Global Settings

Global Settings
(Format Settings Tab)

The Global Settings dialog (accessed under Compose | Write Questionnaire | Global Settings...) lets you specify settings that apply to all questions within your questionnaire. It has seven tabs:

   Format Settings
   Global Font Colors
   Headers and Footers
   Progress Bar
   Browser Settings
   Error Messages
   Styles


Background Color

You can control the background color for your survey by checking Specify a Color. Click the Change... button to access the "color picker." You can also specify customized colors by typing the 6-character hexadecimal "red-green-blue" value in the form RRGGBB directly into the color field. For example, "00ff00" sets the color to green. The default background color takes on whatever default is set for the browser viewing the document (usually white).

Submit Button

Use Text

Respondents click the Submit button at the bottom of the password page and other pages of the survey to send data to the server. You customize the text that appears on this button by typing text directly into the Submit Button Text field. This is helpful when interviewing in foreign languages.

Use Graphic

You can use a graphic for your next button by browsing for the graphic here. When you select the graphic in this manner, it is copied into your Graphics folder when you prepare for web upload. If you browse to the graphic, the correct HTML and an appropriate path is configured for your graphic using the GraphicsPath() SSI Scripting syntax.

We have provided some sample "Next" button graphics in the Graphics Library folder.

The "Use Graphic" option requires respondents to have JavaScript enabled on their browsers. If the respondent does not have JavaScript, the respondent will see a generic next button with the following label ">>".

Button Justification

Specify whether the Submit button is left justified, center justified, right justified, or tabbed on the page, by selecting a Submit Button Justification option.

Sawtooth Software Logo

If you don't wish to display the Sawtooth Software notification on the last page of your survey, un-check the Display "Powered by Sawtooth Software" on the last page box. You must include a Terminating/Link question as the last question of your survey and mark it as a terminating question for the Sawtooth Software notification to be removed.

HTML DOCTYPE

Checking Include HTML DOCTYPE adds the following line to the top of each of the web pages generated by SSI Web:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

This line declares the HTML version used on the web page. Many web browsers will read this line and make a decision how to display the HTML. The DOCTYPE declares that the HTML is following standards. You can check the HTML of the page for errors by going to http://validator.w3.org/.

Using a DOCTYPE can alter the way that the web page is displayed in some browsers. Some of your custom HTML might not be formatted quite the same in some browsers with the DOCTYPE at the top as it is without it. You might consider un-checking Include HTML DOCTYPE if you are not pleased with the slight visual changes on the web page caused by the DOCTYPE.

Question Verification

Any browser that interprets standard HTML can work to take surveys. More recent browsers support JavaScript 1.2. You can reduce the processing effort for your Web server by letting JavaScript, running locally on your respondents' computers, perform response verification (making sure required questions are answered, numeric values fall within prescribed ranges, etc.).

If you specify JavaScript verification and the respondent's browser does not support or does not have JavaScript 1.2 or later enabled, SSI Web will use the Perl error checking script built into SSI Web instead. Under Perl verification, responses to the survey page are submitted to the server, the Perl scripts perform the response verification, and any error messages are sent within the HTML code back to the respondent. We generally recommend you check the Use JavaScript 1.2 box. If you want to turn off JavaScript verification altogether, you can un-check it, although in most cases there is no reason why you would want JavaScript to be off.

Between Each Question

Horizontal Line

Check the Horizontal Line between Questions box to place a horizontal line between questions on a survey page. The horizontal line extends the full width of the display window of the Internet browser.

Blank Lines

If you plan to group more than one question on a survey page, you should specify how much space separates them. Specify the number of blank lines (between 0 and 999) in the Blank Lines between Questions field.

General Indent

Most question types feature an indented section. You control the amount of indent by specifying a number (representing number of pixels) in the Indent Width (Pixels) field. Check the effect of different indent widths by adjusting the pixel width and previewing your questionnaire, or particular questions.

Background Graphic

An attractive background (wallpaper) graphic can greatly improve the look of your questionnaire. You can create a background graphic based on a corporate logo, or choose from a number of backgrounds available for downloading from various sites on the Internet.

When creating your own graphic, choose a .GIF or .JPG format to ensure compatibility across different browsers. We suggest subtle backgrounds that enhance the look of the page, without making the foreground text difficult to read.

To choose a background graphic, use the button to browse to and select the graphic. It is important that you browse to the directory and select the file so that the graphic can be managed properly for Preview, testing in Local Server, and for proper pathing when eventually uploading to a remote server. For more information about how SSI Web manages graphics, please see Including Graphics in Your Questionnaire.

The background graphic takes precedence over background colors. The background color may appear briefly until the graphic file has been loaded by the browser.

Global Font

You can specify the font face used for text in the survey. Type a font face, such as Times or Arial. Do not put quotes around the font face. The font face doesn't apply to text in response fields for the open-end, numeric or combo box question types. It is best to use a standard font, since respondents may not have the particular unique font you might want to use installed on their machine. If the font you specify is not available on the respondents machine, the browser will choose a default font. If you specify multiple fonts separated by commas, if the first font is not found on the respondent's machine, the second font will be attempted, and so on.

Numeric Formatting

If you are including numeric questions in your survey and have specified that decimal answers are permitted for those questions, you need to specify the character to be reserved for the decimal point. In the US, a period (default) is used. Other countries may use a comma. If a period is selected, only numbers and a single period are acceptable answers. For example, the number "one thousand one and one half" must be specified as: "1001.5", not "1,001.5". If other characters are used, a warning message appears.

If you specify that a comma or period is to be used as the decimal point character, both periods AND commas are acceptable as decimal points. In other words, the number "one thousand one and one half" can be specified as: "1001.5" or "1001,5", but not "1,001.5", or "1.001,5". (Note: the Marginals program within the Admin Module truncates all decimal answers, treating them as integers, prior to computing frequencies, min, max, and means.)

Browser Title

This field lets you specify the text that appears in the title bar of your browser (very top of browser window). This lets you further customize the browser appearance for your survey. For example, you may want the browser title bar to say: "ACME Customer Satisfaction Study 2007".