Inserting HTML links

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode and that the toolbar topic is set to Font.
2. Select the text to use for the link or place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the link.
3. Click Insert and select HTML Field from the menu. This opens the New HTML Field dialog. By default, the selected text appears as the link address.
4. Edit the text in Web Address to show the web page’s URL, e.g., www.snapsurveys.com.
   • If the address begins www, then the prefix http:// is automatically added.
   • If the address contains an @ symbol, then the prefix mailto: is automatically added.

5. Click OK. The start and end link tags are inserted in the questionnaire around the selected text.

Editing inserted links

You can:

• change the link’s web address
• change the text and position used as the link anchor
• delete the link by deleting both the <a href> and </a> tags in the questionnaire

Changing the link address

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode
2. Double-click the <a href> text in the questionnaire to open the associated Modify HTML field dialog.
3. Edit the Web address text as required.
4. Click OK to save your changes.

Changing the position of a link

The text used as an anchor for an HTML link is the text between the <a href> and the </a> tags. To change the anchor text, you can either edit the text, or move the tags to a different position.

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode
2. Click the <a href> text in your questionnaire to select it.

3. Cut the text and paste it in the new position. This moves the associated link with it.
4. Select the </a> tag and move that as well.
5. If you delete the </a> tag, you can insert a new one.
   • Click at the end of the text that you want to use as an anchor.
   • Select HTML Field from the Insert menu
   • Select the Hyperlink End Tag radio button in the New HTML Field dialog and click OK.

Inserting Custom HTML

You can insert custom HTML such as line breaks (<br>) and other tags in your questionnaire. It is simplest to insert each tag separately. This help does not provide instructions on using HTML.

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode and that the toolbar topic is set to Font.
2. Place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the link.
3. Click Insert and select HTML Field from the menu. This opens the New HTML Field dialog. By default, the selected text appears as the link address.
4. Select Custom HTML.

5. Type the HTML that you wish to insert in the HTML box and click OK. The example shows a line break insertion.
6. The HTML tag shows in the questionnaire. You can edit the tag by double-clicking it to open the dialog box.

If the words contain spaces, you will only see the first word in questionnaire view. The rest of the string is still there and available when you publish to an HTML output.

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Once the specified time period has elapsed, you can choose whether to move the participant onto the next page automatically or allow them to navigate themselves.

One use of Page Timers is in tests or quizzes, where there is a time limit for answering the question. They can also be used in surveys where respondents need to spend a set time viewing multimedia content such as images, video or audio before moving to the next page.

You can insert one Page Timer on each page of the questionnaire. If you add more than one, only the first timer in the page displays.

Inserting the page timer

1. In the Survey Overview window, open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure the questionnaire is in Design mode .
2. Select the question for the Page Timer and set the toolbar topic to Font.
3. Place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the Page Timer. This can be as part of a question. It can also be added in its own question; in this case Title, Sub-title or Instruction question styles are the most suitable, as they do not require any response.
4. Click on the Insert button and select Page Timer from the menu. This opens the Page Timer dialog.

5. In Time, set the countdown time. It is shown as minutes and seconds. The default time limit is ten seconds.
6. Choose whether to display or hide the countdown timer.
7. Choose whether to disable the Next/Submit navigation buttons until the set time has elapsed. This ensures the participant remains on the page for a set amount of time.
8. Choose whether to move the participant onto the next page automatically or allow them to navigate themselves.
9. Click OK. The Page Timer shows the selected time within curly brackets e.g. {00:20}
10. To edit the time limit, double click on it.
11. The Page Timer shows the countdown time when the participant completes the questionnaire.

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You can choose whether the character counter displays:

• the number of characters remaining
• the total number of characters available
• the number of characters they have used.

A character count is added to the survey as a Response property. This feature is only available for Open Ended questions.

Adding a character counter

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode and that the toolbar topic is set to Font.
2. Place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the character counter. In the example, the character count is in the footnote of the open-ended question.

3. Click Insert and select Response Property from the menu. This opens the New embedded response property dialog.

4. In Property, select the counter type.
   • Response Count shows the number of characters that the participant has entered
   • Characters Left shows the number of characters remaining in the response. This is the default.
   • Max Count shows the maximum number of characters allowed in the response
5. Click OK. The counter type is inside curly brackets; {count}, {left} or {max}, to show that it is a text-substituted field.

6. When the participant answers the question they will see the character count change as they enter their comments.

Set the maximum length of a response or the size of a response in the question’s Variable properties. By default the maximum length is 9999 characters.

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Adding video and audio clips to your questionnaire can have many uses including:

• show a video clip of a new product
• improve accessibility using audio
• show a training video clip followed by test questions
• ask about a preference between different colour schemes in a logo or package design change
• listening to music in a test or quiz

In Snap XMP Desktop, you can insert video and audio files into your questionnaire. They can automatically play when the respondent goes to the page or the respondent can select to play them when ready. You can add the media file in both the question and answer text.

Media attributes

Inserting an audio or video file

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode and that the toolbar topic is set to Font.
2. Place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the audio or video. If you wish to create a question for the media file then the Title, Sub-title or Instruction question styles are the most suitable, as they do not require any response.
3. Click on the Insert button and select Media Field from the menu. This opens the New media field dialog.

4. In Url or File Path, enter the URL or file path or click Browse to select the file you want to insert.
5. The Mime Type updates automatically when you select the URL or file path. Change the media type by selecting a different choice in the drop-down. Snap XMP Desktop recognises most multimedia file types.
6. Set the attributes for the file, as appropriate.
7. Click OK to add the file. The file shows in the questionnaire. Double-click the file icon to edit the media field.

Troubleshooting

If you wish to change the size of the display, or the properties of the media object once you have inserted it, double click the file. This opens the New media field dialog.

If you have a large media object, it may be too large to embed in the survey and then upload onto a server. In this case you must host the file on a server (or a site such as YouTube) and linking to it using HTML code rather than inserting the file directly. To do this insert a custom HTML field and enter code such as:
<iframe width=”425″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/aaaaaaaaa” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
in the New HTML Field dialog, replacing the YouTube URL with the appropriate URL.

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In Snap XMP Desktop, graphics can be placed in any question text on the questionnaire. This includes the question text, answer text, and the background of the question or page. Snap XMP Desktop supports a number of image file types: bitmaps (.bmp), JPEG (.jpg), PNG (.png) and GIF (.gif).

Snap Surveys provides a range of images for surveys that you can download and use. These survey images include icons, rating scales and backgrounds.

Inserting an image

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure that you are in Design mode and that the toolbar topic is set to Font.
2. Place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the image.
3. Click Insert and select Image from the menu. This opens the Insert Image dialog.
4. In File, select the image file from the list or click Browse to select the file.

5. Use the Zoom control to enlarge or reduce the image. This changes the size of the image shown in your questionnaire. For example, setting the zoom to 50% will mean that the image appears at half the height and half the width.
6. In Colourize Gif, select the colour, if applicable for the type of image.
7. In Alt, enter text that describes the image. The browser will show this text as an alternative when it cannot display the image. Adding this improves accessibility as screen readers use this text.
8. Click OK. The questionnaire now shows the image.
9. Double click on the image to edit it in the Insert Image dialog.

Adding a background

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire Window. Make sure that you are in Design Mode  
2. Select Background in the toolbar topic.
3. In the next drop down list, select the area to apply the background image. Select (All) for entire question or select (Page) for the questionnaire background.
4. Click the Picture button. This opens the Picture dialog.

4. Select the image file from the list or click Browse and browse for the image file.
5. Specify the alignment and stretch you would like for the image and whether GIFs show color. (Note that you cannot scale picture backgrounds used in online surveys)
6. In Alt, enter text that describes the image. The browser will show this text as an alternative when it cannot display the image. Adding this improves accessibility as screen readers use this text.
7. Click OK. The questionnaire now shows the image.

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1. In the Survey Overview window, open the survey in the Questionnaire window. Make sure you are using Design mode.
2. Select Font in the topic list.

2. Click the Insert button and select Survey field. This opens the New Survey Field dialog.

3. Select one of the available survey fields from the Field property drop down list.

4. In Modify case, select the case used to display the survey field text. Choose from Normal, UPPER CASE, lower case, Sentence case, Title Case.
5. Click OK. The field will appear in the survey as the field name enclosed in curly brackets, e.g. {Page}.

6. When published, this will be replaced by the current field value.

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There are many uses for dynamic text:

• change the question text based on the responses to previous questions
• change the answer codes based on the responses to previous questions
• customize instructions based on the responses to previous questions
• include text created using a derived variable calculated from a previous response
• insert system paradata including case number and interview date and time information

Inserting a previous response into the text

In Snap XMP Desktop, inserting a Variable field adds dynamic text to the questionnaire. The dynamic text shows in the questionnaire as the variable name in curly brackets {}, for example, {Q1}. The text substitution takes place during the live interview and the respondent sees the dynamic text.

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window.
2. Position the cursor where the dynamic text will appear.

3. Set the Topic drop-down to Font as this shows the Insert button.

4. Click the Insert button and select Variable Field from the menu. This displays the New variable field dialog.

5. Complete the fields to define the dynamic text:
   • The Variable list contains all the variables and paradata for the questionnaire. Select the variable to insert from the list.
   • In Aspect, select the type of text to insert. There are three aspects to choose from: Reply inserts the question response; Name inserts the question number and Context inserts the current context.
   • In Modify case, choose the case used to display the text: Normal, UPPER CASE, lower case, Sentence case, Title Case.

6. Click OK. The question number is displayed inside curly brackets, e.g. {Q1}, this will be replaced by the dynamic text when a respondent is answering the questionnaire.

7. Click Save to save the changes made to the questionnaire.
8. You can test the text substitution by publishing the survey and launching a preview in Snap XMP Online.

Using text substitution automatically adds a page break above its location in the questionnaire. You do not see a page break in the Questionnaire window but the interview process inserts the page break.

Example of dynamic text

In this example, an initial multi-response question asks the respondent about their social media use and a subsequent question uses this answer.

1. The first question asks about social media use and allows multiple responses.

2. The second question ask a further question about social media use and includes the response to the first question. The dynamic text is inserted with the placeholder {Q1}. If more than one answer is selected in Q1 they will be substituted as a list. This is shown in Step 4.

3. During the interview the respondent selects three answers in Q1.

4. When the respondent clicks Next, the next page displays Q2. The answers from Q1 are substituted in Q2 where the {Q1} dynamic text placeholder is positioned.

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This only works if the survey is running on a device which can capture geolocation information, such as a GPS-enabled tablet. You could either use a web browser to view the survey or use the Interviewer app to run the survey on the mobile device.

This facility is most useful when you wish to record geolocations when carrying out interviews with using the Interviewer app.

Setting up the location variable

Location variables are only useful if you are creating an online survey that is used on a mobile device, or a mobile survey for the Interviewer app. Location data is only available in Snap XMP Online and Interviewer editions.

1. Select a mobile edition in your questionnaire.
2. Click to display the Questionnaire Properties dialog box.
3. Scroll down the options on the left to find the Paradata section.
4. Highlight the Geolocation field and check the box marked Use in survey.

5. Press OK to return to the questionnaire.
6. The ID.location variable will appear below the title.

7. To hide the variable name on the questionnaire, highlight the text ID.location, and select the Show toolbar option.
8. Select Name in the next dropdown list if not displayed and uncheck the Show box. The ID.location text will be hidden.
9. Change the default text to “Current location: please wait until the location has been found.” This will ensure that the interviewer allows the device some time to find the location.
10. Click Save to save the changes to the questionnaire.

Configure the GPS timeout and accuracy

The two main methods of getting a location are using GPS or using information from mobile phone masts. GPS is more accurate but uses more battery power.

Note: Unless you know who is running your survey and what device it will run on, you cannot be sure whether the device running the survey has either of these methods enabled.

You can set a time limit on how long the survey will spend looking for location information and how accurate you would like the information to be.

1. Click to display the Questionnaire Properties dialog box.
2. Scroll down the options on the left to find the Paradata section.

3. Highlight the Geolocation field and click Configure to open the Configure Geolocation dialog

4. Set Timeout to how long (in seconds) that you want the device to keep searching for a location. The longer it searches the more battery it uses.
5. Set Target accuracy to the precision that you would like to try and achieve. This is only a guide as the device may not be able to be this accurate.
6. Press OK to return to the questionnaire.

You have no control over whether people permit the survey to use geolocation information, or whether their device is able to provide accurate geolocation information. If people are looking at surveys with a PC, the location provided may be that of a router.

Using location data in analyses

Geolocation data is captured in the ID.location variable in WGS84 (World Geodesic System) format. You can export the variable data for further analysis. The variable can either contain location data or an error code if the location data was not found.

You can extract the separate elements of the location data by using the system patterns geo unavailable and geolocation provided.

Example

Create a derived variable to extract the longitude to 3 decimal places. You need to add the paradata ID.location to your survey as a prerequisite.

1. Click to display the Variables Window.
2. Click to add a new variable.
3. Specify the Variable Details:
   • Name: Latitude
   • Label: Latitude
   • Type: Derived (the variable will derive its data from other existing variables).
   • Response: Quantity
   • Decimals: To access the Decimals field, click . Change the figure from 0 to 3.
4. In the Code list, alongside the label Not asked, enter the value “unless ((ID.location as geo unavailable == “”)” to check that you are using a valid location.
5. In the Code list, alongside the label Valid, enter the value “ID.Location as geo latitude”. This returns the latitude of the interview location, which you can use for analysis and reporting.

4. Click Save to save the variable.

Exporting the location data

A common use for geolocation data is to export the data and use it with a mapping API, such as Google Maps. You can export the data directly in WGS84 format, or you can create derived variables to convert the data to a specified format.

1. On the Snap XMP Desktop toolbar, click Data Entry to open the Data Entry window.
2. Select File | Export to display the Data Export dialog.

3. In Format, select the file format for the data export.
4. Select File as the destination and enter an appropriate filename.
5. In Content, enter the name of the variable(s) to export. The example shows ID.location
6. Click OK to export the location data.

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