Cycle Pages – Add Questions and Information to a Custom Narrative Page or Intent to Apply

You will need to add one or more Custom Narrative pages to your form in order to ask questions and gather narrative data from your applicants.  Questions need to be added to a custom narrative page before it will be visible to your applicants.  Learn more about the other page types you can add to a form to gather budget, media, or demographic information.

• Custom Narrative Question Types
• Adding a Question to a Custom Narrative Page

Custom Narrative Question Types

Category Sort Select Menu– Allows you to create a single-select question and display the applicant’s response directly on your grant manager dashboard. Ideal for data that will help you to determine status, panel assignment, or award amount or data that you would like to use to sort applications. A category sort select menu appears as a multiple-choice drop-down menu on your applicant’s read/write application. You can add up to three of these questions to an application per Program Cycle.

Checkbox(es) – Allows the applicant to select multiple items from a list. You can add up to 10 option items. Select the desired number of options and click Update. An “Options” table appears, allowing you to enter text for the options and to set the sequence in which they appear. Designate whether any option is a pre-selected (default) item. You can add additional options later on if necessary.

Date – Allows the applicant to select dates from drop-down menus. This question includes a drop down menu for day, month, and year. You can create your own year range by selecting the first and final year.

File Upload – Allows applicants to upload and attach files directly from their device.  This field displays a single Upload button that allows for a single PDF, DOCX, XLSX, TXT, JPG, or PNG file. Add multiple fields if you are asking for multiple files or instruct applicants to consolidate all materials into a single PDF. There is a 1000 x 1000 pixel max size for image files and a 10MB max size for documents. We recommend pointing applicants toward a site like freeconvert.com to compress file size. State what types of files you are requesting in the question, footer, or explanation. You can access these documents via links within the application read-only form and panelists will see these files from the Support Material tab of their portal. You will need to have Microsoft Suite to view attached DOCX or XLSX files as an admin or panelist. This field does NOT coordinate to your applicant’s Media Library. You can add a Media Library Selection Page as well as, or instead of, this upload field and applicants can attach image, audio, video and/or document files from their Media Library.

Info Only – Allows you to display informational text without providing a response field.

Radio Button(s) – Creates multiple-choice bubbles for either/or items. Applicants can only select one item from the group as their answer to your question. You can add up to 10 items. Select the desired number of options and click Update. An “Options” table appears, allowing you to enter text for each possible answer and to set the sequence in which they appear in the Radio Button. Designate whether any option is a pre-selected (default) item. You can add additional items later on if necessary.

Save Button – Selecting this item places a Save button within the application form. If you have a large application page, you may want to place save buttons strategically in order to encourage applicants to save as they go. By default, there is a large Save button at the bottom of each navigation pages that will save all elements of that page.

Select Menu – Creates a drop-down menu on the applicant side. You must add yes/no options to the Select Menu using the “Add Options” tool at the bottom of the form. You can add up to 10 items.  Select the desired number of options and click Update. An “Options” table appears, allowing you to enter text for each possible answer and to determine the sequence in which they appear in the Select Menu. Designate whether each option is a pre-selected (default) item under the “Selected” column (though this is not recommended for required questions). You can add more options later on if necessary.

Text Area (Large) – Creates a text box with possible character number limits of: 1500, 2000, 2500, 3300, 5000, 10,000, 15,000

Text Area (Medium) – Creates a text box with possible character number limits of: 100, 250, 500, 1000

Text Area (Small) – Creates a text box with possible character number limits of: 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 75, 100 

NOTE: Character Limits
As you create your cycle pages and custom narrative fields, verify that your characters have not exceeded the limit. If limits are exceeded, your text may be cut off to the applicant.  Most titles , headings, names, and options will allow 250 character limit (including spaces) while text fields will typically have a limitless character counts

Adding a Question to a Custom Narrative Page

1. 1. Navigate to the Grant Editor tab > Cycle Pages subtab.
   2. Select your program and cycle from the drop-down menu.
   3. Click the Edit button to the right of any Custom Narrative page to which you want to add questions, elements, or instructional text.
   4. Type your optional Info/Instruction language for the page in the top text field. This language should help guide your applicants through this page.
   5. Scroll to the Add New Question tool located at the bottom of the page.
   6. Type the question title that will only be visible to admin, select the type of question you want to add from the drop-down menu, and set the sequence if you would like to reorder the questions.
   7. Click Add and you will be taken immediately to the Question Editor (see image below).
   8. Complete the fields of the Editor.
      1. Question Type – read only descriptor of the question type you are working with
      2. Title – enter an internal title. This should be one or two words that will help you identify this question in your list of questions on the page table. NOTE: if the question is required and not answered, applicants will see the Question Title on their submit page as an item they did not answer.
      3. Question – enter the question exactly as you want your applicants to view it. Add formatting but be aware that most questions appear in the 1/4 left margin, and as such, numbered and bulleted lists are better suited for an Info Only question where the text appears in the larger 3/4 right margin.
      4. Max Characters / Options / Date, etc.- depending on the question type, the final field(s) will determine some additional settings for the question.
         1. If you are creating a category sort select, checkbox, radio, or multi choice question, you will need to add at least one optional response to the field provided. To add additional fields, click the Add Option + button. Reorder the options using the Sequence fields and delete unnecessary options by clicking Delete.
         2. If you are creating a date field, you will enter the beginning and ending year that should appear in your dropdown question.
         3. If you are creating a text field, you will select the max characters.
      5. Required – Setting this to yes will require that the applicant respond to this question before they can submit the form; (Required) will display just beneath the question.
      6. Enable Conditional Logic – Show or hide questions based on an applicant’s responses to previous questions. Learn more here.
      7. Show Additional Fields – Create and determine optional elements of your field
         
         1. Help Text – language typed into this field will appear as a question mark near the question that opens a pop-up window when clicked. This language does not show up on the read-only preview form.
         2. Heading – best for grouping a set of questions together. A heading appears above the question text in slightly larger font than the question but smaller font than the page title.
         3. Footnote – Adds a smaller, italicized, parenthetical note beneath the question text.
            1. Checking either box for the item to appear on the PDF will display that item on the read-only HTML/PDF preview.
         4. Database Field Name – valuable if you will be mapping your GO Smart report to a program like ACCESS or PEARL, but optional.
         5. Note, if you are creating a Category Sort Select question, you will also see the Grant Manager Column Heading. This will display as the column header on your grant manager dashboard and will default to the title of the question if you do not type something in this field.
   9. Click Update to save the question
   10. You will be returned to the Page editor and will see the table of existing questions. Repeat the steps above to continue to add additional questions to your page.
   11. Use the Preview Page button atop each page editor to see the contents as it will appear to your applicants in their read-write form.