Knowledge base

When to translate and when to create a new survey

On benefit of Extellio surveys is that you can add translations to a survey, which will be connected and grouped with the main survey. Since these surveys are grouped together, you will also be able to view data for both the main survey and the translation in the same charts - either as the same segment or as one segment per survey/translation.

However, there are limitations with the translations, and they are therefore not suitable in all instances. Let's first look at the limitations and then when to create a translation and when to create a separate survey. 

The limitations of survey translations

To create a translation, you first need a main survey. It's only the main because it's the first you created. In that sense, it doesn't matter in which order you add the surveys, as long as you want exactly the same survey in several languages.

The main survey will create a template for the translations, and it will also restrict the translations. You will not be able to create a translation that contains more than the main survey, but you will be able to create translations that contain less. 

For example, the purpose question may have the option "Job opportunities" on your global pages, but on one of your local subdirectories, say the Spanish one, you don't have career pages. Therefore, you don't want the purpose option "Job opportunities" for the Spanish translation of the survey. In that case, you'll be able to hide the option (or any other option) when translating the survey, but you will not be able to add any new options. If you want more options, they have to be added to the main survey.

Likewise, you'll be able to hide entire questions from your translations, but you will not be able to add new questions. They can only be added to the main survey. 

The reason for these limitations is that the survey translations are only meant to be used on different country-code/language TLDs or subdirectories within the same website. 

When not to use survey translations

As mentioned before, survey translations are only meant to be used to translate a survey. It's not meant for creating a different survey in another language or on a different website, just translate. That also requires that the parts of the website/subdirectories are similar enough to be able to use the same survey.

Small differences between the parts/subdirectories and therefore the surveys/translations are okay, since you can hide questions and options - both in the main survey and in the translations. However, if the subdirectories differ enough that you need different options or different questions for the survey translation, the parts of the website are no longer similar enough to be comparable and should therefore use different surveys. An example of this could be if the subdirectory contains a lot less information, or the visitors on the subdirectory have completely different purposes.