Viewing and entering comments
When you call a participant, you might obtain information that is useful to other interviewers who call that person. For example, if the participant is hard of hearing, you might want to record this information so that the next person who calls the participant knows to speak slowly and clearly. Another time when comments are useful is when you arrange an appointment. You can record the reason why you made the appointment, and any special instructions the participant gave you. This is particularly useful in business to business calling, where you might arrange the appointment with the participant’s secretary.
All comments are stored in the sample record and are displayed in the Comments box on the interviewing screen. You can view the comments by scrolling, or click the edit button next to the Comments box to display them in a new dialog.
Each comment is displayed on three lines:
▪Line 1 shows the date and time (local to the interviewing server) at which the comment was entered, the server’s time zone, and name of the interviewer who wrote the comment.
▪Line 2 shows the text. The text might be split over a number of physical lines.
▪Line 3 shows the call outcome and, if the interviewer arranged an appointment, the date and time of the appointment in the format yyyy–MM–dd hh:mm. If there is more than one comment for a single call, only the last one has a call outcome.
You cannot change or delete these comments, but you can add new ones.
Keep comments brief, perhaps by abbreviating or omitting commonly used words. The Comments box on the main screen can display up to 2000 characters. If the total size of all comments exceeds this, the earliest comments are deleted and the words “*** Earlier comments removed ***” are inserted.
The Comments box normally displays comments in chronological order, but your administrator might have changed it to display newer comments at the top of the list.
To view and add comments
1 On the main screen’s Contact Details tab, click edit next to the Comments field. Alternatively, you can click the main screen’s Comments tab.
The Comments dialog opens.
2 Type the comments in the box at the bottom of the dialog. Text wraps in the box; press Enter to force a new line in the comment text.
3 Click OK.
See also