Tailoring survey settings
Snap Desktop can be configured with a number of different setup options for your surveys.
The buttons for many of the tailoring dialogs are shown in the table
Keep | Keep the changes until further alterations are made. |
Use | Keep the changes for the duration of the session (revert to original settings when the dialog is closed). |
Cancel | Abandon any changes. |
Variable tailoring

- Variable Order shows the order that the variable are displayed, by name or ascending sequence number
- Show Overview Columns allows extra columns to be added to the content of the Variables window.
- Show Counts in Details shows the option for showing the response counts in the Variables window. The speed that the Variables window loads can be increased when the counts are not displayed. This can be used when there are a large number of responses.
Reports tailoring
The Reports Tailoring dialog sets how to export the report to the printer or to a file. If exporting to a file, you can import the results into a spreadsheet or other available file type.

Reports will be output to | Printer: Send the report to the printer in the specified layout Export: Write the report to a file of the specified format and in the specified directory |
Page Details | Open the Page Setup dialog to specify how the report will be printed. |
File Details | Open the File Details dialog to specify how the report files will be numbered, and whether the data will be appended or overwritten |
Export file type | Specify the format of the file required by the package that you are exporting. |
Spellings tailoring
Snap Desktop comes with 13 standard dictionaries. Each is held in a separate file with the extension of .lex. The standard dictionary is selected under the Main Dictionary File option in the Spell Checker Options dialog. In addition, a further dictionary is provided to store the user’s own library of regularly used words that may not appear in the standard dictionaries. The supplied dictionary is called custom.dic and further specialist dictionaries can be created if it is necessary to keep regularly used and perhaps industry specific words in their own dictionary.
Snap Desktop is configured so that your preferred dictionary is loaded together with the custom dictionary. If a word is not located in the standard dictionary, the custom dictionary is searched. If the word is not located at all but is valid, then it can be stored in the custom dictionary for future use. You can change the custom dictionary by selecting Tailor | Spelling.

Always suggest corrections | Check to suggest possible correct spellings from the selected dictionaries |
Suggest from main dictionaries only | Check to ignore the custom dictionary |
Ignore words in UPPERCASE | Check to omit spell checking for words that are in all capitals will be ignored. |
Ignore words with numbers | Check to omit spell-checking for words that are include digits, e.g. frog1, rel8 will be ignored. |
Ignore internet and file addresses | Check to omit word combinations that look like pathnames or internet addresses |
Custom dictionary | Opens the Custom Dictionary dialog to allow you to add an extra dictionary containing your own words to. Words unknown to the spell checker can be added to the selected custom dictionary |
Main dictionaries | Opens the Main Dictionary dialog to add an extra language dictionary |
Questionnaire design tailoring
Set the default behaviour of the Questionnaire design window.

Switch to Design Mode when typing | Check to automatically change to Design mode from Style mode when you type |
Switch to Design Mode by double-click | Check to automatically change to Design mode from Style mode when you double-click |
Switch to Style Mode by double-click | Check to automatically change to Style mode from Design mode when you double-click |
Favour style changes for font settings | If whole field selected, change the style when you change a font |
Prompt for extended style assignments | Check to open Extended Style assignments dialog if you re-apply a style to a changed version of that style. (Allows changing the style to match the changes or over-writing the changes) |
Automatically renumber questionnaire | Check to update the numbering so it runs in sequence if questions are re-ordered. Clear to keep the numbers as they are. |
Mode and Colour | Set the selection colour highlight for the specified mode |
Expand dropdowns | Check to display all dropdown lists in full, uncheck to only display selected list |
Hide boxes with data | Check to conceal the box outline around data in Data View |
Show white space | Display space and paragraph markers |
Show field borders | Use dotted lines to show the edges of the question components |
Underline fallback font | If a specified character is not available in the selected font, underline the font used by Snap to display the character |
Analysis variables tailoring
The Analysis Variables Tailoring dialog provides settings which control the overall presentation of analyses and dictate how missing data is to be handled.

Results | Set to number of significant figures used in results |
Percentages | Set to number of decimal places used to display percentages |
Calculations | Set to number of significant figures used in calculation |
% Sign | Check to display in %signs |
Exclude case | Completely exclude a case if one of its variable responses is missing |
Substitute mean | If a case has a missing variable response, substitute the mean of the other valid responses to the variable |
Reference tailoring
You can use the tailoring dialog to specify:
- which language topic names are displayed in
- how the preview pane appears

Topic Language | Select language that the topic names are displayed in. This will be the same for all language versions. |
Automatic | Makes the topic name appear in the same language as the variables within the topic (set on the Reference window toolbar). |
Languages associated with Survey/SurveyPak | Makes the topic name appear in the specified language, no matter which language you are viewing the variables in |
Scale variable preview | Specify how the selected variable is previewed |
Not scaled | Appears at same size and proportions as it would appear in the Questionnaire window |
Scaled to fit window | Appears in the same proportions as it would appear in the Questionnaire window but scaled to fit in the preview pane |
Scaled if too wide | As above, but only scaled if too wide to appear in the preview pane |
Drawn to fit window | Appears at the same size as it would in the Questionnaire window, but with proportions suitable to the preview pane (possibly adding word or line breaks) |
Advanced tailoring

The General tab allows you to set the default settings for the way Snap opens.
Initial window to display | Open the survey in the specified view |
Default publication medium | Specify the default edition for new surveys |
Separate code lists using | Specify the text used in between variables when using text substitution with multiple variables. For example, “and” gives code1, code2 and code 3 |
Auto generated label length | Default length for code labels |
Use colours in export to RTF | Include colours when exporting to rich text format files |
Limit printed reports to a maximum of 500 pages | Truncate reports (required if reports contain many literal responses) |
The Content tab shows settings for HTML publishing and images.
The Embedding tab specifies how the data is stored in the survey. By default all data is embedded.