Dear community,
I would like to add a 'not applicable' option to a Constant Sum question. What I have now is this:


Where I ask every participant to indicate their language preference per domain. However, it might be that this domain is not applicable to the participant (e.g. they don't go to school) so I want them to have the option to say 'not applicable'. Right now, I used a temporary fix by asking them to fill in 100 points on 'not applicable' ('niet van toepassing' in Dutch) but this doesn't seem like a very elegant solution.
Does anyone know how to make this more user-friendly? Maybe there is a code I can use?
Thanks in advance!
Elise

Hi Elisabethan ,
Can you set this up in a Slider question type instead, and enable the "not applicable" option as highlighted below?

Dear MatthewM, thanks for your suggestion!
I would like to use Constant Sum because it allows me to let the participant allocate only 100 points. I don't think this is possible with the slider option, and if so, I also only want just one 'not applicable' option (when the question as a whole is not applicable to the participant)....

You should try the slider question. You can create a similar widget and also have the 'not applicable' option.

Mishraji Thank you for your answer and your suggestion! Unfortunately this is not an option for me, as I would like to use Constant Sum because it allows me to let the participant allocate only 100 points. I don't think this is possible with the slider option, and if so, I also only want just one 'not applicable' option (when the question as a whole is not applicable to the participant). If you get what I'm saying.

To illustrate, I want them to see this:
O not applicable

With a box to tick to let me know that the whole situation (and thus the question) is not applicable to them.

Elisabethan - I get it now.
Maybe you can add a multiple-choice multi-select option with a 'Not Applicable' option below the constant sum question. You can use CSS to reduce the space between the two questions so that it looks like one question. Additionally, using custom validation you can make sure that either the constant sum question or the checkbox is answered at a time.

Sorry, I didn't completely understand your scenario. In that case, I would add a single checkbox question just below your slider. It could read something like "Check here if not applicable." Then set up a Custom Validation rule so that the respondent either has to answer the slider question or check the not applicable box.

Thanks Mishraji that is a great idea!
I tried it out, and it almost worked with the custom validation - however, because I also want people to fill out the constant sum question with 100 points it prevents people from skipping the question, even when they have filled in the 'not applicable' option. I haven't found a way around that yet, but I think this is getting close to the solution so thank you for your help already!

MatthewM Thank you, that is quite genius! I only bump into one problem with that. Because I use validation for the Constant Sum question, they are forced to answer that question, meaning they can't click the 'N.A.' box without having to fill in 100 points for the first question...I think. I'm still trying to figure that out and I feel like I need code for that, so I'm gonna keep looking around...
Thanks for your help!!

Elisabethan ,
Glad to know it helped!
If I have understood this correctly, your custom validation should be added to the 'not applicable' question such that -
if the constant sum is answered, 'not applicable' is not selected
OR
if the constant sum is not answered, 'not applicable' is selected.

Following custom validation on the 'not applicable' should help you achieve this:

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/37664#Comment_37664This seems to have done the trick! Thank you very much Mishraji for your help on this issue. Very kind of you to help me out!

Hi @Elisabethan 

How did you get around resolving this in the end? I am facing the exact same issue - with the custom validation on the “Not applicable” button, it is still asking the respondent to total the choices to 100…

Thanks

Juan

We can accomplish this by implementing custom validation for the question. Thank you.