Adding report elements

An element is the basic building block of a report or dashboard. Elements inherit their settings and style from the report, but these can be overridden at the element level.

Elements usually take up the full width of a report, but you can place elements next to each other by setting their width to less than 100%.

The two most important properties of an element are as follows:

  • Element type — Determines how the data will be visualized. There are several types such as charts, tables, or free text. See Report element types for additional information.
  • Data source — Provides the data that is used in the element. This can be one or more questions or it may be metadata that was passed to the survey
Tip: You can have more than one element for a question. For instance, for a rating scale question, you could add an element that shows a breakdown of the different answer options and you could add another element that shows the average score on a timeline.

When you add an element, you first choose whether to start from a data source or from an element type. To add an element to a report, complete the following steps:

  1. Open your survey.

  2. Select Analyze > ReportBuilder.

  3. Edit an existing report or create a new report.
  4. In the report, select the element after which you would like the new element to appear. Otherwise, it will be added to the end of the report.
  5. Click Add element.
  6. Select whether you want to start from a data source or element type. See below for additional information.

Data source

When you start from a data source, you first have to choose between the three main types of data sources:

  • Respondent data — This is metadata captured about the respondent such as which channel they used, the date they answered, etc.
  • Contact data — When you import contacts, either by uploading a file or through the API, you can add metadata such as gender, date of birth, country, state, and 20 custom fields. That information is now available as a data source in this report.
  • Questions — These are questions you asked in your survey. Remember that you can add multiple elements for each question.
  1. Select the desired data source. You can use the search at the top to locate it.
  2. Decide how you want to visualize the data source by selecting an element type. Only the element types that are compatible for the selected data source will be available.
Your element is now created and ready to be edited.

Add element.

Element type

Choose the type of element you wish to create (a chart, cross tab, word cloud, free text, etc.). The element type determines how the data will be visualized. In the second step, you select a data source compatible with the chosen type

  1. Select the element type you want to add to the report.
  2. Select the data source you want to use in the selected element type. Only data sources compatible with the chosen type will be available.
Note: If you select Text/media, the element will immediately be created since there is no data source required for free text. The newly created element is now ready to be edited.
Tip: The new element will be placed under the currently selected element. If no element is selected, it will be added to the bottom of the report.