Questionnaire
  Labels & Titles
  Variable Types
  User Guide Entries

The Docs function is used to attach documentary information to the question record (and its response) for one or more of the following purposes:

1. Post-field archival reports;
2. Statistical data processing; and
3. Hyperlinks to topics in supplementary manual and guides.

Questionnaire

When the Document Questionnaire function is selected the question record for the selected module and its documentation component are combined into a single display. The fields that appear in blue are the documentation components. Only these fields may be edited from this screen. These fields are not necessary in the design process, and have no effect on the questionnaire.

Document fields may be added to the questions records while the instrument is in the field or even as the data are coming in. These fields can be used to organize the data collected, describe the data for documentation, link variables together from previous rounds, link information to future rounds, prepare the data for the dissemination and retrieval processes, and create hyperlinks to users' guides for extensive documentation of the variables.

The contents of the fields labelled in blue may be edited from this screen. Place the mouse cursor in the field to be edited, right-click, and the edit curor (|) will appear in the field. Click here to learn how to delete contents of a row or grid in a record.

Label Field

This 40-character field is used to specify a SAS label for the variable collected. The default is the first 40 characters of the text field.

Title Field

This 80-character field is used to specify key-word-in-context (KWIC) titles, based on a pre-defined keyword list, and used in the retrieval programs CHRRDBA (DOS) and NLS Investigator (Windows 95).

Comment Field

The designer or archivist can use this free-text field to add comments to individual Manager records. Comments are administrative in nature and will not appear in the Survey program.

VarName Field

The VarName provides an additional identifier for each question. It may be be useful for final documentation production or a link to answers in previous rounds.

RNum Field

Number field. This field contains the unique number for every variable in a file. Can be used to link variables in previous rounds. (See Assign RNum function below.)

Link Tag

This field links the current record to the original record from which the current record was derived. This pertains mostly to longitudinal studies, where the same or a very similar question is posed in subsequent rounds.

Year Tag

This field may contain a reference to a year in which the variable appears.

Card & Col Fields

The Card and Col fields to locate an answer in the answer file. The Card and Column fields are just the conventional card-image addresses of the answer. The first, "left most" columns of each "card" may contain specific identification information for each case depending on how the Col (Column) field is configured.

The location of the responses in the answer file may either be specified by the designer or generated by the software. The choice is a matter of preference, but in a complex, lengthy questionnaire, software generation is subject to fewer errors and fewer headaches.

Card Field: The Card field is hierarchical and used to group a set of cards in a hyperlogical order.

Col Field: The Column field is a subdivision of a Card arranged in two parts:

The first number is the starting "column" position for the answer field.
The second is its length.

If the designer is generating the Card and Column numbers, the length of the field must match the length in the Format field. For program generation this is automatic.

Doc Type

Choose the question type from the drop down () menu.

CCode

Link the continuous code record to the documentation via this field. Use the drop down () menu.

Areas of Interest Field

This field is used to group data into categories based on what topic the variable is related to, hence names like Family Background, Marriage, Military, Jobs, etc. may appear in the drop down () menu. This field is more an administrative field and has more to do with post-collection data management than with questionnaire design. This field can be used to provide a way to tag variables independent of the section-groupings enforced during questionnaire design. Contents of the field may be added by typing new terms in the blank field. See also, Chapter 8 - Reference, Question Fields, "Areas of Interest Field."

User Guide Entries Field

This field can contain a reference to a user guide entry for this variable or particular question. The user guide may be a manual that introduces researchers and users to core sets of variables or contains detailed information on components used in multiple rounds of a survey. This is used with the Links field to create a hyperlink to the manual's explanation. See also, Chapter 8 - Reference, Question Fields, "User Guide Entries Field."

Links Field

Used with the User Guide Entries field to create a hyperlink to the manual's explanation. This field contains the name of the hypertext document with an extension of .htm or .html. (What about the directory or path of the instrument or where must it be located?) See also, Chapter 8 - Reference, Question Fields, "Links Field."

Label and Titles

The Labels and Titles subfunction of the Documents function allows the user to edit the documentary labels associated with each question. Labels are associated with each question by Question Name. (Labels and titles may be imported from previously created files. To find out how, see the DataXfer function.)

In the figure below the Find function searches only the contents of the Name field. The search expression may be truncated and will then find each occurance of <string-trunc...> in the Name field). The Replace function replaces only those contents found in the Name field. The Find and Replace is not case sensitive. The Upper Case button when pressed places all the labels in upper case.

To edit the Label field, place the mouse cursor in the field and right-click. The edit cursor (|) will appear. Locate the edit cursor (|) in position to edit and begin typing.

Variable Types

With this function the user may assign one of three 'variable' types to each question-response variable. A variable type is one of the following categories that is used to limit the use of the variable by third parties.

 a. GeoCode
 b. Private
 c. Public

To select one of the categories, place the cursor in the Variable Type field and right-click on the mouse to display the edit cursor (|). When the edit cursor displays in a field so does a drop-down menu (). Click on the down arrow to display the three choices from which one must be selected. Move the mouse cursor to the desired type and right-click to make the selection.

User Guide Entries

The User Guide Entries field contains a selection from a pre-defined keyword list (Guide Text) whose terms refer to linked file names (Guied Link)

• (What about the path location __??)
• (What about #bookmarks__??)

To begin using the field, you must first Define Grids in the Edit menu of the questionnaire function. (Go to Docs/Questionnaire/Edit Menu/Define Grids.)