Update - New password restrictions

To prevent problems with the third-party applications that are used to zip and encrypt exported information we have now introduced restrictions to the characters that can be used for passwords and we will no longer allow the use of embedded spaces, nor the % or " characters.

The new restrictions will only apply to new members or existing members who change their passwords, existing members who have passwords that contain any of the characters will be able to continue to use their passwords but will be asked to change them should they be unable to decrypt exported information.

Enhancement - Setting a survey's response limit

It is now possible to restrict the number of responses by entering a Response Limit value.

A survey's Response Limit is set using the survey's Edit Details menu option and is part of the Runtime Settings.

As with all the Runtime settings the Response Limit value is dynamic and will be applied without the need to stop the survey publication.

The Response Limit is based on the number of completed responses and leaving the Response Limit field blank will indicate that there is no response limit. Once the response limit has been reached any responses that have previously been started will be allowed to continue through to completion.

Once the maximum number of responses has been reached new respondents will be advised that the survey is closed and for multi-language surveys the closed message will be displayed in the survey's base language.

New Edit Details Action Button

For more convenient access the survey's Edit Details menu option has been added to the list surveys display action buttons.

Create a Survey - New Folder Option

When you create a survey you now have the folder options to leave the new survey unassigned, assign it to an existing folder or specify a new folder name.

You will be able to change a survey's folder assignment by using the Manage Folders and Assign Folders menu options, or a survey's Edit Details menu option.

Survey File Management Facility

We have now added support to allow folders to be created and assigned to surveys for easier management.

For more details please view the Survey Folder Management tutorial.

Survey 'Edit Details' Displayed Reorganized

The survey's Edit Details display options have been re-ordered and reorganized into six sections, General, Runtime, Presentation, Language, Popup and Search Engine Optimisation options; with the exception of the General section, sections can be expanded or collapsed.

You can also now use the Edit Details menu option to assign individual surveys to predefined folders.

The Public Decide Blog - Public Surveys

A new Blog, The Public Decide, has been associated to the main Survey Galaxy website.

The Public Decide blog features fun and topical public surveys for all the family.

The link, Public Surveys, can be found on the home page in the footer section.

Questionnaire Questions

Many people find themselves in a position where they know they could benefit from conducting a questionnaire but have difficultly on deciding what questions to ask.

Questionnaires come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be conducted for a plethora of reasons and there is unfortunately no definitive answer to what the right questionnaire questions should be.

Our latest article Questionnaire Questions provides some basic guidelines for writing effective questionnaires.

Survey Questionnaire Checklist

So you have created your questionnaire and are ready to publish it to the Internet, before you do why not just run through a final checklist to confirm what you already know that your questionnaire is as perfect as you think it is.


Check out our latest guide Survey Questionnaire Checklist.

Enhancement - Response Capture Facility Updated

The Response Capture facility has been reworked to make it easier to enter response data from external sources, remove unwanted and modify existing responses.

To activate the facility, select the survey that you wish to modify, then use the Capture menu option.

The Capture menu will only be displayed for surveys that have been previously published, changes can be made to surveys that are no longer published but the facility will only operate on the latest dataset.

Getting the Best Out of Survey Galaxy

The Survey Galaxy interface is designed so that new Members find it easy to use and simple to learn, but that can mean that some of the advanced features are hidden from view and sometimes a little guidance wouldn't go amiss to reveal features that may help you design better surveys.

If you would like a little guidance please view the new article added to our Article library Getting the Best Out of Survey Galaxy.

Spotlight - Business Surveys

Besides the traditional Customer, Employee, Marketing and Market Research surveys there are many other areas of business that can benefit from using online surveys.

From helping to write your business plan, assisting in promoting and managing health and safety and compliance issues online surveys can be adapted in many different ways.

Listed here are articles from the Survey Galaxy article library that detail some of the areas where online surveys can really benefit a business or organization.

Id	Title
11.	Let Your Survey Write Your Business Plan
23.	The Compliance Officer's Killer Application
30.	Surveys - The Effective Management Tool

Spotlight - Employer, Employee and Human Resources

The mark of a good organization will often be that they have made the effort and established good communications between Senior Management and the workforce.

Although it is reasonable for a small business with a handful of employees to communicate with each other one on one, the numbers do not have to grow very high before the practicalities of one on one communications disappear.

No matter how large the organization, if done properly online surveys can be an effective method of maintaining the communication between the Boardroom and the coal face.

Listed here are a number of articles from Survey Galaxy's article library that are related to the Employer and Employee relationship.

Id	Title
6.	Why Employee Satisfaction Surveys And Employee Exit Surveys Make Good Sense
20.	Have You Fixed The Broken Window?
24.	I Can't Get No Employee Satisfaction
26.	Employee Satisfaction Surveys - Step By Step Guide
27.	The Advantages Considerations & Risks of Employee Satisfaction Surveys
28.	Why Do Good Employees Leave?
29.	A Manager's Guide To Redundancy
40.	Are Employee Satisfaction Surveys a Waste of Time?
41.	Employee Surveys – Asking the Right Questions
42.	Employee Satisfaction - Why Bother?

Spotlight - Political Campaigning and Polling

Be it for the school prom King and Queen or mainstream politics communicating with the electoral register is essential when polling or running a political campaign.

Online surveys are a cost effective and efficient method to collate the concerns and preferences of the electorate and to deliver the candidate's message.

The following article from Survey Galaxy's article library discusses how to take full advantage of online surveys.

Id	Title
5.	Political Poll And Campaign Tool

Spotlight - Customer Service Articles

Customers are vital to every business and online Customer satisfaction surveys are the cost effective way to communicate directly with your customers.

Featured here are a number of articles related to Customer Service from the Survey Galaxy article library.

Id	Title
4.	Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work
7.	Why Passenger Surveys Are A Transport Operators Best Friend
8.	The Webmaster's Assistant
22.	Four Tips For Learning What Customers Want
32.	Flawed Customer Services - Not closing the sale
33.	Flawed Customer Services - Alienating the Customer
34.	Flawed Customer Services - Single Point of Failure
39.	Customer Saftisfaction Surveys Overview

Spotlight - Publishing, Complementing Comment

For a long time now the fashion adopted by most online media sites is to allow comments to be made against published articles.

Putting aside the problem of spam comments which is a nuisance and an unfortunate by-product of the media there is also the problem of having to filter out the insightful, cruel and abusive comments.

Like road-rage, online anonymity can reduce a debate to cheap mudslinging where it can be difficult to find any meaningful comment.

Attaching an online survey to an article can help channel opinion and questions can be framed to elevate the debate.

For people who do not have to make difficult decisions it is often easy to pretend that we live in a black and white world, in reality we all live in a world where difficult decision making comes in many shades of grey.

Today's featured article considers how to extend commenting to further engage with the readers.

Id	Title
3.	Want To Start A Publishing Revolution?

Spotlight - General Online Survey Articles

Survey Galaxy makes it very easy to create and design surveys.

However, the questions asked and the way they are written is down to the person using it.

The information page's article library have a number of articles that will help those that are new to online surveys to create effective surveys.

Recommended reading for anyone who wants to save themselves from some of the common mistakes that people make.

Id	Title
2.	20 Top Tips To Writing Effective Surveys
9.	New Rules For Online Surveys And Questionnaires
12.	How To Improve Survey Response Rates
13.	Designing Effective Surveys
25.	Survey Galaxy - A Hosted Application
35.	Multi-Lingual Surveys
36.	How to Make a Survey
37.	Making a Good Survey
38.	The Advantages and Concerns of Online Surveys
43.	Considerations for Survey Reports
44.	When Customer Meets Satisfaction
45.	Getting the Best Out of Survey Galaxy
46.	Survey Questionnaire
47.	Questionnaire Questions
48.	Make Survey
49.	Questionnaire Design

Spotlight - Marketing Articles

Online surveys are being used by savvy marketers’ as an effective and inexpensive way of delivering a marketing message and at the same time collecting important demographic information.

Online surveys engage one-on-one with their audience and by requiring a response, unlike conventional advertising, ensures that the marketing message has been read.

The following are a number of articles that are available from Survey Galaxy's Article library that discuss the benefits of marketing using online surveys.

Id	Title
1.	Ten Reasons Why Online Surveys Are The Future Of Marketing
10.	Relevancy - The New Black For Online Marketing?
14.	Viral Marketing Strategies
15.	Encouraging Contact
19.	Learn How To Leverage Online Surveys For Greater CRM
21.	Wise Man Marketing

New French Section Added to Article Index

A new French section has been added to the Information page's article index and a number of articles relating to Customer and Employee satisfaction surveys have been included.

New Progress Bar Styles Added

In addition to the new Slider formats announced in yesterdays posting we have also added a number of new progress bar styles.

As with the slider formats, to select an alternative progress bar style use the Composer Pane's Styles Defaults facility, click on the current progress bar style and you will be able to then select an alternative from the list of available styles.

When displayed, the progress bar will show the respondent the percentage of the survey that has already been completed, the percentage of the survey that the current page represents and the percentage of the survey that is still remaining.