The first question could start with the languages as answer options. Depending on this choice, the questionnaire routes into separate blocks. You could finish to design one block including the settings (randomization, display logic etc.), so that you just have to copy this block and translate the question and answer text.

Instead of separate blocks, you could also route your respondents into separate projects which have the same data layout. Then later, you can download all data and merge it into the original language version, so that you have all in one language (and you could still break out by coutries/languages because you have the answer from the first language).

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I would create two surveys.

Survey 1:

*One question: Choose your language

*Survey flow: (1) Question 1, (2) Branches to set Embedded Data for language code chosen, (3) End of Survey element - redirect to a URL - paste the anonymous link for survey two and tack on "?Q_Language=${e://Field/LanguageCode}



Survey2: the rest of your survey flow





This would allow you to either connect people in from an anonymous link in survey or from a contact list and still manage emails by doing the distribution in list 1. It also saves the work in Pat's suggestion of having to make extra branches or projects and then combining it later on.

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Thanks Pat, I experimented with the Branching that you suggested. It worked quite well. I used an upfront question for them to select En, Fr, Ch. The branching question then took them to the appropriate Language block. The one hiccup is that if you Force a Response, for example, the error messages that pop up are still in English. I would imagine that all error messages would be in English.



Thanks Bstrahin, that sounds like a nice set-up but on a pro level that we fresh-on-the-scene newbs would feel a little intimidated by. Also this would mean that we would need to create 1 survey for each language (with same survey layout) right, and then combine them all later? I think we are trying to reduce/avoid having to do any post-data manipulation.



By the way, how can we find out the survey links for each project?

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The language of an error message cannot be changed from one block to the next, I suppose. In this case, i.e. if this is crucial for your target group, I would come back to my suggestion of designing separate projects for each language.

However, the survey link can be found in the 'anonymous link' section of the 'Distributions' tab.

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@derekk . I know this sounds intimidating but I highly encourage you to consider using the translate feature and using the two surveys method. This will allow you to have one column for each question that translated into the correct language for your user. And it also translates the default error messages into the proper language.



You can read more about translations here: https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-tools/translate-survey/. You've already done the heavy lifting, you just have to copy and paste the translation to a different location.



I've attached two files for you to follow along with.



Key elements of survey 1: Survey flow

1. Use branching to set survey language code (codes can be found on the translation help page)

2. Customize the end of survey element to redirect to a URL with "?Q_Language=${e://Field/LanguageCode}" added on to the end

* This URL is the anonymous link for survey 2 with the above pasted to the end





Key elements of survey 2: Tools

1. Use the translate tool to store question variations by language rather than branching your respondents and having your data saved in various places

Look & Feel

1. CSS code added under style to hide the language selection box so they can't change it after selecting a language from your landing page survey (survey 1)



You can use this link to figure out how to import the .qsf files so you can play around with the solution yourself. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-tools/import-and-export-surveys/

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Thanks BStrahin for putting the files together! I'll have a look.

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I love the idea of creating a landing page that sends the user to the language version of another URL, but wouldn't that count as two survey "responses" (one for the landing page redirect and then another when they complete the survey at the second URL?) - just thinking about response quotas.

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@George you would set up your response quotas on Survey 2 and leave survey one open. So if you are trying to get 100 completes across three languages, for instance, the workflow would be.



Respondent comes into Survey 1. They select their language. Survey 1 passes that language through to Survey 2 using a query string.



Inside of survey 2 you have quotas set on the embedded data field that is carrying language from Survey 1 to Survey 2. Survey 2 has quota logic set up for Embedded Data=Language A AND Completed=True.



* If the language quota is full on Survey 2 when the respondent arrives, they would hit as over quota and get a message that they can't continue. For the respondent, it should appear as if it was just a reaction to their one effort of choosing a language.

* If the language quota still has room on Survey 2 when the respondent arrives, Survey Flow will send them to the correct branch so they see the questions in their language. Once they complete the survey, they are added to the quota tally.





Make sense?

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Thank you so much for the response! I'm actually thinking more about cost per survey...so if we have a bucket of how many responses we are allotted (say 5,000) as part of our contract, does that mean each person would be considered to have completed two surveys? In other words, would 2,500 survey completions actually be considered 5,000 responses?

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@George I think this would depend on your vendor and negotiating that with them. If I were the vendor, I would push you hard on why you are unwilling to use the language drop down feature.

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