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Adding slider bars to your questionnaires with SurveyPlus

This worksheet describes how to make quantity and single-response questions appear as draggable slider bars. Respondents can then drag the slider instead of choosing a response from a list or typing in a number.

Try with this one.

Q1.

You can also display the contents of the code text box for single response questions in Snap. If you add graphics to the code text box, the appropriate graphic is displayed as the slider is moved.

Q3.
 
Q2. How happy are you with the speed of service? (Fader template)
 

The slider bar tool includes templates for horizontal and vertical bars and thermometers. You can also create your own bar and slider graphics.

Background

Slider bars can only be used when the position of the question and the possible answers are known. This means that:

  • Single-response questions and grids must be drop-down lists
  • Questions using sliders cannot be masked or randomly rotated
  • Quantity variables must be set to have a range, so the program knows what the beginning and end of the slider relate to.

The published survey is processed to convert questions to slider bars. This changes the published survey. Once you have processed a survey, you cannot change it again. Instead, you have to remove the slider bars and recreate them, either from saved settings or from scratch.

Adding graphic sliders to a published questionnaire

The slider bar tool includes graphics and templates to make it quick and easy to add simple bars to a published survey.

The templates provide multiple bar images and a button, set so to appear in the correct style and position. The bar lengths conform to the number of available responses in the question. When you choose a template, the program chooses an available bar length that matches the possible responses. For example, the program chose the correct five-position bar for the question below, when the user selected a stepped Fader template.

Q3. How happy were you with the speed of service?
 

Using code labels

The templates allow you to decide whether to display the code label (the text associated with a given response) or not. If you choose to display it, when the respondent moves the slider, the text is displayed, showing them what that position on the slider means.

If you have a drop-down list with images as well as, or instead of text, in the code label, these also change according to the slider position. For example, you can use the smiley face icons supplied with Snap to create the bar on this page.

Q4. How happy are you with this slider?
 

Summary of steps

To use a slider bar in your survey you would need to:

  1. Set up the questions in the survey in Snap and publish your survey.
  2. Open the published survey file in the slider bar program.
  3. Select the question(s) to convert.
  4. Define the bar and slider you are using.
  5. Check if you need to adjust the size or position of the image.
  6. Process the questions to add slider bars to the survey.

The questions in the instructions below are taken from the Crocodile Rock example survey that is provided with Snap.

Step 1: Setting up the questions

  1. Open the survey and find the questions that you wish to change to slider bars.
  2. If the question is a quantity variable, give it a valid range
    • Open the variable properties window
    • Set the valid property (min to max)
    • Clear any Source Pattern settings

    Variable properties dialog graphic

  3. If the question is a single-response question or grid line, convert the layout to a drop-down list
    • Select the question.
    • Select Boxes in the Style Attribute box on the toolbar
    • Check the Drop-down checkbox.
    • Insert any required graphics in the code labels. For example, the picture shows the use of the smiley face icons supplied with Snap

    Smiley face code boxes

  4. Open the questionnaire properties and go to the Interviews section
    • Check that the Validate Open Responses box is checked.
  5. Save and publish the questionnaire.

Step 2: Opening the published survey

  1. Open the slider program (Start > All Programs > Snap > SurveyPlus > Slider Bar).
  2. Use the [...] button to browse for the published survey (.htm files for HTML surveys, .msf files for other surveys).

Step 3: Adding a slider

  1. Click to open the Add slider item window. It lists the survey questions that can be converted to sliders.

    Choosing a question for a slider graphic

  2. Select one or more questions in the window. A preview window opens, showing how the question will appear.
  3. Click the [Next>>] button to start the conversion.
  4. Use the [...] button to browse for a template.

    Loading a template graphic

    The templates are sorted into folders according to the graphic they use:

    Template directory tree graphic

    The template files have been given names that describe how they work.

    Name section Meaning

    Horiz or Vert

    Whether the bar is horizontal or vertical.

    Contin or Steps

    Whether the respondent can pick any point on the slider (continuous) or only go to defined points (stepped).

    Labels or NoLabels

    Whether code labels are visible.
  5. Click [Finish] to use the template. The Add slider item window closes
  6. Repeat for any other questions you wish to convert.

Step 4: Processing and previewing

When you have set slider bars on all the questions you wish to, you can process the published survey to add the sliders.

  1. Click [Process] on the Slider Bar dialog to add the sliders to the survey.

    Slider bar dialog graphic 

  2. A message appears. Click OK.

    Slider bar added dialog graphic

Click SaveFile: Save asto save your settings. The .sbs (slider bar settings) file will be saved by default into C:\Program Files\Snap Surveys\SliderBar\SliderBar\templates. Leave the Slider Bar program open in case you need to make changes after previewing.

You can preview your survey with the added sliders by using the Previewer program supplied with Snap.

  1. Select the survey pathname in the Slider Bar dialog box and use the Control C keys to copy it.
  2. Use Windows Explorer to browse to the Snap installation directory (normally C:\Program Files\Snap 9).
  3. Run the Previewer.exe program. The Snap Previewer window opens

  4. Select File | Open and paste in the published survey path (you can also browse for the survey file).
  5. Check how your survey looks with the new slider bars.

    Q3. How do you rate the following?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  6. If you need to make any adjustment to your sliders, you must do it in the Slider Bar program.

Reloading a processed survey into the Slider Bar

  1. If you have closed the Slider Bar program, and you wish to make changes to the sliders, you will need to reload the survey into the Slider Bar program. You will be told:

    Remove slide bar dialog graphic

  2. Click [OK], and the click [Remove] to remove the existing sliders.
  3. Reload your saved settings file by clicking and browsing for the .sbs file.
  4. You can now make any changes you need to.

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