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Homepage / Doc / How to Merge/Pipe Text into Surveys & Invitations

How to Merge/Pipe Text into Surveys & Invitations

Merging (also called piping) allows you to take text from one source and merge or pipe it into another source. Text can be merged from previous questions, user profiles, or response properties (such as the survey date or language). Text can be merged into survey questions, survey answer choices, survey message items, or email alerts/invitations.

This guide demonstrates a few different ways in which you can use the Text Merge feature to personalize survey and email invitation content.


Text Merge Sources

You can merge text into survey items and email invitations from various sources, including:

  • Questions: Respondents’ answers to previous survey items (*note that the question you are merging must be on a previous page).
  • Profile Properties: Profile property attributes such as First Name, Last Name, and Email Address.
  • Response Properties: Information related to the individual survey response, such as IP address, Current Date, Language, etc.

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How to Merge a Survey Answer into a Message Item

In this example, we will merge a respondent’s answer to the question “What is your name?” into the text of a message item on the next page.

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The second page of the survey contains a Message Item. The text in this item reads: “Welcome to our survey XXXXX.” We will apply a merging code here to replace XXXXX. In a live survey, the merging code will automatically populate with the answer to “What is your name?”, entered on the previous page.

NOTE: When merging text from a previous question, the source for the merged text must be located on a previous page.

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Follow the steps below to complete this text merge:

  1. Select Survey Item that you want to merge text into. Open the Edit tab if you are in a Message Item. Open the Question Text or tab if you are in a Question Item.
  2. Click in the text box where you wish to merge in the text.
  3. From the Merge Drop-Down, select a source. In this example, our source is the answer to a previous question: “What is your name?”.
  4. Click the Merge button to insert the Source Value Code. Once the Merge button is selected, a Source Value Code is inserted into the item text. It will look something like this:

 

The Source Value Code is a place-holder for the source value you selected from the merge drop-down menu. Only the survey creator/editor will see this code. This code will be replaced with the source value (e.g. Jessica) when the survey is taken.

NOTE: Always test your survey to make sure all merging is working properly before distributing your survey.

 

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How to Merge a Response Property as Default Text

Open Ended Single-Line and Multi-Line Text Items allow you to insert default text into the answer field, which is pre-populated when a respondent opens the survey. The default text can then be left alone, deleted, or modified by the respondent.

Merging can be used to insert a source value as the default text of an Open Ended Text Item. In this example, we will use a Response Property as the source value. Response properties are details about a survey response, such as a respondent’s IP address, response language, when the survey was started, etc.

 

In the example below, we created an Open-Ended Single-Line Text item asking the respondent to enter “Today’s Date”. We then used the following steps to pre-populate the answer field using the “Current Date” Response Property source available in the merging drop-down:

  1. Open the Behavior tab.
  2. From the merge drop-down select one of the “Current Date” options.
  3. Click the Merge button to insert the Source Value Code (@@CurrentDate…).

Save your changes.

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Always test your merging logic before making a survey live to respondents.

When a respondent lands on the page with your merging logic, they should see the current date in the format you specified in place of the source value code that was inserted in the Survey Editor. The source value code has automatically filled in with the current date.

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How to Merge a User Attribute into an Email Invitation

User attributes (user profile properties) of known Checkbox users can be merged into the subject line or message body of email invitations.

From the Invitation Wizard, select in the message body text box where you wish to merge text. Next, use the merge drop-down under either the subject line or message field to select a User Attribute. Finally, click the Merge button to insert the Source Value Code.

In the above example, we wish to merge in a Checkbox registered user’s first name into the salutation.

NOTE: User attributes can only be used as the source for merging when a recipient has a user profile within your account’s User Manager. If you are sending an email invitation to an email list (no user attributes captured), there is no user data to merge into your invitation.

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This section is currently under construction. Any documents that appear blank will be populated as soon as possible. If you have any questions or need assistance with something that is not currently documented please feel free to submit a support ticket and we will be glad to assist you.
October 12, 2017

Version 6 Help Guides

  • Getting Started
    • Quick Start: Full Guide
    • Quick Start: Create a Simple Survey
    • Quick Start: Apply a Style to your Survey
    • Quick Start: Basic Conditions
    • Quick Start: Distribute Your Survey
    • Quick Start: View Responses & Reports
    • Checkbox Browser and Hardware Requirements
    • Checkbox Online Survey Glossary
    • Checkbox 30-min Demo
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    • Guide to Checkbox Question Types
    • How to Set Response Limits
    • How to Validate Response Text
    • How to Create & Use Question Libraries
    • How to Create & Edit a Slider Question
    • How to Create and Edit a Rank Order Question
    • Using Question and Answer Aliases
  • Survey Style & Branding
    • How to Brand Your Survey with Style Templates
    • How to Create Custom Mobile Templates (Server Only)
  • Logic, Merging, Action Items
    • How to Add Conditions & Branching/Skip Logic
    • How to Merge/Pipe Text into Surveys & Invitations
    • How to Trigger an Automatic Email
  • Security & Permissions
    • How to Set Permissions on Your Surveys & Folders
    • Report Permissions Guide
    • Overview of Checkbox Permissions
    • How to Use Resume + Save and Exit
  • Advanced Survey Features
    • How to Create Hidden Items (Query String Variables)
    • How to Embed a Video in Your Survey
    • How to Create a Scored Survey
    • How to Create Multi-language Surveys
  • Creating & Managing Users
    • Managing User Roles
    • User Roles Cheat Sheet
    • How to allow Admin Users to See/Manage Other Users
    • How to Import Users into Checkbox
    • How to Create Custom User Profiles
    • How to Update User Profiles with Survey Responses
  • Survey Sending & Sharing
    • How to Share your Survey via Email
    • How to Add Recipients to an Existing Invitation
    • How to Schedule Invitation Reminders
    • Your Email Footer and CAN-SPAM
    • How to Embed a Survey in your Website
  • Responses, Reporting & Exporting
    • How to Export Your Survey Responses
    • How to Create a Quick Summary Report
    • How to Use the Report Wizard
    • How to Create a Custom Report
    • Guide to Checkbox Chart & Graph Types
    • How to Filter your Reports
    • How to Create a Cross-Tab Report
    • How to Display “Other” Responses in Reports
    • How to Create Multi-Question Charts
    • How to Group Open-Ended Questions in a Report
    • How to Give a User Access to Edit/Delete Responses
    • Help with Special or Multi-Language Characters in Excel
  • FAQs and Other Guides
    • Checkbox Survey & GDPR Compliance
    • Checkbox Survey Security
    • Survey Accessibility & 508 Compliance
    • Guide to Editing Live Online Surveys
    • 12 Tips for Creating your First Online Survey
    • 8 Tips for Maximizing Online Survey Responses
    • Sending Automatic Thank You Emails

 

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