Creating Charts from Survey Results

In July 2021, The new charts system became the default for all users, though users can still switch back to the old legacy system is desired.. For information about using Legacy Charts, click here

Charts are now part of the Views system – when you change any element relating to a chart, that setting will be saved when you save a View, and applied when you load that View.

Generating Results Charts

The Charts tool now allows you to create highly customised charts to visualise your data.

To access the charts tool, go to the “Results” Tab of your survey. For any question of a type that can show a chart, a default bar chart will be displayed. To change the chart, click the “Customise” button in the upper-right of the box:

An example bar chart in the SmartSurvey report tool. Above it to the right is a button that reads “customise”

Clicking the Customise button will open the chart options, which are on two tabs:

General:

Chart Types

Choose from the following:

Bar		A straightforward chart showing each answer value as a horizontal bar, with length in proportion to the received answers.
Column		Chart showing each answer value as a vertical column, with height in proportion to the received answers.
Pie		The classic pie chart where each value is displayed as a proportion of a circle, which represents all the responses to the question. Segments / slices can be clicked to bring them out of the circle for emphasis.
Line		The data is shown as a series of data points, with the options on the X-axis and the values as the Y-axis. The points are connected as a line.
Area		Similar to the line, except the area below the line is shaded.
Stacked Column		The answers are displayed as sections of a column, in proportion to the received answers. For matrices, each row is shown as a separate column.
Stacked Bar		The answers are displayed as sections of a bar, in proportion to the received answers. For matrices, each row is shown as a separate bar.

Question Text

You can set whether the question text is included on the chart, and also you can edit the text (for example, if a shortened version would be more useful)

Display Options

The section includes more detailed options for customising the appearance of the selected question.

Chart	Toggle the chart itself on and off
Data Series Colours	Toggle the data elements of the visual between having their own colours and all being a single colour
Data Table	Toggle the table with numerical data under the chart (if shown) on and off
Data Table Bar Chart	Include a simple bar chart as part of the data table
Decimal Places	Set how many decimal places are displayed for the results values. Affects both the chart and data table
Labels	Set which Data Labels are included on the chart. Toggle Percentage, Value, and Answer Choice (Pie only)
Legend (Pie only)	Add a legend explaining which colour of the pie chart represents which option
Response Breakdown	Toggle data on how many respondents answered the question and how many skipped it.
Tooltip	Toggle whether a tooltip containing extra data will appear when the mouse pointer is hovered over a chart element such as a bar, point, or segment

Answer Options

Hide answers with 0 responses	Removes any answer options that weren't chosen by any respondents.
Answer Labels	Use the text boxes to amend the wording used for answer labels.

Net Promoter®, Customer Effort, and Customer Satisfaction Questions: These questions have deidacted chart types and are documented in the Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, and Customer Satisfaction Score Guides.

Legacy Charts

Turning survey results into charts allows you to create visual representations of your data which can be incredibly useful when analysing statistics and presenting results in reports.

Generating Result Charts

Go to the Results page of your survey
Click Create Chart next to a question with the create chart option - this generates a chart showing the respondents answers
Use the Display drop down menu to change the type of chart
Click Show Chart Settings to give your chart a title and alter the values displayed. Important: click Update Chart to re-draw the chart with any changes to your chart settings
Under Export to, select either PDF, JPG or PNG

Chart Types

2D Column	A straightforward chart showing each answer value as a column
2D Line	Chart showing all the answer values as datapoints, connected by a line - options on X-axis, values on Y-axis
2D Bar	Chart showing each answer value as a horizontal bar - options are arranged on Y-axis, and values on the X-axis
2D Pie	The classic pie chart where each value is displayed as a proportion of a circle, which represents all the responses to the question. Segments / slices can be clicked to bring them out of the circle for emphasis and the chart can be dragged to change the angle
2D Area	Similar to the 2D line, except the area under the line is shaded
3D Column	The same as the 2D Column, but with a 3d look
3D Bar	The same as the 2D Bar, but with a 3d look
3D Pie	The same as the 2D Pie, but with a 3d look

Chart Settings

Includes	Choose whether to show the values for all possible choices or whether to include only the top 2, 3, or 4 options. If chosen, the other responses will be grouped together as a single bar / Column / Point / Slice
Group Remaining As	Give a name to the Others group when not all choices are being displayed. Default set to Others
Chart Title	Choose whether to display a title on the chart or not. If the title is displayed it can be changed. By default this is the question text
Data Labels	Choose whether your chart labels show the raw number of responses (Values Only), their proportion of all responses as a percentage (Percents Only), or both (Values & Percents). Default set to Percents Only

Exporting Charts for External Use

The charts can be saved directly from the chart editor by clicking the three lines icon in the upper right of the chart window. this will let you save the chart directly to PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG, or XLS formats.

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