Create a survey using an activity template

Use an activity template to create a survey and learn more about industry-approved survey techniques.

1. Click the App Drawer and select Activities, and then click New Project.
   
2. Under Start from Template, click View Templates.
   Tip:

   • Use the menu in the top right corner of the page to filter templates by category. To view all templates again, click Clear to remove the filter.
   • For a detailed description of an activity template, click Information.
3. Under the activity template that you want to use, click Create.
4. Check and change the survey information if necessary:
   1. Enter the internal survey name (maximum 255 characters).

      You can change the internal survey name at any time, regardless of whether the survey is live or not.

      Tip:

      • If you navigate away from your survey, click the internal survey name in the Activities page to return.
      • The external-facing activity name is set when you create an invitation or create an activity link, and can differ for each set of participants.
   2. Select the locale to author the survey in from the Locale field.

      This step applies only if you have multiple communities with different locales.

   3. Select Single response or Multiple responses.
      These response options control whether you can invite participants to respond once or multiple times. For more information, see Allow single or multiple responses.
   4. Select an Appearance option:

      • Classic

        Questions look different depending on whether participants are on desktop or mobile. All question types are available in survey authoring. For more information, see Questions.

        Note: Classic surveys are not available to customers who started using the Alida platform after April 29, 2025.

      • Modern

        Questions look the same across all devices, expanding or shrinking to fill device screens. For more information, see Questions in modern view.

        Tip: We recommend trying modern surveys if you haven't done so yet. An updated responding experience, new features and question types, and better performance are just some of the advantages of modern surveys.
5. Select an access level.

   The access level you can apply depend on the user role you have been assigned.

   Access Setting	User Roles	Description
   Admin Only	Admin	Only Admin users can access the activity.
   Everyone	Power User, Author	All other users in the application instance can access the activity.
   Teams	Admin, Power User, Author	All users that belong to the assigned team(s) can access the activity. If you belong to multiple teams, you can assign the activity to all of the teams you belong to, or just one or more specific teams.

   Note:

   • The access settings options are displayed if your account has the Can change access settings permission applied.
   • If your account does not have this permission, the activity will be assigned to the teams you belong to, or if you don't belong to any teams it will be available to everyone.
   • Admins have access to all activities, regardless of access settings.
6. Click Create.
7. For more information and instructions on how to set up the survey, see the Readme page.
   
8. Replace the placeholder text in each survey object.
9. Optional: Preview your survey.

   Option	Description
   To test the entire survey	On the Set up toolbar, click Preview.
   To begin the preview from a specific question	Beside the question name, click Preview.

10. Click Leave Activity to close your survey.

Once you have created your survey, you can begin distributing your survey. See Distribution.

Tip: Use the email template in the Readme page for the distribution email.

Related information

• Activity templates and multilingual surveys
• Activity templates