Form Closed Vs. Open Questions

1 Closed Types

In HTML there are a number of types of closed question:

• Select
• Radio Button
• Check Box
• Select - Multiple

Select

These are drop down lists. A user can only select one option from this type. The primary benefit of this type is that the list can be very long, but only one option is displayed at a time.

Radio Button

Small circular dots. Like Select you can only select one option but the difference is that all of the options are displayed on screen at the same time. This ensures that the user can see all the answer available at any time.

Check Box

Small boxes that can have a check mark placed in them. Like the Radio Button, all the items are displayed on the screen at the same time. This has the same draw backs as the Radio Button regarding space, but it does allow multiple answers to be selected.

Select - Multiple

This type is an extension of the Select type. The difference being that if you hold down the ctrl button on the keyboard whilst clicking options, multiple items can be selected. You can set the height of a Select - Multiple to show a minimum default amount of items. This option is rarely used but implemented for Forms with experienced users.

Pre Generated Lists

There are a number of prepopulated types of list within BE. All of these types use a Select and populate the answers appropriately. Yes / No, uses a Select and puts Yes in the first item and No in the second item. There are over 25 types of pre generated lists.

2 Open Types

All other question types are considered Open. Open question types such as the Text Box and Text Area allow any kind of answer to be input by the user.

Text Box

This is a single line answer used for short text answers.

Text Area

This a multiple line answer used for essay / paragraph type answers.