First of all, I love the Quick Add button that allows you to copy/paste options from a properly formatted text questionnaire to LS. In the absence of a tool that would allow to import automatically humanly-readable questionnaires this is really the only way to work efficiently. I was wondering if it were possible and useful to extend its power in such a way that within one input box we can insert (1) the question code, (2) the question text, and (3) the options.

Let me know what you guys think about this and if I should push it further.

Let's have this example, properly formatted:

Q1; Why do you use Limesurvey?
1; It is free
2; It is flexible and open
3; My boss says so

First step would be like this



Note how the question type is now top row. This is because not all questions benefit from this improvement. But I also noticed how the question type gets cut off on smaller laptop screens, so moving it up may be good in itself.

Then, after pushing Quick add, we have this

We have something similar (but different - it isn't GUI-based) included in the upcoming 2.0 version. However, what you are describing does sound interesting.

What you are doing is very interesting. It makes sense to use a tabular format like excel or a text format to import and export questionnaires reliably. However most survey tools import from Word or RTF; even though it is tougher/ more limited it is preferred because survey creators and clients use it.

So I am really curious how this will play out. If I can help in any way, tell me (I am not much of a coder, though).

atuit-

Here's one way you can help - what are the common Word/RTF formats supported? Is there a "standard", or a common way of specifying surveys that many users expect?

Alternatively, do users specify a layout template and then have the tool import the survey based upon that layout?

This will sound weird. I see you have sent me a PM but I'm not sure where the [...] it can be found in the interface. If I press "private messages" on this page I am sent to my profile.... where I see nothing.

atiut, I really like your ideas. The Limesurvey admin interface needs a revamp to add on page editing and similar Javascript/Ajax features to improve productivity.
You can add this as a feature request at our feature tracker . Please describe your idea as detailed as possible and try to outline a suitable solution/implementation as well.

Done
ideas.limesurvey.org/ideatorrent/idea/399/

@ TMSWhite

I'll put my feedback here

There is no format that the users may expect. However the main solutions i will outline below have taken steps to make the process intuitive, if not standardized across platforms.

Also - and you may have hinted to this in the documentation for the excel format - there is no absolute need for the researcher to write in the LS import format. Even if you have to clean-up the questionnaire before import, there is still a productivity gain.

Finally, as a personal comment, I believe that any solution should be easy to automate (through macros) in an error-resistant way.For example:

1. Yes
2. No
99. Don't know

is easy to convert to

1; Yes
2; No
99; Don't know

(I wrote a workaround for the above). But it is harder (and error-prone) to convert to:

( ) Yes
( ) No
( ) Don't know

Now the solutions. The best I have seen are below. Note that Zoomerang has actually been bought up and replaced by SurveyMonkey, but their feature was pretty cool.


surveygizmo
www.surveygizmo.com/survey-support/tutor...an-import-from-word/

Zoomerang (now taken over by Surveymonkey)

www.zoomerang.com/feature-survey-text-import/

Qualtrics
www.qualtrics.com/university/researchsui...nd-exporting-surveys

Less developed/ documented solutions:
it.ubc.ca/service_catalogue/social_media...ol_faq.html#word2007
www.instantsurvey.com/faq.asp#remove

@TMSWhite; @Mazi

As a sidenote, the idea i propose here can be a bridge to a feature that would import a txt/word format, if one is ever deemed necessary.

If we were to develop my idea a bit further we would be able to insert this

Q1; [radio] Why do you use Limesurvey?
1; It is free
2; It is flexible and open
3; My boss says so

... then we would have the minimum elements to define a question. Then we can have a quick add button at group level where you can insert questions stacked in a single box.

Naturally, I am speaking from a process/interface perspective. I am definitely not a php coder.

atiut wrote: For this solution type, maybe we can use the old csv export/import
See docs/demosurveys/sample_survey.csv
To start, and make some optimisation on the accepted file.