Composing Open-End Questions

Open-end questions let respondents type any characters (including letters and numbers) into an answer field. You can create either fixed entry fields (single line) or free entry fields (multiple lines) that give text scrolling capabilities when typing long text strings.

First we'll describe how to compose Open-end questions, and then we'll provide a simple example for you to try.

When you add an open-end question to your survey, the new question is inserted directly after any highlighted question in the List of Questions of the Write Questionnaire dialog. If no question is highlighted, the new question is inserted at the end of the list.

The Open-end Question dialog is used for constructing open-end questions.

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Open-end Question Layout

The open-end question has four main sections:

1. Header 1

2. Header 2

3. Question

4. Footer

The Question text line with its answer field is indented according to the general indent you specify in the Global Settings dialog.

The Open-end Question dialog has five buttons: Rename, Advanced..., Preview, OK and Cancel.

Format controls (Color, Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, and Justification) are available for formatting text.

Advanced...

This button accesses advanced settings for this question.

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Open-end Question Settings

From the Settings tab, you can choose whether the response is Fixed Entry (single line) or Free Entry (multiple lines).

Fixed Entry:

A single-row answer field is displayed. Respondents cannot type more characters than the specified limit (between 1 to 256).

Free Entry:

The answer field can be formatted across a single or multiple rows. Scroll bars are provided and respondents can type up to the maximum number of characters that you specify (up to 10,000). (In any case, responses are trimmed to a maximum of 10,000 characters to maintain data file integrity.)

You also can specify a minimum number of characters that respondents must type. The number of typed characters is checked when the interview runs on the server.

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Referencing Open-End Questions in SSI Script

Open-End Questions:

Syntax: QuestionName Examples: Q1 [% Q1 %] Description: You refer to open-end question using the question name. For example, [% Q1 %] returns the typed response for Q1.

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Example: Composing a Fixed Entry Open-end Question

1. Click Add from the Write Questionnaire dialog.

2. Select the Open-end question type.

3. Type a valid name in the Question Name field, such as FirstName, then click OK.. Question names can include up to 24 letters or numbers (no spaces or underscores permitted, and cannot start with numbers).

4. From the Settings tab, Check Fixed Entry, specify a Maximum Number of Characters of 15.

Click the Question Text tab.

5. Header 1:

Text:      What is your first name?

Color:      (Default)

Size:      3 (default)

Justify:      Left (default)

Bold:      On

(Skip Header 2)

6. Question:

Text:      Name:

Color:      (Default)

Size:      3 (default)

Justify:      Left (default)

(Skip Footer)

7. Click Preview:

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Example: Composing a Free Entry Open-end Question

1. Click Add from the Write Questionnaire dialog.

2. Select the Open-end question type.

3. Type a valid name in the Question Name field, such as VanStyle, then click OK..

4. From the Settings tab, Check Free Entry, specify 5 rows and 90 columns.

Click the Question Text tab.

5. Header 1:

Text:      What do you like or dislike about the styling of the Summit minivan?

Color:      (Default)

Size:      3 (default)

Justify:      Left (default)

Bold:      On

6. Header 2:

Text:      (Type your response below)

Color:      (Default)

Size:      2

(Skip Question)

(Skip Footer)

7. Click Preview: