Survey Properties Overview

Overview

When designing a survey, the first step is typically to script the questionnaire. In addition to the survey script, you can configure a variety of settings that control how the survey behaves during data collection.

Most of these settings are configured through the Survey Properties.

This guide describes each option available in the Survey Properties and explains how it affects the survey's behavior.

NOTE:  You can set these properties for all your surveys in your organization 

 

1. Right click on the Organization Name and choose 'Organization Properties'
   
2. Navigate to 'Default Survey Properties' tab to enable the relevant options

Here’s a revised version of the table with the grammar, capitalization, terminology, and descriptions made more consistent. I’ve kept the original option names as closely as possible so they continue to match the SurveyToGo interface.

Survey Behavior

Setting	Description
Accept NFC	Not implemented.
Add Shortcut	Creates a shortcut to the survey on the Pocket PC desktop. Relevant only for Pocket PC devices.
Attachments are not moved to reports	Not implemented.
Captured Quota Remain with original surveyor, ignore Quota Targets is assigned to Other Surveyor	Enable this option when returning interviews to another surveyor, such as a supervisor, if you want captured quotas to remain assigned to the original surveyor.
Do Not Prompt Any Message On Cancel	Prevents the confirmation message that normally appears when an interview is cancelled.
Do Not Prompt Any Message On Filter	Prevents the confirmation message that normally appears when an interview is filtered.
Do not start interview if Quotas are full	Prevents an interview from starting when all applicable quotas are full.
Invisible in List	Hides the survey from the survey selection screen. This is commonly used with child surveys when the child survey should be opened only through its parent survey.
Prompt for user comment when saving survey	Displays a prompt each time the survey is saved in Studio, allowing the user to enter a comment describing the changes. Comments can be viewed in the survey's Older Versions window.
Prompt On Cancel	Displays a confirmation message before cancelling an interview. Available on PC only.
Prompt On Filter	Displays a confirmation message before filtering an interview. Available on PC only.
Prompt On Submit	Displays a confirmation message before submitting an interview. Available on PC only.
Watermark pictures taken with date and time	Adds the date and time as a watermark to pictures captured during an interview.
Watermark pictures taken with organization name	Adds the organization name as a watermark to pictures captured during an interview.
Watermark pictures taken with Subject Details	Adds the interview's device index (global index) as a watermark to pictures captured during an interview.

Scripting

Setting	Description
Allow Coding to be set as '-1'	Allows coding values to be set to -1.
Always place expression questions in independent pages	Places each Expression question on a separate page, similar to enabling Starts a new page for the question.
Answer/Topic ShortID use coding	Configures Answer/Topic Short IDs to use their coding values.
Disable question symbol	When cleared, allows you to reference a question variable as a function overload without using VRef, instead of using the question index. When enabled, VRef or the question index must be used. Changing this setting in an existing scripted survey may cause issues.
Do Not Auto generate Report Index	Not implemented.
Do not use global script library (NOT RECOMMENDED)	Disables the Global Script Library located under the organization's Library node. Because this library contains commonly used functions, disabling it is not recommended.
Do not use organization script library (NOT RECOMMENDED)	Disables the Organization Script Library located under the organization's Library node. Because the library may contain functions used by the survey, disabling it is not recommended.
Engine Returns null for questions with data that were marked 'IsNull'	When enabled, functions such as Answer and Contains do not return previously entered values for questions marked as IsNull.
Fast Quota Handling	Enables Fast Quota Handling.
Keep Previous Location Question City Search	Retains and displays the most recently searched city in Location questions.
ShortID as Question Index	Uses the question's Short ID, defined on the Variables tab, as the question index displayed to the surveyor.
Treat 'ToString' as locale invariant	Ensures that number conversion using ToString is not affected by the device locale. This can be useful with locales that use different numeral characters, such as Arabic.

Display

Setting	Description
Chapter Locator (Not supported on PPC)	Displays the current chapter name in a banner at the top of the running survey. Not supported on Pocket PC.
Chapter Navigation Freely	Allows surveyors to navigate freely between chapters when the Table of Contents (TOC) feature is enabled.
Description in Title	Not implemented.
Do Not Scale Android Images	Prevents images from being automatically resized on Android devices.
Do Not Show Num Of Question (In navigation control)	Hides the current question number and total number of questions from the navigation bar.
Do not stretch survey logo	Prevents the survey logo from automatically stretching to fill the available screen area.
Enforce HTML For Mixed Answers And Topics (Recommended)	Enforces HTML formatting for all answers/topics when one or more answers/topics contain HTML.
Hide Back (In navigation control)	Hides the Back button, preventing surveyors from returning to previous survey pages.
Hide Fast Fwd (In navigation control)	Hides the Fast Forward button, preventing surveyors from quickly navigating to the furthest question previously reached. Relevant to PC Surveyor.
Hide Fast Fwd/Rewind (in navigation control - only for PC/Pocket PC)	Hides the Fast Forward and Rewind buttons, preventing rapid navigation backward or forward through the survey. Relevant to PC Surveyor and Pocket PC.
Hide Language Menu	Hides the Language menu on the device.
Ignore Html Formatting	Ignores HTML formatting applied to questions.
Ignore Html In Answers And Topics	Ignores HTML formatting applied to answers and topics.
Show fast back/forward on android	Displays the Fast Forward and Fast Rewind buttons on Android devices.
Show Question Index	Displays the question index while the survey is running.
Show Question Instructions	Controls whether question instructions are displayed while the survey is running.
Show Serial Indicator	Displays the serial indicator. Relevant only to PDA devices; not applicable to Android or PC.
Show Surveyor Instructions above question	Displays surveyor instructions above the question text.
Show Top Panel	Displays a top panel containing configured text while the survey is running.
Use Advanced Answer/Topic Alignment (Recommended)	Automatically aligns answers/topics to a consistent size.
Use Advanced Image Loading (Recommended)	Uses advanced image-loading settings to optimize how images fit on the screen.
Use Advanced Rendering Mode (Recommended)	Enables advanced rendering settings to optimize survey display.

Quality Control

Setting	Description
Auto Approval of interviews (when checked off status will be "Requires Approval")	Automatically assigns uploaded interviews the Approved status. When disabled, interviews are uploaded with Requires Approval status so they can be reviewed before approval.
Display Restricted QA Chapters inline with Regular QA Chapters	Displays Restricted QA Chapters together with Regular QA Chapters. This is useful when multiple QA levels are configured and managers need to see all QA chapters together.
Require Approval for Flagged Interviews (Status will be 'Requires Approval')	Assigns the Requires Approval status to interviews flagged by Quality Control so they can be reviewed by the QA team.

Interviewer

Setting	Description
Allow Delete Of Incomplete Interviews Only	Allows surveyors to delete incomplete interviews.
Allow Fast Subject Switching On Clients	Allows surveyors to switch quickly between interviews and conduct multiple interviews in parallel rather than sequentially.
Disallow Delete Results On Clients	Prevents surveyors from deleting results from the device before they have been uploaded to the server.
Disallow previewing surveys	Prevents surveyors from previewing the survey questionnaire.
Disallow Viewing Incomplete Interviews	Prevents surveyors from viewing incomplete interviews.
Disallow Viewing Interviews	Prevents surveyors from viewing completed interviews that remain on the device.
Do Not Allow Early Completion	Prevents surveyors from marking saved, incomplete interviews as complete and uploading them to the server.
Do Not Allow To Modify (Completed Results)	Prevents surveyors from reopening and modifying completed interviews.
Do Not Show Collect Multimedia Button	Hides the Attachment button, preventing surveyors from viewing multimedia attachments collected during an interview.
Do not show 'Quota' tab on Device	Hides the Quota tab on the device.
Hide Child Survey Menu/Button	Hides the Child Survey button, preventing surveyors from manually opening an attached child survey.
Hide Return To Me Button (Does not affect Emulator)	Hides the Return To Me option used when transferring incomplete interviews between devices. This setting does not affect the Emulator.
Hide Yellow Note Button (Does not affect Emulator)	Hides the Note button, preventing surveyors from adding notes using the yellow Note feature. This setting does not affect the Emulator.
Request Interviewer Comment when stopping interview	Prompts the surveyor to enter a comment explaining why an interview was stopped.
Show Interview stop comment in interviews list	Displays the comment entered when an interview was stopped in the interview list.
Show sound recorder bar (Android only)	Displays the sound recording bar throughout the survey on Android devices.
Show take picture menu action (Android only)	Adds a menu option that allows surveyors to take a picture while conducting a survey on Android.
Take picture menu action take multiple pictures (Android only)	Allows surveyors to take multiple pictures consecutively from the picture menu on Android.
User cannot modify filtered subjects	Prevents surveyors from modifying filtered interviews that remain on the device and have not yet been uploaded.

Data Processing

Setting	Description
Allow Duplicate Coding For Topics/Answers	Allows duplicate coding values for topics and answers. This is primarily relevant to data exports.
Allow Duration and visit for empty Questions	Allows Empty questions to record duration and visit counts.
Do not accept interviews and attachments if rejected by supervisor	Not yet applicable.
Do not accept interviews and attachments once survey mode is set to close	Prevents interviews and attachments from being accepted after the survey has been set to Closed.
Lock Answer Automatic Coding	Automatically assigns answer coding and prevents the coding value from being changed.
Multi Selection Questions default to Export Null as Missing	Configures Multiple Selection questions to export null responses as missing values by default.
Use Coding Format For Iteration Export	For loop chapters iterated by a scale, uses the iteration index in exported data when enabled. When disabled, the iteration name is used.
Use Extended (Review and Report) Answer/Topic Texts	Displays the Answer/Topic text when the Review and Report text values differ.

Printing

Setting	Description
Do Not Print Question Numbers	Excludes question numbers when printing or exporting the survey to printable formats.
Print Question Rules	Includes question rules when printing the survey, including Entrance, Validation, and Jump rules. Start and End scripts are not included.
Print Question Scripts	Includes question scripts when printing the survey.

Extended Screen

Setting	Description
Extended Screen Answer Column Count (Survey Default 2)	Sets the number of columns used to display answers. The survey default is 2.
Extended Screen Topic Column Count (Survey Default 2)	Sets the number of columns used to display topics. The survey default is 2.
Enable	Enables the Extended Screen feature for the survey.
Show Answer Images	Displays images associated with answers.
Show Answers	Displays answers.
Show Answers Above Topics	Displays answers above topics.
Show Answers Summary	Displays a summary of the selected answers.
Show Instructions	Displays instructions.
Show Question Texts	Displays question text.
Show Topic Images	Displays images associated with topics.
Show Topics	Displays topics.

Export

Setting	Description
Replace Topic Variables in Multi Topics Questions With Dimensions Variable	When exporting a survey imported from Dimensions, replaces topic variables in Multi Topics questions with the corresponding Dimensions variable.

Reviewer

Setting	Description
Show in Reviewer: CustomFields	Controls whether custom fields are displayed in Reviewer.