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Surveys in SharePoint

(631) 632-9602
helpme@stonybrook.edu
http://tlt.stonybrook.edu/StudentServices

TLT Student Consultant Help Desk

Stony Brook University

In this document, you will learn how to:

Create a Survey in SharePoint

Distinguish questions and answer types
Go back and finish a survey that you saved
Access and manipulate the survey settings
Modify or Delete a question
Implement Branch Logic (jumping) into your survey
Make surveys anonymous so users do not have to sign in

Learn about and design output for RSS feeds

Create an E-mail alert for you and your colleagues
Export data into a Spreadsheet
Delete data
Save a survey template
Create a new survey from a Template
Delete a survey template

About SharePoint Surveys:

SharePoint allows you to create public, as well as private, surveys, forms and quizzes. Data can be exported neatly and easily into an
Excel sheet. Branching logic, alerts and RSS are easily implemented.

Create a Survey in SharePoint

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Log into your SharePoint site (mysite, student, courses, web, teams, etc).
Click on Site Actions > Create
Under Tracking choose Survey
Give your Survey an appropriate name. This name will become part of the surveys URL.
According to your preferences, configure Survey Options and Navigation (Navigation is only available with site templates that
have a Quick Launch).
Click Next.
Fill out the New Question: Survey_Name form. Read the form carefully. If your question doesnt come out the way you
want it, you can revise it later by following the instructions for Modify or Delete a Question below.

Question and Type

Choose the type of answer to your question:

Single line of text

Multiple lines
(essay type answers)

Choice
(Multiple Choice: A, B, C, etc.)

Rating Scale
(Strongly Disagree ---- Strongly Agree)

Number
(i.e. How many classes are you currently taking?)

Currency
(i.e. How much money do you spend on coffee per week?)

Date and Time

(for example, you can add Todays Date as the default value)

Lookup
(You can choose a list that was previously created on your site)

To create a list, go to Site Actions > Customs Lists: Custom List.

Give it a name and hit Create

Add new items to the list by clicking New > New Item

Yes/No
(check box)

Person or Group
(Allows respondents to type in a name from a group previously created)

To create a group on your site go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and
Permissions: People and Groups

Click New > New Group

If you do not want to create a new group, you can simply create a Custom List
of names instead

Business Data
(Information for this must be preloaded)

Modified: 6/25/2009

Page Separator

(Is your survey long? Users can save and finish later)

Anonymous access will not work with this. Permissions must be set so that a
user must sign before taking the survey.

How to Finish a Survey Once it is Saved

You can only go back and finish a survey if the survey was designed that way. Respondents should be
made aware of the following instructions to complete saved survey.
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Click on Show all responses:

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Then click on View Response #... next to their name

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Click on Edit Response

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And then click the Next button until they find a section that is not completed.

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Sample Survey (types of answers)

This is the name of the Survey:

Single Line of Text:

Multiple Lines of Text:

Choice:

Rating Scale:

Number:
Currency:
Date and Time:

Look up:
Yes/No:
Multiple lines of Text:

The user hits Finish when done:

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Survey (List) Settings
Once you are done entering questions and hit Finish, you will be brought to the Customize List Name page (Surveys, Document
Libraries, Picture Libraries are all LISTS in SharePoint). Here you can modify the settings, manipulate the permissions, add question
and more.
If you ever need to get back to the Customize page (the Survey Settings page), go to:

Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site libraries and lists. Then click on the name of your survey.

Or type in the Web Address of the survey and click on the name of the survey.

There are 5 sections on the

Customize List_Name page
1. List Information
2. General Settings
3. Permissions and Management
4. Communications
5. Questions (on other lists this is the Columns
section)
The main features of the are highlighted below.

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List Information
Name
Web Address
General Settings
Title, description, and
navigation:

the current title of the list (survey)

copy and paste this into e-mail or your web pages for the respondents

You can change the name of your survey (but this will NOT change the URL)
Survey Options: You can show the respondents names if they have to sign
in to take the survey. You can also designate multiple responses here.
Change the respondents read and edit access
Use this option to target a specific group who have permission to take the
survey (or to see the list)

Advanced settings
Enable Target Audience

Permissions and Management

Delete this survey
Save Survey as a
Template

Permissions for this survey

Workflow settings
Information management
policy settings

Deletes the list, including the data

You can save the survey to reuse and/or to modify it. You can also export
the template file (.STP) to other sites. There is a limitation to this. You can
only import an STP from other sites of the same base URL (teams, courses,
student, web, mysite). So, you can only move the template file from one
Teams site to another Teams site
Change the permissions so that the survey is not inheriting user permissions
from the parent (your main site)
Create a workflow to this list
Define a policy
Use another sites policy
No policy

Enable RSS and how the feed should look when you or others subscribe to it

View and edit questions

Add questions to the Survey
Change the order of the questions

Communications
RSS
Questions
Question

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Modify or Delete a Question
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Go to the Survey Settings:

Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site libraries and lists. Then click on the name of your survey.

Or type in the Web Address of the survey and then click on the name of the survey.
In the Customize Survey_Name form, under the Questions section, click the question you want to modify or delete.

In the Edit Question: Survey_Name form, either modify the question by revising the form or delete the question by
scrolling to the bottom of the page in hitting the Delete button.

Add Branching
Branching Logic allows questions to be skipped based on a response. The Branching Logic function can be found in the Survey
Settings after youve entered your questions.
To enable Branching:
1. Go to the Survey Settings:

Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site libraries and lists. Then click on the name of your survey.

Or type in the Web Address of the survey and then click on the name of the survey.
2. Under the Questions section, click on the question that will initiate the Branching. This will allow you to edit the question.
3. At the bottom of the Edit Question: Survey_Name form is the Branching Logic Function. From each of the possible
answers select the question to which the survey must jump.

Survey Permissions Note

Your survey generally inherits the users from the site it lives on. To learn more about SharePoint site permissions please see our
documentation on the Add Users page: https://web.stonybrook.edu/sharepoint/

Anonymous Surveys
If all or part of your site is open to the public (Anonymous Access is enabled see step I), you can give public access to your survey so
that respondents do not need to sign in with a Stony Brook NetID. Base URLs that do NOT have Anonymous Access capability are
Teams and Courses. HOWEVER, all Stony Brook students, faculty and staff have a MySite account (mysite.stonybrook.edu) where they
can create a sub site that can be accessed anonymously.
*** To create a sub site off of your mysite see the appendix page ***
The base URLs that DO allow Anonymous Access are: student, web, and mysite.

Modified: 6/25/2009

Enable Anonymous Access on a Survey (or any List)

To turn on Anonymous Access on a survey so no one has to authenticate (sign in) to take it, you must first turn on Anonymous Access
on the SharePoint site itself and THEN turn on anonymous access onto your survey.
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Enable Anonymous Access on your SharePoint site

1. For our purpose the TEST_Survey_Vacations survey lives in the site tltworkshop:
https://student.stonybrook.edu/tltworkshop/Lists/TEST_Survey_Vacations
[ https://baseURL.stonybrook.edu/SiteName/Lists/Survey_Name ]
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II.

To enable Anonymous Access on the tltworkshop site, go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and Permissions:
Advanced permissions > Settings > Anonymous Access.
Make sure Entire Web site is selected.

Now, enable Anonymous Access on the survey

1. Go to the Survey Settings:

Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site libraries and lists. Then click on the name of your
survey.

Or type in the Web Address of the Survey and then click on the name of the survey.
2. Click on Permissions for this survey, under Permissions and Management

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In the Permissions: Test_Survey_Vacations page, click Settings > Anonymous Access

Only check off:
Add Items
View Items
* if you enable Edit Items or Delete Items then unknown users can manipulate your data!

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Click OK
To test this survey:
Copy the URL
Close your browser and reopen
Paste the URL into the Address Bar
Make sure you are not signed in

Take the survey

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Where is My Survey?
This depends on where you are on your SharePoint site when you hit Site Actions > Create. If you are on the main page of your site
when you go to create your survey, you will see a snap shot on the main page:

What if you do not want the snap shot on your main page?
You can manipulate this snap shot just like you would a web part. You can click the down-pointing arrow to close or modify it. You
can drag and drop this view into another web zone just like a web part. You can add this to another page in the same fashion as you
would a web part. Additionally you can click on the title of the survey to access the survey settings (the Customize Survey_name
form).
The URL of your survey will follow this template:
https://baseURL.stonybrook.edu/SiteName/Lists/SurveyName
If your survey is located on a sub site (child site) of your main site, the URL will follow this template:
https://baseURL.stonybrook.edu/SiteName/SubSiteName/Lists/SurveyName
And finally if you cant find your survey, you can always locate it by going to:
Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site libraries and lists
Then click on the name of your survey.

Create an E-mail Alert for You and/or Your Colleagues

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Type in the URL or click on the name of your survey (this feature works for any other lists and libraries as well) and then click
on the Actions button (You will only see the Actions button when you are signed in!):

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Click on Alert Me:

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Read the New Alert form carefully. Give the Alert Title a meaningful name. Add users (recipients of this alert) quickly by
typing in their NetIDs and hitting enter after each one. Another way to enter users is to look them up using the book icon

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. Note the type of alerts and when you want the alert to be sent. If you are expecting many responses you may only
want alerts sent weekly.
Hit OK when you are finished.

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Export Data into a Spreadsheet
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Type in the URL or click on the name of your survey (this works for other lists and libraries as well) and then click on the
Actions button (If you do not see the Actions button make sure you are signed!).
Click on Export to Spreadsheet

You will be prompted to save a .iqy file. Download the file and open it up in Excel.
*Youll notice each record is horizontal (in rows). If you prefer to look at each record as a column, you will need to copy each
column and special paste it into each row on another sheet using Excels Transpose function.

Delete Data
It is not always necessary to recreate a new survey. Sometimes you can just delete the old data and reuse the survey on another
group of respondents.
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To delete data, type in the URL of the survey.

Click on Show all Responses.

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To delete, mouse over a response, click the down-pointing arrow and hit Delete Response.

Modified: 6/25/2009

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RSS
Wouldnt you like to have a list of your favorite sites with notification that the site has been updated in bold? ..When a blog
site has a new post? ..When your survey has been taken? When you click on a Web site in your Feeds list you will see the latest
posting first. To subscribe, simply click on the RSS logo on any site that allows RSS technology.
*You will notice that MOST SharePoint sites allow RSS.
You can modify what users see when they subscribe to your site.
Modify List RSS Settings
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Go to the Survey Settings:

Click on Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site Lists and Libraries.
your survey.

Or type in the Web Address of the survey and then click on the name of the survey.
On the Customize Survey_Name page, click RSS settings

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The Modify List RSS Settings: Survey_Name page will allow you to manipulate the output of the RSS feed.

Then click on the name of

Components of the Modify List RSS Settings page

List RSS
RSS Channel
Information
Columns
Item Limit

Modified: 6/25/2009

Enable or disable RSS for this list (survey)

This stuff may already be filled out. You can change the information here depending on what
you want shown on the feed. You can also delete the Image URL to save space!
Any field is considered a column. This includes all survey questions and other fields like the
survey Title, Created by, Modified by, date Modified, etc. You can designate what is
seen and in what order.
You designate the number of items on each feed and the number of days.

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Example of a feed (what the subscriber sees)

Save the Survey as a Template

You can copy a survey to reuse on another site or to just modify it. In the SharePoint Help guide
, this is known as Copying or
Moving a SharePoint List or Managing list templates (because a survey is merely a list in SharePoint).
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Go to the Survey Settings:

Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site libraries and lists. Then click on the name of your survey.

Or type in the Web Address of the survey and then click on the name of the survey.
On the Customize Survey_Name page, click on Save survey as template under the Permissions and Management
section.
Give the template a File name. The Template name can be the same as the File name. Enter a description to avoid any
confusion. Check off Include Content if you want to retain the survey answers in the Template.
Hit OK.

Create a New Survey from a Template

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Click on Site Actions > Create.

The name of your Survey template will be found under the Tracking section.

Delete a Survey Template (.STP)

Your survey templates are located in the List Template Gallery.
1. Go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Galleries: List Templates
2. Click on the Edit Icon
next to the File name.
3. In the List Template Gallery: List_name page, click Delete Item

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Cheat Sheet!
Create a Survey: Site Actions > Create > Tracking: Survey
Finish a Saved Survey: Show all Responses > look for the survey with your name attached
Survey Settings: Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Site Libraries and Lists > click on the name of the survey
Modify a Question: Go to Survey Settings > click on the question
Delete a Question: Go to Survey Settings > click on the question > Hit the Delete button on the bottom of the page
Add Branching: Go to Survey Settings > click on the question > Branching feature is near the bottom of the page
Enable Anonymous Access (site): Site Actions > Site Settings > Users and Permissions: Advanced permissions > Settings >
Anonymous Access
Enable Anonymous Access (survey): Go to Survey Settings > Permissions and Management: Permissions for this survey
Create an E-mail Alert: Type in the URL or click on the name of the survey > Actions > Alert Me
Export Data: Type in the URL or click on the name of the survey > Actions > Export to Spreadsheet
Delete Data: Type in the URL or click on the name of the survey > Show all Response > mouse a response, click the down-pointing
arrow > Delete Response
Modify RSS Settings: Go to Survey Settings > Communications: RSS Settings
Save the Survey as a Template: Go to Survey Settings > Permissions and Management: Save survey as template
Create a New Survey from a Template: Site Actions > Create > Tracking: Your_Survey_Template_File_Name
Delete a Survey Template: Site Actions > Site Settings > Galleries: List Templates

Modified: 6/25/2009

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Create a Sub site Off of Your MySite

TLT Student Consultant Help Desk

Stony Brook University

(631) 632-9602
helpme@stonybrook.edu
http://tlt.stonybrook.edu/StudentServices

SharePoint is new technology that focuses on virtual online collaboration. You may find your next place of employment, a club you
want to join or taskforce you are invited to is already implementing this new technology. Here is your chance to get a head start
You can create a sub site off of your MySite to use as a workspace. Students, Faculty and Staff receive 100MB of storage space on the
SharePoint server.

Parent
site
Child
Site

Log on to MySite using your NetID:

mysite.stonybrook.edu
Everyone who has a NetID has a MySite.
Use Internet Explorer. SharePoint works best with IE.
Your username is: sunysb.edu\NetID
(Dont forget to use the slash above the Enter key)
Use your NetID password

Create a Sub site

1. Go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration: Sites and workspaces.
2. Hit Create.
3. Give the site a name.
4. Give it a URL that will make sense.
5. In Template Selection, under the Collaboration tab, select a appropriate template, we like Document Workspace.
Use unique permissions
6. In the Permissions section, choose
If you select
Use same permissions as parent site, then this sub site will be inheriting the permissions of your
MySite, which means you will have to break this bond later and change the permissions for access.
7. Hit the Create button.
Create a new group is selected for Visitors, Members
8. Next, the Set Up Groups for this Site form will appear. Make sure
and Owners of this site. Then click OK. You can enter in the users to the appropriate groups later.
The URL of your Sub site will be:
http://mysite.stonybrook.edu/sites/NetID/site_name
*** Use a TinyURL (tinyurl.com) if it is too long.
*** Create a NETWORK PLACE (XP) or Map the Drive (Vista) using the URL of your document library on your personal computer.
***Place this URL in the File name field on any MS 2007 document to save files directly to your Library---this feature does not work
with Macs.
Extra Help:
Click
for MySite Help. This is located at the top right of every SharePoint page.
In your MySite, click on the SharePoint Tutorial tab for at-your-own-pace tutorials, articles and demos.
student.stonybrook.edu/tltworkshop
web.stonybrook.edu/SharePoint

Modified: 6/25/2009