How to use the text (single line) block

When to use

Use the text (single line) block to let your respondents enter a text answer that consists of one line. Mostly used for short text answers, like personal data.

You also can extend the text input with suggestions to let the respondent select from a list of suggestions you give them, while they are typing.

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How to use

Add a new block to your form and then select the question type Text (single line). You can now customize this block to your needs with the following features:

General

• Text
  Use the Text feature for the name/title of this block.
• Description
  Enable the Description feature to add a description to this block.
• Placeholder
  Enable the Placeholder feature to add a text inside the empty input control of this block.
• Help text
  Enable the Help text feature to add a help text to this block.

Settings

• Limits
  Enable the Limits feature to control the amount of characters your respondents can enter. You can set the Minimum and Maximum character limits.
• Autocomplete
  Enable the Autocomplete feature to use the autocomplete functionality of the respondent's browser to help the respondent to fill out the form as quickly as possible. You can select which autocomplete value you'd like to insert, like the name or address of the respondent.
• Suggestions
  Enable the Suggestions feature to extend your text input with suggestions that popup while the respondent types in your text input.
• Transform
  Enable the Transform feature to determine how the answered text should be transformed. For example you can capitalize certain parts of the answer, or convert all characters to lowercase/uppercase.

Options

• Prefill
  Enable the Prefill feature to set a fixed initial value of this block.
• Required
  By default this block is not required to fill out by your respondents. Enable the Required feature to make this block required to fill out.
• Visibility
  By default this block is visible in your form. Enable the Visibility feature to hide it for your respondents.
• Score
  You can attach scores to the suggestions to perform instant calculations. Enable the Score feature to enter the desired score values. This feature is only available if you have enabled the suggestions feature.
• Alias
  By default the name/title of this block will be used in your dataset. Enable the Alias feature to use a different name in your dataset.
• Exportability
  By default the collected data of this block will be stored to the dataset of each result. Enable the Exportability feature to take control over the storage. You can then include/exclude the data from your dataset. Please note that if you exclude data from the dataset you can never see and/or use the given answers from your respondents to this block, because the data is simply not stored at all.

Suggestions feature

You can extend your text input with suggestions that popup while the respondent types in your text input. The respondent can quickly select an item from your suggestions list. Please note that the respondent still can answer any free text, so also something different than the suggestions you supply.

To activate this, enable the Suggestions feature. Now you can add/import your list of suggestions that you want your respondents to choose from.

📌 Also see: Dropdown with keyword search

Are you looking for a dropdown question type in which the respondent can search and select multiple options? Please have a look at the dropdown (multi-select) block.

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Logic

Logic is important to make your forms smart and conversational. The text (single line) block can work with the following branch conditions to help you with that:

Block conditions

• Text matches your filter;
• Text does not match your filter;
• Text contains your filter;
• Text does not contain your filter;
• Text starts with your filter;
• Text ends with your filter;
• Text is empty;
• Text is not empty.

Filters

When we mention your filter(s) above, there are some different filters that you can use to make the right comparison:

• Text - Compare with a fixed text that you enter;
• Value - Compare with another block value entered in the form by a respondent (more info).

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Calculations

You can use the calculator block to perform calculations with given answers. The text (single line) block supports the following calculation operations:

• Compare - Compare a text and output a value based on the result of the comparison;
• Character count - Count the number of characters in a text;
• Word count - Count the number of words in a text;
• Line count - Count the number of lines in a text;
• Count occurrences - Count the number of occurrences of a certain text, character or regular expression in a text;
• Convert to number - Convert a text to a number value.

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