Managing Surveys

In this article

Suggested next articles: Editing Surveys and Collaborating on Surveys.


Opening the Surveys index

Every survey will have its own card in your Surveys index. The cards let you reopen, edit, rename, and otherwise manage your growing list of published, draft-unpublished, and closed surveys.

To open the Surveys index, click the "My surveys" button.

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Managing your survey cards

Surveys are so easy to create that you won't be able to stop! Fortunately, it’s just as easy to keep them organized!

Your Surveys will be categorized into these three states:

1 Published These surveys are live and can collect responses, gather valuable feedback, and track results
2 Drafts Still building your masterpiece? Draft surveys allow you to edit and refine before publishing
3 Closed Need to temporarily pause a survey or keep it archived for future reference? Closed surveys are inactive and will NOT collect responses — but they can be reactivated instantly with a click. ( Note: Closing a survey will also "Disable" temporarily any Integration you may be using. Open the survey to "Enable" your Integration once more — no worries. It will start up again automatically!)

Click any card to reopen any survey: Closed, Published, or Draft

Clicking a "Closed," "Published" or "Draft" survey cards will open your survey in very different places, as explained in this table: 

Closed Clicking a "Closed" survey zips you to whatever state your survey was in when you closed it — (either "Published" or "Draft")
Drafts Clicking a "Draft" or unpublished survey will open your survey's "Editing page" for continued revision and/or publication (See Creating & Editing Surveys for all the details)
Published

Clicking a 'Published" survey pops open its Results page — where you can:

  1. Edit a published survey → in a limited way
  2. Copy and distribute a survey link
  3. Export and share survey results
  4. Create and Share Reports

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After publishing your survey, copy and distribute the link to your respondents. Email it, post it, message it, Slack it; use it wherever and whenever you wish! 

There are two convenient places to copy a survey link. Either:

1
Click the survey "Link" icon → from the Surveys index card
2
Click Copy survey link → from the survey’s Results page

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7. Adjusting survey settings (name, description, auto-advance)

Every survey needs a name! Two things to know about survey names:

1 Survey takers will not see the name
2 Each survey will start with a default name, which is the date the survey was created — ex. New survey 2021-04-01

Chances are, you’ll want to rename your survey, perhaps more than once! Plus, you can add an optional description to give the survey context. Both the name and the description appear on the Survey card in the index. 

The name Settings can be changed in two places: From the Survey editing page (as explained in the next set of steps) or from the Survey index card itself (as marked above). 

To rename a survey and add a description from the Survey editing page:

1
Open your survey from its survey card
2
Select the "Survey name" menu → found at the top of the page
3
Pick 'Settings"
4
Enter the new name → (ex. “Satisfaction survey”)
5
Add an optional description → (ex. “5 stars”)
6
Click "Save"

Disabling auto-advance

By default, surveys will progress from one question to the next without the respondent needing to click the "next" button due to our auto-advance feature. This makes it easier for respondents to move through the survey quickly!

Auto-advance works with: Auto-advance doesn't work with:
Numeric scale questions Open text questions
Graphic scale questions Multiple select questions
Multiple choice questions Multiple choice questions where the respondent chooses "Other"

Auto-advance is set at the survey level and is turned on automatically. To disable auto-advance for a given survey:

1
Open your survey editing page
2
Click the "Survey name" at the top of the page → and choose "Settings"
3
Toggle "off" the "Auto-advance questions" option

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Duplicating a survey

Duplication creates a fresh, unpublished copy of a survey that can be modified in any way you like. It will automatically be placed under your "Drafts" tab.

As you duplicate, you’ll copy . . .
  • The survey’s questions → but not the responses
  • The order of the survey questions
  • The Welcome message
  • The Thank you message
  • The existing name of the survey → with “Copy of . . .” appended to name

To duplicate a survey:

1

Open your Surveys index 

Note: Any Published, Draft, or Closed survey can be duplicated

2
Click the "ellipsis" menu on your target survey card
3
Pick "Duplicate"
4
Look for your new duplicate survey in the "Drafts" section of your Surveys index
5
Click "Settings" and rename the duplicate → (ex. “Museum Fundraiser 2025")
6
Click "Save"

Update your tired old survey with a fresh duplicate

Revamping a survey that has served you well can be a real timesaver. Duplicating creates an unpublished version of the survey. This means you can edit and change it in any way you like! (See Editing Surveys.) 

Note: Remember to replace the old link with the updated survey's link throughout your distribution scheme.

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Deleting survey Drafts

Because they haven't collected responses, you can always delete "Drafts" or unpublished surveys. Deleting removes them entirely. Heads up — there’s no recovery after you confirm the decision to delete! 

Can I delete Published and Closed surveys?

No!

You can't delete "Published" or "Closed" surveys, and with good reason — they have likely collected responses. Deleting them would trash your response data. (Not a good thing.)

Closing a Published survey will place it in an archive for future reference, or even future reuse.

To delete an unpublished survey:

1
Open your Surveys index → open your "Drafts" → and scroll to your target survey's card
2
Click the "ellipsis menu"
3
Choose "Delete"
4
Click "Yes, delete survey" → then check your "Drafts" again (just to make sure its gone and out of your life forever!)

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Closing and reopening a survey

Once a survey has been published, it can't be deleted. However, you can close a survey and stop response collection — then reopen it later to start collecting responses again. You can also continue viewing its results and generating reports, even in its closed state.

To review, closing a survey:

  • Entirely stops data collection
  • Doesn’t delete the survey or its feedback
  • Places the survey in the Closed section of the Survey index 
What will respondents see when they click a closed survey link?

If you close a survey, consider removing its Link from your distribution points, otherwise respondents will encounter this message when they try to take the survey. (This message will be customized with your logo on the Link platform.)

Remove your Web widgets from the "Targeting → Pages" section of the " Configure web widget" panel by removing the URL to the targeted page on your site. (How simple!) And, there is NO need to delete your JavaScript snippet from your site! Leave it there for your future surveys!

Closing a survey

To close an active, published survey:

1
Open any survey Published survey that you would like to close
2
Tap the "ellipsis" menu
3
Pick "Close"
4
Click "Yes, close survey"
5
Click "Closed" → and see your survey is safely in the Closed section where it can do no harm

Opening a closed survey

Reopening a survey will allow it to start collecting responses again.

To reopen a closed survey:

1
Click the "Closed" section in the Surveys index
2
Tap the "ellipsis" menu on any closed survey card
3
Pick "Open"
4
Click "Yes, open survey"
5
Click the "Published" tab → and see if your survey is happily at the top of the published surveys list (causing all sorts or mischief — no doubt!)

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Exporting and sharing results

Exporting results

Exporting will send a complete copy of your results to the email address associated with your account in a CSV file. CSV is shorthand for comma-separated values — a very common spreadsheet format compatible with every major spreadsheet app (ex. Excel, Sheets, Numbers, and more).

There are two export locations, each downloading a different sets of results:

1 Results tab Export a complete summary of your data, including counts for each answer choice for every question
2 Responses tab Export every individual response with the exact answers to each question

To export your data:

1
Open the "Results" page → by clicking the survey's index card
2
Click either "Results" or "Responses" → and export either complete counts or individual responses as explained above
3
Click "Export data"
4
Close the "Export requested" box

Sharing a chart, comparison, or individual response

Sharing a single chart or individual response with stakeholders can be impactful. 

To share:

1
Click either the "Results" or "Responses" tabs
2
Click open your targeted visualization or individual response card
3
Click "Share"
4
Copy the link
5
Distribute the link

About sharing your results link

Paste you link into messages, social media, email, Slack — you name it. Apps that are oEmbed enabled will display a visualization of your results without having to click the link. 

How handy is that!

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