Frequently Asked Questions
How can I keep up to date on SurveyBob.com updates?
We're glad you asked! Simply go to SurveyBobBlog.com and learn about the latest features, tips and tricks for using Bob, etc. Be sure to register so that updates (approximately one per month) can automatically appear in your RSS feed or be emailed to you.
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Are there video demos for learning more about SurveyBob.com?
We have started creating some demos to help you out. Here is one that teaches you how to create questions using the various question types:

Click here to view the "SurveyBob.com Demo - Creating Survey Questions" video

We also recently stumbled upon a SurveyBob.com overview video that a Bob user created to demonstrate the simplicity and power of Bob.

Click here to view the "Survey Bob: Free Web Based Survey Tool Tutorial" video

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Is it really true that Bob lets me do unlimited surveys, questions, and respondents, absolutely free?
Yes, all that you can handle, absolutely free.
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So what's the catch? How does Bob make money?
No catch. Bob allows us to put some ads up on the site to help pay the bills. There are absolutely no ads on your surveys to distract your survey respondents. When your survey respondents complete their survey they are taken to a SurveyBob landing page, which includes a thank you message, the survey results (if you don't opt to hide the results from participants), and professional-looking banner ads along the right column. We hand pick the ads that run and will never allow anything offensive or otherwise unprofessional.
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How can I thank Bob for this awesome free survey tool? :)
If you have suggestions for improvements, or just want to tell us what you love about Bob, click on Contact Us and send Bob a message. Bob also greatly appreciates the kudos SurveyBob.com has received from happy Bob users in your blogs, twitters, etc. Any way you can share the love with your friends, colleagues, and the world is much appreciated. To quote the Beatles, "And in the end / the love you make / is equal to the love you take." :)
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Can I advertise on SurveyBob?
Sure, assuming that your ads are professional, and preferably cool :) Just email your contact info to us at ads@surveybob.com and we'll be in touch!
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Can I use SurveyBob for a confidential survey, i.e. does Bob securely guard my survey data?
We are pleased to say that no one has access to your survey data but you. Bob fully appreciates the confidential nature of your survey data, respondent contact information, etc. and uses sophisticated security technology to ensure that your data stays private. Also, if you don't want your survey participants to see survey results, go to All Surveys, click on your survey, click Options, then check the box to hide results, then click the Save Options button.
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Will Bob sell my information or in any other way compromise the privacy of my survey data?
Bob does not review your surveys and does not share data in any way. Bob would absolutely never agree to share or sell your data. This extends to any of your data stored in SurveyBob.com, including your contact information, your survey respondent's contact information, and your survey data.
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Can I send surveys via Twitter?
Yes! SurveyBob.com lets you quickly create the coolest polls and surveys to send out via Twitter in 3 easy steps: 1) Create a poll or survey at SurveyBob.com; 2) Copy the survey link that Bob provides; 3) Include the survey link in your Twitter tweet!
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How do I add a survey to Facebook?
Create a survey at SurveyBob.com. Go to MySurveys and click on the "Distribute" button for that survey. Click on Option 2 ("survey link"), then copy the link. Go to Facebook and you have a couple of options. One option is to click on your Profile, click the Notes tab and then click the "Write a New Note" button. Add the survey link to the note as well as your comments to invite your friends to complete the survey. Be sure to tag everyone you'd like to have respond, you'll get a much better response. Another option is to click on Profile, then click on Post Link, then paste the link to your survey. Click Preview, add a comment to describe your survey and to invite people to take it, then click Post. Done!
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How do I add a survey to MySpace?
Create a survey at SurveyBob.com. Go to MySurveys and click on the "Distribute" button for that survey. Click on the third tab ("html code"), then highlight and copy all of the code in the box. Go to your MySpace account. Click on Profile, then Edit Profile. Paste the code into any one of the boxes on this page, and save. Your survey will now show up on your MySpace profile. Piece of cake!
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How can I distribute my polls and survey?
SurveyBob.com provides three options for distributing your polls and surveys. 1) Survey Link; 2) Bob Mail; 3) HTML Code. Use the Survey Link distribution option if you want to do an anonymous poll. You can send this link out using your own email, or via twitter, or you can add the link onto your business or social networking website. Bob Mail tracks responses. You enter the email addresses, and Bob Mail sends out unique links to your survey participants so that Bob knows who has completed their survey. HTML code lets you embed a survey right into your business or personal website. You can copy the code, then paste it into your website code to have it appear right on your site.
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What is Bob Mail?
Bob Mail is a tool for sending out your surveys and tracking who responds. Click here to read our blog about Bob Mail.
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When should I distribute my surveys via Bob Mail vs. Survey Link?
It comes down to this question: Do you want to track who has completed their survey, and know who gave which responses? If so, you want to use Bob Mail. With this option, Bob sends each survey participant a unique link so that Bob knows when they have responded. You can then see this status in the Distribute screen, and if you export the results to a spreadsheet, it shows you who gave which responses. Don't send yourself a survey via Bob Mail, then send that link out to participants. That is a unique link that can only be completed once. If you want the survey to be anonymous, don't care to know who gave which answers, and/or want to distribute the survey via your own means (your email, Twitter, posting a link on your site, etc.), then you'll want to use option number 1, which is the Survey Link. This is a generic link that allows any number of participants to complete the survey.
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Does BobMail support multiple survey responses using the same survey link?
BobMail sends a unique link to each participant that you specify so that Bob can track who has responded. BobMail therefore only allows one response per survey link. This enables Bob to provide you with updated status on which participants have completed the survey participant. If you want to send out a link and let any number of people complete the survey, use the Survey Link option to send out a link.
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Can I enforce only one response per person?
Yes! Go to Options for the survey, and check the box, "Limit to one survey response per computer." This will turn on cookies and ensure that the survey cannot be completed multiple times from the same computer. This method works in most cases, but it is not airtight since there are some workarounds if a participant is sneaky. For example, they could delete their cookies, causing Bob to "forget" that they already took the survey. Additionally, they could complete the survey on one computer, then switch to another computer to take it again. For even tighter enforcing of one survey response per person, use BobMail to distribute your survey. BobMail sends a unique link to each participant that you specify so that Bob can track who has responded. BobMail therefore only allows one response per survey link, even if they delete their cookies or use different computers to complete the survey.
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Can I enable a survey to be completed multiple times on the same computer?
Yes, just make sure that the "Limit to one survey response per computer" Option is turned off (not checked). This will allow you to let multiple people complete the survey using the same computer, allow you to perform data entry of multiple surveys completed offline, etc.
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If I do an offline survey, how do I enter all of the results?
If you print off the survey and distribute to, say, a classroom of students or a conference room of business managers, you'll then want to enter the survey results one at a time. Once you have collected the completed surveys, all you have to do is go to Distribute for the survey, then click on "Survey Link" and click on the link for the survey, then complete the data entry for the first survey. Repeat this process until you've entered all of the surveys.
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Can I embed a poll right in the body of an email?
You can always include the link to your poll in an email, but we're talking here about having the actual poll appear right in the email. We're happy to report that there is a scenario where this works. If you have a one question poll, and the question is a multiple choice (single answer), you can! On the Distribute page for your survey, use Bob Mail and check the "Include survey directly in the email" box. Works like a charm, and great for little polls you want to send out to people using smart phones like iPhones, Blackberrys, etc.
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How do I hide survey results from respondents?
By default, Bob lets respondents see the survey results. If you don't want your respondents to see the results, go to All Surveys, click on the Survey, then click on "Options." Check the box to indicate you wish to hide the results, then click Save Options.
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How do I close a survey so that participants can no longer complete the survey?
Go to All Surveys, click on your survey, then click on the Open function to toggle the survey to Closed. If you want to reopen it, just click on Closed and it will toggle back to Open.
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Can I view individual responses? / Can I export survey results to a spreadsheet?
Yes! Go to the Results page for your poll or survey and click on the "Export results to spreadsheet" link near the top of the page. Voila! Each row is a participant's responses. If you want to know who gave those responses, use Bob Mail, which tracks responses and includes the participant's names on each row of the spreadsheet so that you know who gave which responses.
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Can I copy my surveys?
Yes! Go to All Surveys, select your survey, then click the Copy function. Bob will take you right to the Edit Survey page for the new survey. Rename it and off you go!
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Can I make is so that when people complete my HTML surveys, the results pop up in a new window instead of leaving my site?
Yes! All you need to do is add the code: target="_blank" to your "form action" tag. Just add it right before the method="post" code.
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How can I reset my survey results to zero?
Most people want to test that the poll/survey is working before anyone uses it, but then want to reset the results back to 0. To do this, all you need to do is copy the survey (go to All Surveys in SurveyBob, select the survey, click the "Copy" function). Your results are now back to zero and ready to go! You can now close the old version if you wish.
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I can't login - Help!
If you think you might have forgotten your password, click on the "I forgot my password" link on the Login screen. You will be prompted to enter your email address, then Bob will email your password to you. If your email address isn't recognized, it probably means that you used a different email address when you registered. Try other email addresses that you may have used. You might also search your email in boxes on "SurveyBob" to see to which email account SurveyBob is sending your email. If all else fails, you can register again with the email address you thought you were using :) If you have a survey that you desperately need to access but just can't figure out your email address, send us your name and the survey name (as best you remember it) and we'll do our best to locate the email address you used to register.
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Which browsers are supported by SurveyBob.com?
SurveyBob.com supports pretty much all web browsers updated within the last 5 years, including Internet Explorer (6.0 and later), Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc. We thought long and hard about whether we should support Internet Explorer 6.0 (IE6), which was released in 2001 and which is non-compliant with internet (World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C for short) standards in many ways. Microsoft has subsequently released version 7.0 (October 2006) and 8.0 (March 2009), which are much more aligned with W3C standards, and which are provided as free upgrades. Still, there are individuals and companies that have stuck with IE6 for now. We ensure that SurveyBob is fully functional in IE6, although we freely admit that we spend more time building cool new features than fixing the design quirks of IE6. If you are still using IE6 and have any control over the situation, please upgrade already! :)
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How do I delete a survey?
Go to All Surveys, select the survey to be deleted, then click the Delete function. Bob will ask you to confirm, and then it is gone, baby!
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Why can't I delete a question in my survey?
You can delete questions from surveys until you have at least one respondent, at which point the survey is "live" and no longer allows you to delete questions. If you complete the survey yourself as a test, then want to make additional changes to the survey, most edits are still allowed, but at that point you can no longer delete questions. No big deal, just click the Copy function for that survey. You now have a new version of the survey with no respondents, therefore allowing you to make any edits you wish. If you no longer need the initial draft of the survey, delete it. Easy peasy!
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Why can't I edit my survey questions?

Once someone has responded to your survey, each question that has received a response becomes "locked" to preserve data integrity. You can, however, continue to reorder, delete and add questions at any point.

If your survey response data is expendable, you can just reset your results back to 0, allowing you to begin editing your survey again. To do this, go the Results page for your survey and click the Reset Results link at the top of the page. Confirm that you wish to delete all of your survey data, then return to the Edit screen and you are good to go! This is the option people use when they were just taking their survey for a test run and the data wasn't worth saving.

If you want to keep your survey results, but nevertheless wish to distribute a new version of your survey, you might consider copying your survey. The old survey with its results still exists, but now you have a new version of the survey with a clean slate. You can make edits, re-distribute, and begin collecting new responses!


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