Everything you need to create, run, and share a poll.
Creating a poll is trivial: enter your questions and send the vote link to your audience.
Provide the questions: every question consists of the question text and one or more answers. Type the question into the "Enter question" field. Answers are entered either after hitting the Tab key or by clicking into the desired answer field.
After inserting your email address, click Save Poll to save. The cockpit controls will appear at the top of the screen. We ask for your email to keep you informed about the ongoing development of DirectPoll.
Three essential links manage your poll:
Choose between four colour sets for your poll. Click the one you like best and save your poll. You can also choose whether to display the vote-link URL on the results page.
The cockpit is where you add questions, choose the appearance, and manage your poll.
Poll questions consist of the question text and one or more answers. Type the question text and the answers into the input fields. New empty questions and answer fields appear automatically as soon as all blanks are filled. Empty questions and empty answers are ignored when the poll is saved.
Choose between single-choice and multiple-choice questions using the dropdown menu next to each question. Additional question types are in preparation.
Drag and drop questions using the arrow handle. You can also rearrange answers within a question the same way.
Delete questions and answers using the corresponding delete handles on each item.
Restrict access to your poll by checking the "Restrict this Poll" checkbox. This lets you control who votes by distributing login tokens. Exactly one vote per question is accepted per token – across all browsers and devices.
Click Save Poll the first time, then use the Update button for subsequent saves. Empty questions and answer fields are deleted automatically. You are free to alter your poll at any time.
DirectPoll can display the correct answer after votes have been cast. To use this feature:
Sometimes it's distracting to see which answer is getting the most votes during a poll – it may influence undecided voters. This feature lets you hide the answer popularity on the results screen while voting is in progress.
All the links you need are shown in the "Links" section of your cockpit.
This is the link for your audience. They access the poll via their smartphones, see the current question, and cast their vote directly. A short URL and QR code are provided for convenience.
All incoming votes are displayed here in real time – this is where the magic happens. Open this link on a large display and set your browser to full-screen mode for the best visual experience.
This is your control link – keep it safe! Full poll control is available here: you may add or alter questions at any time and reset votes when appropriate.
Change your email address if necessary, or simply use this function to send all three links to your inbox so you always have a backup copy.
Click on the desired colour scheme. The frame on the preview changes to a thick red line to confirm the selection is active. You can also choose whether the vote-link URL appears on the results page. Save your poll again to activate the chosen appearance.
The cockpit steers your poll throughout the session.
Click Start. Your poll is ready for voting immediately. Display the results page and ask your audience to scan the QR code shown.
The active question is clearly labelled with a thick red line. You can activate any question either via the cockpit controls, by tapping it, or by clicking it with your mouse.
No specific action is required to end a session. If you want to reset vote counts to zero, use the reset button.
Existing questions may be edited and new questions added while a poll is running. Any changes take effect as soon as the poll is saved.
A control unit appears at the top of the cockpit page if your poll contains more than one question.
The poll is ready to receive votes after clicking START. The results page shows the first question, and the voting page displays the submission form.
Click PAUSE to pause the poll at any time. Your audience sees a pause message on their devices and no votes are accepted. Click RESUME to continue, or NEXT to advance to the next question.
Questions are switched step by step with the NEXT control. Start with START and move one question forward with NEXT. NEXT is disabled when the last question is reached.
Use the dropdown menu in the question-control element to jump to any question out of sequence. The active question is displayed in the middle of the element with its number and a summary of the question text.
STOP immediately ends your poll. No votes are accepted and the results page switches back to its initial state. Vote counts are preserved for review unless you reset them.
A simple cockpit appears on the results page when you touch it or move your mouse. This lets you control the poll directly from the results display screen.
Control links let you steer the poll from inside a presentation that supports external links.
This link activates the next question in line when you press Reload in your browser. This lets you steer the poll from a browser window embedded in or alongside your presentation.
You can embed specific links for every question into your presentation. Each link activates one specific question by number. This prevents accidental question activation when switching between slides.
The results page can be embedded in some presentation programs using a plugin:
You can switch from your presentation to a browser window showing the results screen. Make this transition appear seamless by setting the browser to full-screen mode on the presentation display before you start playing the presentation.
These links display poll results in specific ways, useful for multi-screen setups.
This link always shows the results of the currently active question. Useful when you have two independent screens: display the poll on one screen and steer it from the other.
A static link to a specific question. This displays the results of that question independently of whether it is currently active. These links always show the result of the respective question, even when the poll is stopped.