Designing a survey based on a template

When creating your survey you can choose to design it yourself or begin by using a template.

1. Click File, then New, then Survey from Template.

2. There are a few different surveys included with the download, covering areas such as ‘household’ and ‘employment’ which may serve as a useful starting point.

3. To use a template, follow the steps in the Snap SurveyConstructor wizard. You can then add and edit survey elements as described below.

Designing a new survey from scratch

If you don’t have a template, or can’t find one to suit your needs, you can easily design a survey yourself using the simple interface.

1. Click File, then New, then Survey.
   

2. Enter some basic details about the survey and click OK.

• Survey: A brief description of your survey
• Title: Your survey title
• Publication Medium: Select Paper, Web or Email (select Web to publish online)
• Language: Defaults to English
• Style Template: Driven by the Publication Medium you selected

3. You will now be presented with your blank questionnaire in design mode. A ‘Title’ text box is created automatically as the first element in the survey

Adding and editing survey elements

1. It is a good idea to start your questionnaire with a title. You can type this in the text placeholder that displays the message ‘Click here for text’.

2. Pressing the Enter key creates a placeholder for the next survey element. To create a subtitle we can click on the new element, select Sub Title from the question type drop-down menu (top left) and enter text as before. Note: pressing the Enter Key creates new survey elements, to move to a new line inside the text box, use Shift+Enter

3. To add a single choice question, press enter to add a new element and select Single Choice as the question type

4. You can now enter your question text by clicking on ‘Click here for text’ in upper box. You can also enter your first response option by clicking on ‘code label’ in the lower box.

5. You can add more response options by highlighting your first code label and pressing the Tab Key.

6. If you wish to convert the question type, for example to a drop down menu rather than single choice question, this can be done by selecting the question and simply changing the question type in the top left menu. There are a wide variety of question types including; single choice, multiple choice, free text entry and semantic scales as well as graphical options such as slider controls.

7. If you need to edit question properties (for example to set the question to mandatory) right-click on the question and select Variable Properties.

8. Aesthetic changes such as size and style of font can be made using the second drop-down menu next to the question type selector.

9. If you need to insert a page break, right-click and select Break. You can also select a question and press Ctrl + Shift + B on your keyboard to insert a page break above it. In online surveys, page breaks will be used to make content appear on successive pages.

10. Continue developing your questionnaire until you are happy with the layout, formatting and questions.

11. To save your survey, click File, then Save, or click the tick on the menu. Please note that if you are working on the VDI you must save your work on your H: drive.

If you require more information, advice or support please email us at digitalresearch@abdn.ac.uk