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Hiding question numbers in web surveys

When you create an online questionnaire, especially one with routing, you often want to hide the question numbers. This allows people to answer one question after the next, without pondering why it has just leapt from Q9 to Q27.

When respondents complete a questionnaire on Snap WebHost or the Web, Snap generates messages if they miss a question that they must answer. By default, these messages contain the question number. If you remove the question number, it is confusing when it appears in a message, so the messages need to be changed as well. You can do this by editing the messages individually, or, for English questionnaires, using a set of messages provided in Snap that do not include the question numbers.

This worksheet explains how to remove the question numbers, use the Snap texts without question numbers, and how to edit the messages yourself.

Background

Every question in Snap has a Name. The name is normally a number, but could be a letter or even something like "Password". You can choose whether to show or hide the names of questions.

Snap uses the name to identify the question, and if you have a question that must be asked, the respondent will be told to complete the question with that name. This can be a problem if you have hidden the question names. In this case, you need to change the text of the message so it doesn't mention the name.

Similar messages are produced by Snap if you have response validation, for example, if a specific number of responses are needed for a multi-response question. There are eight Snap messages which include question names. It is advisable to edit all of them if you are omitting the numbers. If you have a multi-language survey, you will need to change the message text for all the survey languages. If you have a multi-edition survey, you can choose whether to make changes to each edition.

Default text Condition Possible text
{question} requires at least {min} replies. Min > 1 set on question Provide {min} responses to the highlighted question.
Question {question} requires at least one reply. Min of 1 set on question Please select a response for the highlighted question
Question {question} requires at most {max} replies. Max set on question You have selected more than {max} responses for the highlighted question
Question {question} requires between {min} and {max} replies. Both min and max set on question Provide {min} responses to the highlighted question.
Question {question} requires at most one reply. Max of 1 set on question Only select one response to the highlighted question
Question {question} must be answered. Must answer set on question You must answer the highlighted question
Question {question} requires exactly one reply. Min = max = 1 Select a single response for the highlighted question
Question {question} requires exactly {num} replies. Min = max and > 1 Please select {min} responses to the highlighted question

Summary of steps

This worksheet uses the crocodile survey supplied with Snap as an example, with an extra Must Answer condition added to Q2. (To add a Must Answer condition to a question, select the question, press [Alt]+[Enter] and change the Must Answer value to Yes.)

Step 1: Hiding the question numbers in your survey

Step 2: Changing the default messages that appear

Step 3: Testing your messages

Step 1: Hiding the question numbers in your survey

The question numbers are displayed in the Name and/or Grid Name areas of the question.

  1. Go to the Web:HTML or Snap WebHost edition of your survey. (The example shows the Snap WebHost edition of the crocodile survey supplied with Snap 10.

    QW: crocodile survey showing 3 and 4

  2. Click Style mode button to go into Style mode.
  3. Select All Styles from the style dropdown list.
  4. Select Show from the toolbar topic menu.
  5. Select Name (for question numbers) or Grid Name (for grid question numbers) from the element list.

    QT: style mode with all styles and show name

  6. Clear the Show box to hide the question numbers.

    QW: crocodile survey 3 and 4 no numbers

Step 2: Changing the default messages that appear

You can either use the Snap default messages that do not include question numbers or you can create your own.

Loading the Snap message texts with no question numbers

  1. Open your survey in the Questionnaire window.
  2. Click Questionnaire properties button on the Questionnaire window toolbar to open the Questionnaire Properties dialog.
  3. Scroll down the sections in the left hand pane until you get to and select it.

    QP: texts for Snap WebHost

  4. Click [Select] to display the list of Snap message text files.
  5. Select the file english (without question numbers).iL_ and click [Open].

    The message strings change to messages without question numbers.

    QP: texts for SO without question numbers

  6. Click [OK] to save your changes.

Editing the messages individually

If you wish to use different messages, or you need to create versions of the messages in languages other than English, you must edit the messages yourself. You can then save your new messages in a file to re-use in other editions and questionnaires.

  1. Open your survey in the Questionnaire window.
  2. Click Questionnaire properties button on the Questionnaire window toolbar to open the Questionnaire Properties dialog.
  3. Scroll down the sections in the left hand pane until you get to and select it.

    QP: texts showing the list of possible error messages

  4. Scroll through the list of default texts to find the ones that are displayed when a respondent has missed a question or completed it wrongly.
  5. You need to edit the texts where it refers to question numbers. Question numbers are substituted for the string {question} wherever it appears in the texts.

    For example, to edit the text that appears if the respondent has skipped a Must Answer question; select the text "Question {question} must be answered." Edit it as appropriate; for example, change it to "You must answer the highlighted question".

  6. Change the other texts that contain the text {question} to make sure that question numbers will not be displayed in the messages.
  7. Click [Save As] to save all the messages to a new file. You can then use this file in other surveys.
  8. Click [OK] to save your changes.

Step 3: Testing your messages

You must now check that the messages display as you would like them to.

  1. Publish the survey (in full or preview mode).
  2. Work through the survey, omitting questions or entering invalid responses.
  3. Check that the messages appear correctly.

    Must answer message for crocodile

  4. Now publish your survey.

If you need to change a message back to the default message provided by Snap for the language, copy the grey text in the language original field for the message to change back and paste it into the Current string field. (You can use [Ctrl]+[C] to copy and [Ctrl]+[V] to paste, or the commands from the right-click context menu.)

QP: texts showing changed text for editing

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