Sliders are often used in surveys and scales, e.g. a Likert scale.
When using a slider field, you are not only asked to specify the variable name and the slider orientation, but must also indicate the lower and upper limits of the slider (numerical values), the limits labels and the slider increment.
When creating a slider field, the field has the following properties:
Basic Field Properties:
- Position: Determines the exact placement of the slider on the form by anchoring it after an existing field or at the top.
- Field type: Set to "Slider"
- Label: The actual question or descriptive text presented to the user on the form.
- Variable Name (Generate name): The unique database identifier used for exports and calculations. (Note: Variable names exceeding 32 characters will be truncated in SAS exports).
- Required (Yes/No): A toggle that dictates whether the form can be saved or completed without answering this specific question.
Slider-Specific Properties:
- Show entered value (Yes/No): Determines if the exact numerical value is displayed dynamically on-screen as the user drags the slider handle.
- Slider Orientation: Defines the visual layout of the slider. It defaults to "Horizontal", but can be set to vertical (often required for validated scales).
- Lower limit: The strict minimum numerical bound of the slider scale (e.g.,
0). - Upper limit: The strict maximum numerical bound of the slider scale (e.g.,
100). - Lower limit label: Optional text anchored to the start of the slider to provide context (e.g., "No Pain").
- Upper limit label: Optional text anchored to the end of the slider to provide context (e.g., "Worst Possible Pain").
- Slider Increment: Defines the numerical step size the slider handle snaps to as it moves along the track (e.g., steps of
1or5). - Display slider ticks (Yes/No): Visually marks the slider increments along the track with small notch indicators. Allow to specify major and minor ticks as well when selected.
- Show selection marker on left side before response is given (Yes/No): If set to "No", the slider handle is completely hidden until the user clicks the track. This prevents users from leaving the slider on a default value and forces an active, unbiased choice.
- Measurement unit: A text field to append a specific unit (e.g., "cm", "kg") to the collected data point.
- Help text: Additional instructional text, usually accessible via an info icon, to provide the user with further guidance on how to answer the question.
Below are some examples showing how different sliders are displayed in a study form:
Horizontal slider with major and minor ticks with toggle
Horizontal slider without major and minor ticks without toggle: