Verbatim

A Verbatim question is used for open-ended questions where the respondent is free to type in whatever response they want.

The input field can either be a single line or memo text field that will automatically expand as the respondent types in their answer.

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Adding a Verbatim question

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

1. Add a Verbatim object to the flowchart. In Survey Editor (Legacy), drag it from the Toolbox, or double-click it. In Survey Editor (Beta), drag the Verbatim 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 Verbatim question appears on a single page with a memo text input box under the question text. To tailor the presentation of a Verbatim question, consider editing question properties such as Multi-line and Width.

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

By default, a new Verbatim question uses the Verbatim format. You can change it with the Question Format property.

Format	Description
Verbatim	Text input box presented on the screen
Clickable image	The respondent clicks points on an image. See Clickable image format.

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Clickable image format

In a Clickable image question, respondents click points on an image. For example, they can click the part of an ad that caught their eye, or where on a store map they’d go first.

To set up a clickable image question:

1. Add a Verbatim object to the flowchart, then change its Question Format to Clickable image
2. Add the image to the Question Text (see Images and multimedia). The first image in the question text becomes the clickable image. Any other text or images are shown as normal.
3. Set Max Count to the most points a respondent can click. It’s 1 if you leave it empty.
4. If the question is compulsory, set Min Count to the fewest points they must click. It’s 1 if you leave it empty.
5. Optionally, enter text in No Verbatim, such as “Nothing stood out”, to add a checkbox for respondents who don’t want to click anywhere

There are no set regions on the image: respondents can click anywhere, and you analyse where they clicked afterwards.

What the respondent sees

• Each click adds a marker on the image. When more than one click is allowed, the markers are numbered.
• Clicking a marker removes it. Clicks after the maximum are ignored.
• The Clear button removes all the markers.
• A timer shows how long they’ve been looking at the image. It stops when they make their last allowed click.
• Enable Zoom shows a magnifier that follows the mouse. It needs a mouse, so it doesn’t work on phones and tablets, and it only helps if the image file is bigger than the size it’s shown at.

Clickable image controls

Control	Default	What it does
hasTimer	true	Shows the timer (Show Timer in Survey Editor (Beta))
timerMinuteText / timerSecondText	min / sec	The timer’s labels
hasReset	true	Shows the Clear button (Show Reset Button)
resetButtonText	Clear	The Clear button’s label
hasZoom	true	Shows the zoom button (Show Zoom Button)
zoomButtonEnableText / zoomButtonDisableText	Enable Zoom / Disable Zoom	The zoom button’s labels

Clickable image data

The question is stored as text: a list with one entry for each click. Each entry holds:

• x and y: the click’s position in pixels from the top-left corner of the image, at the size it was shown
• xpc and ypc: the click’s position as a percentage of the image’s width and height. Use these for analysis, because the image is shown at different sizes on different devices.
• seconds: how long after the image loaded the click was made

The number of entries is the number of clicks. If the question has a No Verbatim checkbox, Q1_noverbatim is 1 when the respondent ticked it.

You can’t filter on where someone clicked. To filter on a clickable image question, use its _noverbatim variable, or whether it was answered.

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Change size of input box

There are two question properties that can be used to adjust the size of the text input box:

• Multi-line — Controls the size of the input box as the respondent types in their answer
• Width — Sets the width of the text input box on the screen

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Multi-line question property

By default, a new Verbatim question will have the Multi-line property checked. When checked, the input field automatically expands as the respondent types in their answer, so it’s useful for questions where the length of responses is variable.

For questions where the responses are short and the automatic resizing isn’t required (e.g. Name, email address), you can uncheck the Multi-line property so that the input box remains a single line.

Here’s how to make the text input box a single line:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In the Properties Pane, uncheck the Multi-line box
3. Save the survey

For single line responses, you may also want to consider reducing the width of the text input box (see Width Question Property).

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Width question property

By default, the width of the input box for all new Verbatim questions is set to 90%, which is recommended for questions requiring responses of varying length. For questions requiring short responses (e.g. Name, email address), you can reduce the size of the input box via the Width property.

Here’s how to tailor the width of a text input box:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In the Properties Pane, enter the desired width into the Width field. Width is specified either as a proportion of the width of the screen (e.g. 90%), or in terms of pixels (e.g. 150px)
3. Save the survey

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No comment option

Consideration should be given to respondents who have nothing to say in response to a Verbatim question. There are three question properties that can be used to accommodate for this:

• Compulsory Question? — Uncheck this box to make answering the question optional (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))
• Helper Text — Simply provide an instruction to respondents to enter a response such as “none” or “don’t know”
• No Verbatim — Include a “No comment” or “Don’t Know” button underneath the text field for respondents to check if they’re unable to answer the question (see No Verbatim question property)

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No Verbatim question property

The No Verbatim property may be used in a Verbatim question where you want to include a button underneath the text input field for respondents to check if they’re unable to answer the question.

Here’s how to set up a No Verbatim option:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In either the Quick Update Box or Question Properties Tab, enter the desired text (e.g. “No Comment” or “Don’t Know”) into the No Verbatim box
3. Save the survey

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Character limits

For any numeric or verbatim text fields, the number of characters that the survey respondent can enter can be restricted via the Max Length property.

Here’s how to set the character limit:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In Question Properties Tab, enter the maximum number of characters into the Max Length box
3. Save the survey

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Autocoded responses

Verbatim questions can be used 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 Verbatim 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).

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 isn’t visible to respondents.

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Multimedia

You can add images, video, and audio to the Question Text of Verbatim questions.

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Data structure

For Verbatim questions, you’ll find one text variable in your dataset. Where a No Verbatim option is offered, an additional integer column will appear in the dataset with _noverbatim appended to the variable name. An answer of 1 in the _noverbatim column indicates that the respondent checked the No Verbatim box.

Question Format	Variable Type	Example Response
Verbatim	Text	Q1 = I do like a nice duck egg blue
Verbatim (No Verbatim)	Integer	Q1_noverbatim = 1
Clickable image	Text (a list of clicks)	Q1 = [{"x":212,"y":98,"xpc":42.4,"ypc":31.11,"seconds":3.57}]

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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, if you asked the respondent to type in the name of their pet, you can pipe their response into a follow up question with the pet’s name displayed in the question or answer text.

Here’s how to pipe an answer from a Verbatim question:

1. In the survey flowchart, select the object that you want to insert the text into
2. Enter the variable name of the source verbatim question into the question or answer, making sure to preface the variable name with ”@”
   • e.g. How old is your pet named @Q1 ?

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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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 is now 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.

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Page groups

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