All surveys include a survey-wide default setting to indicate whether responses are required or optional. This default setting applies to each question in the survey, unless you specify otherwise.
To set the survey-wide response requirement:
- Choose Survey \ Preferences from the survey designer menu.
- Click the Responses tab.
- Choose the desired option under Responses Required.
- Click OK.
While this setting provides a default, individual questions can be programmed to override the default. Follow the link to the article “Setting a Question’s Response Guides” below for instructions on how to override this setting for an individual question or for a group of questions.
Unanswered Response Labels
There are two types of questions that may require special consideration for their responses.
For Select One-type questions in which the response options are displayed as a poplist, the default unanswered response is “–Select One–“. This provides a “blank” answer for the survey taker to start with; otherwise, the first response would automatically show first and become a default answer. To change the response from –Select One– just type the new text in the field.
For a Select One-type question with radio group responses, once a selection has been made there is no way to “deselect” the radio button so that no responses are selected. Including a response option such as “Select to leave question unanswered” will create an response that allows the Participants to select and leave the question unanswered.
NOTE: Both the Poplist Item and Radio Group Item are global settings and will be applied to all questions of that type.
Default Loop Summary Indicators
Survey Preferences stores the default loop summary indicators if none are specified in the Loop object. These preferences can be overwritten in the Loop object but the default is to use the values specified in Survey Preferences.
The Loop Indicators can be graphics or text to Indicate the status of the Variables named in the Loop Summary Table.