Hello,

I understand it is possible to copy a question or a questionnaire to Lime Survey. However, it seems that to copy a question I need an *.lsq format...How can I generate such data format? I was thinking is possible to import a CSV or txt.
Concerning a questionnaire, It seems in this case you can import an *.txt. Is there any other way you would advice?
Anyone who did such procedure? Guiadance will be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi,
to copy a question - I assume from one survey to another, you have to export it and import it into the new survey.
www.limesurvey.org/manual/Export_question

It seems in this case you can import an *.txt

Yes, you can.
But, please do not expect you can import a questionnaire that was witten in Word and saved as *.txt.
As this explanation describes

this is a special format to exchange with EXCEL.

And the lsa, lss, lsg, lsq formats also are text files in XML-format.

You may open all of them in a text editor to have a look.


Joffm

Thank you Joffm.

So one cannot import a questionnaire in an *.txt format?? Yes, we will get questionnaires in text form (word) and we were thinking how we can have this questionnaires in Lime Survey "automatically" and it seems it has to be done manually, right?

Concerning lsa and lsq formats, is there any way to get such questions saved in that format and imported by LSurvey? It seems the easiest/only way is to import/export within Lime Survey in order to have the proper data format (not from an external source).

Concerning lsa and lsq formats, is there any way to get such questions saved in that format and imported by LSurvey? It seems the easiest/only way is to import/export within Lime Survey in order to have the proper data format (not from an external source).

I think I do not fully understand that.
1. lsa is the archive of a survey, containg the structure AND the responses of a - completed - survey.

2. And you might export lsq to have something like a library with frequently used questions

And some more explanation:
All (lsa, lss, lsg and lsq) have the same format (text file in XML syntax)
lsa: LS Archive -> contains structure and data of a survey
lss: LS Survey -> contains structure of a survey
lsg: LS Group -> contains structure of a group
lsq: LS Question -> contains structure of a question
lsg and lsq are language sensitive: You can't import a group or a question into a survey with different base language.

And again to your idea to import a questionnaire created in word.
There are other - commercial - tools that pretend to be able to do this.
But I tell you, to prepare such a questionnaire is more work than just copy and paste it into the question and the "quick add" of subquestions and answers.
We tried this a few times when we started working with such a tool some years ago; but never did it again.
Consider: You have to add special marks to your *.txt questionnaire that LimeSurvey is able to recognize if it is
a question / a question code,
a subquestion / a subquestion code,
an answer option / an answer code,
an assessment value,
a help text
or whatever more

Joffm

Like in any program, import files need to match certain criteria for the program to understand them.

Word documents have no common rules for a software like Limesurvey to understand what is the question text, what are subquestions, what are answer options, etc.

Even if you could import .txt files, they would still have to match a format that LS could understand.

There is no artificial intelligence available yet that can understand all the individual styles of creating questionnaires in word and translate it into Limesurvey.

There might be survey tools out there that can do this, but not Limesurvey. You will have to go the traditional way by "programming" your word questionnaire in Limesurvey.

However, you can import surveys from Excel (exported as a tab seperated text file), however, these files also need to follow some rules so that LS can "understand" them:
www.limesurvey.org/about-limesurvey/surv...stionnaires-in-excel
www.limesurvey.org/manual/Tab_Separated_Value_survey_structure