Using the Visual Checklist Designer

The Visual Checklist Designer allows you to create, edit, and delete checklist sections, questions, and answers, with an easy-to-use interface within your Vault. This tool offers an alternative to using the Checklist Design Loader or the traditional checklist design options. It also prevents the need to manage a separate object record for each modification to the checklist, such as adding dependencies, questions, and attachments. An Admin can configure which fields are required or optional in each Section, Question, and Available Answer section.

The Checklist Design record must be in Draft state in order for the Visual Designer option to display. Your user account must also have the appropriate permissions.

To access the Visual Checklist Designer, you must first create a Checklist Design record. From the Actions menu on the Checklist Design, choose Visual Designer.

Navigating the Visual Checklist Designer

The Visual Checklist Designer contains various options for assembling a checklist specific to your needs:

Top Bar

The top right corner of the Visual Checklist Designer contains the following buttons:

Reorder Sections: Opens a new page that allows you to manually reorder the sections of the checklist.
View Record Detail Page: Returns you to the Checklist Design record detail page.
Preview Design: Opens a preview of the checklist.

Left Pane

Use the Add Section button to add Introduction and Question sections to the checklist. Each section you add displays as a link in the left pane.

Note: If the Checklist Design record contains no Section Design records, Vault automatically creates a Question Section Design record when the Visual Checklist Designer is launched.

Main Area

The middle of the page contains options to edit your section and questions. Each section contains standard and optional fields that must be completed to design the checklist.

Designing Introduction & Question Sections

Once you’ve added a section, the middle of the page provides design options. To edit a section, click the gear icon within the section. You can also edit an Introduction Section by clicking the section itself in the middle of the page. You can configure optional fields from the Checklist Types page. See below for information on designing each type of section.

Introduction Section

The standard field available for an Introduction Section is the Header. The Header will display at the top of the checklist at all times. Choose a header that applies to the type of checklist you’re creating. An optional Description field may display if configured from the Checklist Types page.

Note: You can change an Introduction Section to a Question Section and vice versa. However, if a Question Section contains questions, you cannot change it to an Introduction Section.

Question Section

To design questions in a Question Section, enter the question text and select one of the following question types: Text, Date, Number, Multiple Choice, Dropdown, or Checkbox. Multiple Choice, Dropdown, and Checkbox display an Answer field. You can add multiple answer choices for these question types.

The Additional Configuration panel allows you to add other settings around the question for the respondent to complete. The following options display without expanding the Additional Configuration panel:

Required: Marks this question as required on the checklist for the respondent.
Reference Document: Adds a reference document to the question for the checklist respondent to view.

If you expand the Additional Configuration panel, the following fields display:

Attachments: Allows or requires respondents to upload attachments to the question.
Documents: Allows or requires respondents to add related documents to the question. If selected, you must choose whether the respondent should upload a single or multiple documents.
Comments: Allows or requires respondents to add comments to the question.

Click the ellipsis icon (…) next to an Answer field to display the following optional fields. These fields display only if configured from the Checklist Types page:

Documents Allowed: Allows respondents to add a single document to the answer.
Documents Required: Requires respondents to add documents to the answer. This option also requires you to select whether the respondent should attach one document (Single Document) or more than one (Multiple Documents).

Additional optional fields may display in the Additional Configuration panel if configured from the Checklist Types page, such as Help Text, Score, and Decimal Places.

Note: The Visual Checklist Designer uses the fields documents_allowed__sys and documents_required__sys in place of the fields doc_attachment_allowed__sys and doc_attachment_required__sys.

Creating Dependencies

The Visual Checklist Designer allows you to create dependent sections and questions without the need to create a Dependency Design record. Checklists with dependencies allow respondents to follow multiple paths to completing a checklist, and removes non-pertinent questions based on their selections. For example, answering “Yes” to a Yes/No question could expose a series of follow-up questions, whereas answering “No” would not show the irrelevant questions.

Dependencies are split between dependent sections or questions and controlling questions. For example, section A contains questions Q1, Q2, and Q3. If Q2 and Q3 are assigned as dependent on Q1, Q1 becomes the controlling question. The same rule applies if section B is assigned as dependent on Q1 in section A. Section B becomes dependent on the controlling question in section A.

To configure a dependency:

Select the Dependency checkbox on a Multiple Choice or Dropdown question type.
Select Add Dependent Question or Add Dependent Section under the Answer fields.
Select the dependent question or dependent section from the Add Dependent Question or Add Dependent Section dropdown.
Click Save. The dependent section or question will display under the controlling question.

Note: If a section or question is already associated as a dependent, it will not display in the Add Dependent Section or Add Dependent Question list.

Dependency Hierarchy

Dependent sections and questions follow a specific hierarchy:

Section Hierarchy: At the section level, any dependent sections will align under the section with the controlling question. For example, if question Q1 in section A is controlling of section B and C, both sections will display under section A with a single indention in the left panel.
Question Hierarchy: Dependent and controlling questions must be within the same section. Each dependent question displays under the controlling question with its corresponding level (L1, L2, L3). For example, section A contains questions Q1, Q2, and Q3. If Q2 is assigned as a dependent of Q1, Q2 will display as an L1 dependent question and change to Q1.1. Likewise, if Q3 is assigned as dependent on Q2 (which is now Q1.1), Q3 will display as an L2 dependent question and change to Q1.1.1. If section A contains Q4 and Q5, they will change to Q2 and Q3 respectively. Furthermore, if Q4 and Q5 are assigned as dependent on Q1, they will change to Q1.2 and Q1.3 and display after Q1.1 in the L1 dependent questions.
Answer Hierarchy: The answer hierarchy controls the order of the dependent questions and dependent sections. For example, Q1 contains answers A, B, and C. If a dependent question is added to answer B, it will display as Q1.1 in the L1 dependent questions. Then, if a dependent question is added to answer A, it will display as Q1.1 and move answer B’s dependent question to Q1.2.

Vault automatically reorders dependent questions and sections based on this hierarchy:

Section Reorder: Each section is reordered by their hierarchy. For example, if section A is in 7th place and section B is in 2nd place in the left pane, section B will automatically move to 8th place if it becomes dependent on a question in section A. The same rule applies to dependent questions.

In addition, the hierarchy of questions can control the order of sections. For example, if section B is dependent on the controlling question Q1 in section A, and section C is dependent on Q2 in section A, section B will display before section C in the left pane.

The hierarchy of answers can also control the order of sections. For example, if section Y is dependent on answer A of the controlling question Q1 in section X, and section Z is dependent on answer B of Q1, section Y will display before section Z in the left pane.
Question Reorder: The same rule applies to questions. For example, section A contains Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. If Q2 and Q3 are assigned as dependent on Q1, they will move to the L1 dependent questions as Q1.1 and Q1.2 and Q4 will change to Q2.

If Dependent sections exist on a Checklist Design record and don’t follow the order mentioned above, a warning dialog window will display when viewing the checklist in the Visual Checklist Designer. The warning will state that the checklist’s sections will be reordered. Upon confirmation, Vault will then automatically reorder these sections after the Visual Checklist Designer is launched. If you click Cancel on the warning dialog window, you will be returned to the Checklist Design record detail page.

Note: The Reorder icon allows you to only move sections and questions that are not dependent on a controlling question. You cannot use it to reorder dependent questions and sections. In addition, the Dependency checkbox becomes disabled at the L3 question dependency.

Limitations

The Visual Checklist Designer includes the following constraints:

Custom fields and custom object types are not supported.
You cannot delete a controlling question or dependent questions and sections. You must first unlink all the dependent questions or sections. To unlink a dependency, return to the controlling question and unselect the Dependency checkbox.
The Visual Designer option is not available under the Actions menu for aggregate checklists.
Users cannot create a question using a Library question from the Visual Designer page.

The following permissions control your ability to use the Visual Checklist Designer:

Read permission on all fields within the following objects: Section Design, Question Design, Available Answer Design
Objects: Edit permission on all object types of the following objects: Section Design, Question Design, Available Answer Design
Objects: Read permission on the following objects: Question Design Reference Document, Dependency Design.