Manual
On this page you find the complete manual for Easy Poll. If you are new to Easy Poll we suggest starting with Running a poll step-by-step.
Contents
Running a poll step-by-step
In this chapter we explain how to run a poll in an easy to step-by-step approach and with screen-shots.1. Create a poll
To create poll just enter /easypoll "Question" "Choice 1" "Choice 2" "Choice 3" into the channel you want to conduct the poll in.
"Question" is your polling question that will appear later in the channel as title of your poll. For example if you want to poll about movies your polling questions could be: "What is your favorite movie of all times?".
"Choice 1" "Choice 2" "Choice 3" Is the list of the choices the users later can poll on. In our example it would be the title of movies, e.g. "The Dark Knight" "Pulp Fiction" etc.
Demo poll
If you just want to make a test poll to see how this app works feel free to use our demo with the command /easypoll demo. It will create the movie poll that you also see in our example screen-shots.
Limitations for crafting question and choice labels
Please be aware of some limitations when creating a new poll:
- Number of choices: Note that you can include up to 7 choices in your poll
- Length of choice label: Each choice label have have up to 30 characters.
- Support for non-latin script: See section Support for non-Latin scripts for current limitations on using non-latin scripts.
- Emojis: We currently do not support using emojis in question or choice labels. They will be displayed as text on the charts.
Easy Poll in non-public channels
Easy Poll will work great any private channel. But it will not work in read-only channels or any other channel type other than public and private channels.
Note that in order function in private channels Easy Poll will automatically ask you to invite its bot user to the channel. Please make sure the bot user remains in that channel for the duration of the poll.
In case Easy Poll has lost access to the private channel when trying to complete a poll it will automatically notify its owner ask for resolution.
2. Start a poll
After you entered the command Easy Poll will show you the poll you created to confirm:
You can now verify that this is how you want your poll to look like and change options if needed.
In case one of your choice labels are too long a warning will be displayed and the word TRUNCATED next to the choice. You can continue with the truncated version or click on cancel to update your poll.
To proceed chose from one of the options:
- Cancel: Closes this screen. All inputs made so far will be discarded. But also allows you to edit and resubmit your initial poll input.
- Change Options: Opens a dialog window for changing the poll options like duration.
- Start Poll: Starts this poll in the current channel
- ?: Opens contextual help in the browser
Tip: Updating your poll question and choices
To update your poll questions and choices you will need to re-submit the command to start a poll. Instead of re-typing everything just type / and Slack will show you the last used command. Click on it and you can now edit the whole thing in the command line.
Poll Options
You can change all options for your current poll in this dialog.
- Duration: Choose the duration of your poll from the drop down menu. Note that the time will be rounded up to the next full hour.
- Mode: Choose the voting mode. Votes will be either final (users can only vote once) or changeable (users can change their votes as often as their want)
- Notifications: Choose what kind of notifications you want for the poll message on Slack. e.g. @here will only notify users that are online and in the current channel.
3. Running a poll
After you clicked on Start Poll a poll message specific to your poll will be posted in the current channel asking all users of the channel to vote.
Here is an example on how the poll message might look like:
While the poll is running every user in the current channel can now vote on your poll.
In addition all users can always check the current standings of a poll by clicking on Show Results, which will look something like this:.
Should the need arise owners have the ability to manage the poll while it is running. After clicking on the Manage Poll button they have the following options:
- Promote: To resubmit the poll message into the current channel.
- Change Duration: To reset the duration of the poll, which can be both shorter or longer than the current duration.
- Complete: To complete the poll immediately and before the due time and date is reached.
- Delete: To terminate the poll immediately and delete the poll message. Note that all votes will be lost and that this action can not be undone
Re-create a deleted poll message
A running poll is always centered on its poll message in the channel. In case that message accidentally got deleted users will no longer be able to place any votes. To address that special case its possible to create a new poll message with a special slash command.
Here is how to fix a running poll (this can only be done by the poll owner):
- Enter
/easypol listto get the list of your running polls - Enter
/easypol fix Xto create a new poll message. X is the ID of the poll you want to fix from the list.
4. Complete a poll
Once a poll has reached the end of its set duration Easy Poll will automatically replace the poll message with a new message showing the final results of the poll to all participants of the channel.
Here is an example on how the result message looks like:
In addition it is possible to download the poll result as file by clicking on Download. This might be helpful for some who want to archive or show the results on a different platform. It also makes it easier to share the results in a different channel on Slack.
Here is an example on how the downloaded file looks like:
Download - Technical details
The poll results are provided as downloadable image file in PNG format with a resolution of approx. 900 x 690 pixels.
Support for non-Latin scripts (BETA)
You can create your poll question and choices using non-Latin scripts like Japanese or Hebrew.
Easy Pol currently supports the following non-Latin scripts:
- Chinese
- Devanagari
- Hebrew
- Japanese
- Korean
- Thai
Here is an example poll chart with all currently supported languages:
Limitations
For technical reasons please do not use more than one script in the same poll question or choice text. (e.g. do not mix Thai and Latin letters in the same question or choice) This will in most cases result in missing letters (shown as small rectangles or "tofus") on the poll chart.
Note that this limitation does not apply for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Those scripts can always be used together and also be mixed with Latin letters.
Non-latin script support is BETA
The feature to support non-latin scripts in polls is currently in BETA. If you see a bug or have any feedback please contact us so we can further improve this feature.
All commands
/easypoll
|
to show the welcome message and some basic help |
/easypoll "Question" "Choice 1" "Choice 2" "Choice 3"
|
to create a new poll with up to 7 choices. |
/easypoll demo
|
to create a new poll based on the built-in demo question and choices |
/easypoll help
|
to show some basic help |
/easypoll list
|
to get the list of your running polls (owner only) |
/easypoll fix X
|
to create a new poll message. X is the ID of the poll you want to fix from the list. (owner only) |
/easypoll version
|
to show the current version of Easy Poll |
Limitations
| Max open polls per Slack workspace | 100 |
| Max number of choices per poll | 7 |
| Max characters per question | 100 |
| Max characters per choice | 30 |
| Max participants per poll | Unlimited |
| Supported channel types | Public channels, Private channels |