During the Transfer to Scanning Software process, UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on creates either an image field or a character field for the answer to each open-ended question, depending on which option you have chosen on the Text Field tab in the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on Options dialog box. When the questionnaires are scanned, ReadSoft FORMS captures an image of all of the open-ended responses.

If the Confirm Validation option is selected, ReadSoft FORMS Verify displays each image. This means that an operator can check and, if necessary, amend ReadSoft FORMS' interpretation of responses defined as character fields or enter the appropriate code or text for responses defined as image fields. The interpreted, transcribed, or coded response is then saved with the scanned data. ReadSoft FORMS erases the image after the data associated with it has been transferred.

Be careful when you transcribe or code the data that you do not enter more than the maximum number of characters allowed. If you are using UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on Transfer and Quantum CDSC to transfer the data to a Quantum-format ASCII file, Quantum CDSC will give an error on responses containing more characters than the number of columns allocated to the question, if the response texts (rather than the coded responses) are being stored in the .dat file. If you are using Relation MR Database CDSC to export the data to a database, the limit for open-ended response texts is 999 characters.

Alternatively, you can export the image files so that you can transcribe or code the responses in another application. If you choose to do this, deselect the Confirm Validation option so that ReadSoft FORMS Verify does not prompt you to enter or check the text.

UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on creates field definitions in ReadSoft FORMS for the responses to open-ended questions as follows:

The field type is character or image, depending on the option chosen on the Text Fields tab in the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on Options dialog box.

When the field type is character, the format is numeric, alpha lowercase, alpha uppercase, special characters, space, handwritten, and geometric context. The specification is taken from the maximum length defined for the question. When this has not been defined, the specification is set to X(1-10) (from 1 to 10 characters).

The name is generated from the question name with the addition of a suffix. The field complement is given the same name prefixed with the & character. For example, for question desc_leave, the image field name is desc_leave_ and the field complement name is &desc_leave_.

As specified on the Text Fields tab in the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on Options dialog box.

As specified on the Text Fields tab in the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper/Scan Add‑on Options dialog box.