Item Wording/File (Questionnaire Files)

QuickInfo

Identifies the question wording for the item being presented, or if the item is a file (such as an image, sound, movie, executable, html or Word document) then the file name goes here.

Value – as Question Wording

If the item is one of the following question types, then this field will provide the question wording for the item.

Instructions

Fill-in-the-blank

Scale Response

Multiple Response

Thought-listing

Recall Listing

Thought-Rating

Hints – as Question Wording

Click Details for a more flexible editing space.

A very simple solution for more elaborate or formatted instructions is to simply insert them in a html, word or word perfect document and present that as its own item.

Advanced Hints – as Question Wording

If you want more formatting control over question wording you can insert HTML anywhere on any question item by specifying an HTML file or URL in the BackGround field for the item. This way you can create whatever you like and present it in place of (or in addition to) the usual instruction text. Note that you must specify the area in the which the HTML should appear or it may hide other parts of the question item. See BackGround for details on how to do this.

You can insert the value of a subject's prior response to any fill-in-the blank or scale response item by typing the appropriate variable name surrounded by < > within any question wording text. For example, if you had previously asked subjects about their race using a fill-in-the-blank question or a scale response and you had called this variable race, then you could insert the subjects response in a subsequent question wording like this: What percentage of your friends are <race>? For scale responses, the text label of the selected response is used.

Apply parameters to question wording

You can now add parameters specific to the question wording on any item. You can add top, left, width, and height parameters in the question wording itself to define its location and boundaries. To do so, use the key word "param" at the end of your question wording followed by your parameters in parentheses. E.g.,

Please answer the following questions. When you're done, feel proud you did a good thing. param(t200,l100,w200,h100)

You can also add an "a" parameter to set the alignment of the text. By default it will be left aligned. For right alignment, add "a1". For center alignment, add "a2". e.g., "The quick brown fox jumped off the roof. param(a1)" will be right aligned. "The quick brown fox jumped off the roof. param(a2,t.5)" will center the sentence horizontally on the screen and the top of the text will be located 50% of the way down the screen.

Value – as Filename

If the item is one of the following file types, then this field will provide the file name for the item.

HTML  Any .htm or .html file local or on the web

Image  Any .bmp, .jpg, or .gif image file

Executable  Any .exe program (DOS, Windows 3.1, or Windows 95)

Sound  Any .wav or .mp3 sound file

Movie  Any .avi, .mpg, or .mov video file

Word Doc  Any Microsoft Word .doc file

WordPerfect Any WordPerfect .wpd file

Hints – as Filename

When your are editing in the overview window, double-clicking will allow you to edit any field or will pull open a file search box if a file is required. If you want to edit a field that requires a filename but do not want to open a file search dialog, then simply highlight the field and press enter to edit the field directly.

To be safe, you can always specify the complete file path (e.g., "c:\experiments\myexp\myimage.bmp"). If you specify a complete path, remember to make sure the path is the same if you load the experiment onto other computers. For more details, see Specifying File Paths.

Advanced Hints – as Filename

If the file is located in the same folder as your experiment file, then you can simply enter the name of the file (e.g., myimage.bmp). If the file is located in a subfolder that is located in the same folder as your experiment files, then you can enter the name of the subfolder followed by the name of the file (e.g., images\myimage.bmp). Otherwise, you need to specify the full path and name of the file you want to present (e.g., c:\mypictures\myimage.bmp).

The advantage of placing the file in the experiment directory (or a subfolder) is that the experiment folder can then be moved to a different place and you won't have to worry about checking path names (e.g., c:\..., d:\..., etc.)

Files may also be located on another computer on your local network. MediaLab can display files located on any computer on your network as long as the drive has been "mapped" on the system running MediaLab. For example, a hard drive on another computer may be mapped on your system as "h:\" or "s:\" etc. If so, you can refer to files on that drive just as you would local files (e.g., "h:\myfiles\myfile.bmp"). Ask your network administrator about "mapping" the drives of other machines on your network if you're new to mapping. See also Running Experiments Over a Network for details on how to run an entire experiment from another machine.