Creating a Map Control

If you are using an online questionnaire, you can make the survey more interesting by converting single or multi-response questions to clickable graphics using Map Controls.

You can also convert single response or quantity questions to slider bars.

You will need to set a range for your quantity variable, so the program knows what the beginning and end of the slider relate to.

Using an active map to allow respondents to click an image

You can create a clickable Map Control as a way of representing multi-choice or grid questions on screen. Respondents click the area(s) of the image representing their response and that area is highlighted. You define the areas to click on, how they map to the question codes, and how the areas are highlighted when the respondent selects them.

Converting a question to a Map Control

1. Open the questionnaire in Design mode.
2. Select a multi-choice or grid question.
3. Select Show in the toolbar topic list.
4. Select As Map Control in the next list and check the box.
5. The question layout changes to a grey box with the text “Double-click to define Map Control”
6. Click the Map control button on the toolbar or double-click the grey block to open the Map Control Editor window to define your clickable picture.

The codes in the selected question will be loaded into the Map Control Editor so you can associate them with defined areas of the image.

Introduction to the Map Control Editor

The Map Control Editor allows you to overlay an existing image with a Map Control made up of user-defined areas. For example, you could have a map of the United States, and set up the Map Control to identify each state as a separate area.

You then link the areas to a variable. The variable must be a multi-code variable (whether single or multi-response) and each code can be tagged against one or more areas of the map.

You can then use this map as an element in a Snap questionnaire or analysis. For example:

• in a questionnaire; people could select the state they live in from a map
• in analysis; the different states could be displayed in different colours according to people’s responses.

Creating a Map Control for questionnaires

You need to

• Decide which variable you will be linking to the Map Control
• Choose which picture you will be using as a basis for your Map Control and import it
• Define what changes will take place in the Map Control when the respondent clicks on an area or puts the mouse cursor on an area.
• Set up the separate areas for your Map Control
• Link each area to a variable code and choose how it will appear when the respondent selects an area.

Using existing Map Controls

You may have saved Map Control style files that have been created in the Map Control Editor or existing HTML maps.

Loading a saved Map Control

1. Open the Map Control Editor for the question you wish to convert.
2. Select File|Load map control.
3. Browse for the saved .isf file.
4. The file will load, including the stored image and default codes.

Importing an HTML map

If you already have map files that have been created in the HTML format, you can import these, together with the associated image, and then associate the pre-defined areas with variable codes.

1. Open the Map Control Editor for the question you wish to convert.
2. Select File|Import HTML map.
3. Browse for the .htm file containing the map

The map will appear in your screen. The map areas will appear outlined in the default pen style. (If there are multiple maps stored in the file, the Map Control Editor loads the first one.)

You will then need to:

• assign codes.
• set up the areas to change on selection.

Importing a picture for a Map Control

To create a Map Control from scratch, you must first choose a picture to use as the basis for the map. The picture can be in .jpg, .bmp .png or .gif format.

With the Map Control Editor open

1. Select File|Import image.
2. Browse for the image that you wish to use as a basis for your map and click OK.

Defining the Map Control behaviour

You can decide for the whole map whether areas change when a respondent clicks on them or whether they change when the mouse/cursor is over them.

1. Select Tools|Options in the Map Control Editor. The Options dialog appears.
2. Set the required options then click OK.
   • Check Show shapes on hover to display the changed areas when the mouse pointer is above them.
   • Check Show tooltips on shapes to display the variable code label when the mouse pointer is above the associated area.
   • Check Highlight codes in scale if you have a Map Control which consists of a single row or column, for example, a line of stars where star 1 is associated with code 1, star 2 with code 2 etc. If you click code 3, codes 1 and 2 will also be highlighted. This enables you to light up any number of stars according to which code is clicked.
   • Reverse scale causes them to be filled in the opposite direction (if you click code 3, codes 4 and 5 will also be highlighted).

Changing the question codes

You can change the labels for question codes or add extra code to a question from the Map Control Editor. Note that these changes are made to the question in Snap, not merely in the Map Control.

1. Click the Variables window button on the Map Control Editor toolbar to open the Variable codes dialog.
2. Click Add to add a new response code to your question.
3. Type the new code label in the Codes field.
4. Click OK to save your changes.

Setting the codes to match the Map Control defaults

If you click the Defaults button, all the response codes will be set to the defaults for the Map Control style. For example, if you have a geographical map, the defaults might be geographical regions. If you do this by mistake, click Cancel to discard your changes.