Verbatims

A Verbatims question allows you to collect multiple open-ended responses in the one question. This is useful when you want to keep responses discrete, but collect them on one screen. Like a single response Verbatim question, a Verbatims question has no code frame or predetermined response — the respondent is free to type in whatever response they want.

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Adding a Verbatims question

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

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

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, any new verbatims question will be set to a Verbatim format.

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

Format	Description
Verbatim	Text input boxes presented for each item on the screen
Verbatim Grid	Text input boxes presented in a matrix on the screen
Numeric	Numeric input boxes presented for each item on the screen, with total
Numeric Grid	Numeric input boxes presented in a matrix on the screen, with column and row totals

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Change size of input box

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

• Controls — Set the height of all input boxes via this Question property
• Multiline — This Answer property controls the size of the input box as the respondent types in their answer
• Width — This Answer property sets the width of the text input boxes on the screen

Per-answer settings

For Verbatims questions, Multiline and Width need to be set individually for each Answer. In Survey Editor (Beta), changing the question’s Multi-line property sets Multiline for every answer at once.

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Multi-line question property

By default, a new Verbatim question will have the Multi-line property checked for all answers. 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 Multiline answer property so that the input box remains a single line.

Here’s how to remove the Multi-line property:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In the Properties Pane, click on the Answers Tab
3. Select the Answer, then uncheck the Multiline box — repeat this step for all answers requiring the removal of the Multiline property
4. Save the survey

Individual answer setting

For Verbatims questions, Multiline needs to be set individually for each Answer.

For single line responses, you may also want to consider reducing the initial row height (see Controls Question Property) and width of the text input boxes (see Width Question Property).

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Controls question property

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

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. 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
3. Edit the controls for the selected question format as required. In Survey Editor (Legacy), click OK to close the Controls dialog
4. Save and preview the survey

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Width question property

By default, the width of the input boxes for all new Verbatims 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 answer property.

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

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In the Properties Pane, click on the Answers Tab
3. Select the Answer, then 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). Repeat this step for all answers requiring a change in width
4. Save the survey

Individual answer setting

For Verbatims questions, Width needs to be set individually for each Answer.

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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 — For Multiple Response - Verbatim question format, 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 Verbatims where you want to include a button underneath the text input fields for respondents to check if they’re unable to provide any answers to 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

Format restriction

No Verbatim is only available for the Multiple Response - Verbatim question format.

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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 MaxLength property.

Here’s how to set the character limit:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. In Question Properties Tab, click on the Answers Tab
3. Select the Answer, then enter the maximum number of characters into the MaxLength box. Repeat this step for all answers requiring a change in maximum length
4. Save the survey

Individual answer setting

For Verbatims questions, MaxLength needs to be set individually for each Answer.

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Multimedia

You can add images, video, and audio to the Question Text and/or images to the Answer Text of Verbatims questions.

Here’s how to add an image to the Answer Text:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. 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
3. Select Image from the Answer Label dropdown
4. Click OK

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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_1 = I do like a nice duck egg blue
Numeric	Decimal	Q1_1 = 3.14
Verbatim Grid	Text	Q1_1_1 = bananas
Numeric Grid	Text	Q1_1_1 = 3

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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 is 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 needs 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, 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 Verbatims 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 dog named @Q1_1 ?

Verbatims Source Question Format	Code	What does the code do?
Verbatim	@Q1_3	The answer text provided in Q1, answer code 3 will be inserted
Numeric	@Q1_3	The numeric answer provided in Q1, answer code 3 will be inserted
Numeric (total)	@Q1_total	The total of all answers provided in Q1 is inserted
Verbatim Grid	@Q1_3_2	The answer text provided in Q1, row 3, column 2 will be inserted
Numeric Grid	@Q1_3_2	The numeric answer provided in Q1, row 3, column 2 will be inserted
Numeric Grid (total)	@Q1_total	The grand total of all answers provided in the matrix for Q1 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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Decimal places for numeric question

Here’s how to set the number of decimal places for a numeric question:

1. Select the question object in the survey flowchart
2. 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
3. Enter the required number into the Decimal Places field
4. Click OK

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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.

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 isn’t 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.