Quick start guide: SurveyCTO basics in a few easy steps

This is a companion article and visual alternative to the quick-start guide in the documentation. If you prefer text-based instructions, check out that page.

Welcome to SurveyCTO! In this guide, you will learn the basics of SurveyCTO by creating your first form, completing the form on a mobile device, and then downloading that data. If you get stuck at any point, paid and trial users can submit support requests, and all users can post their questions to the user forums.

Click through these slideshow guides to learn each step of the SurveyCTO data collection workflow. You can also click the link below each presentation to open it in a new tab. Feel free to download and share these presentations!

1. Creating your first form

First, you will need to create and deploy a form on your server to be completed. You can also check out this video.

Open presentation in a new tab

You have now deployed your first form!

2. Collecting data on a mobile device

In this section, you will learn how to collect data on a mobile device. These presentations may be helpful to enumerators as well.

2.1 Set up device

First, you need to set up your device with the SurveyCTO Collect app.

Open presentation in a new tab

You can also customize the settings of SurveyCTO Collect, and set it up so users automatically receive those settings when they sign in. To learn more, check out our support article on the best practices for configuring and securing enumerator devices.

2.2 Get a form

Once your device is set up, you can get your first form to fill out.

Open presentation in a new tab

2.3 Complete a form

Once you have downloaded the blank form, you can get started with data collection, filling out your form, even if you're offline.

Open presentation in a new tab

2.4. Submit a form

When you are ready to submit the form(s) you have completed, you can submit the form data you have collected to the server.

Open presentation in a new tab

You can also set up Collect to automatically submit forms as soon as they are finalized while online. To do so, tap on the three-dot icon in the upper-right of SurveyCTO Collect, tap General Settings, and enable the Auto send options.

3. Downloading your form data

Finally, once data has been submitted to the server, you can download the form data that has been collected using these two main options:

3.1 Download data using the server console

Open presentation in a new tab

3.2 Downloading data using SurveyCTO Desktop

You can also check out this video.

Open presentation in a new tab

Further reading on exporting data

If you are a Stata or SPSS user, you can also download the files needed for those applications:

• Using Stata: How to download the form's .do file so it can be used with Stata.
• Exporting to SPSS: How to download the form's .sav file so it can be used with SPSS.

If you would like to try exporting or exploring data, you can deploy our sample form with sample data to your server. To do so, follow these steps: On your server console, on the Design tab, click Tools near the top. Click Add example form. In the module that opens, click OK. At the popup, click Yes. If you are on a multi-team server, at the new popup, select a group, and click OK.

Other resources

You now know the basics of using SurveyCTO, but there is so much more you can do. Check out these resources to learn more:

• Use the AI Assistant to ask questions. It can be found in the lower-right of any page on the main SurveyCTO website. To learn more, check out this blog post. For time-sensitive questions or errors in your SurveyCTO workflow, please contact us through the Support Center so that our Customer Support experts can help you.
• Take our free online course.
• Check out use cases with ready examples of what you might be interested in achieving.
• The Support Center is full of advice on different topics.
• The product documentation is the authoritative source on SurveyCTO.
• The blog features case studies, best practices, pro tips, release highlights, and more.
• The video library contains a wealth of video instructional material.
• The FAQs answer many common platform questions around subscriptions, team model, email communications, and billing.

Explore those resources, and see if anything catches your eye. If you need help or advice, remember that paid users can submit tickets to SurveyCTO support for fast and professional support, and all users can post to the user forums.

Do you have thoughts on this support article? We'd love to hear them! Feel free to fill out this feedback form.