Add the Q&A Tool

Use the Q&A tool to respond to queries from your community

Deepa Prabhu avatar
Written by Deepa Prabhu
Updated over a week ago

The Q&A tool allows your community to ask relevant questions and your administrators to respond directly to them. Answers can be posted privately or publicly; if they’re public, the tool becomes a repository of information or FAQs.

This tool is a simple way to promote continuous engagement and stay in contact with your community. To add it to your project:

  1. Go to your project page and select Add a tool.

  2. From the Tools list, select Questions; you'll find it under the All or Mixed environment tabs.

  3. Add a title for your tool and select Create.

  4. Use the text editor in the Details tab to introduce your Q&A tool and include any rich media, such as videos, links, or images. This is a great place to include a note telling your participants that their answered questions may be posted publicly.

  5. Switch to the Settings tab to change the tool’s settings.

  6. Save when you're finished.

  7. You can change the tool name by selecting the pen icon next to the tool in the tool tab. You can also Edit the Details and Settings or Preview your Q&A tool.

  8. Your tool will be in Draft until you use the dropdown to Publish them. After publishing, you will have the option to Unpublish or Archive it. Once you Archive it, participants can no longer submit questions, but admins can still post answers, and previously posted questions are still visible.

Once your tool and project are published, your participants can submit questions, and your team can start answering them in the Manage Questions tab. You can only add one Q&A tool per project. Once your participants start asking questions, you will not be able to delete the tool.

Q&A Settings

The Q&A settings are:

  • Allow unverified participation: Enable this setting to allow unregistered participants to engage with an email and screen name.

  • Thank you message: Use this field to configure a thank you message to display after questions are submitted.

  • Email Notifications and Acknowledgements: you cannot disable these notifications, but you can configure the Email subject and Email text of them. You can use placeholders such as [CLIENT_NAME], [SITE_NAME], [PROJECT_NAME], or [QANDA_NAME] in your emails.
    a. Send email to anonymous participant when their question has been submitted
    b. Send email to registered participant when their question has been submitted
    c. Send email to admins when a new question is submitted – you can also use the Recipients fields to add other administrators.
    d. Send email to participant when their question has been answered privately
    e. Send email to participant when their question has been answered publicly
    f. Send email to participant when the answer to their question has been updated

Save your Settings when you’re finished editing.

When questions start coming in, you can use the Manage Questions tab to answer them.

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