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. LimeSurvey configuration
7. Introduction - Surveys
8. View survey settings
9. View survey menu
10. View survey structure
11. Introduction - Questions
12. Introduction - Question Groups
13. Introduction - Surveys - Management
14. Survey toolbar options
15. Multilingual survey
16. Quick start guide - ExpressionScript
17. Advanced features
18. General FAQ
19. Troubleshooting
20. Workarounds
21. License
22. Version change log
23. Plugins - Advanced

LimeSurvey allows users to quickly create intuitive, powerful online forms and surveys that can work for anyone from small business to large business. The survey software is self-guiding for the respondents. This manual shows how to install the application on your own server (although we strongly recommend our Cloud version for full support), 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, If you prefer using the web version then skip the downloading.

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.

The search box (upper right corner of the wiki), our General FAQ, and Workarounds list will help you if you have any concerns. 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 or buy Basic, Expert, Enterprise plan through the pricing page 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
• LimeSurvey configuration
  • Settings
    • Home page settings
    • Global settings
    • Plugin manager
    • Menu configuration ^{(New in 3.0 )}
    • Menu entries configuration ^{(New in 3.0 )}
  • Users
    • Manage users
    • Manage user groups
    • Central Participant Database (CPDB)
  • Advanced
    • Theme editor (LimeSurvey 2.x)
      • New template system in LS3.x
      • Themes
      • Question themes
    • Label sets
    • Check data integrity
    • Backup entire database
    • ComfortUpdate

• Introduction - Surveys
  • 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
    • Survey group permissions
• View Survey settings
  • Introduction
  • Overview
  • General settings
  • Text elements
  • Data policy settings
  • Theme options
  • Presentation
  • Participant settings
  • Notifications & data
  • Publication & access
• View survey menu
  • Introduction
  • List questions
  • List question groups
  • Reorder questions & question groups
  • Survey participants (was Tokens)
    • Email bounce tracking system
    • Iterate survey
  • Quotas
  • Assessments
  • Survey permissions
  • Email templates
    • Email placeholders
  • Panel integration
  • Resources
  • Plugin menu
• View survey structure
  • Introduction
  • The structure of a survey
  • Question groups
  • Questions
  • Reordering questions and question groups
• Introduction - Questions
  • 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
• Introduction - Question groups
  • Question group toolbar options
  • Preview question group
  • Change group order
• Introduction - Surveys - Management
  • Testing a survey
  • Activating a survey
  • Running a survey safely
  • Browsing survey results
  • Closing a survey
  • Changing an active survey
  • Data entry
  • Statistics
  • Exporting results
  • Exporting a survey structure
  • QueXML PDF export
  • Quick-translation
  • Question toolbar options
    • Preview function
    • Edit question
    • Check question logic
    • Delete question
    • Export question
    • Copy question
    • Setting conditions
    • Adding answers or subquestions
    • Default answers
• 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
• 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
• Advanced features
  • SGQA identifier
  • Using regular expressions
  • URL fields
  • RemoteControl 2 API
  • REST API
  • Data encryption
• Data Protection
  • Cookies
• 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 LS5
  • 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