What is the easiest way to gather data or opinions from a group? Well you might say a survey would be pretty easy, but how should you do the survey? Survey Monkey? Fortunately, if you have SharePoint then you’re in luck! SharePoint has a premade survey list that can be quickly added and customized however is needed. They can have branching logic (have special diet needs ye or no can branch into Vegan etc.) Then once the survey is made there are many functions for distributing and looking at the survey results.

As SharePoint consultants we want our clients to get the most out of SharePoint. Surveys are easy to get started with, but have a lot of options and tools, some of which may not be apparent as to their use. This post will take you through the steps of making a survey all the way to reviewing and compiling the survey results.

How to Create a Survey

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open. If you want your new survey located as a sub site of another site, navigate to that site.
  • Click the Settings menu gear icon. The Site Actions menu will appear.
  • Click Add an App. The Your Apps page will appear.
  • Scroll down and click the Survey icon. The Adding Survey dialog box will appear.
  • Click Advanced Options. The new Survey page will appear.
  • In the Name field enter a title for the new survey. This will appear in any list of surveys in SharePoint.
  • In the Description field enter a summary of the survey.
  • In the Survey Options section, select the appropriate options. There are two options to select: you can choose whether you want user names to be displayed with each survey result, and if you want to allow users to submit multiple responses when filling out the survey.
  • Click Next. The New Question page will open.
  • In the Question field enter text for which you want to solicit user feedback.
  • Select a type of answer. Based on your selection, the fields in the Additional Question Settings section will change.
  • In the Additional Question Settings section, fill in the fields.
  • If there is another question in the survey, click Next Question and repeat Steps 10-12. Otherwise, click Finish. The Survey Settings page will appear.

How to Preview the Survey

SharePoint allows for the ability to test a survey before making it live. This allows you to make sure that the survey works as intended before asking a larger group of people to fill it out. This helps to ensure that it works as you intend it – particularly if you’ve implemented complex survey branching.

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start Page will open.
  • Navigate to the survey in which you are interested. The Survey Overview page will open.
  • Click the Respond to this Survey link. The first survey question page will open.
  • Review the survey as a test to verify correctness. If all is in order, click the Cancel button on your browser so no results are actually saved.
  • To actually respond to the survey, answer all of the questions and click Finish. The answers will be recorded in the survey results.

How to Enable Survey Branching

When a survey is being created, not every question will be applicable to every respondent. For instance, if you want to poll users about their favorite candidate, and you’ve already asked their political party preference, you would want to narrow their choices to those candidates who are actually in that party. When a question asked depends on the answer of a previous question, this is known as branching.

  • Navigate to the survey you wish to modify or create a new survey.

Note: For survey branching to work, there must be more than two questions in the survey, or branching cannot be set up.

  • Click the link for the question with the answers that create a branch in the survey. The Edit Question page will open.
  • In the Branching Logic section, select the question that will appear after each individual answer is selected.

Note: Selecting the last question will only allow branching to a Content Type.

  • When finished, click OK. The Survey Settings page will open and the survey will be ready for use.

How to Send a Survey Link

Once you’ve created a survey you need to let your users know where it is so they can respond to it. That requires sending out a link.

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start Page will open.
  • Navigate to the survey in which you are interested. The Survey Overview page will open.
  • In the Address bar of your browser, select the entire address. Ctrl + A is useful for this.
  • Press Ctrl + C to copy the URL.
  • Open a new message window in Microsoft Outlook.
  • Press Ctrl + V to paste the URL into the body of the message.
  • Complete the message and press Send. The survey link will be distributed.

How to View the Survey Results

SharePoint has the ability to graph the survey responses. Once a survey is completed by one or more respondents, you can view the results in a comparative graphical form, or view the answers given by individual respondents.

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start Page will open.
  • Navigate to the survey in which you are interested. The Survey Overview page will open.
  • Click the Show a graphical summary of responses link. The Graphical Summary page will open.
  • On the upper right select the View menu and click the Overview option. The Survey Overview page will open again.
  • Click the Show all responses link. The All Responses page will open.
  • Click any View Response link. The View Response page will open.
  • When finished, click Close. You can now compile the survey, as demonstrated in the “Compile Survey Results” task.

How to Compile Survey Results

SharePoint surveys can capture a lot of information and viewing the results on the screen is great for a quick review, however, sometimes it will be necessary to look at the details and perform the kind of data analysis only available in Excel. Thankfully SharePoint can export the results of a survey into an Excel spreadsheet.

  • Start Internet Explorer and type the URL for your organization’s SharePoint server. The Start page will open.
  • Navigate to the survey in which you are interested. The Survey page will open.
  • Click the Actions menu and select the Export to Spreadsheet option. The File Download message box for your browser will appear.
  • Click Open. The file will download and Excel will open.

Note: If a warning dialog box appears identifying a potential security concern, click Enable if you were the one who initiated the export from SharePoint.

  • Edit the spreadsheet as you normally would, using the table tools.

Deep dive into branching logic!

Hiding or Showing Questions Based on a Single Answer Condition

  • Add the question that will trigger your logic to your survey.
  • Add the question or questions you intend to hide or show to your survey.
  • Select the Page tab on the palette.
  • Select Advanced Branching Wizard.
  • Click the + Add Branching Rule.
  • Click Add a condition? and select the question that you want to trigger the logic.
  • In the drop down that appears, select the answer condition you want to trigger the logic.
  • Under Rule Actions select either hide a question or show a question.
  • In the drop down that appears, select the question you would like to hide or show.
  • Repeat this process in the Rule Actions section until you have added all questions you want hidden or shown.
  • Click Save Rule.

Hiding or Showing Questions Based on the Answers to a Set of Questions

Use Advanced Branching to show or hide questions based on multiple answer choice conditions in previous questions. You can combine rule conditions with the Boolean operators AND or OR to create more complex conditions.

  • Use the AND operator to set up logic where every condition must be met in order to show or hide the question.
  • Use the OR operator to set up logic where only one of the conditions must be met in order to show or hide the question.

For example, you can choose to show parenting related questions to respondents who answered yes to a question asking if they currently have children OR if they answered yes to a question asking if they are planning to have children.

To apply Advanced Branching based on multiple conditions:

  • Add the question that will trigger your logic to your survey.
  • Add the question or questions you intend to hide or show to your survey.
  • Select the Page tab on the palette.
  • Select Advanced Branching Wizard.
  • Click the + Add Branching Rule.
  • Click Add a condition? and select the question that you want to trigger the logic.
  • In the drop down that appears, select the answer condition you want to trigger the logic.
  • Click Add Rule.
  • Toggle between AND or OR by clicking on the operand that appears.
  • Continue to add additional question and answer conditions until you’ve set up the rule condition you want.
  • Under Rule Actions select either hide a question or show a question.
  • In the drop down that appears, select the question you would like to hide or show.
  • Repeat this process in the Rule Actions section until you have added all questions you want hidden or shown.
  • Click Save Rule

Ready to enhance your business with our SharePoint and Microsoft 365 expertise?

Contact us today to explore how we can tailor our solutions to meet your unique needs and elevate your operations. Let’s transform your business together!

About the Author: Michael Shipman

Michael Shipman is an IT professional with a passion for SharePoint, PowerPlatform, and various other Microsoft technologies. With over 20 years of experience, he excels in managing data across a wide range of platforms. Beyond his professional life, Michael is a dedicated family man, happily married for nearly 20 years and a proud father of three wonderful children and two adorable dogs. Balancing his career with family life has equipped him with valuable skills such as patience, leadership, and resourcefulness, which he seamlessly integrates into his professional endeavors. Michael enjoys building relationships with clients, providing personalized, top-class service, and solving complex technical issues. He brings a strong blend of professional expertise, a commitment to growth, and the authenticity of a down-to-earth family man.