Manual Fields

Suite
Employee Experience Strategy & Research
Product
Qualtrics
What's on this page

About Manual Fields

You can add new custom fields to responses even after they’ve already been recorded, enhancing your data and reports. You can add any custom information you want, whether in text, date, numeric, and even multi-answer format. Custom fields can be a great alternative if you didn’t set up branch logic with embedded data fields before launching the survey.

Example: You’ve collected many years worth of data in your survey. You want to label all your responses with the quarter and the year they were collected so it’s easy to filter for or report on this data.
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Kinds of Manual Fields

Manual custom fields comes in the following variations:
  • Date: Record exact date information for your responses. In reports, these can be used in date filtering, allowing you to set timeframes you’re interested in presenting on or researching.
  • Numeric: Enter numeric data with no other symbols, such as commas, slashes, or currency signs ( $ ). Decimals are supported.
  • Text: Accepts any text, number, or symbol characters. This option can be great for either detailed notes or categorical data.
  • Tags: Categorize data with short tags. You can add multiple tags to the same response.

Creating a Manual Custom Field

Go to Data & Analysis.
the create new field option in the tools dropdown in data and analysis
the create new field option in the tools dropdown in data and analysis
Make sure you are in the Data section.
Select Field Editor.
Click Create Field.
create field button in field editor
create field button in field editor
Choose Manual.
Image of the window that opens when creating a field, with a variety of options at the top
Image of the window that opens when creating a field, with a variety of options at the top
Add a name for your field.
Choose a field type. See our list of manual fields.
Select Create Field.
Click Review and Publish.
Image of the field editor
Image of the field editor
Click Publish your Changes to save your new field.
Image of the window where you can review changes before publishing; the "field edits" tab is where these changes will appear
Image of the window where you can review changes before publishing; the "field edits" tab is where these changes will appear
Qtip: You can also select Revert to original to revert your field edits.
Qtip: It may take some time before your dataset is finished updating. It is safe to leave this page while you wait.
Now you can add values for a response or multiple responses at once.
Qtip: Before you add values, you need to go back to your response data. If you haven’t been taken back automatically, click Data Table.
data table button at top of the field editor
data table button at top of the field editor
Qtip: Remember you can always edit your already-collected survey responses to add custom values. However, editing the response with a retake link will overwrite any custom field values you’ve added.

Assigning a Value to a Manual Field

Now that you’ve created your field, it’s time to set its values. In this section, we’ll show you how to can change the value of your new manual field in one response at a time.

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.
Screenshot of choosing a column to display on the data tab
Screenshot of choosing a column to display on the data tab
Choose columns, look under Embedded Data, and make sure to display the field you just created.
Find the response you want to edit.
Screenshot showing how to edit a specific field by clicking into it and typing
Screenshot showing how to edit a specific field by clicking into it and typing
Qtip: You can do this by manually navigating through pages or filtering your data.
Type in the desired value for each response.
Qtip: Hitting Tab or Enter (Windows) / return (Mac) twice will move your cursor to the next field box immediately below.
Click Review and Publish.
Qtip: You may need to click somewhere outside of the field you just edited before this button will become clickable. For example, click the whitespace on the footer of the page, or click the browser’s scrollbar.
Click Publish your Changes.
Screenshot of the window where you preview and publish changes; these edits are in the "data edits" tab
Screenshot of the window where you preview and publish changes; these edits are in the "data edits" tab

Assigning a Value for Multiple Responses at Once

Now that you’ve created your field, it’s time to set its values. In this section, we’ll show you how to can change the value of your new manual field in many responses at once.

This method is best for giving many responses the same value at once. For example, finding all of the responses recorded in 2024 and tagging a “Year” field as “2024” for all of them.

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.
Image of filtering data in the data tab, then selecting all the responses on the page. Edit icon looks like a pencil
Image of filtering data in the data tab, then selecting all the responses on the page. Edit icon looks like a pencil
If you want, you can filter for the responses you want to edit.
Example: Filter for all responses collected between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 to tag them with the same label all at once.
Select the responses you want to edit.
Qtip: If you click the “select all” checkbox and have multiple pages of responses, you can select all the responses on additional pages by clicking Select all X responses.
Image zooms in to show the select all checkbox at the top, then the banner where you can then click to select all responses, not just the ones displayed on the page
Image zooms in to show the select all checkbox at the top, then the banner where you can then click to select all responses, not just the ones displayed on the page
Click the edit icon.
Under Field Name, select the field you want to edit.
Window that opens allowing you to edit fields; dropdown to select a field and then an open text box where you can type the intended value
Window that opens allowing you to edit fields; dropdown to select a field and then an open text box where you can type the intended value
Type in the value all these responses should have.
Click Update.

Editing and Removing Fields

Even after you’ve created a manual field, you can make changes to it. For example, you can rename the field, mark it as sensitive, or remove it. For date fields, you can set a format.

For detailed steps, see Editing Custom Fields.

Reporting on Manual Fields

Manual fields can be used in most of the same reporting and data analysis that other response data can be used, including results dashboards and advanced-reporting. This means manual fields can be used in filters, charts, tables, and break-outs.

When you’re creating results dashboards, you aren’t limited to the widgets that work with your manual fields by default. You can adjust each field’s type to change its data format and allow you to visualize your data in different ways. For example, while bar and line charts break out text set data best, word clouds are better widgets for open text feedback.

See more about Assigning Types to Manual Fields. By default, the field types for each manual field are:

  • Date – Date
  • Numeric – Numeric Value
  • Text – Open Text
  • Tag – Text Set

For advanced-reports, you can check out each visualization’s page to learn more about which fields are compatible. See a full list of advanced-reports visualizations.

Attention: Manual fields cannot be used to create bucketed fields, formulas, or combined fields.

Projects Where You Can Create Manual Fields

Depending on your license, you may have access to several different types of projects that have a Data & Analysis tab. The manual fields described on this page are available in:

Qtip: When custom fields are added to a CX Dashboard, they become derived data. Although supported, they behave a little differently than other survey fields do. See Derived Data for more details.

While the functionality is technically available, we do not recommend using these custom fields with other types of Employee Experience projects. See Creating New Fields (EX) for more details.

Qtip: While other areas of the platform (like dashboards, Stats iQ, and directories), may also allow you to create new fields, this support page is solely focused on how to create new custom fields in Data & Analysis. For steps on creating other kinds of fields across the XM platform, try narrowing your support site search.

FAQs

How do I edit my custom fields?

Can I edit or add information to a response after it has been submitted?

My custom fields don't have data and say "Invalid." What happened?

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