In Snap XMP, reports are built up using instructions. These instructions allow you to add text, graphics, and analyses to a report. When the report is run, the current response data is inserted into the analyses and text information.

You can insert references in your instructions. When the report is run these references are replaced with data from the survey or responses.

In Snap XMP you can insert table cell references. If you create a table, you can use references to the row labels, column labels and the table cells in the report text, notes on analyses or even in another table. This means that you can use any data that is in the table in your report, and it will automatically use the latest data.

In Snap XMP Desktop, you can create a ranked table and order the columns from highest to lowest. This means that you can automatically place the highest and lowest values in your report without needing to edit them.

This tutorial explains how to create a simple report showing satisfaction rankings. The report uses data from analyses in the report text and shows how to use ranked tables to headline important points. For example, you can automatically include the aspects your customers are least satisfied with.

This tutorial uses the Course Evaluation survey which is distributed as a sample survey with Snap XMP Desktop.

How table cell references work

Cell references are a means of inserting automatically updated data in a report (or in the notes for an analysis). A cell reference is the position of the data in the specified table.

The cell referred to can be:

• A row label (describe by tablename RN label e.g., AN1 R1 label
• A column label (describe by tablename CN label e.g., AN1 C1 label)
• A data cell described by its row and column number (describe by tablename RNCN e.g., AN1 R1C1)
• A statistic value described by its row and statistic number (where its statistic number is its position in the list of statistics, S1 being the top, given by tablename RNSN e.g., AN1 R1S1)

where N is replaced by the row or column number.

Once you have inserted the cell reference into the report, any filters applied to the whole report are applied to the table containing the referenced cell.

You can use any analysis as the basis for the reference. For example, if you wish to insert a reference to data in a chart, view the chart as a table to find the cell reference then redisplay it as a chart.

You can find out what the code for a given cell is by putting the cursor on it or clicking it. The cell reference information will be displayed in the status bar.

You can also find the cell reference details by double-clicking the cell and checking the information in the Override Analysis Value dialog.

Step 1: Deciding what goes into your report

When you create a Smart Report, it is important to plan your report. The simple report used in this worksheet will include:

• a title
• a sentence giving the number of people totally satisfied with course content (from the table AN4)
• a sentence giving the topic that most needs improvement (using ordered gap analysis)
• the gap analysis chart AN15

Step 2: Creating the instructions

The report will contain a title, an information line, and an analysis.

Add the title

1. Click Reports on the Snap XMP Desktop toolbar to open the Reports window.
2. Click New Report   to create a new report. This is created with a Tailor Analysis instruction.
3. In the Report details, click New Instruction   then select Information from the menu to add a new Information instruction.
4. In the Information window, enter the title for your report in the text pane. Leave the Title field blank (this is the title of the Instruction). Style your title text by selecting text and using the format buttons.

5. Click OK to save the instruction.

Create the satisfaction reference

1. Click Analyses on the Snap XMP Desktop toolbar to open the Analyses window.
2. Open the grid table AN4 to check which cells you need. The report uses the label of the first row, and the value in the fifth column of the first row.

3. Close the table and the Analyses windows.
4. Return to your report and add another Information instruction.
5. Enter the text “The number of people who were totally satisfied with the ” then click the Insert button and select Cell Value Field from the menu. This opens the New Cell Value Field dialog.

6. Enter the reference AN4 R1label in the box and click OK. This will put the contents of the label for row 1 of analysis AN4 in your report. When it appears in the report, it will be in curly braces. Note that the Base row is row 0.
7. Add the text ” was: ” and then insert another cell value of AN4 R1C5. Style the text and references.

8. Click OK to save the Information instruction.

Insert the gap analysis table in your report

1. In the Report details, click New Instruction   then select Execute from the menu to add a new Execute instruction.
2. In the Execute dialog, select AN15 (the Gap Analysis chart) from the Execute list.

3. Click OK to add the Execute instruction to the report.

4. Click Save to save the report.

Step 3: Testing your report

It is important to check that your report looks the way you want it and is picking up the correct data.

1. Click the Execute  button on the Report toolbar. This opens the Report Execution dialog with options to Check, Preview or run the report.
2. It is a good idea to check and preview your report on screen before sending it to a printer. Click the Printer button to select to print to a pdf file or to paper.
3. Click OK to close the printer window and then click OK to run the report. Your report will look something like this.

4. Check that the data that appears in the report is from the correct table cell. The chart includes the description, title and notes. You can stop those appearing by changing the Analysis Definition.
5. Click Analyses on the Snap XMP Desktop toolbar to open the Analyses window.
6. Open the chart AN15 and select Properties to open the Analysis Definition.
7. Select the Report Styles tab and clear the Reports Include options: Description, Notes, Analysis Text, and Title.

8. Click OK to save your changes.
9. Click Save to save the analysis
10. Click Execute on the Report toolbar to and run the report again. Your report will now look something like this.

Step 4: Putting in the best and worst values

You can put the highest and lowest values in a report automatically. This step shows you how to put the area needing the most improvement in the summary line by using a sorted table.

Create a sorted table

1. Select AN15 in the Analyses window.
2. Click Clone Analysis to make a copy of it.
3. In the Analysis Definition window showing the cloned analysis, change the Type to Table and the Order to Mean. This sorts the columns in order by the mean value, so the highest value will always appear in the first column and the lowest in the last.

4. Click OK to display the table.
5. The lowest value in this table is in the fourth column. You can reference the column label to show which area is most in need of improvement.

6. Click Save to save the table.

Add the area needing most improvement to the report

1. Open your report.
2. Open the second Information instruction (instruction 3).
3. Add the text “The area most in need of improvement is :”.
4. Insert the cell reference AN19 C4label to insert the label of the fourth column.
5. Click OK to save the changes.
6. Click Execute  to save changes and run the report again. Your report will now look something like this:

When more responses come in, you can run the report again, and it will be updated with the new data. If the outcomes are different, that will automatically be carried through to the report.

If there is a topic you would like a tutorial on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com

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In Snap XMP, you can include the filter and the number of filtered cases in a report instruction using a Survey field. When the filter is changed, the filter survey fields in the instruction will show the updates when the report is run.

In this tutorial, the Summary report is used. The Summary report is supplied with Snap XMP Desktop and each questionnaire contains this report. This report can be customised as required in the questionnaire.

Step 1: Inserting the survey field in your report

1. Click Reports  on the Snap toolbar to open the Reports window.
2. Select the Summary report and click  to make a copy of it. This will ensure that you can go back to the original if you make any mistakes.
3. Close the copy and open the Summary report.

4. Double-click the Information instruction to open it. The text may vary depending on the version of Snap or survey template used to create the questionnaire. The instruction shown is from a questionnaire created in Snap XMP Desktop using the Blank Template. This instruction already includes a sentence showing the number of filtered cases. The following instructions show how to add this sentence.

5. Click in the text area where the text will start and type ‘A total of ‘
6. Click the Insert button and select Survey Field from the options.

7. In the New Survey Field dialog, select Cases(Filtered) as the Field. In Modify case, select Normal as the case.

8. Click OK to insert the field.
9. Enter the remaining text ‘ cases fall into this category.’
10. Click OK to save your changes to the instruction.
11. Click Save to save the changes to the report.

Step 2: Applying the filter

1. Add the filter to the Filter field at the top of the report window. For example, using the question Q1. Are you a member of Activate Swimming Club?

2. To create a report on all the members of the club, enter Q1=1 in the Filter field.

3. Click the Execute  button on the report toolbar to run the report.
   The data that you have referenced will be filtered, so that when you run the report, you will see the number of filtered cases.

4. When you are happy with the new version of the report, delete the cloned back-up report.

If there is a topic you would like a tutorial on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com

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The analyses used for each question:

• Multiple and single response questions are displayed as horizontal bar charts
• Literal (free text) responses are displayed as lists.
• Quantities are displayed as statistics tables

This worksheet describes how to adapt the Summary Report to reflect your organisation’s needs and branding. This worksheet covers how to:

• Change the report description
• Change the default headers and footers
• Choose the content that appears in the report
• Filter the response data
• Add a weight to your data

Step 1: Changing the report description

1. Click Reports on the Snap XMP Desktop toolbar. This opens the Reports window.
2. In the list of reports, select the Summary report.
3. Click Clone to make a copy of it. This ensures that you can go back to the original if you make any mistakes. The cloned report contains five instructions; the first three set the defaults and page layout of the report, an Information instruction giving the title and a brief description and a Summary Report instruction which displays the analysis charts, tables and lists.

4. Double-click the Information instruction. This opens the Information dialog where you can edit the description. The default description uses survey fields to insert information automatically. The Insert button on the toolbar can be used to insert an image, variable fields, survey fields, date and time fields, HTML fields or cell values.
5. Click OK to save your changes and return to the report details.
6. Click Execute/Check report on the report toolbar to check and run the report.

Step 2: Changing the report headers and footers

If you wish to have graphics in your header or footer, it is best to create them at the correct size before you start creating your report.

You can place a running header or footer in your report by using a page layout instruction. This also allows you to put thumb text in your report. (This is text that runs vertically in the margin of your report.)

1. Open your cloned summary report.
2. Double-click the Page Layout instruction to open it.
3. Select the Page Setup tab.
4. Select Headers, Footers and Thumb Text. This enables the Header/Footer button.

5. Click Header/Footer to open the Headers/Footers dialog. It opens showing the default values.

Inserting header, footer and thumb text

The header and footer each consist of three areas (left, centre and right). The thumb text runs from bottom to top in the margin and can include titles for different parts of your report. By default, it appears in the right margin of every page.

Click inside the appropriate area and enter any free format text. Use the format toolbar to set the font name, size, style and color. The header and footer justification is fixed for each area. Select the Margin value to set the thumb text justification. Right edge places it on the right hand edge of every page; Left edge is the left edge of every page (suitable for single-sided reports). Outside edge alternates between the left and right starting on the right edge, Inside edge alternates starting on the left edge (suitable for double-sided reports).

Inserting images and survey information

In addition to free format text the header and footer and thumb text may also contain:

• images (header and footer text only)
• variable fields
• survey fields
• date and time of publication

These are inserted using the Insert button

• To add an image: Click Insert and select Image from the menu. Images can be graphics files with.jpg, .gif or .bmp format
• To add a variable field: Click Insert and select Variable Field from the menu. Using the [Insert] button gives more flexibility in the way the text is displayed. Select a variable, aspect and case to insert from the lists in the New Variable Field dialog.
• To a survey field: Select the survey field from the drop-down list in the top left corner in the toolbar, or click Insert and select Survey Field from the menu. Using the Insert button gives more flexibility in the way the text is displayed. Select a field property to insert from the list in the New Survey Field dialog.
• To add the date/time: Click Insert and select Date/Time Field from the menu.

When you have set up the headers, footers and thumb text, click OK to leave the Headers/Footers dialog. Click OK to close the Page Layout instruction.

Step 3: Choosing the content of the report

In the default Summary Report the Content field is blank and this setting includes all the variables that are visible in the questionnaire. You can choose which variables are in the report by listing them in the Content field. You can add any variable to your report except date and time variables. This includes derived variables and system variables known as paradata.

You can enter:

• A list of variable names, where the names are separated by commas (e.g. Q1, Q2, Q4, Q5).
• A range of variables, where you have the first and last variables separated by the character ~ or the word TO.

1. In the Summary report details, double click the Summary Report instruction. This opens the Summary Report instruction details dialog.
2. In the Content field, enter the variables required or leave blank to show all the visible variables. This example will show questions Q0 to Q4, Q5 to Q12 and Q14. The analyses will always appear in the order they are in the questionnaire, rather than the order that you enter them in the Content field.

3. You can limit the contents of your analyses by setting the maximum number of bars in bar charts and items in lists. If you limit the number of codes, bars are shown for the codes with the most responses. You can choose whether to limit list entries to the earliest or most recent responses.
4. Select Describe limits with the report to add a line to your report describing the limits you have set.
5. Click OK to save your changes and return to the report details.
6. Click Execute/Check report on the report toolbar to check and run the report.

Step 4: Changing your report data

You can change the data in your summary report using filters and/or weights. If you add a filter to the whole report, the default Information instruction will include a reference to it. If you add a weight, you should edit the Information instruction to describe how your data has been weighted.

Adding a filter to the whole report

1. Open your cloned report.
2. Add the filter to the Filter field at the top of the report window. For example, using the demographic question Q12. Are you male or female?
3. Enter Q12=2 in the Filter field to create a report using only the data from women.

Weighting your data

1. Open the Summary Report instruction.
2. Apply the weight to the report by entering it in the Weight field and click OK. For example, WT1 has been created to balance the numbers of men and women and then applied to the gender variable (Q12). This weights the data supplied by men and women.

3. Add the information about the weight that you have applied to the Information instruction and save your changes.
4. Click Execute/Check report on the report toolbar to check and run the report.

Further information

If you would like to find out more about Snap reports, see the help section Introduction to Smart Reporting.

For information about the report instructions see Adding report instructions.

To find out about filtering your data, see Filter expressions.

For more information about weighting your sample data, see Using weights.

If there is a topic you would like a tutorial on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com

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This is most useful for

• Showing improvement recommendations for the least satisfactory aspects of service
• Showing benchmarked data in tables or charts

This data can be used in an analysis, such as a chart, or displayed in a report using a dynamic reference.

Static benchmarks allow survey results to be presented with reference to previously recorded data. Static benchmarking is most useful where:

• A comparison with published industry figures is required
• Summary figures exist but the raw data is not accessible

Using a benchmark or other static figure in a chart or table

You can add benchmarks or other static figures to your analyses by adding them to a table. If you want to use a static figure in your charts you can do so by adding it to a table analysis and converting the table to a chart. The example described below describes inserting a benchmark in a chart.

1. Set up a derived variable which is true for all cases. This provides a place to store the data.

2. Create a cross-tabulation that uses the derived variable.
3. Double-click the cell you wish to overtype to show the Override Analysis Value dialog.
4. Select the Override radio button.
5. Enter the benchmark data in the panel and click OK.
6. Repeat for any other cells you wish to overtype.
7. Click to display the Results Definition dialog showing the definition of the table you’ve just edited.
8. In the Type field, select Chart rather than Table. A cloud or map can also be used.

9. Choose an appropriate style.
10. Click Apply to convert the overtyped table to a chart. The overtyped data will be used to draw the chart.

The post Adding benchmarks and recommendations to reports by overtyping cells appeared first on SnapSurveys.

This means that you can know that the first column of a sorted table will have (for example) the lowest mean value.

You can access the contents of any table cell or label, so you can dynamically access the appropriate data for whatever aspect has the lowest mean value and use that data in your report. You can also insert the text from the column label in your report.

The example below shows how to use the data from a ranked column in a report Information instruction to add dynamic text to your report.

It uses

• A table ordered by the mean percentage with the highest scores in the first column and the lowest score in the seventh column. Please note that this topic contains no information on how to create this table.
• An Information instruction which references table cells and labels from the first and seventh column

1. Set up the ratings table definition and add the Mean to the summary statistics (you will need to ensure that the mean is scored if you are analyzing coded questions).
2. Set the ordering to be by the mean.

3. Click Apply to display the table.

4. Open the report that you wish to add the dynamic information to.
5. Create an Information instruction.
6. Add any fixed text. Click Insert and select Cell Value field… from the drop-down list.
7. Enter the table name and cell or label reference that you wish to insert. The example below shows references to the cells and labels highlighted in the table T4 shown above (T4 C1 Label, T4R1C1, T4 C7 Label and T4R1C7).

8. Click OK to save your instruction.

When the report is generated, the table labels and cell values will be dynamically inserted into the report

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• Execute instructions
• Analysis (table, chart, list etc) instructions
• Information instructions
• Test grid instructions

The conditions must be a true/false evaluation, (such as whether data is in a chart). You can only use evaluation expressions that are available for the survey as a whole. This means you can:

• evaluate values in analyses (e.g. table cells)
• evaluate a survey field variable (such as cases)
• evaluate a variable@context (e.g. month@context=Jan)

You cannot use expressions that depend on the response in a particular case, such as NUM.

For example, the instruction below will only add the text to the report if the value in the table cell, row two of column one of table AN1 is not greater than 14.

The chart below will only be created if the chart C5 had data in it.

For reference information about the sort of expressions which can be used in a N/A field, see the list of filter expressions.

When creating reports that include conditional content, it is worth testing the report by running it with the option Print report item numbers. This tags each bit of the report with the report name and instruction number that created that content. You can then see exactly which instruction in which sub-report has produced content (or not).

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An instruction can:

• Set page properties (number of columns, orientation, page numbering etc.)
• Establish contexts (to specialise analyses and texts to a particular viewpoint)
• Execute analyses (charts, tables, response lists, word clouds or analysis maps)
• Show a block of text that can include data from variables or analysis, for example a particular cell value of a table
• Execute another report, or part of another report
• Be included conditionally

The example Smart Report page below has been built from a series of instructions, arranged to produce a part of a larger report.

This page is part of an executive summary section. A complete Smart Report will comprise a number of sections, for example, a cover page, demographics, and appendices. When run together, the sections combine to produce a Smart Report.

Report content

A Smart report will commonly include the following:

• Cover page
• Summary
• Benchmarked analysis
• Recommendations
• Literal responses
• Appendix

This section describes how they can be generated.

Executive summary

An executive summary serves two purposes –

• To describe how and why the survey was conducted.
• To give an overview of the results

An executive summary will commonly have a chart or benchmark and paragraphs of standard text with cell references to analysis tables throughout.

Static benchmarks

A static benchmark allows survey results to be presented with reference to previously recorded data. Static benchmarking is most useful where:

• A comparison with published industry figures is required
• Summary figures exist but the raw data is not accessible

This example Smart Report page shows charts including benchmark data.

Using a static survey-wide figure in a chart

Analysis takes place using case data. If you wish to use a static (non-case data) figure such as a benchmark in a survey, you can do so by adding it to a table analysis and converting the table to a chart. Set up a derived variable which is true for all cases. This provides a place to store the data so it can be used in charts.

Use the derived variable in a cross tabulation analysis, and overtype the empty values in the table cells with benchmark data.

Convert the overtyped table to a chart (as above example) or an analysis map. The overtyped data will be used to draw the chart.

Identifying most / least positive results for the commentary and recommendations

Smart reports often have commentaries which refer to the most positive or least positive results.

In the above example, an information instruction includes permanent text and a number of dynamic fields, drawing cell values and row/column labels from a ranked table into the Smart Report.

The ranked table below is the source for dynamic fields in this example. This table is ordered by % most positive – resulting in the highest scores appearing in the first column.

Hints and tips

• If identifying the 3 most or least positive, ensure there are sufficient categories that no item might appear in both lists
• Only the first 3 categories would be picked out, even if the fourth category has the same low score

Creating the recommendations dynamically

You can insert different information in a report depending upon positions in a ranked table. This is very useful if a report includes recommendations for improvement for those areas rated as least satisfactory.

For example the report below includes an instruction to execute the instructed found in the label of column one of a specified table.

A named report of recommendations has been created for each area that is included in the ranking. The table used to rank the areas has been set up to include the names of the recommendation reports as the column labels.

When Actaa is executed, it includes the appropriate recommendations in the report.

Note that this requires

• Named reports or analyses containing the recommendations (the example uses a text grid to lay out the recommendations)
• Ranked table column labels to be overtyped with the correct table or report name

Creating appendices

Supplementary to the main report, the appendix offers more detail for those who are interested. An appendix will commonly comprise a number of sub sections, including –

• A response summary
• Comments
• Respondent profile
• Sub group analysis
• A copy of the questionnaire

These are easily created using standard analyses such as lists.

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