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Text Response: How to collect answers from your survey participants

Daniel Kyne avatar
Written by Daniel Kyne
Updated this week

The Text Response block on OpinionX allows participants to type and submit written answers to a question.

^ Screenshot of the Text Response block during survey setup.

While the Text Response block can obviously be used to collect basic information like a participant's name, age or location, there's a much more powerful functionality built into this survey block...

^ Text Response block as seen by a survey participant.

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Text Response Block: Results Formats

Switch between these chart types using the "Switch Charts" button on the results overview page of your survey dashboard.

1. Response List

Shows a list of responses submitted by survey participants along with author attribution for each one.

2. Word Cloud

Shows the most commonly used words in a Text Response block's answers across all participants.

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How can I make it mandatory to answer Text Response questions?

  1. Go to the Setup tab of the survey you're working on.

  2. Go to the Text Response block and open the block settings by clicking the ⚙️ icon.

  3. Enable the "Remove 'Skip' Option" checkbox (available on the Analyze tier or higher).


Cool things you can do with the Text Response block:

Crowdsource Ranking Options From Participants

The Text Response block can collect new opinions from participants mid-survey which can then be added to the voting list for any ranking block. For more info on this, check out our guide to crowdsourcing opinions.

Auto-Add To Ranking Block

In the Text Response block settings, you can find a checkbox titled "Auto-Add To Ranking". Enabling this checkbox means all participant responses will automatically be added to a ranking block of your choice.

Clean Slate Stack Ranking

If you want to start your stack ranking survey without any seeded opinions, you can use a Clean Slate Stack Ranking approach to crowdsource your entire starting set of voting options.

How can I include an "Other" option in Multiple Choice questions that can collect written responses from participants?

Check out this guide that explains how to set up an "Other" collection field for your Multiple Choice questions using a Text Response block and Answer Branching.

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