PollUnit Help

What can i do with PollUnit

With PollUnit you can create online polls and tables, as well as distribute tasks. Participation is also possible without registration.

Create voting

PollUnit was designed to easily make decisions in groups. We offer different methods for decision making. You can combine these methods and functions freely and create polls, todo lists, prioritizations and much more and adapt them to your needs.

PollUnit works like this:

• Create a PollUnit and choose what to vote on
• Send the link to your PollUnit to all participants
• Give your attendees time to vote
• Send the result of your PollUnit to all participants

Create table

With an online table of PollUnit, you can collect information per table column from your participants. Each participant appears in a row of your table.

Collect ideas

With PollUnit you can also collect and rate ideas. Participants can add their ideas with a title and a description. Then all participants can rate and comment on these ideas. This method is ideal for brainstorming. From the best ideas you can also create a vote to find out the best idea.

Create a survey with several questions

Soon you will be able to create questionnaires.

Organize a photo contest

A PollUnit photo contest is an online gallery with large thumbnails and the possibility to vote - on demand also with photo uploader to collect the work of others.

YouTube contest

Voting on videos published on YouTube.

Audio contest

A PollUnit music contest is an online playlist with the possibility to vote and a uploader for Participants.

Create a PollUnit

With the PollUnit wizard you can easily create in 5 simple steps surveys, staff lists, or prioritizations.

Choose a poll type

To enter the wizard for creating your poll, click on »Create PollUnit« and select the target of your poll. First you have to decide whether you want the best option (the option with the most votes) or whether you want to distribute the options or tasks automatically among your participants. Then start the poll wizard by clicking on the option type (e.g. date).

Wizard 1 - Basic settings

In the basic settings you determine the title of your PollUnit, the target and voting type of the poll. You can also add a description and location to your poll.

Wizard 2 - Options

Here you can add your options to your poll. Depending on your poll type setting in Wizard Step 1, you can enter dates, time periods, pictures or free text.

In Wizard Step 4 (Advanced) you can enable your participants to add theire own options.

Wizard 3 - Design

In the design step you can customize your PollUnit. You can choose from several ready-made themes. In addition, you have various effects available such as snow or fireflies.

As a premium user, you can also create your own design and as a business user you can upload your own logos and use them in your poll.

Wizard 4 - Advanced

In the advanced settings you can activate various functions. Please refer to the section "Advanced settings".

Wizard 5 - Invitations

In the last step, you can invite your participants. You can inform your users in 4 different ways.

Poll types

The poll type describes the type of your options. You can change the poll type in the poll wizard step 1 (PollUnit),

Freetext

Voting on freely selectable texts. Ideal for staff lists, brainstorming and anything that can be expressed in words.

Images / Files

Voting on pictures incl. Gallery or files. This type of survey allows you and your participants to upload and rate images or files.

Date

Vote for a date. Ideal for finding appointments for a full day.

Date with time

Vote on a date. Ideal for appointments.

Date range

Voting on date periods. Ideal for appointments over several days.

Time range

Voting on time periods.

Poll target

You can choose between 3 different poll targets. The setting can be found in the wizard step 1 (PollUnit) in the schema settings for advanced users.

Find best option

The option with the most votes is the best option. Choose this, if for instance you want to find a common appointment.

Best distribution of options

This Method tries to distribute options among participants, so that everyone gets the option he/she likes.
Choose this method, when You for example want to create a service schedule: A set of dates has to be distributed among the participants.

Lowest resistance

This method is looking for the option with the highest acceptance in a group. Your participants can cast resistance votes. The options with the least rejection wins.

Vote types

You can choose between 5 different types of votes. The setting can be found in the wizard step 1 (PollUnit) in the schema settings for advanced users.

If the PollUnit target is »Lowest resistance«, negative votes are collected instead of positive.

Yes / No

Voting with Yes, No and abstain. Negative votes are subtracted from positive votes.

Yes

Simple upvoting. Only positive votes are counted.

Upvote with like button

Simple voting by liking with thumb up symbol. With the target »Lowest resistance« the thumb up becomes a thumb down symbol.

Upvote with hearts

Simple voting with heart symbol. With the target »Lowest resistance« the heart becomes a broken heart.

Range voting

Participants can rate options with points from a given interval.

Star rating

Users can rate options with 0-5 stars.

Dot-Voting

Dot Voting is a method to evaluate ideas and to prioritize selections and decisions in a group. And this is how it works:

• Each participant receives a fixed number of points
• Each participant distributes his points to the options
• The option with the most points wins

With the poll target 'least resistance' you can flip the rating and the option wins with the least negative votes.

Average calculation

Voted participants

Only participants who have voted for an option / image will be considered: For example, if there are 5 participants and 3 of them have rated an option / picture with 5 stars, the average is 5.

All participants

All participants are considered: For example, if there are 5 participants and 3 of them have rated an option / picture with 5 stars, the average is 3.

Advanced settings

The advanced settings can be found in the wizard Step 4 (Advanced)

Allow voting

If this option is deselected, voting in your PollUnit is not possible. Voting can be activated at any time. In combination with »Allow new options«, you can use PollUnit to collect options and photos before opening the poll for voting.

Allow table entry

If this option is deselected, no entry can be inserted in the PollUnit. This option is only available in the PollUnit tables.

Participants must enter their name

If no name is required, we replace the name with a random string (UUID).

This option only has an effect on unregistered users. If you allow participation only with a PollUnit account, the name of the account is used.

Voting start and deadline

Set a start time and/or deadline if you want to allow voting only in a certain period of time. The time you choose is your local time.

Request additional participant information

Request any information such as email address, companions, birthday, etc.. Only after entering the information users may vote.

You do not need to create an additional email field here if you choose »Users must confirm their information«.

The information is only visible to the admins of your PollUnit.

Comments

Your PollUnit's participants are allowed to write comments.

Allow new options / images / columns

Allows participants depending on your poll type to add new options / images / columns to your PollUnit.

Approval required

Optionally, participants' options must be approved by an admin before they are published. The options will only become visible to the participants after the admin has given his consent.

As admin you get access to a submission approval dashboard.

Creators / submitters must specify names

Creators / submitters must give their name. This option only affects unregistered users. If you allow participation only with a PollUnit account, the name of the account will be used. If a user without an account has already entered a name when voting, this name will be used.

Limit number of voting options / images / columns per participant

Allow only a certain number of voting options / pictures / columns per participant. For example, in a photo contest you can make sure that a participant can only submit one picture. Under »Limit access« you can control that multiple entries are prevented.

Submission start and deadline

Set a start time and/or deadline if you want to allow submission only in a certain period of time. The time you choose is your local time.

Request confirmation email (double opt-in)

In order to confirm the information entered, the email address of the user is also requested. An email is sent to the user with the request to confirm the entered information.

This can be used, for example, to get permission from the user to send marketing emails. By confirming this information by email, this step is also privacy compliant.

Request additional option / idea / image / column creator information

Request any information such as email address, copyright information, photographer name, etc.. Only after entering the information users may add options.

You do not need to create an additional email field here if you choose »Users must confirm their information«.

The information is only visible to the admins of your PollUnit.

Custom PollUnit URL

For example: pollunit.com/polls/CUSTOM.

Limit participations

Secure your votings against multiple participations by various security measures.

Private »Hide Votes«

In a private PollUnit with hidden votes, participants cannot see other participants' votes. However the creator can view the result at any time.

Hide award of the best choice

Usually the best choice is highlighted during the voting. You can disable this so that participants are not influenced by it.

Private »Hide participants«

In a private PollUnit with hidden participants, participants cannot see other participants. Even after the PollUnit is closed, the participants remain hidden. However the creator can view the result at any time

Hide file / image title

Hides the title or file name in the participant link. The name is visible in the admin link and the evaluation.

Minimum resolution

If the pixel requirement is not met, participation will not be permitted. The following table shows the printability using a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Resolution	15 x 10 cm	30 x 20 cm	60 x 40 cm	80 x 60 cm
2 Mpx 1732 x 1155
4 Mpx 2449 x 1633
6 Mpx 3000 x 2000
8 Mpx 3464 x 2309
12 Mpx 4242 x 2828
16 Mpx 4898 x 3265
24 Mpx 6000 x 4000

Publish camera settings

If a photo or image is uploaded to your PollUnit, we read the exif metadata (Exchangeable Image File Format) and make it available to the administrators. If you publish the meta data, your participants will have access to the following camera settings:

Camera, focal length, ISO, flash, aperture and shutter speed.

The data shows how the camera has exposed an image. The data can be used to determine whether these settings are appropriate.

The specification of exif data in files is optional and can only be displayed if it exists.

Publisher and imprint

If not specified, the name of the creator will be used. The publisher is displayed in your PollUnit header as well as in the description. If you add a imprint or terms, a link at the end of your PollUnit is shown.

Add terms and conditions

If you enter terms and conditions, a link at the end of your PollUnit is shown. If the opt-in function is activated, the user has to confirm the terms and conditions by checking the checkbox before he can participate. The terms and conditions can be viewed via the checkbox.

Add privacy notice

If you enter a privacy notice, a link at the end of your PollUnit is shown. If the opt-in function is activated, the user has to confirm the privacy notice by checking the checkbox before he can participate. The privacy notice can be viewed via the checkbox.

Social Media Tags

With the help of Social Meta Tags you can define how your shared PollUnit is displayed in the news feed of Facebook, Twitter, Slack and other social networking sites. You can define a title and a description for each PollUnit. You can also upload a title image.

Recommended size for the title image is 1200 px x 630 px. The title should not exceed 40 characters and the description 300 characters.

Randomize options / images / columns order

To avoid order bias, you can shuffle the options / images / columns for each user.

Single select

Participants have to decide for one option.

Thank You Page for voters

Define a final page with headline, content and link to your own website.

Thank you page for submitters

After a participant submits options, pictures, files or ideas, a thank you page with your texts and links will be displayed.

Limit per option

Control how many participants can vote for the same option. You can only change the limit type if no votes have been cast yet.

Password protection

Secure your PollUnit! Users can only participate and view the PollUnit's result if they know the password.

White Label

Remove PollUnit Branding

Addons

Addons allow you to add more fields to your options. In order to activate addons, you have to check the desired addon in the Scheme settings in the Wizard Step 1 (PollUnit).

Subtitle

If enabled, a free text can be added to the options in your poll.

Link

If enabled, a link can be added to the options in your poll. Links consist of a URL and a title.

File types

For polls with images or other files the following file formats are supported: All common image formats, pdf, zip, docx, xlsx, pptx, txt and mp3

Encryption

If encryption is enabled contents like title, description, location, and the text of options will be encrypted in your browser before it is sent to our PollUnit servers. Therefore nobody can access the real data without knowing the encryption key. Images and files are always stored encrypted in PollUnit, even if no end-to-end encryption is selected.

Peer to peer encryption

Peer to peer encryption works in such a way that the data is encrypted at the device of one user, and can be decrypted at the device of another user. Before the data is sent to our servers, it will be encrypted on your device. So no one in between can record the data and even if someone had access to our databases, he/she can't read anything from the encrypted data.

Create encrypted PollUnit

AES encryption

We use the secure AES encryption method with a key length of 256 Bit.

Share encryption key

To share the encryption key to your encrypted PollUnit, you should use a safe channel like SMS or encrypted messaging services.

Encrypted data

We encrypt the title, location, description and comments of a PollUnit. Free text options are completely encrypted and for images the title. In addition, for all option types the subtitle and link is encrypted. We are not able to encrypt date fields and images yet, because we have to process them on our servers.

Admin

Besides editing a PollUnit, you can use as admin further functions to manage your online group decision.

Close PollUnit

When you close your PollUnit, your invited users will automatically be notified about the result off your poll.

Once you have closed your PollUnit, it will not be possible to vote. In order to close your PollUnit you have to visit your PollUnit via admin link.

Delete options

To delete an option, visit the Adminlink of your PollUnit and click the delete icon under the corresponding option.

Delete comments

As admin, you can also delete comments from other participants. To delete a comment, visit the Adminlink of your PollUnit and click on the delete icon on the corresponding comment.

We have implemented this feature to allow the owners of PollUnits to delete inappropriate or abusive comments. For the most transparent group decision, the deletion of a comment is saved in the Activity Log of your PollUnit.

Deleting comments from others is a premium feature.

Delete votes

As admin, you can delete participants from your PollUnit. To remove a participant from your group decision, visit the Adminlink of your PollUnit and click the delete icon next to the user's name.

We have implemented this feature to allow the owners of PollUnits to delete duplicate and unauthorized votes. To make group decisions as transparent as possible, deleting voices is stored in the Activity Log of your PollUnit.

Deleting participants and theire votes is a premium feature.

Evaluation

Evaluate PollUnit directly

To get to the evaluation, open your PollUnit and click on evaluation. You will get an overview of the options as well as your participants. If you have used the invite function, you will also see which users have not yet voted.

Export PollUnit as CSV and Excel

As an admin of a poll, you can export the participants and their votes as CSV and Excel. You can open and evaluate this file in the office program of your choice (such as Open Office, Excel, ...).

Batch Download all Submission files

Via the export function in the context menu as well as in the evaluation of your PollUnit you will find the bulk download. With this function you can download all submitted or uploaded files and pictures as zip.

Administation, Account

As a registered user, you have some advantages with PollUnit that we can not make accessible to anonymous users. When logged in, you will see your name in the main menu. Under this menu item you will find the links to your PollUnits, Themes, Logos and your Account Settings.

My PollUnits

Here is a list of PolUnits you can access. These are PollUnits you have created, but also polls where you have participated.

For additional options open the context menu by clicking the three dots. You find following functions:

My Groups

Here you can create groups and teams. A group consists of a list of e-mail addresses. You can select these groups in the »Invitations« step and automatically send invitations to your PollUnit. Ideal for recurring surveys for your friends, family or colleagues.

To manage groups you need a premium account.

My Themes

Here you can manage your own themes. A theme consists of a background graphic and a color scheme. You can choose this when creating your PollUnit in the Wizard Step 3 (Design).

My Logos

Here you can create your own logos. You can choose this when creating your PollUnit in the Wizard Step 3 (Design).

My Account

Here you can edit your personal data such as name, email, password and language.

You can also delete your account here. By deleting your account, all your PollUnits, votes, themes, logos and premium purchases will be deleted. You can not undo this!

My Organizations

With organizations you can define employees an coworkers Members of your organization can manage PollUnits of the organization. So you can automatically pass on the administration and access rights to your polls and create, monitor and evaluate polls in the team.

The number of allowed organizations and coworkers depends on your PollUnit package.

Organizations belong to the business functions of PollUnit.

Calendar synchronization

You can synchronize your polls with your calendar using ICS feeds. Synchronization can be set either for individual polls, for all polls of a user or for all polls of an organization.

In all three cases an ICS feed URL will be created. You can use this URL to either download a file that contains the corresponding dates. Or you can use this URL to permanently synchronize the events in a calendar application.
Attention: with most applications changes in your appointment poll are synchronized with a delay.

Single appointments

To synchronize only a single poll with your calendar, click »Calendar Sync« at the top of your poll's information bar. The popup that opens will give you a URL to the ICS feed, or you can download an ics file.

Own date polls

If you want to synchronize all polls of your account with your calendar, you can do this under »My Account«.
Under the item »My calendar« you can create a feed for your account. Do not share this URL with anyone, because the calendar file contains all links to your event polls.

Via the context menu you can reset an existing ICS feed to generate a new URL or you can remove the feed.

Organization's date polls

You can also provide the dates of all organization's date polls via an ICS feed. You create these feed in the context menu of each organization at »My Organizations«.

In the ICS feed's context menu you can remove or reset existing feeds to generate a new URL.

Single-Sign-On

PollUnit offers Single-Sign-On (SSO) with SAML to help companies to re-use their existing authentication solution for authenticating users in PollUnit.

Organization SSO slug

An »Organization SSO slug« uniquely identifies your organization. If you don't know the slug of your organization, please ask the PollUnit admin within your company.

Configure Single-Sign-On in PollUnit

Each organization in PollUnit can configure its own SSO. For this an organization has to pick a unique organization identifier the so called »Organization SSO slug«. The rest of the configuration should be retrieved from your SSO provider.

Configure Single-Sign-On in your SSO provider

In your SSO provider you have to configure the allowed callback URLs for authentication and logout. For authentication you have to add:

https://pollunit.com/users/saml/auth?sso=your-organization-sso-slug

and for log out:

https://pollunit.com/users/saml/idp_sign_out

Attribute Mapping

To create a user in PollUnit with the information provided from an SSO provider, this information has to be mapped to the fields of a user in PollUnit.

Share SSO Login link

You can facilitate the log in of your users by sending them a direct link to your SSO login, which looks like the following:

https://pollunit.com/users/sso?slug=your-organization-sso-slug

Missing a feature?

You need more help or you have a feature that could help you and other users make more effective decisions? Feel free to contact us at support@pollunit.com.