The Comment or Essay Box is designed for longer, multiple line, text based answers. This provides the respondent with a lot more scope to give a detailed answer to your question. You have the option to apply a limit to the number of words that can be typed in the field, or you can allow the respondent to enter as much text as they like, up to the limit of 20,000 characters.
For shorter text, such as a name or address, use a Single Textbox or Multiple Textboxes.
Creating Comment or Essay Box Questions
To create a comment or essay box question:
- Click Add Question on your survey.
- Type your question in the Question Text field.
- In the Question Type drop-down menu, select Comment/Essay Box.
- Click the green Add Question button to add the question to your survey.
Customising Comment or Essay Box Questions
When you build a Comment/Essay Box question, you can customise it with the following options:
| Require an Answer to this Question |
Forces the respondent to provide an answer before they can progress to the next page. |
| Validate Answer Format |
Specifies a required format for the contents of the field. This can be used to require the answer be a number within a range, a word length within a range, a character length within a range, or an email address.
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| Box Size |
Specify the width and height of the text entry field. |
| Question Size and Positioning |
Lets you control the size, positioning, appearance and numbering of your question. You can also set a default answer, and hide the question without deleting it. |