A multiple choice question is a question where the respondent can choose one answer from a list with predefined answers. A good example of a multiple choice question is to ask in which department people work, since people generally work only in one department.
After you have entered your question text and selected the option 'multiple choice', you can enter your predefined answers in the area below the question text. You can insert multiple answers by clicking the New answer button in the button bar or by clicking the Enter key after you entered a predefined answer. After this a new answer is inserted automatically. To delete an answer, go to the Dialogue menu and choose Delete answer. An alternative is to delete the question text and to click on the backspace button while the cursor is in the empty answer space.
The answers to the question can be displayed in multiple columns. Select the number of columns by choosing a value for Display in columns.
When you create a multiple choice question, you can use the question properties to add two special types of answer categories. You can add the answer category Not applicable by checking the checkbox in the dialogue properties. When respondents mark this answer, a special value is stored in the results that distinguishes it from normal answer values. The application creates an answer category with the text 'not applicable'. You can select and change this default text (to another language for example).
Another special answer category is Other. When you use this category, an answer is inserted where the respondent can answer the question in a textbox. The respondent can use this when the predefined answer categories don't fit his or her answer. You can add the answer category 'other' by checking the checkbox in the dialogue properties. You can select and change the default text.
Figure 6: Example of a multiple choice question.