showtag and showrowtag

Use showtag to override the default showing and hiding behavior related to question numbers and table IDs. To override the default showing and hiding behavior of table row numbers, use showrowtag.

In most cases it is advised that question numbers be hidden to respondents once a survey enters field. There are many good reasons to hide them:

• They may not be sequential.
• They may be long and distracting, and take up valuable space.
• They may reveal something about the logic of the survey.
• Showing them to respondents has no practical benefit.

As a result, it is the default behavior of IntelliSurvey to hide question numbers, otherwise known as tags, to actual survey respondents. No tag is needed in survey code for this default behavior; it is built in to the system.

On the other hand, it is helpful to show question tags to administrative users while they test a survey. This is because:

• It may otherwise be deceptively difficult to know which question you are looking at.
• It will be time consuming to locate the question in the documentation you are working from to program the survey.

One of the functions of Testmode is to toggle the display of question tags. When the survey is run in Live mode or Testmode level 1, tags are hidden and respondents will not see them. When the survey is run in Testmode level 2, the tags will be displayed to facilitate testing of the survey (question tags and row tags).

Examples

The above behavior should suit the needs of the majority of survey projects. However, it is possible to show or hide question tags regardless of run mode. To do this, use showtag. This tag may be applied on individual questions to force the display or non-display of question tags, or it can be used in a set defaults widget to modify this behavior for a group of questions - or even a whole survey. Simply include the tag with a yes/no input on a question to show or hide the tag:

1. This question's tag will always display.
showtag: y
type: radio
1. Yes
2. No

In a set defaults, showtag controls the question tag display for all following questions, provided that those questions do not have local showtag definitions. The showtag setting will apply until there is either another set defaults with a different input for showtag, or an end defaults tag.

If it is desired to show the row numbers for all tables in a survey, showrowtag may also be added to set defaults.

See demo See code Restart demo

In addition to accepting 'y' (yes) and 'n' (no) inputs, showtag also accepts a string as an input. If a string is used, it appears in place of the actual question tag when the survey is rendered. This might be necessary if the survey design requires that question numbers display, but display with slight visual difference, such as omitting a period or including a '#'.

See demo See code Restart demo

If the row numbers in a table need to be displayed to respondents, add showrowtag: y to the table widget's code as seen below.

Unlike showtag, showrowtag only accepts 'y' (yes) and 'n' (no) inputs.

See demo See code Restart demo

It is also possible to combine showtag with showrowtag both within the table widget or at the defaults level:

See demo See code Restart demo