Charts

The Charts applet allows you to visualize your survey data with graphs.

To access the Charts applet, go to Analyze > Charts in the Survey Navigation menu. The Fields tab lists available survey fields, and saved charts can be accessed in the Saved Charts tab.

Chart types

Charts can be created for both open-ended and close-ended questions and variables.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions are displayed in two different formats, based on data type.

• Regular text fields appear as a word cloud. 
• Numeric fields can be shown as a histogram or a box plot.

Close-ended questions

For close-ended questions, available chart types vary depending on the question type. Additional chart types can be selected from the Chart Type dropdown in Chart Settings. Options include:

• Donut
• Horizontal bar (and stacked bar)
• Pie
• Table view
• Trending
• Vertical bar (and stacked bar)

Hover your mouse over a bar to see the number of respondents who selected that option. Each bar's label corresponds to the option text for that option ID in the survey's code.

All charts default to showing the question text as the title. Add the desc tag to a question to provide an alternative text to display instead.

Word clouds

Word clouds are a visual way of depicting information that, by nature, cannot be easily quantified. The more times a single word is captured, the bigger it appears in the tile. Over the course of fielding, the word cloud will display the most commonly entered words, with the most common appearing the largest.

Punctuation or spaces will split words. While known acronyms maintain capitalization, all other words are displayed in lowercase.

Histograms and box plot charts

Open-ended questions default to the histogram chart view. A histogram groups numerical data into bins (or buckets). The height of each bar indicates the number of data points in that bin. Use the Chart Settings to switch to a box plot chart. Hover your mouse over a bar to view additional data. 

Histogram	Box plot

Note that the bins are autogenerated by the software, using Sturges's rule.

Cross Field chart

Charts usually visualize data from a single question or related questions like tables, loops, or blocks. To see how one question (or variable) interacts with another, use the Cross Field dropdown in Chart Settings. Cross Field charts can also be displayed as tables if needed.

Trending chart

Trending charts display data in a linear format to show changes over a period of time. To analyze a question by a trend, select Trending from the Chart Type dropdown in Chart Settings. If multiple tracking variables exist in your survey (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly), choose one from the Trending Data dropdown. Then, adjust the Rolling Period as needed.

Customizing charts

The button expands Chart Settings, a modified version of the Report Builder found in all reporting applets. Use the various filters to create a chart focused on the specific data you need.

You can optionally set parameters to include specific respondents in the chart. Click None in the Filters dropdown to launch the Filters menu. Previously made data cuts appear in Pre-Built. Otherwise, click Build to create a new one.

Changing the design defaults in your PowerPoint

If your PowerPoint chart is converting empty cells (undefined) to '0', you can modify your settings with the following steps.

1. Open the PPT and double click into the chart. This opens to the Chart Design tab.
2. Click Select Data.
3. Find the Hidden and Empty Cells section, and change the Show empty cells as dropdown to Gaps.
4. Click OK to save your settings.