Looking to gather data from a questionnaire

[JohnLowell]

I'm looking for a jump off point. I need some direction in gathering data for a questionnaire. I would like to be able to send a user a Word or Excel file and have them answer the questions (with answers supplied). I need to be able to gather the data from the document.

The answers are of all types (select 1 answer, select all that apply or fill in some text).

Access is not an option. We do not want to have to support runtime files just to answer the questionnaire.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DaleWatson123321]

Hi John,

Here are the recommendations I'd make:

1) Use Excel.

2) Place your questionnaire on Sheet1 and name the tab Questionnaire.

3) Create your questionnaire much like you would normally - i.e. use numbers for each question, and separate each question.

4) Under (or opposite) each question, provide the multiple-choice ansers as either options buttons, or list boxes, whichever is more appropriate.

5) For each question/answer(s), use the Sheet2.

6) On Sheet2, reserve cell A1 for a unique identifier that you'll use for each questionnaire that you'll be sending out. It will be important for you to have an "identification scheme" - for the files that are sent out compared to the files that are returned.

7) You could send out the same (common) filename to everyone, but when the files are returned, you would then need to assign a unique number (in cell A1 - Sheet2), and probably save the file under that same number.

8) On sheet2, also on ROW 1, you need to place all of your "link cells" that link to the option buttons and combo boxes of your questionnaire.

9) By keeping all your link-cell-answers on the same ROW (row 1), you will then have your data in a normalized format, suitable for later merging into a separate file.

10) Once your data is merged into the one file, you should assign a range name to this "database".

11) You should then use Excel's database functions to analyze the data.

12) Ideally, should should set up your database formulas and criteria prior to sending out the questionnaires. This will enable you to confirm that the criteria you set up for the database formulas has the necessary data (answers) being supplied to provide the results (analysis) you are seeking to achieve. Basically, this will confirm that you've set up the questions/answers correctly (in sync).

Hope this helps. Please advise as to how you make out.

If you run into any difficulty, don't hesitate to ask for assistance.

Regards, ...Dale Watson dwatson@bsi.gov.mb.ca