General

Note: For Numeric and Numeric List nodes (go to Numeric Object for more information), the default Column width of the input box is calculated from the constraints placed on the node by the max/min/decimals/total digits settings (see lower on this page). If the max/min/decimals/total digits settings are altered then the default setting will be updated automatically when the survey is launched. The default setting will be overridden if you type a specific value into the Column field.

These options have no effect on Single drop-down questions.

If you have specified both options, Columns will be preferred as an option in cases where the number of elements is higher than specified.

In Grids, if you have chosen Drop-down as an option, List Rows/Columns may be used to specify the number of rows and columns for the drop-downs.

Answer Column Width – [Grid, Multi Grid, Lists] Defines a width, in specified units, of the answer column in grid and list questions. This allows you to align the answer options in the event HTML tables are not being used due to the Accessibility functionality.
Rows/Columns – [Open Text, Lists] You can control the size of Open Text question boxes. The default size for Rows = 1 and Columns = 50. The Open Text questions may appear as text areas or as single line input boxes. Rows = Height (number of lines), Columns = Width (number of characters). To produce a single-line input, set "Rows" to 1.
Field width – [Not Numeric, Date, Info] Number of characters assigned to this question in the database and when exporting to fixed width ASCII files. The default FieldWidth for Single and Grid questions is 32 characters. The default FieldWidth for ordinary Multi questions is 1 character.

In one-row text boxes, it will not be possible to enter more characters than specified in Field width. If the text box has several rows, an error message will be generated, and the answer will be truncated.

If you specify FieldWidth for Open Text questions, you will be able to use them in crosstabs. Note that the maximum field width for Open Text questions is 8000.

For Open text and Multi questions, if you specify a field width that is shorter than the responses in the database, you will receive a warning that the data will be truncated.

Single in reporting - [Open text and multi open text, when the field width is set to 150 or less] If this property is selected, this question will be treated as a single choice question when used in reports. The open text field width must be 150 characters or less for this setting to be effective. If the field width is greater than 150, a warning will be given when the survey is launched. Note that reporting on Open text as singles is by default limited to the first 200 aggregated counts (calculated during hub processing). This limit can be increased if necessary, though there may be performance implications; contact Support for further information. Note also that certain special characters, if used for open text questions that are set to "Single in reporting" in Authoring, will cause issues in Reportal. These special characters must therefore be avoided in the text of such open text responses. The system will accept the characters, both on respondent upload and in the survey, however Reportal may encounter problems when the responses are used for example in aggregated tables and filters. These special characters are:
, (comma)
&xxxx; (HTML character references)
<>
' (apostrophe)
\"
Space
&
\n

Note that the main use case for the "single in reporting" feature is not for open text questions where the respondent is filling in free text, because that is almost never categorical (due to typos etc.). It is for background open text questions, where data comes from for example a CRM system and is categorical in nature, for example City, Department, Product name etc.

Keep Position - [3D Grid] If this property is chosen, the item will keep its position in the 3DGrid when Column Display Order is set to be randomized, rotated, flipped, or alphabetically sorted.
Password – [Open, Numeric] makes it possible to collect data from the screen in a password style. The letters will appear as **** on screen. In addition, you can validate the password, or use screening:

If the password question has question id q1 you could use the following condition in your validation code:

IF (f('q1') == "secret_password")
THEN (the Survey)

For organizations that want to do internal surveys but do not want that their employees log on with personal passwords and userids or unique urls, this may be a solution. The survey password must then be distributed within the organization and be the same for all respondents.

Rows are always forced to 1 for questions with password property, no matter what you specify in Rows in Properties.

Other box rows – [Single, Multi, Grid, Multi Grid, Ranking, Lists] defines the number of rows for the 'Other' input box. This only takes effect if set to larger than 1. Note that when using styles, the vertical alignment of the other-input determines the vertical alignment of the associated label.
Other box columns – [Single, Multi, Grid, Multi Grid, Ranking, Lists] defines the number of columns for the 'Other' input box.
Dropdown – [Single, Grid] Singles and grids are normally represented as rows and columns of radio buttons. This flag will generate drop-down-boxes instead.

Use title in dropdown – [Single, Grid] appears when “Dropdown” property is selected. Choose this property if you want to use the question title as the drop-down title instead of the default “Please select an answer”.
Capture Order - [Multi, Lists, only for Optimized db] check this box to allow the order in which categories are selected to be accessed using scripting functions. AnswerOrder() First() and Nth(). Note that when this property is enabled, at least one category must be selected to continue past the question. Capture order relies on client side scripting. If the browser you are using does not support this, the question will default to a ranking question (input number rank values). To the respondent, the question will appear as a normal multi/list. This feature is primarily for use in the CATI environment.

Note: Capture order is not supported when using answer buttons.

Important
Once a survey containing a Capture Order Multi is launched, if you wish to change the question back to a regular Multi you must create a new database. You can however change the question to a Ranked Multi. Also, if a survey is live and you check the Capture Order option for a question and relaunch the survey, any existing data gathered for that question will be invalidated. In this case, once you have confirmed the launch, it cannot be stopped.

Opentext coding – [Single, Multi, Ranking] Check this flag to specify that this question will be used for coding of an Open-Text question. Remember to check Hidden, too! (go to Online Coding Tool Overview for more information).
Coding of – appears when Opentext Coding is selected. Here you specify the Question ID of the Open-Text question that will be coded in the Multi question (go to Online Coding Tool Overview for more information).
Indexed – [Single, Numeric, Date] If this property is selected, an index will be created on this field in the database next time you generate the database. Indexes in databases are similar to indexes in books. In a book, an index allows you to find information quickly without reading the entire book. In a database, an index allows the database program to find data in a table without scanning the entire table.

Indexes improve performance in areas such as 1) aggregated and verbatim reporting when filtering on fields with indexes 2) searching in individual reporting and in survey data editing (when search fields are indexed) and 3) data imports where the key field is indexed.

Note: Indexes should be used only when needed since responses take longer to store the more indexes there are. This can lead to slightly poorer performance in interviewing. Also, the database will be unavailable for other processes the first time it is regenerated after the index property is set. We therefore recommend against setting new indexes and regenerating the survey while respondents are answering the survey.
Note also however that some functionality in Reportal, for example Hitlists and hierarchies, require the question to be indexed.

Answers – [Single] Choose between using a “Normal answerlist”, setting up the answer texts and codes in the answers tab (go to About Answers for more information), or getting the answer from table(s) set up in “Database Designer” either as “Table lookup” or “Hierarchy lookup” (go to About Database Designer for more information). This functionality is an add-on to Authoring, so it may not be enabled for your company.

If Hierarchy Lookup is selected (go to Table Lookup for more information), then two additional properties become available:

Force lowest level selection - check this box to allow the respondent to select only from the lowest level of the hierarchy. For example, if the hierarchy comprises Continents and Countries, and the question asks the respondent to select his/her country of residence, then you can allow the respondent only to select from the Countries list, not from the Continents.
Hierarchy UI Mode - select the user interface mode to be used for rendering a hierarchy question. The options are Drilldown and Dropdown. Drilldown is the original experience for displaying the hierarchy lookup. When Dropdown is selected, each level is displayed as a drop-down. As an answer is selected, if a lower hierarchy level exists a new drop-down appears below. Dropdown is set by default for new Hierarchy lookups. Dropdown does not offer search capabilities. Note that this property applies to desktop rendered surveys only. When respondents use the iPhone/Android optimized rendering mode, Hierarchy questions are always displayed as drop-downs.
Answer list/Scale display order – [Single, Multi, Grid, Multi Grid, Ranking, Lists] these properties control the display order of the answer list [all specified] and scale [Grid only]. The items can be displayed:

In order – in the order that they appear in the list.
Randomized – in pseudo-random order (go to Randomization for more information).
Rotated – the list is shifted and rotated by one position for each new response.
Flipped - will alternate between displaying the list top-bottom or bottom-top for different respondents.
Alphabetically sorted - will sort the list alphabetically based on the labels (in the current language).

When the answer list contains Group headings, the Answer list display order controls the order in which the items inside each group are displayed. If the list does not contain any Group heading items, then the Answer list display order controls the order of all the items in the list. The order of the groups is controlled by the Group display order.

Questions display order - [Multi Grid] controls the display order of the answer list.
Group display order – [Single, Multi, Grid, Ranking, Lists] This property controls the display order of the answer list elements in a subgroup, i.e. when Group Headers have been used. The items can be displayed:

In order – in the order that they appear in the list.
Randomized – in pseudo-random order (go to Randomization for more information).
Rotated – the list is shifted and rotated by one position for each new response.
Flipped - will alternate between displaying the list top-bottom or bottom-top for different respondents.
Alphabetically sorted - will sort the list alphabetically based on the labels (in the current language).

When the answer list contains Group headings, the Group display order controls the order in which the groups are displayed. The items inside each group are controlled by the Answer list display order. If the list does not contain any Group heading items, then the Answer list display order controls the order of all the items in the list.

Column display order – [3DGrid] This property controls the display order of the columns in the 3DGrid. The columns can be displayed:

In order – in the order that they appear in the grid.
Randomized – in pseudo-random order (go to Randomization for more information).
Rotated – the order is shifted and rotated by one position for each new response.
Flipped - the order will alternate between displaying the columns left-to-right and right-to-left for different respondents.
Alphabetically sorted - will sort the columns alphabetically based on the labels (in the current language).

Total digits - [Numeric, Numeric List] specifies the maximum total number of digits that can be stored, both to the left and to the right of the decimal point). Input an integer 0<p<=28.
Decimal places - [Numeric, Numeric List] specifies the maximum number of decimal digits that can be stored to the right of the decimal point. Input an integer 0<=s<=p.
Upper / Lower limit / type - [Numeric, Numeric List] (float) and “Upper Limit” (float) are available to define the scope of the entry. For “Lower limit”, there is a drop-down “Lower limit type” containing the choices “>” and “>=”. For “Upper limit”, there is a drop-down “Upper limit type” containing “<” and “<=”. Note that these properties must be defined for the Slider option to be available on the Advanced WI Features tab.

Note: For Numeric questions, the respondent can use either comma (,) or point (.) as the decimal separator according to his/her language standards. The respondent can also write a decimal number with a value less than 1 without the leading zero, for example ".35", and the negative sign (-) can be input as the first character; no other non-numeric characters will be accepted.

Variable type [not Info]

Normal – An ordinary question object.
Hidden – [Single, Multi, Open, Grid] A hidden question ("dummy question") is hidden from the interviewer/respondent, i.e. it is never displayed. However its value may be set on the fly from script-objects, making, for example, “on-the-fly”-recoding possible. It is used for internal programming purposes or for reporting when you need to store a calculated variable which is used for example as a filter in a question or for some arithmetic calculations on some of the respondent's answers.

Note: Hidden questions are shown in Preview (go to Preview for more information) and Quick Test (go to Quick Testing Your Survey for more information), with the text "HIDDEN DATA" alongside to identify them, so you as the author can ensure they function correctly.

Background – [Single, Multi, Open Text] Treat this form as a background variable. Background variables are by default Hidden. The form will not be displayed in the interview, but will obtain its value from the respondent list. This functionality can be very useful when you have information about your respondents which you want to apply in the skipping-logic of your Survey. A column with a name equal to the form-ID is required in the respondent list (go to Handling Respondents in Limited Surveys for more information).
Recoded variable - [Single, Multi, Open Text] Used in Reporting. Turns this form into a recoded variable, which will not be displayed in the interview. You can predefine complex recoding rules in SQL or JScript (go to About Recoding Data for more information).
Panel variable (hidden) – Treat this question as a Panel variable, and hide it from the panelist. This variable type can be used to pull values from the corresponding field (with the same variable name/type) in the panel database. This is automatically done at the point in the survey where the variable is placed. Hidden panel variables will not push any data back to the panel, so in the event you need to set different values for these hidden fields, you will have to write a script to submit those values to the panel database (go to About Basic Panels for more information). Note that this setting cannot be applied to Grid and 3D-Grid questions.
Panel variable (visible) – Treat this question as a Panel variable, and leave it visible to the panelist. This variable type will pull the value that is stored in the panel database (if there is a value there). The question will be displayed to the respondent with this value, and the respondent can modify it and submit a different response as necessary. For surveys linked to a Professional Panel the new value will automatically be submitted to the panel database when the respondent moves to the next page, if the panelist exists in the panel database. For panelist “registration” surveys, this means that the panelist must be added to the panel first (with the CreatePanelist function call), before the visible panel variables will be able to push data to the panel. For profile update or regular surveys, the panelist will already exist. For Basic Panel, no data will be submitted back to the panel database (go to About Basic Panels for more information). Note that this setting cannot be applied to Grid and 3D-Grid questions.

Level – appears when Variable Type above is set to Recoded Variable. Defines the order in which the recoded variables will be calculated.
Question Skin - [All] allows you to select a different question skin for the particular question. If no skin is specified here, then the default skin for the survey will be used (go to About Question Skins for more information).
Answer Required - [Multi] replaces the Not Required checkbox that is available for the other question types (see below). Multi questions are by default not required. However Multi questions with a single punch item will be required as long as the default exclusivity validation is used. The drop-down contains three options:
Blank – Replicates previous “Not required” behavior.
Required – Forces the question to be mandatory.
Not required – Allows the question to be left blank.
Boolean - [Only Optimized DB, Single] check this box if you wish the system to store the data as 1-Bit (in the old database it is stored as 1-Byte (8-Bits)), thereby using 1/8 the amount of storage space.
Ranking – [Grid - supports touch devices] Check this flag if you wish the generator to produce code that ensures that the inputs in Grid questions are unique and consecutive (ranked) for each alternative in the list (go to Ranking Object for more information).
Gray out selected - [Grid] when Ranking is selected, this option appears. If you check this option the "unselected" answers in the grid column will be grayed out.
Not required – [Not Info, Multi (see above), Ranking] Normally, all questions require an answer if you have checked off the option Answer Required in Survey Settings. Check this flag to turn off this validation for the particular question.

[Questions in 3D Grids] When the 3D Grid object is required, i.e. the questions inside it may be required or they can be set to Not required. When Not required property is selected for the 3D Grid, all questions inside it will be Not required.

Bitstream Variable - [Open Text, Date] check to include the responses in the BitStream file. In the case of Open questions, it is recommended that you select this setting only when you know that there will not be many different answers for the open question. If the question will or is likely to receive many different answers, then the resulting BitStream files can be very large and cumbersome and may cause problems.

Read only – [Not Info] used to display questions to respondents as read only, usually displaying pre-selected answers set by a script. For example, a respondent goes to the next page of the survey where a single question is displayed. This question has one of the answers already selected, and the respondent is not allowed to modify the answer. Select this property if respondents should not be allowed to modify the pre-selected/preset answers.

Note: When a question with the Read Only property enabled is set by script within a condition, and the respondent backtracks so that the condition later evaluates to False, off-path data cleaning is not performed on the Read Only question within the condition that now evaluates to False.

Default Answer Code - [if CATI, Single, Multi] if a survey is CATI enabled (go to About CATI for more information) then you can allocate an additional code attribute to single and multi questions. If the Default answer code is applied to a question, then during CATI interviewing the CATI interviewer can use the Default button or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+d) to select the default answer.
Refused Answer Code - [if CATI, Single, Multi] if a survey is CATI enabled (go to About CATI for more information) then you can allocate an additional code attribute to single and multi questions. If the Refused answer code is applied to a question, then during CATI interviewing the CATI interviewer can use the Refused button or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+r) to select the Refused category.
Available as CATI filter - [if CATI, Single, Numeric, Open Text] if checked, the variable will be available in the CATI Supervisor with the following properties: it can be used in filter creation, it can be selected and viewed in Call management, it will be visible in the interviewer console as a searchable variable (if set by the Supervisor), and in CATI scheduling rules, if it is a background variable it can be referenced via the fr() function. Note that variables with this property checked cannot be inside a loop, and Open Text questions must be fixed width <=255. Note also that by default a maximum of 40 questions per survey can have this property enabled. For On-Premise users this value is configurable by the system administrator.
Repeat Headers – [Grid, Multi Grid] When this property is selected, the grid headers will be repeated for every N rows. N is the number of repetitions specified in the Header Frequency property.
Header Frequency – appears when Repeat Headers is selected. When using Repeating Headers, this property specifies the number of rows between headers. For example with Header Frequency set to 10, you would get a row of headers, then 10 data rows, headers again, and then more data rows.

Bottom Headers – [Grid, Multi Grid] When this property is selected, the grid headers are also shown at the bottom of the grid.
Left and Right Grid Text – [Grid] When this property is enabled, you can specify answer texts for both sides of the grid (bipolar scales). When adding or editing answers you will notice one extra column for each language in your survey, for example the column 'English (right)'. This column is for filling in the texts to be shown on the right hand side of the grid.
Show Scale Bars – [Grid] you can use bars to visualize the scale. When checked, a box is placed above each scale column, and you can set the height of the box in pixels in the Scale tab for the question (go to Scale for more information). This allows you to add for example a “ramp” above the scale columns to illustrate the value of the scale.
Force Number of Items – [Multi] You can force respondents to select a specific number of answers, define the minimum number of answers, and define the maximum allowed number of answers.

Equal to - This property is used to specify the exact number of answer items to be selected by a respondent taking the interview. Here you must take into account the number of answer items available, especially when using masking.

Min - This property is used to specify the minimum number of answer items to be selected by a respondent taking the interview. Here you must take into account the number of answer items available, especially when using masking.

Max - This property is used to specify the maximum number of answer items to be selected by a respondent taking the interview.

Force Sum of Answers - [Multi, Open Text, Numeric] if you add numerical values to these fields (you can use decimal places), it is required that the sum of the answers to the question is the appropriate value. If, when a respondent attempts to proceed to the next question, the sum of the replies to this question is not as required, a warning message will be displayed and the respondent will have to adjust their answer(s) before proceeding to the next question.
Equal to - type in a numerical value here to make Authoring require that the sum of the answers to the question is this specified value. Note that any value you enter here must correspond logically with any values you may enter in the 'Total Digits' and 'Decimal Places' fields. Note also that if you enter a value here then the Min and Max parameters described below will be redundant and will be hidden automatically.
Min - Authoring will require that the sum of the answers given by the respondent to this question is at least this specified value. Note that if a value is entered here then the Equal To parameter will be redundant and will be hidden automatically. Note also that if you specify both a Min and a Max value, then the Min value must be less than the Max value.
Max - Authoring will require that the sum of the answers given by the respondent to this question is not greater than this specified value. Note that if a value is entered here then the Equal To parameter will be redundant and will be hidden automatically. Note also that if you specify both a Min and a Max value, then the Max value must be greater than the Min value.
Left and right multi text - [Lists] allows you to place additional texts after the question's answer fields. Additional columns are added to the Answers tab for each selected language. Note that in the event a respondent fails to provide an answer to a list question where this property is selected, then the resulting error message will indicate which answer(s) is missing, using the right text if no left text is provided.
Input Prefix - [Open text list, Numeric List] the text entered here will appear as a prefix to the numeric or open text list. For Numeric List questions, if the Auto Sum feature in the Advanced WI Features tab is enabled, the text will also appear as a prefix in that field. This property can include scripting functions, so for example different currency characters can be displayed for different survey languages.
Input Suffix - [Open text list, Numeric List] the text entered here will appear as a suffix to the numeric or open text list. For Numeric List questions, if the Auto Sum feature in the Advanced WI Features tab is enabled, the text will also appear as a suffix in that field. This property can include scripting functions, so for example different currency characters can be displayed for different survey languages.
Question Category - [Not Info] defines a category for the question. A Reportal user can then filter on the question categories when using hit lists in single view in Reportal. Refer to the Reportal documentation for further details. Type the category name (or names) into the field. Multiple categories can be entered; separate using the semi-colon character. For example Food;Drink.

Note: You are advised to use a maximum of 164 characters for individual category names. You can exceed this limit, but single file exports and export templates will then not function.

Note: The number of categories that can be viewed in the translator interface is limited to 1300.

Exclude Translation – [All] allows you to exclude certain questions from the translator interface (go to About Translator for more information). This gives you the possibility to hide nodes that are used for internal programming purposes from the translators in Forsta Translator.
Exclude from reporting - check if you wish to prevent report designers using this question in a report. Note that this also includes Instant Analytics reports (go to About Instant Analytics for more information).
Deleted – [All] When you delete an object from the routing, it is not permanently deleted, but the “deleted” flag is set. If you turn on Show deleted nodes, you can undelete the object by unchecking this flag.
No cleaning on question masking - [All] If you have selected to allowed the respondents to modify their answers, the respondents can move back and forth in the Survey and change their answers. In this case, to ensure consistency in the data, if a question is masked (Question Mask evaluates to TRUE), the question is hidden and any answers to that question (they may be derived from the answers to other questions) are deleted. However sometimes you may not want to delete the previously entered data. The question property "No cleaning on Question Masking" will prevent this cleaning procedure being performed on this question. Note that a system or company administrator can select the company setting "Set 'No cleaning on Question Masking' as default" for the entire company.

Forsta Professional Authoring Support

Articles in this section

In this article