Can you make the number of options to rank non-mandatory?

Question

I have a ranking question where I want the respondent to be able to rank up to three options. So in other words, I do not want it mandatory that they rank their top three, they can rank just one, or two, or even none if they want. Is there a way to do this?

Comments

In v8 you have a setting for min and max number of options to rank, not just total number.  You can set the minimum to 0 and the max to 3.  If you set the minimum to 0 you will have to uncheck the require response box as well.

Answer 1

Under the SETTINGS tab of your ranking question, untick the REQUIRE RESPONSE TO QUESTION box. This will allow you to proceed forward without any rankings.

With regards to the ranking of up to 3 items, you can set the NUMBER OF ITEMS TO RANK to 3. This will require a 1+2+3 to be inserted (duplicate rankings are not allowed). The option of ranking only 1 or 2 items is not allowed with this setting unfortunately.

My solution covers you for 0 or 3 items ranked but not the 1 or 2 items ranked scenarios. From what I can see, this is your best solution.

I have based my solution on using v7. From what I can tell, v8 does not allow this either.

My only other idea requires you to setup a grid question which allows numeric responses. Make it non-compulsory to answer. This will allow 0 or 1 or 2 or 3 rankings but you have lost your control of your ranking type question which prevents duplicate rankings and the number of items to rank. Some fancy JavaScript will be required to apply control of this nature.

Comments

Version 8 does allow you to specify a range of items to rank.  For example, I could put a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3.  This would force a respondent to rank at least 1, allow them to rank 2, or at most rank the top 3 items in the question.