Custom Field Creation
What's on This Page:
About Custom Field Creation
Creating custom fields allows you to add new variables to responses after they’ve already been recorded. You can categorize based on items like age, dates, or certain answers to questions without having to set up Branch Logic and Embedded Data fields before launching the survey. You can also annotate responses or easily categorize text entry data.

Field Types
To add new information to a survey response, you must first create custom fields to hold the new data. You can add four types of custom fields:
- Manual: Creating a new field that allows you to manually add tags to whichever responses you would like.
- Bucketing: Creating a new field that gives each response a grouping based on a categorical question or field in the response so responses can be categorized for reporting or filtering.
- Formula: Creating a new field that is a formulaic combination of other fields in a survey so that new derived fields are created in the survey after collection is complete.
- Combine: Creating a new field that is a combination of 2 or more fields in your data set. This can be done before, during, or after data collection.
Types of Manual Fields
The Manual custom field comes in three variations.
- Date: Accepts date information and has all the Breakout options (date, month, quarter, year, etc.) available to date metadata info in the Reports tab.
- Number: Accepts any combination of characters 0–9 and has access to the Statistics Table and Gauge Chart visualizations.
- Text: Accepts any text, number, or symbol characters and have the same reporting options as Text Entry questions.
- Tags: Allows you to enter multiple separate tags information, similar to the way a Multiple Choice – Multiple Select question has multiple potential values. Tag fields also have access to all the same visualizations as Multiple Choice – Multiple Answer questions.
Depending on the type of field you select, you’ll have different visualization options in the Results section, as well as different filtering options.
Creating a Manual Custom Field
- Navigate to the Data section of the Data & Analysis tab and select the Create New Field option from the Tools menu.
- Choose Manual, add a name for your variable, and choose a field type before selecting Create Variable.
Tagging an Individual Response
- Navigate to the Data section of the Data & Analysis tab and click Edit.
Qtip: If you haven’t already created your custom field, you can do so by following the steps above. - Type in the desired value for each response you want to edit.
Qtip: Hitting Tab or Enter twice will move your cursor to the next field box immediately below. - Click Edit again to exit edit mode.
Tagging Multiple Responses
- Navigate to the Data section of the Data & Analysis tab and click the checkbox for all the responses you want to tag.
Qtip: If you haven’t already created your custom field, you can do so by following the steps above. - Click With Selected and choose Edit.
Qtip: You can combine tagging with filtering to really speed and enhance your work. Add a filter to your responses and then select all. - Choose which field you want to add information to and provide the desired value(s). Only Tag field types will allow you to input multiple values and ask you if would like to replace existing tags before selecting the update button.
Qtip: You can find the Manual field that you created under the Embedded Data section of the dropdown menu.
- Repeat steps 2–4 as necessary.
- Click Edit to exit edit mode.