Poll Surveys

Polls are "limited" surveys that allow only one question, and a chart (on in its own page) (go to Chart Object for more information) to present the results. Polls make use of the Inline Survey functionality (go to Inline Survey for more information) so you can locate them within other web pages. You can place multiple polls on the same web page, but each poll can be answered only once from the same pc (see the Note below).

Polls are stored in Optimized database format, in a shared database for the company. That is, all polls for one company are stored in the same database.

Note: When a poll is responded to, a cookie is set in the respondent's pc. Any further attempts to respond to that poll from that pc will result in the poll going directly to the chart; the respondent cannot reply to a poll more than once from the same pc.

To create a new poll survey:

1. In the Home menu, click New > Poll.

The New Poll overlay opens - . Note that the preview appears once a survey layout is selected.



Figure 1 - Example of the New Poll page

2. Type a name for your new poll into the Name field.
3. Select the language to be used for your poll.
4. Click the down-arrow beside the Survey Layout field and select the survey layout you wish to use (go to Survey Layouts for more information).

An preview example of the layout is presented towards the right side of the page.

5. Click the down-arrow beside the Question Type field and select the type of question you wish to use.

The Answer Text field will change depending on the type of question you select.

6. Type the question text into the field and format it as required using the tools in the text toolbar above the field.
7. Scroll down to the bottom of the overlay and fill in the answers as appropriate for the type of question you have selected to use.
8. Select the remaining options as required.
9. Click Create Poll to create the poll.

The poll is now listed in the Poll List and the Question Details page opens - . Here you can set up the poll and adjust its properties as required. The properties available are the same as those for "standard" surveys (go to Question Properties Overview for more information). Note however that several options are disabled for Poll surveys - you cannot for example add new questions, delete questions etc.

Figure 2 - Example of the Question Details page for a Poll

Note: If you have the Professional Panel functionality, you can link Polls to a Panel and embed the panel in your Panel Portal. To do this, if you have created your Poll using the New Poll wizard, you can go back to the Survey Overview page before you launch the Poll to set up a link to the Panel. This will automatically add “panelistid” to the survey

Note that the chart object (go to Chart Object for more information) is placed onto a separate page. This is so that when the respondent has answered the question and clicks Next, the chart then appears displaying all the responses to-date.

Double-click on the chart object in the Survey Tree to open the Question Details page for the chart. Here you can select the chart engine and type of chart to be used, and see a preview created using your selected settings and populated with some pseudo-random data - .

Figure 3 - Example of the Chart Preview using random data

Once you have set up the chart as required, save the changes and launch the survey as normal (go to Generating Response Databases for more information).