SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

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Djavo
Posts: 3
Joined: January 17th, 2020, 1:11 pm

SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by Djavo »

Hello,
I want to know if there is a way to follow to save help text contents and add block procedures like using logic or some other technique, because whenever I made any updates the help text contents I inserted using CAPI options>help text procedure and the add blocks I used disappears so I have to do it again which is making the data entry program design tiresome and uncomfortable. So please guide me to put these problems to bed. Thank you!
Hope my question is clear.

Best regards,
josh
Posts: 2399
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 12:49 pm
Location: Washington DC

Re: SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by josh »

Can you give us a bit more detail on what is happening? Please list step by step instructions to reproduce the problem. I just tried adding help text after adding a block in a test application and the block did not disappear.
Djavo
Posts: 3
Joined: January 17th, 2020, 1:11 pm

Re: SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by Djavo »

Hello josh,

they are two different but with the same problem;

Q1) QSF file includes question text to appear on the screen with each field and help screens to appear when the operator presses (F2) on windows or ? button on Android devices. I am using help text for some fields to give explanation about the question or provide additional instruction on how to respond by using help text from the CAPI options menu followed by saving and exiting the program. Now what I want to know is, if I update the form the help text contents disappears. So what should I do to save them in the .QSF file so will be there unless I change the .QSF file.
*If it helps, I want you to now that initially I use excel file to develop the questions then use QCreate.exe application to convert the excel file to QSF file.

Q2) CSPro help page states >> [To create a new block, select multiple fields in the Forms Tree by holding down the Ctrl key while selecting fields. Once the fields are selected, right-click and select Add Block]. 'Am using this procedure to form blocks, but when I update the forms for some reasons I have to do the procedure again. So again what I want to know is if there is a way using logic to form blocks or if there is a file to save forming block procedures.

Thank you!

Best regds,
aaronw
Posts: 561
Joined: June 9th, 2016, 9:38 am
Location: Washington, DC

Re: SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by aaronw »

I believe the issue with the question/help text is that you're editing the QSF file outside of the CSPro designer. If you simply update the text to be displayed that's fine. However, if you rename a dictionary variable then this change needs to also be made in the DCF and FMF files. When making these changes in the CSPro designer this is done for you. I recommend that most users do this through the CSPro designer.

I assume something similar is happening with the blocks. That is you're doing something outside of the CSPro editor and all references are not being updated. While I understand the general issue, I will need steps to reproduce to your issue to be more specific.
Djavo
Posts: 3
Joined: January 17th, 2020, 1:11 pm

Re: SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by Djavo »

to use CSPro designer procedure is a solution. even after I regenerate the form the help texts are there. thumbs up for the help text part.

But my suggestion to the program update unit is it will be much help if they can find a way to incorporate a mechanism to add help text from outside of CSPro designer. I use the technique of building question files and dictionary files using excel and then converting to QSF and DCF files. This method is significantly useful in time by controlling/able to view multi questions and multi languages at a time rather than using CSPro designer which allows one to view and change single item at a time. So to write help texts in a file outside CAPI options menu and link it with questions via field name would be a great achievement specially with large survey questions and multi language questionnaire.

as per the add block issue unlike the help text issue after regenerating the form even when working within the CSPro editor it is still disappearing...so pls do double checks and come up with add block saving procedure

once again thank you for your quick response and guidance :D
aaronw
Posts: 561
Joined: June 9th, 2016, 9:38 am
Location: Washington, DC

Re: SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by aaronw »

My response to the blocks issue was vague, because I don't know the steps to reproduce your issue. Il need to know exactly what you're doing to the forms to cause the blocks to disappear.
Gregory Martin
Posts: 1777
Joined: December 5th, 2011, 11:27 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: SAVING HELP TEXT & ADD BLOCK

Post by Gregory Martin »

Is QCreate the software package used by ICF for editing question text? If so, you may want to contact ICF to ask if they can add functionality for adding help text.

Another option is to add the help text as if it were question text, save it to a QSF file, open that file in a text editor, and use that editor's Replace All functionality to replace [QUESTION] with [HELP]. If you look at the QSF file format, it is somewhat straightforward, and you could merge two QSFs (one with the question text and one with this new help text) by copying all blocks, except the [CAPI QUESTIONS] and [LANGUAGES] blocks, from one QSF into another. You don't need to worry about the order of the [QUESTION] and [HELP] blocks, as CSPro will reorder this stuff when you save the file from within the CSPro Designer.
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