Ctrl right arrow short cut ends questionnaire (case 450)

Hi there,

We have been using the Ctrl right arrow short cut keys to allow interviewers to skip questions that participants don't want to answer. However, it seems to be randomly ending the questionnaire file. It happens whether or not the question has a skip to value specified and it seems to happen mostly on essay questions, fill in the blanks or select a reponse when there are lots of response options. This is very problematic as it means we can't use the skip keys anymore. Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks,
Laura

Normally the only way that could occur is if you have a skipto value that becomes active but does not get found--and consequently you end up at the end of the questionnaire/experiment. But you say this is not always happening when a skipto is active. How predictable is it? e.g., Can you select a set of specific responses which when used will always cause the questionnaire to jump to the end? If so, could you supply the que and that sequence of responses so I can try to replicate it here? Also--are you using a [I]responses.xls[/I] file?

I have found this issue in the past related to the skipto issue which is why I was confused. It is not predictable at all. We aren't using a responses file with this questionnaire no. The other thing is that it works fine on my computer (windows 7), but we are having problems on two other types of computers, one with windows 7 and one with XP. Where should I email the file to?

Thanks,
Laura

Any chance at all that [I]alt+right[/I] could be getting hit once in a while rather than [I]ctrl+right[/I]? That would take you to the end of the questionnaire rather than to the next item. I ask only because if it's unpredictable and relative infrequent, the proximity of the [I]alt[/I] key to the [I]ctrl[/I] key comes to mind. Possible?

Also--less plausible, but thought I'd mention it--depending on the version, [I]ctrl+alt+right[/I] would take you through any/all questionnaire & files to the very end (e.g., in the case that you are not just running a single [I]que[/I] file).

On our versions of medialab, alt+right doesn't do anything (we just tried it). We also noticed that this is happening more on the XP machines than on the Windows 7 machine. We are just running a single que file as well. The file has a fwe skipto items and then a few between items randomisation at the end. I can email it over to you if that is helpful.

Laura

If you upload a copy of the MediaLab files giving you problems, I'd be happy to take a look at them.