Change Systems
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Change Systems
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The following information is provided for SurveyMaster users
to support their design and use of questionnaires using
SurveyMaster software. The current SurveyMaster version is 7.1 issued Dec 1, 2004 The current version of Omnis is 7.3.8.1 (this version is the only
one that works with Windows 2000 and WindowsXP older versions will have
calcualtion errors and other problems if used on these two platforms) Data files must carry the .df1 suffix or SurveyMaster will
reject your naming. Start a new data file for each questionnaire. Only put more
than 1 questionnaire in a data file if they can be directly
compared. This keeps files smaller and searches running more
quickly. Create new folders for each data file and don't bury them too
deeply (Try and keep them only 1 or 2 levels below the root
directory) e.g. C:/Omnis/SurveyMaster/Questionnaire 1.df1 is
getting to the limits of your systems ability to track the file
and it's bundle. If you design a survey that has quite a few
pre-coded tables similar to those you could use again, keep the
data file as a master and copy and rename it when you need a data
file that is similar in structure. Short cut keys are provided for most functions. QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
& PRINTING Pre-coded tables belong to ALL questionnaires within a data
file. You need to keep this in mind as you design. Group A (20 chars) means that those tables have a limit of 20
characters for the descriptor e.g. Chicago (7 chars). If any
descriptor within your group is longer you will need to use a
larger Group e.g. Group B (35 chars). There is no harm if needed
in using the 50 character Group for descriptors of only 1 or 2
characters. In Multiple Insert mode you need to cancel after your final
entry to let SurveyMaster know there are no more descriptors to
insert. When you have entered you Table names and descriptors you
HAVE NOT designed your question. This must still be done through
the Questionnaire and Question screen. In this way you can decide
where in your design your tables are to be placed. If you want extra 'white space' between questions, use the
Question Instruction box and enter a carriage return or two. This
will place space above the question connected to the Question
Instruction. Don't put carriage returns in the Question Wording
box. It will cause your reports to overwrite their presentation. Page breaks occur at the start of the question they are
connected to. This also applies to sub-question when applying a
page break to them. Use the copy question function to speed
design. It can save you re-entering column heading etc. Remember
that if you copy a question with sub-questions already written,
those sub-questions are copied too! Remember that SurveyMaster is a database package and
although quite good things can be done with page layout it does
have limitations and constraints. Page size can be controlled through the File Menu and Page Set-up function. A4 or A5 can be accommodated. This area is
controlled by the print driver from your system not through
SurveyMaster. What ever can be done is limited by your printer
and its drivers. Remember good design rules, don't mix too many different
scales, keep to the subject, don't clutter the design and keep as
brief as possible. There are two strengths to using sub-questions. Firstly they
allow you to calculate scores for the category as well as for
each sub-question. Secondly they can save space in your
questionnaire. Sub-questions can be given page breaks to force
column headings and numbering when pages break in inappropriate
places. A category cannot be deleted until it's sub-questions are
deleted. The External Reference field will only appear when External
References are turned on in the Utilities menu. If a survey has not been fully completed you can use the scroll bar to move to the next completed question. You can also click on
OK to save the data entered rather than reaching the end of the
questions. SurveyMaster automatically updates the Totals area
after each survey is key punched so that at any time you can run
an analysis report. Data checking and editing is done through this Key Punch area
for all data entry types. Only inserting and viewing can be done through this area. All
editing or deleting is done through the Key Punch screen. The screen is designed so that Instructions and scale examples
are shown. This means that this screen can be used for respondent
self entry as well. Scanning is done by a OMR scanner. SurveyMaster has the
ability to interact with a scanner. In general SurveyMaster uses
the final file output by the scanner to read data into it's own
file structure. A Scan Table needs to be built in the Utilities menu telling
SurveyMaster where data for each question sits in the Scanner's
file. Scannable forms need to be professionally printed. SurveyMaster can not generate these survey forms. Totals Reports provide composite data for every answer in a
particular questionnaire. Remember to turn on or off your Report Selection in the Main
menu to ensure you are only getting the reports that you need. Questions where no one has completed an entry will still
produce a report ( showing 0 balances) If you select certain questions only to be reported,
SurveyMaster works faster if the corresponding scales on the left
side of the screen are also selected. Sub-questions cannot be selected individually. All
sub-questions in a category will print when the category
questions is selected. Data file names are structured. A list of how the names will
print can be found in the searches screen (Print list of
Searches) At least one question with selection criteria must be entered
for a search to run. Always include a search title. Otherwise when you are looking
at 100's of pages of reports you won't know which is for what. If
you include zero in a selection criteria the data found will
include no response values. This can be useful if for some reason
you want to search for all respondent answers for a
Questionnaire. Searches can be copied as a short cut. Set up your first
search, save and copy it. Amend search titles and criteria. The
ability to search for an AND comparison or an OR comparison in
your search criteria gives a lot of versatility. All criteria for
any one question is an OR comparison. e.g. Age 29;30;31; 32;33;
will find any and all of these values and group the answers
together. An AND search between questions will only find data that
matches both search criteria e.g. Male, aged 24 to 30 will only
find Males in that age range. If we change that to an OR search
between questions the data collated will be for Males OR people
aged between 24 and 30. Remember to move the questions that have selection criteria to
the top of the question list to enhance SurveyMaster's
performance. Scheduled searches can not run to Screen. Data files will be saved to the directory/folder where your
data file is located. Comparisons must have a Comparison Table built before it can
produce reports. The Comparison Table can only be built from locked
questionnaires. The reason for the Comparison Table is to allow for question
being moved of changed between survey periods. A table is needed
so that have changed or moved can be linked to other
questionnaires. Up to 20 data fields plus an index column can be included in
an External Reference file. The External Reference file must be TAB delimited. External References in Use must be selected in the Utilities
menu before question design or data entry. Pre-coded Tables and questions still need to exist with all
the descriptors included e.g. if gender is a question then
Female.....1 and Male.....2 still need to be in the Gender Table. External Reference fields can only hold numeric contents. If
you have M for males then use Excel or similar to change all M's
to 2; etc. When designing your survey (questionnaire) be sure to include
the External Reference field number in the Question Screen. When
saved the External Reference fields will be sorted to the bottom
of your questions list. External Reference questions are not seen during data entry. An External Reference not in your list will cause an error
during data entry. Be sure to include a 0 (zero) index in the
External Reference file so that respondents without an external
reference can be included in your results. A scanning table needs to be set up so that SurveyMaster
knows where the data for each question is located. Your Scanner's Operator should provide you with a list of
where each question's data is located. Be sure to check the table
you produce carefully before importing the scanner's data file. Once the scanner's file has been imported data totals must be
processed. This could take some time if the file is large (which
is normally the case.) Your machine can not be interrupted once
this processing has commenced. This is a useful but dangerous utility! It should only be used to edit spelling mistakes and
typographical errors. Version 7 was released 1 December 2004. This version
change was made to allow SurveyMaster to work on Windows2000 and WindowsXP The latest SurveyMaster manual is
available for download. It is in PDF format (Acrobat 3). Acrobat
reader was supplied on CD to purchases of version 5.5 or higher.
Down load latest Survey Master Manual (manual.pdf) Consulting services to support SurveyMaster are available.
These include:
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