Making Likert matrix choices equal widths | XM Community
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Hi! I am creating a matrix with a Likert scale that has anchors for some but not all of the answer choices. I would like to make the width of all answer choice columns equal rather than adjusting to the width of the text. See below for an image of how the answer choices are appearing currently.
I've searched the forums, and none of the solutions provided have worked for me. Does anyone have thoughts? Thanks!

image.png

By default, the columns are equal size except when the length of the answer text causes some columns to expand. Two possible approaches:

  1. Move the anchors from the answers to the labels. However, if you do this they will be equally spaced and the 3 and 5 labels might not be perfectly aligned over 3 and 5. Also, labels won't show up in mobile (aka accordion) view.

  2. Tell the browser where it can break the anchor text syllables so it doesn't expand the column size using ­. For example: (Con­sid­er­a­bly)

Thanks TomG!

  1. I tried using labels, but you're right -- the labels didn't actually align with the anchors.

  2. This is such a creative idea! My one concern is that our participants may be a little confused if words are broken up by syllable

It looks like in older versions of Qualtrics, you could manually drag the columns to adjust their width, but this doesn't seem to be an option anymore. Are there any other options for manually forcing the columns to all be an equal width? Would I have to make the entire table wider to do this?
Thanks so much!

When using ­ the browser will only break if it is has to fit the cell. So even though Considerably has five syllables it would probably break only once or twice.
You can only change the size of the Statement column by dragging. That's the way it has always been. To allow more room for the answer columns, you could make the statement column smaller or check the "Position text above" box to move the statements to their own row.
Your other options are decreasing the font size of the anchor text using html and/or decreasing the cell padding using CSS to try to squeeze in longer words without impacting cell size.

TomG -- that's helpful, thanks! I must have misunderstood those other posts about adjusting column width by dragging (e.g., https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/2588/how-to-set-control-the-width-of-individual-columns-in-a-single-side-by-side-question).
Decreasing font size doesn't seem to have made a difference, unfortunately. I'm at the lowest font size available (8 pt) in this image.
image.pngHow would I go about decreasing the cell padding using CSS? Appreciate your help!


They post you cited refers to a side-by-side not a matrix.
Use your browser's Inspect feature to find the CSS rule to override.

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