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Restarting and changing question numbering with sections

Snap automatically numbers your questions in consecutive order. You can fix the question numbering, or leave it on automatic, in which case questions are renumbered if you move them around in the survey. Sometimes, though, you may want to have separate sets of numbering for different parts of your questionnaire. You can do this by splitting your questionnaire into sections. Each section can be numbered separately with a different number style.

Background

Every question in your questionnaire has a unique number. It is created from the section number (if it exists), and an increment from the previous question (this is how Snap sorts out the numbering of complex questions such as grid or multi-response questions). The number is displayed in two possible places; the question name and the grid name. Each of these is displayed (by default) in a style associated with the question style. You would normally only display the Grid Name if you have multi-part questions. You can choose which you display by selecting Show in the toolbar topics.

The instructions (notes) in your questionnaire also have numbers, but these are in a different series to the question numbers. This allows you to provide numbered or labelled lists of instructions without affecting the question numbering.

You can choose which (if any) of these numbers are displayed. The numbers can be displayed in various formats, and you can select which format is used by using the Numbering toolbar topic. You can define your own format in Style mode.

Summary of steps

This worksheet describes how to add a new section to the Crocodile questionnaire supplied with Snap, such that the first set of questions (about the restaurant) are numbered 1 - 8 and the second set of questions (about the respondent) are labelled P.1 - P.3. This shows you how to have different section labels in the different sections, and to hide or show different parts of the question numbering.

Step 1: Adding a new section to your questionnaire

  1. Open the snCrocodile survey (or other survey you wish to renumber).
  2. Go to the point in the survey where you wish to start the new type of numbering. In the Crocodile survey, this is the Tell us about yourself subtitle.
  3. Select Break in the toolbar topic menu.
  4. Check the section break box.

    Break toolbar topic: section checked

  5. Since this is the first time a section has been added to the survey, a dialog appears, giving you the choice of numeric or alphabetic labelling for all the sections in the survey.

    Response box for creation of first section

  6. Click the required radio button then click [OK]. This sets the value for the Section part of the question labelling in all the sections. You can change the type of labelling used for each section later on.
  7. A section break appears above the selected point. The numbers above the section break change to 1.1 - 1.8 and the numbers below the section break change to 2.1 to 2.3

    Two sections different numbering

Step 2: Setting the section numbering to your requirements

  1. Click the instruction or variable with the section break immediately above it and attached to it.
  2. If Break is not selected in the Toolbar topics, select it. The [Section] button is now enabled.

    Break toolbar topic with Section button enabled

  3. Click the [Section] button. The Section break properties dialog appears.

    Default section dialog: numbers

    This shows that all the sections in the current questionnaire use numbers rather than letters, and this section is currently using the next available number.

    To change the section numbering so that the second section will be in the format P.1 to P.3 (for personal questions) you need to set up a custom name.

  4. Select the Use Custom Name radio button and type P in the box. Since P is a letter, you must also set the Type of Sections to Letters in the drop-down menu.

    Section break properties: Section P

  5. Click [OK].
  6. The numbering of the first section is now set to A.1 - A.8, and the numbering of the second section is set from P.1 - P.3.

    Section numbering with letters

Step 3: Hiding the section labels

The section labels are displayed or hidden according to the settings in the Numbering toolbar topic. To hide the A section label in the first section, you must change the way the question names are displayed.

  1. Select all the questions in the first section (click on the last question, hold down the shift key, then click on the first question).
  2. Select Numbering in the Toolbar topic list. The numbering styles are displayed. The black sections in the Name and the Grid Name panels are the parts of the number that are displayed.

    In the default numbering style, section labels are lettered, questions are numbered and grid questions are lettered.

  3. Click the bold A in both boxes to stop the display of the section label.

    Numbering toolbar topic: letter sections disabled

    The numbering of the selected questions changes to 1 - 8 with no prefix. The second section is still labelled P.1 - P.3

    Plain question numbers