How Do I Tag Survey Responses?

Tags let you organize survey responses into meaningful groups so you can filter, export, and analyze subsets of your data with ease. Whether you want to categorize by collection location, date, event, instructor, or any other criteria, tagging gives you the flexibility to work with exactly the data you need.

You can apply tags before or after data collection, depending on your workflow and whether your surveys use unique page marking.

Tagging Overview

Tags serve as labels that help you:

• Group responses by collection method or source
• Filter data for specific analysis
• Track responses across different locations or time periods
• Identify test data or special cases
• Export filtered datasets based on categories
• Attach structured data points that become their own export columns (see Structured Tags below)

Tagging Methods Comparison

Your tagging options depend on whether you use unique page marking:

Without unique page marking

• Create multiple survey versions
• Tag after data collection

With unique page marking

• Set batch numbers when printing
• Add identifier prefixes
• Create multiple survey versions
• Use prefill forms (advanced)
• Tag after data collection

Method 1: Tag Before Data Collection

Pre-collection tagging works best for paper surveys with unique page marking. This approach embeds tags directly into printed forms.

Set batch number when generating copies

Batch numbers identify groups of surveys printed together:

1. Navigate to the Print tab
2. Enable unique page marking
3. Click Generate to start creating PDFs
4. Enter a batch label after generation starts
5. Each form in that batch carries this identifier

Use cases: Track forms by print date, distribution location, or event.

Set identifier prefix when generating copies

Prefixes customize the unique identifiers on each page:

1. Enable unique page marking in Print settings
2. Enter a prefix (letters, numbers, underscores, and dashes, up to 15 characters)
3. Generate your copies

Example: Prefix "NYC_" creates identifiers NYC_1, NYC_2, NYC_3...

Use cases: Identify surveys by location, department, or study phase.

Create multiple survey versions

Survey versions let you create variations with built-in tags:

1. Go to the Print tab
2. Click "Create Version"
3. Name each version descriptively
4. Enable "Advanced Versioning" for easy renaming

One thing to keep in mind: if you decide to update the survey later on, you will need to recreate all of the versions.

Use prefill forms (Advanced)

Prefill forms embed respondent information directly into forms. This advanced feature requires technical setup but provides the most detailed tagging.

Method 2: Tag After Data Collection

Post-collection tagging works for all survey types and collection methods.

Web upload tagging

Add tags during the upload process:

1. Scan your completed surveys
2. Click "Upload" in your survey dashboard
3. Enter a tag in the tag field
4. Complete the upload

Email upload tagging

Use the +plus notation in email addresses:

• Base email: demo@upload.papersurvey.io
• Tagged email: demo+classroom1@upload.papersurvey.io

The system extracts "classroom1" as the tag automatically.

Alternatively, all uploads can be tagged with sender address. For example, if john.doe@example.com uploads scanned documents, all of their responses will be tagged with the john.doe@example.com email.

Web survey tagging

Add tags via URL parameters:

https://www.papersurvey.io/s/52k6rk?tag=spring2024

Share different URLs with different groups to automatically tag responses.

API and integration tagging

• Zapier: Default tag "zapier"
• API: Default tag "api"
• Mobile app: Default tag "mobile_app"

Custom tags are not available for these methods. Use bulk updates afterward to apply your own tags.

Updating Existing Tags

Bulk tag updates

To change tags for existing responses:

1. Go to your Responses page
2. Click "Edit" mode
3. Select responses using checkboxes
4. Click "Bulk actions" then "Update Tag"
5. Enter the new tag and confirm

Tag Management

Filtering by tags

Use the filter option in the Responses view to select one or multiple tags, export filtered data for analysis, and create saved views for common filters.

When structured KEY:VALUE tags are in use, the tag filters in the Responses table and in the Dashboard and Analysis views group them by key. For example, with tags Venue:Main Hall, Venue:Cafeteria, and School:Lincoln High, the filter shows a Venue group and a School group, each listing its values, alongside your regular tags.

Combining tags

Each response can have multiple tags. You can assign additional tags through bulk actions, use prefill forms for multiple data points, or combine tags with other fields for more detailed filtering.

Structured Tags (KEY:VALUE)

A tag written as KEY:VALUE is treated as a structured tag: the part before the first colon is the key, the part after it is the value. Structured tags work everywhere regular tags do, and add two things on top:

• In the app, the key is highlighted inside the tag pill, so Venue:Main Hall reads at a glance as the key "Venue" with the value "Main Hall".
• In data exports, each key automatically becomes its own column, filled with the value for every response that carries that key.

There is nothing to configure. Type the tag with a colon and PaperSurvey does the rest.

Examples of structured tags

Any key that describes your data works:

• Venue:Main Hall, Venue:Cafeteria, Venue:Library
• School:Lincoln High, School:Riverside Elementary
• Class:5B, Class:6A
• Location:Berlin, Location:Vilnius
• Cohort:2026
• Instructor:Dr. Smith
• Event:Spring Gala
• Shift:Night
• Department:Radiology
• Session:Morning, Session:Afternoon

Only the first colon splits the tag, so values may contain colons themselves: Time:10:30 has the key "Time" and the value "10:30".

Tags without a colon, such as VIP, Urgent, or Test data, remain regular tags and behave exactly as before. Web addresses like http://example.com are also left alone; they are not mistaken for structured tags.

How structured tags appear in exports

Suppose three responses are tagged like this:

Response	Tags
1	Venue:Main Hall, School:Lincoln High, VIP
2	Venue:Cafeteria, School:Riverside Elementary
3	Cohort:2026

The export gains one column per key, next to the regular Tag column:

Tag	Cohort	School	Venue
Venue:Main Hall, School:Lincoln High, VIP		Lincoln High	Main Hall
Venue:Cafeteria, School:Riverside Elementary		Riverside Elementary	Cafeteria
Cohort:2026	2026

A few details worth knowing:

• The regular Tag column is unchanged and still lists every tag, structured or not.
• Responses without a given key get an empty cell in that key's column.
• Keys match regardless of capitalization, so venue:Cafeteria and Venue:Main Hall share one Venue column.
• If one response carries several tags with the same key, for example Language:English and Language:Spanish, the cell contains both values separated by commas.
• The key columns appear in Excel, CSV, SPSS, SAS, Stata, and R exports, in multi-survey exports (keys are combined across the surveys), and in connected Google Sheets.
• In statistical formats the columns get proper variable names (for example tag_Venue in SAS and Stata, TAG_VENUE in SPSS) with the label "Tag: Venue".

Where structured tags come from

You can apply structured tags through every tagging method described above:

• Type Venue:Main Hall in the tag field when uploading scans
• Email scans to demo+Venue_MainHall@upload.papersurvey.io style addresses if you prefer plain tags, or apply the structured tag afterwards with a bulk update
• Share web survey links like https://www.papersurvey.io/s/52k6rk?tag=School:Lincoln High
• Use bulk actions on the Responses page to add Cohort:2026 to a selection of existing responses
• Create tracked prefill links with structured tags attached

Practical patterns

• Multi-site studies: tag each site's forms with Location:Berlin, Location:Munich, Location:Hamburg, and the export gives you a ready-made Location column for cross-site comparison.
• School assessments: combine School:Lincoln High and Class:5B on the same response, and the export contains separate School and Class columns.
• Training sessions: Instructor:Dr. Smith plus Session:Morning lets you pivot results by instructor and by session without touching the questionnaire.
• Longitudinal waves: Wave:Baseline and Wave:Follow-up produce a Wave column you can use directly in SPSS or R.