Creating a Survey

Surveys are created for a number of reasons. For example, you might need to create a survey to ask a user’s opinions or to collect factual information for marketing purposes. No matter what their purpose, all surveys involve the creation of a survey “container,” followed by the creation and administration of questions.

These questions can be formatted as one of two basic types.

• Open-ended   These questions have no definite answer. Open-ended questions give users the opportunity to answer in their own words rather than simply checking one of a limited list of alternatives. An example of an open-ended question is, “Are there any other comments you would like to add about the services or products supplied by Wide World Importers?” The advantage of open-ended questions is that responses can be very useful, often yielding quotable material and an insight into the issues that are of most concern to the respondents of the survey. The disadvantage is that the responses are more difficult to catalog and interpret.

• Closed-ended   These questions have a finite set of answers from which the user must choose. One of the choices may be “Other” or “N/A” to allow users to specify that their answer is not one of those supplied or that the question is not applicable to them. The advantages of closed-ended questions are that data can be gathered from them easily and they lend themselves to statistical analysis. The disadvantage is that they are more difficult to write than open-ended questions because the choices must include all of the possible answers a user could offer for each question.

Users can respond to a survey in a number of ways such as by typing text, selecting items from a menu, clicking yes or no, or entering a numeric or currency value. When you use Windows SharePoint Services to create a question, you can specify the type of answer, as summarized in the following table.

Open table as spreadsheet

Answer	Question Type	Description
Single line of text	Open	Use this answer type when you want users to enter only a few words. You can specify the maximum number of characters that a user can type.
Multiple lines of text	Open	Use this answer type when you want users to type one or more sentences. You can specify the maximum number of lines that a user can type and the type of text in which a user can format responses. The three formatting options are: plain text rich text, whereby users can change font or text color and alignment enhanced text, whereby users can add pictures, tables, and hyperlinks
Choice	Open, Closed	Use this answer type when you want users to choose from a set of selections that you provide. You can create a multiple choice question in which users pick the best answer or answers from among the possible choices, represented as a drop-down list, set of option buttons, or set of check boxes. You can make the question open-ended by allowing users to type their own choice.
Rating Scale	Closed	This answer type is often called a Likert scale. Use this answer type when you want users to choose their preference on a numeric scale. Questions with this type of answer are often used to obtain feedback on provided services. Users indicate how closely their feelings match the question or statement by using a rating scale. The number at one end of the scale represents most agreement, or “Strongly Agree,” and the number at the other end of the scale represents least agreement, or “Strongly Disagree.”
Number	Open	Use this answer type when you want users to enter a numeric value. You can specify a lower and upper limit for the value as well as the number of decimal places that users can enter.
Currency	Open	Use this answer type when you want users to enter a monetary value. You can select the currency format based on a geographic region, a lower and upper limit for the value, and the number of decimal places that users can enter.
Date and Time	Open	Use this answer type when you want users to enter a date or a date and time.
Lookup	Closed	This answer type is very similar to the Choice answer type in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to point users to an existing list on your site that contains the available choices.
Yes/No	Closed	This answer type presents the user with a check box and can be used when you want users to respond with Yes or No (True or False). Questions that require this answer type are sometimes known as categorical questions.
Person or Group	Closed	This answer type is very similar to the Choice answer type in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to choose a user or SharePoint Group who have access to the SharePoint site as the response.
Page Separator	Not applicable	Use this answer type when you want your survey to span multiple pages.
Business Data	Closed	If your Web site is created on a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 installation, you are presented with this data type. This answer type is very similar to the Choice answer type in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to point users to a data source outside Windows SharePoint Services that contains the available choices.

When using each of these answer types, you can specify whether an answer is required or optional and provide a default answer for each question. A new feature to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is that you can define branching in the survey, whereby you can skip to a specific question based on the user response. A page break is automatically inserted after a branch-enabled question.

In the following exercise, you will create a survey on a SharePoint Web site.

OPEN the SharePoint site in which you would like to create your survey. The exercise will use the http://wideworldimporters site, but you can use whatever site you wish. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK.

BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create a list. If in doubt, see the Appendix on page 435.

1. In the left navigation panel, click View All Site Content. The All Site Content Page is displayed.

2. Click the Create button. The Create page is displayed.

3. Under Tracking, click Survey. The New form is displayed.

4. In the Name box, type Office Furniture Survey.

5. In the Navigation area, leave the Yes option selected.

6. In the Survey Options area, for the Show user names in survey results? and Allow multiple responses? options, select Yes.

7. At the bottom of the page, click the Next button. The New Question: Office Furniture Survey page is displayed.

8. In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type What is the size of your organization (Number of employees worldwide)?, and then select the Choice (menu to choose from) option.

9. In the Optional settings for your question area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.

10. In the Type each choice on a separate line box, type the following three lines:

• Under 25 employees

• Small (25-50)

• Medium (51-249)

• Large (250+)

11. Under Display choices using, make sure the Radio Buttons option is selected. This is the default setting.

12. At the bottom of the page, click the Next Question button.

13. In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?, and then select the Rating Scale (a matrix of choices or a Likert scale) option.

14. In the Optional settings for your question area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.

15. In the Type each choice on a separate line area, replace the existing text with the following three lines:

• We try to buy furniture made from recycled material.

• We like unique furniture from around the world.

• We purchase the majority of our furniture at low prices from discount stores.

16. Click the down arrow to the right of the Number Range box, and click 10.

17. In the first Range Text box, type Strongly Agree. Delete the text in the middle box with a space, and in the last box, type Strongly Disagree.

18. At the bottom of the Web page, click Next Question.

19. In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type Would you like us to contact you?, and then select the Yes/No (checkbox) option.

20. In the Additional Question Settings area, select Yes. This is the default setting.

21. At the bottom of the Web page, click Next Question.

22. In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type Please enter your name, address and any queries you may have:, and then select the Multiple lines of text option.

23. In the Optional settings for your question area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.

24. In the Specify the type of text to allow option, select Enhanced rich text (Rich text with pictures, tables, and hyperlinks).

25. At the bottom of the Web page, click Next Question.

26. In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type How much money, in total, did you spend on furniture over the last year?, and then select the Currency ($, ¥, £) option.

27. In the Optional settings for your question area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.

28. To the right of the Number of decimal places box, click the down arrow, and then click 2.

29. At the bottom of the Web page, click the Finish button. The Customize Office Furniture Survey page is displayed.

30. In the Questions area, under the Question column, click Would you like us to contact you?. The Edit Question: Office Furniture Survey page is displayed.

31. In the Branching Logic area, under Possible Choices to the right of Yes, click the down arrow, and then click Please enter your name, address and any queries you may have.

32. To the right of No, click the down arrow, and then click How much money, in total, did you spend on furniture over the last year?

33. Click OK. The Customize Office Furniture Survey page is displayed.

Important  

You can use the Edit Question page to modify or delete an existing survey question. However, you must be careful not to change questions after you have allowed access to the survey to users and received some responses. Changing a survey question might cause you to lose data that you have already collected.

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