It is possible to stop the interview and either save all of the information entered so far, as a partial record which may be continued later, or to permanently discard the interview (abandon the record).
To save part of an interview (or the information entered "so far" for a paper questionnaire) use the [F12] key, to see the "Suspended input" dialog box.
You should then select [Continue later]. Telephone mode interviewers will then see the "Appointments" dialog box, See section Making an Appointment for details on how to make an appointment (call-back).
You may also then see the "End of interview" dialog box with "PARTIAL INTERVIEW" shown.
Using the [Continue later] button, means the record will be saved to a "Partial data file" from where it may be retrieved and the interview or data entry from a paper questionnaire continued at a later time; see section Partial data.
IMPORTANT: verbatim comments are always written to the CSV file for the Main data file, never to a CSV file for the Partial file.
The [F12] key may also be used to abandon an interview.
At the "Suspended input" dialog box, select [Terminate]. This selection means that the information entered so far will be saved to the Main data file, but interviewers (users of the Input or Telin programs) will NOT be able to "call up the interview" and continue entering data later. If you wish to continue the interview at a later time you should always use the [Continue later] button.
After selecting [Terminate] interviewers may see a set of questions requesting the reason why the interview has been terminated followed by the "End of interview" dialog box, with "ABORTED INTERVIEW" shown, here they should select [Save questionnaire].
The record containing any information already entered will be saved to the Main data file.
This is for supervisor use only.
To discard an interview or paper questionnaire (NOT saving the information entered so far) use the [F11] key, to see the "Suspended input" dialog box, then select [Discard].
TIP: care should be taken when using this [Discard] button, as the information will be permanently discarded - if you are in any doubt we recommend that you use the [Terminate] button to save the information entered so far to the Main data file.
TIP: it is not possible to discard a record if information has already been saved for it, for example, during a call-back, as part of the interview has been completed and already saved to the Partial data file. Instead you should use the [Terminate] button and inform your supervisor if necessary.
From the "Suspended input" dialog box the continue interview now [Return] button allows you to return to the current interview or paper copy questionnaire and continue entering data. You will be positioned at the next question which requires an answer.
The [History] button can be used to see the "History" dialog box, where the dates and times when the interview has previously been tried, and the results of the calls (for example, no reply, engaged etc). The Short and Long Comments and the percentage of the interview that is complete, is also displayed.
If a quota file is used with a CATI project, interviewers may use the "View quotas" button to look at the quota information.