Open text questions

Open text questions allow you to collect text-based open-ended responses from respondents that are read individually or analyzed using text analysis tools. Since the analysis of answers to open-ended questions is generally very time-consuming, the necessity of using them should be carefully considered.

Short text (open text question)

Add an open-ended short answer question if you expect a short (one-line) text or numeric answer to your question.

In case you want a response in a specific format – for example number, date/time, email, phone number or web address (URL), then you can choose that question type.

For an Open question with a short text, you can use the following options:

• Required – Make answering the question mandatory.
• Description – Add a help text under the title of the question.
• Sub-questions – Add sub-questions after the question text if you want to collect several answers (for example, you want to ask the same question about three different aspects).

Long text (open text question)

Use an open-ended long-text question when you expect a long (multiple-line) answer to the question.

For an Open question with a long text, you can set the following options:

• Text choices – Add one or more optional answer choices to the open question. For example, the option "I can't answer this question" can be added, which simplifies later text analysis.

You can also use the following features:

• Required – Make answering the question mandatory.
• Description – Add a help text under the title of the question.