Creating a List of Answers

When the question is newly created, the list of answers will be empty. You now need to add the answers that you wish to be available to the respondent.

1. Click the Add button or press the CTRL+N keys on your keyboard to create a new answer row in the list.

The cursor is located in the first column.

2. Type the desired answer option into the field.

When you start typing, the active column will be put in editing mode, and a cursor will appear. If there is already text in the column, your new text will be added to the end of the existing text.

3. Create a new row (see below) and continue with the list until it is complete.
4. Save the changes.

When in Editing mode, you can move to the next field by using the tab-button, or by clicking in the column with the mouse. You can move directly to an adjacent row by using the up and down-arrow keys on your keyboard. If you are at the bottom of the list, click the down-arrow key to create a new row.

When you are not in editing mode (no cursor), you may use the left and right arrow-keys on your keyboard to move horizontally around in the list. Press <F2> to enter editing mode.

In the ActiveX answer list, you can copy rows from the list by pressing <CTRL+C>, and paste rows by pressing <CTRL+V>. You also can drag-and-drop or copy the entire answer list from the scratchpad and paste it into the Answer list in one operation. To do this, go to the Answers tab in your question and click Addor CTRL+N to create an answer row in the question's Answer list, then select in the scratchpad all the rows you wish to copy. Then either copy them and paste them into the Answer row, or drag-and-drop the selected answers into the row. Each row of text in the scratchpad that is selected will become a separate answer option in the answer list (additional rows will be created automatically in the list to accommodate the answers) (go to Scratchpad for more information).

You can copy and paste text directly from MSWord into the text fields. Note however that this copying process can take with it considerable amounts of unnecessary HTML formatting code, and this code will increase the file size and can create problems for later text formatting within Authoring. Click the Clean HTML...button to remove this unnecessary code. Note that this functionality will keep intact the majority of "desirable" formatting code, such as bold, italics, text color etc.

The Add predefined button allows you to add a predefined list or scale to the answer list (go to Predefined Lists for more information). This is a very useful functionality when you need to reuse, for example, brand lists or scales in the survey. In a predefined row, the first column will become a drop-down-list when activated, giving you the opportunity to choose between the different predefined scales and lists.

Important
Codes are mandatory for all the answers in predefined lists. If a predefined list is added to another list that contains additional answers then the codes used by the two lists may conflict. In this event a message will be displayed and you will be given the opportunity to resolve the conflict (go to Conflicting Answer Codes for more information).

Note: While a predefined answer list is being used in one or more questions it cannot be deleted from the Survey Tree. If you attempt to delete a list while it is in use, a warning will be displayed containing the question IDs of those questions in which the list is being used.

Click the Add Group Heading button to create a group within the answer list and insert a sub-header for the group, and click the Add Group End button to end the group - . For example, if you have a list of six elements and want to divide them into two groups with three elements in each, each with its own sub-header, proceed as follows:

1. Add a sub-header line by clicking the Add Group Header button.
2. Enter the sub-header text (in the example, the first group header is French Cars).
3. Format the text as required (in this case it has been made Bold).
4. Enter the first three answer alternatives (three car makes that originate in France).
5. Click Add Group End (this closes the group, allowing you to create another group afterwards).

Repeat the procedure for the next group. The result will be something like the picture below:

Figure 1 - Adding Group Headings

You can set the background colors and/or set styles for the rows, and you can also randomize, rotate, flip, and sort alphabetically the items in each group (go to Question Properties Overview for more information).