Dropdown Menu List Question Type

Dropdown Menu List questions allow respondents to select an option for multiple items in a list using a uniform dropdown of answers.

When To Use It

Use a Dropdown Menu List to display multiple dropdown questions that share the same possible answers. For example, purchased quantity of a list of products.

Setup

  1. On the Build tab, click the Add New Question option and select Dropdown Menu List from the available options.
  2. Input your question text in the What question do you want to ask field.
  3. Within the Answer section, input the dropdown menu options that will be shown via each dropdown menu.
    Dropdown Menu List Menu Options
  4. Next, provide the row labels for each of your dropdown menus within the Row Headers section.
    Dropdown Menu List Row Headers
  5. Make sure to Save your question when you are finished.

Validation Options

There are a couple validation options that you should be aware of when using the Dropdown Menu List question.

  • If you don't want want your respondents to select the same answer from each menu in the list, select the Prevent respondents from selecting a dropdown value more than once checkbox. This will result in an answer being un-selected from the initial menu if it is chosen in a following menu in the same question.
  • You can also specify the number of rows that must be answered via the Answer Requirement section.

Dropdown Menu List Validation

Layout Options

There are also a couple of options available via the Layout tab that may be helpful.

  • If you have a large amount of dropdown menu list rows, consider using the Number of Columns setting to display your list in two or more columns. Input your desired number of columns and save your question to see the effect.
  • You can place the Row Headers to the right of the dropdown menus if you prefer, by checking the Place labels on the right side of the input checkbox.
    Dropdown Menu List Layout

Survey Taking

On a desktop and most laptops, the Dropdown Menu List question type looks like so.

Dropdown Menu List Survey Taking on Desktop

When optimized for mobile devices the Dropdown Menu List question type looks very similar. Many mobile devices have a native select interface to make it easier for respondents to select an option with their finger. Whether or not this is available depends on the device.

By default, survey questions show one at a time on mobile devices to prevent the need for scrolling on smaller screens. You can turn off this one-at-a-time interaction if you wish.

Dropdown Menu List Survey Taking on Mobile

Reporting

Dropdown Menu Lists report as a Grid with a row for each list item and a column count and percent for each dropdown list option.

Dropdown Menu List Reporting

 See additional compatible chart types

Within the Standard Report there are various chart types available for visualizing your data. The below grid shows which of the our chart types Dropdown Menu List questions are compatible with. 

Chart Type (Longitudinal)

Compatible
Longitudinal Line ChartLongitudinal Line Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Area ChartLongitudinal Area Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Spline ChartLongitudinal Spline Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Area Spline ChartLongitudinal Area Spline Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Vertical Bar ChartLongitudinal Vertical Bar Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Stacked Vertical Bar ChartLongitudinal Stacked Vertical Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Stacked Area ChartLongitudinal Stacked Area Chart (Individual Rows*)
Longitudinal Stacked Spline Area ChartLongitudinal Stacked Spline Area Chart (Individual Rows*)

*See report on grid rows separately to learn how.

 See what other report types are compatible

The below grid shows which of the report types Dropdown Menu List questions are compatible with. If you plan to do some specific analysis within SurveyGizmo this report compatibility chart should help you choose the right question types.

Report TypeCompatible
Standard 
Legacy Summary 
TURF

Profile 
Crosstab 
Comparison  (Individual Rows Only)

 Learn how to report on list rows separately

In Standard Reports the rows of Dropdown Menu List questions can be reported on separately as various chart types. Here are the steps to set this up:

Click the Insert button between any two report elements and select Question Chart from the dropdown menu. In the next dropdown menu look for your list question. Instead of selecting the overall question title, select the first row of the list, seen below, and click Add Question. Continue adding each row of the list question.

Select Individual Row of Grid Question

This will display the rows of the Dropdown List in chart format. Beautiful!

Select Individual Row of Grid Question

Exporting

In the CSV/Excel export, will display a column for each list item. The column header will display the list item first, then the question title.

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