Questions with numeric, text, or date responses display an input box in which respondents can type their answers. The standard input box for numeric and date questions is a single line of 20 characters (scrollable to 40 characters for dates). The input box for text questions shows six rows of 34 characters each, although respondents can scroll to enter more text if necessary.

Other Specify responses defined with the keyword other also display input boxes. These boxes display a single line 21 characters wide but scroll to the left so that longer texts can be entered.

You can change the following things about input boxes:

Set the background color of the input box. For more information, see Box color.

Define the color, size, and typeface in which to display respondents’ input, and the font effects to be applied. For more information, see Display settings for respondents' answers.

This is most useful for text responses because it might encourage respondents to type more detailed answers than they would do when presented with a smaller input box. However, it is still useful for numeric and date questions if you are displaying answers in a large font. For more information, see Input box dimensions.

Changing the dimensions of an input box does not allow respondents to enter more text than is allowed by the length specification on the question definition. With numeric and date questions, respondents can still only enter values that satisfy the question specification.

For text responses, whether the input box covers one or many lines. For more information, see Types of text input boxes.

For information about supported HTML5 input types, see HTML5 input types.