Creating and running polls

A poll is a special case of a topic: in addition to the discussion, participants vote on options. You define what is voted on (poll type), how the vote is cast (voting method) and how much the others see of the result (visibility mode). The particular advantage: after the vote, the chosen appointment, file or project sits directly in the system – you do not have to transfer anything by hand.

Creating a poll

1. In the forum detail manager, open the Actions box and the actions modal.
2. In the General section, choose New poll.
3. Enter a title and the question to be voted on.
4. Set the poll type, voting method and visibility mode (see below).
5. Save – you land in the detail manager of the poll. A poll carries an additional Poll tab there.

Poll type – what is voted on

The poll type defines what the individual options are. Some types derive the options directly from the system:

• Standard – a simple text entry (title and description).
• Appointment – each option is a proposed appointment. After the vote, the appointment with the most votes is added to the calendar.
• File – uploaded files are put to the vote (e.g. the best of three layout variants).
• Open item – open items are put up for selection; the one with the most votes is worked on next.
• Project – projects are put up for selection, for instance to vote on their chronological order.

The advantage of these typed options: the result (the appointment, the file, the project) is stored in the system with all the relevant information – participants, handlers, properties.

Voting method – how the vote is cast

The voting method determines how a participant votes on each option:

• Single choice – exactly one option per participant.
• Multiple choice – several options at once per participant.
• Rating – each option is rated on a scale (e.g. “good”, “average”, “poor”).

Visibility mode – how much is visible

The mode decides when and who sees which results:

• Public – everyone sees the vote and the results.
• Secret – the others’ results only become visible once the vote has closed.
• Anonymous – the others’ results stay hidden even after it closes.

How a poll runs

After it is created, the poll first sits in the Draft status. From here you steer it via the Next step action in the sidebar. The action menu changes depending on the current stage and offers the following steps:

1. Collect options – opens the poll up so that anyone with access can add their own options before it starts.
2. Start poll – starts the vote; those with access can now vote on the options.
3. Stop poll – stops a running vote and keeps the interim result.
4. Restart poll – resets all entries and begins again.
5. Back to draft – returns the poll to configuration mode; the vote is cancelled and all values are reset.

You do not have to go through every step: if you do not need options from the others, you can start the vote straight from the draft.

Creating options and seeing the result

In the Poll tab, you create the individual options at the top via New option – for an appointment poll, for example, with a title, start, end and location. Beneath it is the results table: the first column lists the people voting, the further columns come from the options. In an appointment poll, each column links into the calendar.

Common questions & needs

Related topics

• Topics & posts: working in the forum Forum How-to
• Forum – introduction Forum Introduction
• Online team forum