LimeSurvey Manual

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General

Main Chapters:

1. LimeSurvey Cloud vs LimeSurvey CE
2. LimeSurvey Cloud - Quick start guide
3. LimeSurvey CE - Installation
4. How to Design a Good Survey (Guide)
5. Getting Started
6. Administering LimeSurvey
7. Introduction - Surveys
8. Introduction - Surveys - Management
9. Introduction - Questions
10. Introduction - Question Groups
11. Quick start guide - ExpressionScript
12. Survey toolbar options
13. Multilingual survey
14. Not Categorized and Advanced Features
15. General FAQ
16. Troubleshooting
17. Workarounds
18. License
19. Version Change Log
20. Plugins - Advanced

LimeSurvey allows users (think of users as "administrators" NOT participants!) to quickly create intuitive, powerful online question and answer surveys that can work for only a few participants or thousands of participants without much effort. The survey software is self-guiding for the respondents who are participating. This manual is thus focused on how to install the application, administer the installation, as well as support survey creators, administrators, and users who need to generate reports.

There has been a big ramp-up in development within the last few years, leading to many new features and changes. Make sure to upgrade to the latest version of LimeSurvey to make use of the capabilities highlighted here.

The main chapters of the manual are located in the box to the right. You can also scroll down further on this page to see the complete table of contents and go directly to the topic you are interested in.

Are you still having trouble finding what you want? Don't forget the general search box (upper right corner of the wiki), our General FAQ, and Workarounds list. If you are looking for community help, join our discussion forums and check the IRC channel.

Remember that LimeSurvey is an open source, free software application. See something missing or incorrect? Then help us fix it. This documentation is a wiki that can be edited by you or anyone else, or you can donate to help support the core development group trying to make a difference.

Manual - Table of Contents

• LimeSurvey Cloud vs LimeSurvey CE
  • What do I need?
• LimeSurvey Cloud - Quick Start Guide
  • What is LimeSurvey?
  • Create a Free LimeSurvey Account
  • Setting Up Your Survey Site
  • Start Using LimeSurvey
  • Other LimeSurvey Features

• Installation - LimeSurvey CE
  • Optional Settings
  • Upgrading From a Previous Version
    • ComfortUpdate
  • Installation Using a Command Line Interface (CLI)
  • Transferring an Installation
  • Installation FAQ
    • Installation Security Hints
    • Localization
• How to Design a Good Survey (Guide)
• Getting Started
  • First Login
  • Change your password
  • Your account preferences
• Administering LimeSurvey
  • Settings Tab
    • Home Page Settings
    • Global Settings
    • Plugin Manager
    • Menu Configuration ^{(New in 3.0 )}
    • Menu Entries Configuration ^{(New in 3.0 )}
  • Users Tab
    • Manage Users
    • Manage User Groups
    • Central Participant Database (CPDB)
  • Advanced Tab
    • Theme Editor (LimeSurvey 2.x)
      • New Template System In LS3.x
      • Themes
      • Question Themes
    • Label Sets
    • Check Data Integrity
    • Backup Entire Database
    • ComfortUpdate

• Surveys - Introduction
  • General
  • Surveys
    • Import a Survey
    • Copy a Survey
    • List surveys
    • Delete a survey
    • Export a survey
  • Survey Groups
    • Survey Groups
    • Create a survey group
    • Edit survey group
    • Delete a survey group
• View Survey SETTINGS
  • Overview
  • General Settings
  • Text Elements
  • Data Policy Settings
  • Theme Options
  • Presentation
  • Participant Settings (was Participant Tokens)
  • Notifications & Data
  • Publication & Access
• View Survey MENU
  • List Questions
  • List Question Groups
  • Reorder Questions and Question Groups
  • Survey Participants (was Tokens)
    • Email Bounce Tracking System
  • Quotas
  • Assessments
  • Survey Permissions
  • Email Templates
    • Email Placeholders
  • Panel Integration
  • Resources
  • Plugin Menu
• View Survey STRUCTURE
• Question Groups - Introduction
  • Question Group Toolbar Options
  • Preview Question Group
  • Change Group Order
• Questions - Introduction
  • Question Types
    • Question Type - Array
    • Question Type - Array by column
    • Question Type - Array dual scale
    • Question Type - Array (5 point choice)
    • Question Type - Array (10 point choice)
    • Question Type - Array (Increase-Same-Decrease)
    • Question Type - Array (Numbers)
    • Question Type - Array (Texts)
    • Question Type - Array (Yes-No-Uncertain)
    • Question Type - Date
    • Question Type - Equation
    • Question Type - File upload
    • Question Type - Gender
    • Question Type - Language switch
    • Question Type - Numerical input
    • Question Type - Multiple numerical input
    • Question Type - Ranking
    • Question Type - Text display
    • Question Type - Yes-No
    • Question Type - Multiple choice
    • Question Type - Multiple choice with comments
    • Question Type - 5 point choice
    • Question Type - List (Dropdown)
    • Question Type - List (Radio)
    • Question Type - List with comment
    • Question Type - Short free text
      • Set up maps and store location
    • Question Type - Long free text
    • Question Type - Huge free text
    • Question Type - Multiple short text
  • Change question order
  • Question toolbar options
    • Preview function
    • Edit question
    • Check question logic
    • Delete question
    • Export question
    • Copy question
    • Setting conditions
    • Adding answers or subquestions
    • Default answers
• ExpressionScript Engine - Quick start guide
  • ExpressionScript - Presentation
  • ExpressionScript How-tos
  • ExpressionScript examples
  • ExpressionScript Engine roadmap
  • ExpressionScript for developers
  • ExpressionScript sample surveys
    • Expression Manager - old page with full documentation
  • Show logic file
• Survey toolbar options
  • Testing a survey
  • Activating a survey
  • Running a survey safely
    • Changing an active survey
  • Closing a survey
  • Iterate survey
  • Tools
    • Delete survey
    • Quick-translation
    • Reset conditions
    • Survey logic file
    • Regenerate question codes
  • Display/Export survey
    • QueXML PDF Export
    • Tab Separated Value survey structure
  • Survey participants
  • Responses (survey results)
    • Responses & statistics
      • Response summary
      • Responses
      • Data entry
      • Statistics
        • Statistics - expert mode
        • Statistics - simple mode
      • Timing statistics
      • Export responses
      • Import responses
        • Problems & solutions
      • View saved but not submitted responses
      • Iterate survey
      • Batch deletion
    • Data entry
    • Partial (saved) responses
• Multilingual survey
• Not categorized and advanced features
  • SGQA identifier
  • Using regular expressions
  • URL fields
  • RemoteControl 2 API
  • Data encryption
• General FAQ
• Troubleshooting
• Workarounds
  • Workarounds: Question design, layout and templating
  • Workarounds: Manipulating a survey at runtime using Javascript
  • Workarounds: Survey behaviour
  • Workarounds: Further solutions provided by LimeSurvey users
• License
• Version change log
• Plugins - advanced
  • Make your plugin compatible with LS4
  • Available third party plugins

LimeSurvey Development

• Version guide - A short guide on version numbering
• Development overview - General pages about LimeSurvey development
• LimeSurvey 2.x development documentation
• New Template System in LS3.x - Quick overview of the novelties of the LimeSurvey 3 template system

Translating LimeSurvey

If you want to add new translations or correct a translation, please follow these instructions:

• How to translate LimeSurvey
• LimeSurvey manual translation - summary

Semester of Code Participation

• Semester of Code 2014

Google Summer of Code / Code-In Participation

• Project ideas for GSoC 2015
• Project Ideas for GSoC 2013
• LimeSurvey Google Code-in 2012
• LimeSurvey Google Code-in 2011
• LimeSurvey GSoC 2011/GSoC getting started
• LimeSurvey GSoC 2010
• LimeSurvey GSoC 2009