A question file consists of two parts: the dialogue properties and a question list. The dialogue properties hold information in addition to the actual questions. Here you can enter a name for the dialogue file, see who created the questionnaire and in which language it is written. This information is necessary to store and catalogue dialogue files and to present them to respondents. When designing a dialogue file you can switch between the dialogue properties and the question list by using the tab bar, directly beneath the menu bar.
When you create a new dialogue file or open an existing one, the dialogue properties window is opened. In this window you can create or edit the appropriate information. The six dialogue properties are listed below:
Name: The title of the dialogue.
Author: The name of the person who created the dialogue file.
Description: A description of what the dialogue file is.
Preface: This text is shown to the respondent just before the question list is presented. Here you can say what the dialogue is about and what you will do with the information.
Epilogue: This text is shown to the respondent after he has filled out the dialogue. An excellent opportunity to thank a respondent for his or her participation.
Encoding: You can choose UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 as the encoding for the dialogue. If the language of the dialogue is an European language (for example English or German), the ISO-8859-1 encoding is apropriate. If you want to use characters that are not present in this encoding (such as Greek or Asian characters) then choose the UTF-8 encoding. All possible characters are usable if you choose the UTF-8 encoding.
The Metatude Dialogue Server must be installed with support for Unicode if you wish to use the UTF-8 encoding. You will not be able to use an UTF-8 encoded dialogue when this support is not present. In this case, please select ISO-8859-1 as the encoding for the dialogue.
Version: This states the version of the Metatude Dialogue Designer. The dialogues will have this version number as a property in order to avoid conflicts between different versions of Metatude software components. You cannot adjust this value.
Figure 1: An example of dialogue properties.
Font formatting
You can select parts of the text you entered in the Preface and Epilogue fields and format these fonts bold, italic or underlined using the buttons on the top right hand corner. You can also apply font formatting on selected text by using the shortcuts CTRL-B, CTRL-I and CTRL-U for resp. bold, italic and underlined formatting. These font formatting features can also be used througout the questionairre.