You can create surveys or add to existing ones by uploading (importing) questions and pages. This feature is available for all account types.  To import questions, there are four basic steps which I will describe in detail later on:

1. Create a survey (click on the Create button and add a survey title)
2. Use a spreadsheet program to add the questions and question details
3. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv (comma separated values) file
4. Import the csv file into your survey

Create a survey

We have already created a help guide that describes this process.

Create spreadsheet with question details

Here is where things start to get fun!  First, open your favorite spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, etc.  Now, each line in your spreadsheet will refer to a separate action, such as "add a new page" or "add a date question".  There is an exact structure that needs to be followed when preparing your spreadsheet.

You need to enter "surveyrock_upload" (without the quotes) in the first line and column of your spreadsheet (cell A1).

Every line after the first row has to start with a command token in column "A" of your spreadsheet. That is a word that tells us what you want to do next and it must start and end with two asterisks (**).  The valid command tokens for the first column are: 

• **page_break**
• **comment_box**
• **date**
• **email**
• **matrix**
• **multiple_choice**
• **nps**
• **number**
• **ranking**
• **rating_scale**
• **star**
• **text**
• **text_multiple**
• **text_single**

In addition to the tokens mentioned above, some questions can have additional tokens in the same row but in later columns.  They offer more necessary details about the question:

• **choices**
• **rows**
• **columns**
• **choice_layout**
• **include_other**
• **blank**

Page Break

When want to add a new page to your survey, enter **page_break** in the first column.  If you'd like to give this new page a specific title, enter it in column B of the same line.

When adding questions to the spreadsheet, please always follow these rules: column A is always the question type (e.g. **rating_scale**), column B is always the title, column C always shows if the question is required (y) or not (n).  If your question type requires choices, rows or columns, that always comes afterwards, starting in column D.

A picture says more than a thousand words, so here is an example spreadsheet. 

Question Types

If you are familiar with the standard process of creating a SurveyRock survey by adding each question in the traditional screen, then you know which fields are necessary for each question.  Here is an overview.

The following element types only require a title/text and nothing else.

• **text**
• **text_single**
• **nps**
• **comment_box**
• **star**
• **date**
• **email**
• **number**

Required Setting: You also have the option of letting SurveyRock know if the question should be required.  In column C enter y or n.  If the field is left blank, it will be set to 'not required'.

**multiple_choice** question type:

• [Required] Title
• [Required] **choices**. The multiple choice options need to immediately follow the '**choices**' command token, one choice per spreadsheet column.
• [Optional] **choice_layout** (dropdown / vertical / horizontal)
• [Optional] **choice_type** (one / many)
• [Optional] **weights**. The weight amounts needs to immediately follow the '**weights**' command token, one weight per spreadsheet column.  You should have the same amount of weights as choices.
• [Optional] **questionpath**. After this token, the next 3 columns need to contain, in order:
  • Text of the Source Choice. This needs to be the exact text of one of the choices that you just entered under '**choices**' above.  When the survey respondent chooses this option, then they are forwarded after clicking the 'Next' button.
  • Target Page Number. Which page the survey respondent should be sent to after choosing the option above.
  • Target Question Number of the page entered above.  Which question the respondent should be sent to after they click the 'Next' button. You can also use 0 (zero) to go to the top of the page. Note: You need to count every element on the page.  For example, if the target page contains 3 elements, a text message and two questions, and you want to send the respondent to the first question, the Target Question Number here should be 2 (second element on the page).

Here is a simple multiple choice example line (click on the image for better quality)

**ranking** question type:

• [Required] Title
• [Required] **choices**. The choices need to immediately follow the '**choices**' command token, one choice per spreadsheet column.

**text_multiple** question type:

• [Required] Title
• [Required] The choices need to immediately follow the '**choices**' command token, one choice per spreadsheet column.

**rating_scale ** question type:

• [Required] Title
• [Required] **rows**. The row texts need to immediately follow the '**rows**' command token, one row text per spreadsheet column.
• [Required] **columns**. The column texts need to immediately follow the '**columns**' command token, one column text per spreadsheet column.

Here is an overview of what is required (R) and what is optional (O) for each element type:

Here is an example spreadsheet that we put together for a feedback survey for a sandwich restaurant.

Save the Spreadsheet

When you're done making the changes to your spreadsheet, save it as a .csv file.  Each program works a little different but typically when you click on "Save as", you will see a few different file formats.  Select the one mentioning CSV.

Import CSV File

The last step is to import the csv file into SurveyRock.  Either create a new survey or edit an existing one.  Click on the Survey dropdown menu on the right of the page and then Upload Questions. 

Next, either drag the .csv file into the blue outlined box or else click somewhere inside the blue box, select your file and then click Open.  You will see a success message and you are brought back to the survey editor page with the newly uploaded questions displayed.