Some of the online surveys question types allow you to set restrictions on the answers, such as what type of answer or how many answers a respondent can provide.
These restrictions are set in the Advanced options of the question editor, and where these restrictions can be applied you will also have the option to “Show validation”.
To “show validation” means to display a message to respondents stating the restrictions that you have set for their answers. When “Show validation” is ticked, the respondents will see a validation message as soon as they land on the survey page. If “Show validation” is not ticked, the restrictions will still apply but the respondents will only see the validation message if they attempt to submit an answer that does not meet the relevant criteria.
online surveys validation messages are fixed and cannot be customised. If you want to display your own validation message to your respondents, you should ensure that the Show validation box is not ticked. You can then put your own message into the question text, the More info field, or into a note.
You can set the following restrictions (and choose to show validation) on the following question types:
Multiple choice (multiple answers) questions
- The minimum and/or maximum number of answers a respondent can select.
Free text questions
- The type of answer that can be given.
- Lower and/or upper limits if the type of answer is restricted to a number.
- The maximum number of characters that will be accepted.
Date and time questions
- Start and/or end dates and times.
Scale/Rank questions
- The minimum and/or maximum number of answers a respondent can select per row and/or per column.