General Improvements:
1. No more limitation of 4 character studynames. Up to 24 characters now supported.
2. Multiple CBC studies, ACA studies, and CVA studies may be included within the same project. This means less linking of surveys!
3. Back button (not just the back button on the browser toolbar, but a back button within the survey). You can even back up to all parts of the survey after a restart.
4. Graphical select and radio buttons (which also means you can dramatically change the size of buttons). Also, an option to highlight the text of response items on mouseover.
5. Randomized Blocks of questions (e.g. the 3 blocks of questions: Q1-Q3; Q4-Q10; Q11-Q25 can be randomized, and Q1-Q3 always stay together as a block, Q4-Q10 always stay together, etc.)
6. The standard formatting controls in the edit question dialogs will operate nicely in conjunction with styles. In previous versions, styles typically would override most of the formatting controls. Starting in v7, SSI Web surveys by default use a more attractive style, so your surveys will look much better even before you apply your favorite style.
7. Many new styles available in the library.
8. Dramatically improved data export speed.
9. Ability to export all the text for your survey to an XML XLIFF file format (commonly used by translation houses). Once your survey is translated, you can import the XLIFF file back into your survey in one step.
10. Automatic survey upload and data download. The FTP process is built into SSI Web, so this feature will make working with the server faster and less complicated. SFTP (a more secure file transfer protocol) is also supported.
11. Ability to edit data (change responses) through the online administrative module, including changing the status of a respondent from an incomplete to a completed record.
12. Ability to set filters for the marginals report. This lets you, for example, tally the responses for a question among respondents belonging to large businesses.
13. Incompletes (drop out) report. Reports what percent of respondents dropped out at each question.
14. Internal respondent numbers are now all numeric, not alpha characters. Numbers are much easier to interpret and work with!
15. Ability to save response time (latency) per page. This is on by default, but you can easily turn it off (to reduce the size of the stored data file) via SSI Web's interface on the Survey Settings dialog, Advanced tab.
16. We've redone the way that "error messages" work (messages that tell respondents that they've missed a question on the page, or used an invalid response). In v7, we highlight the question with the problem using a (typically red) box, and place a (typically red) message within the box describing the nature of the error. (You can change the warning color from red.)
17. Auto advance for questions involving constructed lists that include a single response item with a required response. Previously, the respondent would see the question and be forced to check the one (and only) possible response. With v7, we recognize that the response is a foregone conclusion, and we automatically record the answer and advance to the next question.
MaxDiff-Specific Improvements
1. New function for computing MaxDiff scores on-the-fly using individual-level logit. You can return scores for each item, or a ranking of the items. This makes it possible, for example, to force just the top (most important) n items onto a new constructed list.
2. Paper-and-Pencil data collection and accumulation methodology incorporated within SSI Web. No more need to use the separate MaxDiff Designer software.
Note: More detailed version information including bug fixes can be accessed on the Sawtooth Software website at http://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/version/ssiweb/ssiweb_history.html
