RADIO (Free Format Question Type)
Warning:
Because of the complexities of the Free Format Question type, you must completely test your survey to ensure that it functions properly and that the data for your entire survey are being saved correctly.
General Information about Free Format Questions
The RADIO variable is used for asking the respondent to select a single option from a set of response options. Within the Free Format Variable dialog, specify a Free Format Variable with RADIO as the Variable Type. Lighthouse Studio relies heavily on styles and default behavior is to use graphical radio buttons. This increases the polish of the questionnaire, but it raises the bar for the sophistication of HTML that should be supplied when writing free format questions.
You may optionally change the type of data that are stored by using the drop-down box on the Free Format Variable dialog to change from the default data type (Whole Number) to Decimal or Text.
Radio Buttons in Free Format
By default, Lighthouse questionnaires use graphical radio buttons (specified under Survey Settings, General Settings tab). The HTML used by Lighthouse Studio to display radio buttons is more complex than the standard HTML used to display radio buttons. You can use View Source within your browser to examine (and copy) the syntax Lighthouse Studio uses when displaying standard Select-type questions. But, a simpler solution is to use the Free Format Tools button that you access when editing the HTML section of Free Format questions using the pencil icon. It inserts template HTML, including the use of the Lighthouse Studio function called RadioSelect.
When you click the tools button to add Radio buttons, a dialog appears that lets you specify vertical, horizontal, or no table. The table provides a structure for displaying the radio buttons. Depending on the layout of your radio button question, you'll select one of these options. We recommend you add the template structure and click the Preview button to see which layout best fits what you want to accomplish.
The name attribute for each <input> tag must be the name of the variable (all radio <input> tags should have the same name attribute). The VALUE attribute for each <input> tag should be set to a unique value, so you can determine which option the respondent selected (we recommend sequential integers starting with one).
