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
- On the Build tab, click the Add New Question option and select Dropdown Menu List from the available options.
- Input your question text in the What question do you want to ask field.
- Within the Answer section, input the dropdown menu options that will be shown via each dropdown menu.
- Next, provide the row labels for each of your dropdown menus within the Row Headers section.
- 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.
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.
Survey Taking
On a desktop and most laptops, the Dropdown Menu List question type looks like so.
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.
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.
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 (Aggregate) | Compatible | |
---|---|---|
Pie Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Arc Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Donut Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Vertical Bar Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Stacked Vertical Bar Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Horizontal Bar Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Stacked Horizontal Bar Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Spiderweb Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Histogram | ||
Line Chart | ||
Spline Chart | ||
Area Chart | ||
Area Spline Chart | ||
Scatter Plot | ||
Word Cloud | ||
Collapsed Response List | ||
Grid | ||
Diverging Stacked Bar Chart | ||
NPS Chart | ||
Contact Cards | ||
DIY Grid/Cards | ||
Table |
Chart Type (Longitudinal) | Compatible | |
---|---|---|
Longitudinal Line Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal Area Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal Spline Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal Area Spline Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal Vertical Bar Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal Stacked Vertical Bar Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal Stacked Area Chart | (Individual Rows*) | |
Longitudinal 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 Type | Compatible |
---|---|
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.
This will display the rows of the Dropdown List in chart format. Beautiful!
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.
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 08/02/2017
@Ellen: I see. We do not have a setting to only show selected options in the Send Email Action PDF I'm sorry to say. I think this would be a great improvement though! I will make a note to discuss this with our development team as a possible future improvement.
Bri Hillmer
Documentation Coordinator
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience Team
— Ellen on 08/01/2017
Hi Bri, thanks for your response! I'm new at this so please bear with me. The report that I'm trying to adjust is the default one that gets emailed as a pdf back to the respondent once they have submitted their information. I've looked all around the survey that I created, but I'm unable to locate the "Report Options" menu that you are referring to below. Any help would or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 08/01/2017
Hi Ellen!
Under Report Options > Answer Options (or Layout & Options > Answer Options for the individual report element) there is an option to uncheck Answer Options/Rows With no Data. Does unchecking this option work to remove the extraneous options from your report?
I hope this helps!
Bri Hillmer
Documentation Coordinator
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience Team
— Ellen on 08/01/2017
Hello, I'm looking to see if it is possible to change the report type for my drop down menu list. My current drop down menu contains about 150 items, of which the user will pick up to 10. The resulting table is so big that the results are off the page, which is a particular problem when they are emailed to the respondent in pdf form. Is it possible to change the report to be just a list of the selections made?
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 12/06/2016
@Jack: Thank you for exploring our documentation content!
While a Dropdown Menu List does not offer a built-in Other textbox option, we have documented a workaround here (this uses logic to trigger a follow-up question):
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/add-an-other-textbox#add-an-other-textbox-to-a-dropdown-menu-question
I hope this helps!
David
Documentation Specialist/Survey Explorer
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Jack on 12/06/2016
How to make a drop down list with an option to complete when selection is other?
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 08/05/2016
@Marcus: You can indeed! Sounds like your are like you are looking for what we call reporting values. Here is a tutorial with more information:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/reporting-values
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Marcus on 08/05/2016
Is it possible to have the "display" and "recorded" values for answer choices be different? For example, can a respondent be asked to drop down and select "Male" or "Female", but the actual recorded value is "M" or "F"?
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 07/20/2016
@Tbf_employeesurvey: We do not have this kind of validation available with the Dropdown Menu List question. Have you tried either the Ranking Grid or Drag & Drop Ranking Question? I believe either of these question types would achieve what you are looking for.
Here are the tutorials on these 2 question types:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/ranking-grid
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/drag-drop-ranking
I hope this helps!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— TBF_HRTeam on 07/20/2016
Hi, i choose a dropdown menu list question in order to ask for a top three among different options/answers but i want to know if we can set up a "no duplicate option"
It is currently possible to do: 1 - Answer 1 2 - Answer 4 3 - Answer 4
For example
Question: put your top three drink
Options/Answers: coca cola, lemonade, orange juice, apple juice
Answers:
1 - coca cola
2 - apple juice
3 - apple juice
I want to know if we can block an answer after it was selected
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 05/15/2015
@Subaru: Great question! It doesn't look like we added the alphabetize functionality for this question type. I'll be sure to make note of this for discussion with our development team for future improvements!
Thanks for your feedback!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Julie on 05/15/2015
Hello. Can Survey Gizmo ALPHABETIZE the list of answers for this question type like it can for checkboxes and radio buttons? Thanks!