Creating a grid combining multi-choice questions and literals

Setting up the two grids in separate columns

1. Open your survey in the Questionnaire Design window.
2. Select Page Setup… from the File menu. This takes you to the Questionnaire Properties dialog.
3. If it is not displayed, select Margins in the left-hand column.
4. Set the number of columns to 2.
5. Set the Column Gap to 0.
   
6. Click [OK] to save your changes.
7. Create your grid of check boxes. This example uses a rating scale. (Select Grid first for the first question and Grid next for subsequent questions as described in Getting Started with Snap: Adding a question grid.)
   
8. Create a grid of literal questions. Select Open first style for the first question and Open next for subsequent questions. Only enter question text for the first question.

   

9. Select the first grid question and insert a column break before it. (Right-click the question, select Break and then Column Break from the context menu.)
10. Hide the grid labels and the question number of the Open questions. Select all questions then select Show then Grid Label and clear the check box to hide the spaces left for the text labels.

    

    Select Show then Name and clear the check box to hide the question number.

    
11. Select all questions then select Tabs then Name and set the percentage of space to 0 to force the open questions to the left of the column.

    

12. Click the preview button on the toolbar to see what your survey will look like.

    

Fine tuning your column layout

It is likely that the lines of the two grids will not line up exactly and you will need to adjust the line spacing.

1. Press [Cancel] on the Print dialog to return to the questionnaire design window.
2. Insert an extra carriage return in the open response heading to balance out the space needed for the images in the rating scale.
3. You can adjust the row spacing of the grids. Select Show, then Space before. Tick the box and set the space size.

   

4. This will not work for the first line of the grid, as the space is inserted above the grid labels. You can increase the gap between the box row and the grid labels by changing the font size of the code labels. If you do not wish to change the size of the text, insert a space after the text, and change the size of that. The text in the image is set to 9pt but it is followed by a space set to 16pt.
5. Preview your survey again.

   

6. Make further adjustments until you are satisfied.
7. Print a test page to confirm that it looks correct on paper.

Using the Compound Grid tool to combine your questions

This assumes that you are working on a Snap WebHost edition of the survey described in step 1. You may need to set the number of columns in your survey to 1. (Open the Questionnaire Properties dialog, select Margins in the left-hand column and set the Columns value.)

1. You will need to ensure that the grids have the same layout. Check that:
   • the Show Line before settings are the same on both grids.

     

   • the Show Space before settings are the same on both grids.

     

2. Hide the question name and question text of these two questions. (You will add a single heading for both questions in the compound grid tool).
   Select Show Name and clear the Show box.

   

   Select Show Text and clear the Show box.

   

3. Click [OK] to save your changes.
4. Select File|Publish or press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[W] to publish your survey.
5. Take a note of the path of the published file.
   
6. Start the Compound Grid tool. You would normally do this by Selecting [Start] on the Microsoft toolbar, then type Compound Grid in the ‘Search programs and files’ box.

   

7. Browse for the published file that you previously noted. The file will have an .htm suffix for a Web HTML survey, a .zip suffix for Snap WebHost and Snap Mobile Anywhere surveys and an .msf suffix for an Offline electronic survey.
8. Type a number in the Page box or use the controls to find the page containing the grid questions that you wish to combine.

   

9. Select the questions and click [Group].
10. The Group grid questions dialog appears.
    
11. Check the Add header text box and enter the heading for your joint question in the box.
12. Click the [Preview] button to preview the compound grid question.

    

    The images are not shown here because it is a Snap WebHost survey. They will be visible once it has been uploaded to Snap WebHost. Compound grid shows the images in other types of survey.

Fine tuning your Compound Grid tool layout

If you are not happy with the way that the compound grid looks in the preview, you can adjust the column widths.

1. Click the [Edit] button. The Column width editor dialog will be displayed.

   

2. Change the percentage width beneath the columns to adjust the column widths. Click [Apply] to see how it will look with the new widths.
3. When you are satisfied with the look of your compound grid, click [OK].

If you change a width, the Compound Grid tool automatically adjusts the percentages of the unchanged columns to fit, so if you wish to keep any columns as they are, you must tick the lock box(es) for those columns. The lock boxes are below the percentage width boxes.

1. Click [Save] to save your settings so you can reapply them easily.
2. Click the [Process] button on the Compound Grid dialog.
   
3. Click [OK] on the message box that appears.
4. Click [Close] when you have finished creating compound grids.

Your questionnaire is ready to be distributed.

 Remember that you must re-apply compound grid each time you republish your survey. You can use the saved settings to do this easily.

 If you use Rating Check in your survey, you will need to apply it before you apply the compound grid.