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SurveyGold: 2015 Survey Software Excellence Award (Source: TopTenREVIEWS)

3/23/2015

SurveyGold garnered the Excellence Award for the fourth year year in a row according to a 2015 review of survey software by TopTenREVIEWS. SurveyGold also received a 9.48 out of 10 rating and was recognized as the "Best Intuitive Survey Software". Their verdict is:

SurveyGold is intuitive survey software because it works similarly to Windows Explorer. It is easy to learn, and its survey-creation tools make building and analyzing questionnaires a simple process.

We are not affiliated with TopTenREVIEWS in any way. The complete review is available on the TopTenREVIEWS website.

Read the TopTenREVIEWS Review of SurveyGold

How To Add an Image or Hyperlink to an Online Survey Question

12/5/2014

SurveyGold provides the ability to display an image alongside a response choice. Setting this up is easily done within the SurveyGold application.

However, if you require that an image or hyperlink be included in the actual question text (as opposed to being displayed alongside a response choice), you can do this by adding a little bit of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to your question text or instruction text. Using HTML you can easily put an image or a link or any other HTML effects in the question text of an online survey form.

Space Shuttle Survey Example

For an example of how this is done, take a look at the first question in our fictitious Space Shuttle Survey. Notice that the question text contains an image of the Space Shuttle. It also contains a hyperlink to reference information regarding the Space Shuttle.

This was accomplished by entering question text via the Setup Survey tab in the SurveyGold application that included some HTML as follows:

Does this look like the Space Shuttle? <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_launching.jpg/220px-Space_Shuttle_Columbia_launching.jpg"> Please answer the question based on what you see. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle" target="_blank">Here is reference information about the Space Shuttle.</a>

View the Space Shuttle Survey

If you are unfamiliar with HTML, this can look daunting. So, let's unpack this. It's actually very straightforward.

How to Add an Image

Use an image tag <img src="URL_FOR_IMAGE_GOES_HERE"> in the question text to include the image. Refer to W3Schools for more information on the img tag.

For our example survey, we used Google to locate a URL for a public domain image of the Space Shuttle. The URL is http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_launching.jpg/220px-Space_Shuttle_Columbia_launching.jpg. We us

Use a couple of line break tags   in the question text before the image and after the image to set it apart visually. Refer to W3Schools for more information the br tag.

How to Add a Hyperlink

Use an anchor tag <a href="URL_FOR_CONTENT_GOES_HERE" target="_blank">TEXT GOES HERE</a> in the question text to include the link to the desired content. The Refer to W3Schools for more information on the a tag.

For our example survey, we used Google to locate a URL for a Wikipedia article to serve as reference data. The URL is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle. and was placed in the location URL_FOR_CONTENT_GOES_HERE. The text Here is reference information about the Space Shuttle. was placed where TEXT GOES HERE so that it appears properly in the question text as a hyperlink.

How to Eliminate HTML from Question Text When Viewing Results

If you use HTML in your question text, there is one other consideration that pertains to viewing survey results. SurveyGold normally uses the question text when displaying survey results in the View Results and Analyze Results tabs. When HTML is included in the question text, this will produce very unsightly question text when displaying survey results.

To resolve this, enter the question text that you want to see when displaying survey results in the Chart Title tab in the question properties sheet. When SurveyGold detects a chart title, it displays that as the question text when producing reports and viewing results. This results in reports and charts don't have all the HTML debris contained in them when displaying the question text.

For our example, we specified the following Chart Title: Does this look like the Space Shuttle?

Software Update: Online Survey and Application Usability Improvements

9/24/2014

We have been busy the past few months producing software updates. Here are the highlights

Online Surveys: Removed the unsightly gray background from respondent data prompts.
Spell-Checker: Saving a new word to your user-defined dictionary resulted in an error message: "Can't add word to User Dictionary". This issue has been resolved.
Spell-Checker: An updated spell-checker is provided in this release.
SurveyGold Application: Some customers reported having to elevate Windows security to "administrator" privilege level in order to run the application. This issue has been resolved.
Setup Survey: The Save Survey As Word File action sometimes produced response choices without checkboxes and sometimes displayed error messages. These issues have been resolved.
Analyze Results: The ability to display percentages in the Graph Cross-Tab Questions action in the Analyze Results tab is now supported. This feature is enabled via a checkbox option when selecting the two questions.

How To Acquire the Update

To acquire SurveyGold application updates:

Click About in the SurveyGold application tool bar.
Then click Update SurveyGold.

A software update dialog appears and the process begins by downloading the software directly from the SurveyGold software update server. After the software update files are downloaded to your computer, the process automatically installs the software updates. Normally, this entire process only takes a moment. Your data is not affected in any way as a result of software updates.

How To Enter Survey Responses That Occurred in the Past

9/3/2014

Normally, when survey responses are recorded in the Conduct Survey tab of the SurveyGold application, the current "date of entry" is recorded in the response record. However, SurveyGold also provides the optional ability to specify a specific date (e.g., a date in the past) for which the response occurred. This feature (enabled via the "Confirm response date upon Conclude Survey" SurveyGold preference setting) provides the ability to accurately record time-sensitive responses long after the survey was conducted while reflecting the date and time the past that the response actually occurred.

Furthermore, SurveyGold provides the ability to view a subset of all respondents to a given survey based upon any response to any question or a response date range or both. This "filter" feature allows you the ability to view respondents from a particular time period. It is then possible to create graphs and reports based upon the respondents in the filtered set of respondents.

End-of-Life and End-of-Support for SurveyGold Versions 7, 6 and 5

6/24/2014

Golden Hills Software, Inc. announces the end-of-life and end-of-support of the SurveyGold version 7, version 6 and version 5 software applications. These versions are considered legacy versions as sales and maintenance of these versions ceased many years ago.

This announcement does not apply to currently offered SurveyGold application software or SurveyGold subscription services.

December 7, 2006: Last Day to Order
The last day to order the SurveyGold 7 products was December 7, 2006.

December 7, 2006: End of Software Maintenance Releases
Golden Hills Software, Inc. no longer develops, repairs, maintains, or tests the version 7, version 6 or version 5 product software after this date. Software defects found in these versions are addressed by migrating to the current SurveyGold application.

June 24, 2014: Last Date of Support
The last date to receive service and support for the product. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete.

Software Update: Usability Improvements and New Graph Features

6/12/2014

We just added usability improvements and more flexibility in how graphs appear in reports and in the SurveyGold application.

Button Bars in View Results and Analyze Results

We have introduced brand new button bars and enhanced existing button bars throughout the View Results and Analyze Results tabs. This makes it easy to discover and access SurveyGold application features that were formerly only accessible by right-clicking on a graph or report.

Enhanced Graph Properties

Also, in response to feedback from SurveyGold users, we enhanced the graph properties sheet in View Results tab by adding a Data Values tab that provides more visual preferences for graphs:

Hide or show percentages in a pie graph
Set the decimal points displayed in percentages
Hide or show values in a pie graph
Hide or show respondent and response counts
Hide or show mean, mode, median, min, max and standard deviation

The Publish Word and Publish Web actions in the Analyze Results tab respect the new View Results graph properties preferences so that graphs are published with the preferences that you set up via View Results.

How To Acquire the Update

To acquire SurveyGold application updates:

Select About in the SurveyGold application tool bar.
Perform the Update SurveyGold action.

A software update dialog appears and the process begins by downloading the software directly from SurveyGold online services. After the software update files are downloaded to your computer, the process automatically installs the software updates. Normally, this entire process only takes a moment. Your data is not affected in any way as a result of software updates.

The Consequences of Poorly-Designed Surveys

6/10/2014

"Poorly-designed survey instruments will yield less-than-reliable data. There. I said it. DIY platforms are springing up all over, allowing any Tom, Dick or Harry to throw a survey to the ether to collect data to inform their business decisions. What a thrill it is to collect this data for pennies per respondent! However, unless your questionnaire is designed well (which I’ll explain in a moment), the data you collect could be next to useless. Or worse, it could be just plain wrong."

This interesting Quirk's article by Darrin Helsel of Vivisum Partners shows how to make sure your surveys are asking the right questions in the right ways.

Read the Article

Software Update: Images in an Online Survey Response Choice

6/3/2014

We just added improvements to the online survey form. Responses choices can now display an optional graphic image file of your choosing. The graphic image file is automatically displayed in your online survey form in its original size alongside the associated response choice.

To specify the graphic image file:

Select the Value & Emoticon tab in the question properties sheet
Select "Custom..." from the Emoticon or Graphic File list
Select a graphic file from your computer
Select OK to save your preference

Note: Although the graphic image appears in the question properties sheet as a thumbnail, it will appear in your online survey form in its actual size. You can preview the actual image by moving your mouse pointer over the thumbnail image in the question properties sheet.

How To Acquire the Update

To acquire SurveyGold application updates:

Select About in the SurveyGold application tool bar.
Perform the Update SurveyGold action.

Success Story: An Organizational Assessment Tool That Helps Leaders to Get the Best Out of Their People

4/17/2014

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Vandeneijnde of Zürich, Switzerland. Mark is the co-founder of the global assessment and coaching organization BEING At Full Potential, a fascinating company that specializes in assessing and unlocking human potential in organizations.

I am a big believer in the vast, yet often untapped, creative potential of business. Part of my vision, as a coach and researcher, is to help organizations get in touch with a greater sense of purpose and work with them to create the optimal conditions for it to unfold.

- Mark Vandeneijnde, BEING At Full Potential

SurveyGold Provides an Effective and Efficient Quantitative Assessment Tool

Mark uses SurveyGold to underpin a Human Potential Assessment Tool used by business leaders who want to deliver more value from their organizations. Mark uses the insights gathered and analyzed by SurveyGold to help business leaders better understand and act on the untapped human potential in their organizations.

I asked Mark about the business problem he was solving using SurveyGold. He tells me, "We needed to develop a quantitative assessment tool that could accurately measure performance in this area and put the necessary data on the table to enable the right conversations. We also needed an effective way to distribute the survey and analyze the data afterwards. Without SurveyGold, the efficient delivery of our assessment tool would not have been possible. We are very satisfied with the SurveyGold solution. It is user-friendly, flexible, cost effective and the customer support is excellent. We feel very happy to have made this choice."

Emphasizing the HEART in Business

I also discovered that BEING At Full Potential acknowledges the importance of "HEART" in business. The following video is a summary of the research Mark has done recently. It serves to put some meat on this broad and fuzzy topic. Mark's hope is that it opens a conversation on how more "HEART" can concretely benefit your organization. I found the topic to be very insightful and interesting.

Human Potential Assessment Tool

About BEING At Full Potential

SurveyGold Is Not Vulnerable to the Heartbleed Bug

4/9/2014

The Heartbleed Bug has been a troublesome headline in the news recently. We want to assure you that all servers used by the SurveyGold survey solution are running OpenSSL version 1.0.1g, the most current version of OpenSSL. As a result, our servers are not vulnerable to the Heartbleed Bug which has garnered so much worldwide attention today.

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SurveyGold: 2015 Survey Software Excellence Award (Source: TopTenREVIEWS)

How To Add an Image or Hyperlink to an Online Survey Question

Space Shuttle Survey Example

How to Add an Image

How to Add a Hyperlink

How to Eliminate HTML from Question Text When Viewing Results

Software Update: Online Survey and Application Usability Improvements

How To Acquire the Update

How To Enter Survey Responses That Occurred in the Past

End-of-Life and End-of-Support for SurveyGold Versions 7, 6 and 5

Software Update: Usability Improvements and New Graph Features

Button Bars in View Results and Analyze Results

Enhanced Graph Properties

How To Acquire the Update

The Consequences of Poorly-Designed Surveys

Software Update: Images in an Online Survey Response Choice

How To Acquire the Update

Success Story: An Organizational Assessment Tool That Helps Leaders to Get the Best Out of Their People

SurveyGold Is Not Vulnerable to the Heartbleed Bug

Chuck Boudreau

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