Survey Galaxy Tutorial | Branches | Skip Logic | Setting Page Breaks
Applying Branching Logic to a Survey
The following is a typical example where applying branch logic to a survey
would be beneficial.

The survey logic based on each respondent's answers would be as
follows:

Branching Logic
Applying branching logic to a survey will allow respondents to automatically
skip, or where relevant, answer a number of follow-up questions, depending on
how they respond to particular questions.
Branch To
For questions that have a radio single selection answer response format, a
different branch can be specified against each answer option to alter the natural
flow through the survey.
Jump To
A 'Jump To' can also be specified against any survey item to alter the
natural flow through a survey. Where a 'Branch' and a 'Jump' are both
specified the 'Branch' instruction if applicable will take precedent.
Access to the branching facility is through the Composer's preview pane mode
box located at the top of the preview pane on the right side of the Composer.
To activate the branching facility set the Preview Pane Mode to 'Branches'.
With the Preview Pane Mode set to 'Branches' a 'Branch
To' select box will appears against each radio button single selection
formatted question and a 'Jump To' selection box after every survey item.
In our example if the respondent answers 'Yes' to the first
question then the respondent will be required to answer the second question
and after answering that miss out the third question and go to the fourth;
if they were to answer 'No' to the first question they will be required
to miss out the second question and answer the third question.
Because the action that is required on the 'Yes' option
will not alter the natural flow of the survey it will only be necessary in
this instance to specify a branch for the 'No' option.
To select a branch click on the 'No' option's 'Branch
To' selection box.

A list of valid branches will be displayed, where the question
that we want to redirect the respondents who answer 'No' to can be selected.

The selection will appear in the 'No' answers 'Branch
To' box.
[Please note that because the redirect may be to a note or section
header the 'Branch' and 'Jump' selection boxes use the Composer's
own survey item reference numbers and not, if they have been assigned, a survey's
question reference. As in this example, respondents answering 'No' will
be redirected to the fourth survey item which in this case happens to be the
third survey question.]

For those respondents that answered 'Yes', the natural
survey flow will take them to the second question after which regardless of
what they answer to the second question they need to be then redirected to
the fourth question.
To establish the necessary redirect we specify a 'Jump'
by selecting the second questions 'Jump To' selection box.

Select from the available 'Jump To' list the entry that
corresponds to the fourth question.

With the selection made it can be seen that after answering
question 2 respondents will now be automatically redirected to survey item
5 which is question 4.

We will now complete the process for all the other 'Branches'
and 'Jumps 'as shown below.

When all the branch and jumps have been specified we click on
the Preview Pane Branches 'Save' button.

Saving the settings will set the Preview Pane Mode back to 'Normal'.
Where a branch has been specified the branch icon will appear
in the preview pane reference column.

It is generally recommended that if branches are specified that
the survey is deployed without question numbering and that any 'Go To'
or 'If Yes then' type text are removed as any go to statements will be
automated.
Page Breaks
Because until a question has been answered the next question
cannot be determined specifying a 'Branch' or 'Jump' will always
force a page break to occur.
The default page site setting 'Autodetect' will apply a
default page length of 7 survey items per page but will remove all the page
breaks from a survey if any branches or jumps are specified.
An online survey's page breaks provides a checkpoint where the
response data is saved and it is not recommended that a large page length
is specified as that could result in response data being lost where respondents
fail to fully complete the survey.
Page breaks are identified by the presence of the 'Page Break'
icon in the left-hand column of the Composer's Preview display.

You can set a surveys page length using the 'Edit Details'
menu option and/or you can specify page breaks by setting the 'Jump To'
value to 'Next Page (Insert Page Break)' of the last survey item that
you want to appear on the page.
Testing and modify branching logic
It is strongly advised that all branching logic is fully tested
prior to a survey going live. Branching logic can be modified while a survey
is published making it easy to test and if necessary make modifications to
the logic.
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