specify response (a pet that wasn’t on the predefined list), the pet they typed into the specify field can be displayed in the question or answer text of a follow up question.

Here’s how to pipe the answer text from an other specify in a Multi Response question:

1. Copy the code from the table below
2. In the survey flowchart, select the object that you want to insert the text into
3. Paste the code into the question or answer, making sure to replace “Q1_9” with the variable name of the source question

Multi Response Source Question Format	Code	What does the code do?
Checkbox (with Include Verbatim)	@Q1_9_verbatim	The other specify answer text provided in Q1, answer code 9 will be inserted

Source question must come first

When piping text, the source question must precede the question requiring the display of the piped text, and both questions must not be contained in the same page group.

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Minimum & maximum count of answers

Validation options are available for Multi Response questions that ensure respondents select a certain number of answers. This validation can be a:

• Minimum (e.g. “Select at least 3…”) - the respondent can only proceed to the next question once they’ve selected the specified number of choices
• Maximum (e.g. “Select up to 3…”) - the respondent won’t be able to select more than the specified number of choices
• Range (e.g. “Select 3 or 4…”) - the respondent must select the specified minimum and no more than the specified maximum number of choices to proceed to the next question

Here’s how to specify a minimum number of responses:

1. Add or select a Multi Response question object in the survey flowchart (close the Quick Update box if it has popped up)
2. In the Properties Pane Question tab, expand the Advanced section
3. Ensure the Compulsory Question? box is checked
4. Enter the minimum number of choices into the Min Count field
5. Save the survey

Don’t use with single select other specify

The Min Count property shouldn’t be used in a Multi Response question with a single select “other specify” answer.

Here’s how to specify a maximum number of responses:

1. Add or select a Multi Response question object in the survey flowchart (close the Quick Update box if it has popped up)
2. In the Properties Pane Question tab, expand the Advanced section
3. Ensure the Compulsory Question? box is checked
4. Enter the maximum number of choices into the Max Count field
5. Save the survey

During the survey, the validation occurs once the next button is pressed. If the number of choices doesn’t meet the required minimum or maximum criteria, an error message will instruct the respondent to adjust their responses.

Validation requires compulsory question

The Min Count and Max Count validations won’t apply if the Compulsory Question? property has been unchecked (non-compulsory questions are marked in the flowchart with a red exclamation icon in Survey Editor (Legacy), or an asterisk icon in Survey Editor (Beta)).

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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:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In either the Quick Update Box or Question Properties Tab, click on the Define Filter box
3. 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)
4. Save the survey — the filter description will now be visible in the survey flowchart (if filters are turned on in the flowchart display options)

Use parentheses for complex filters

For complicated filters, use parentheses (round brackets) to ensure that the syntax is being evaluated in the order intended.

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 answers via the Code Filter property in the Answers Tab. As with question filters, you define the criteria based on who you want to be able to see the answer. The answer choice won’t be visible to anyone who doesn’t meet the filter criteria.

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Page groups

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