In this article
1: Set Up Access and Display Options
By default, all content—questions, calculation types, filters, and settings—is turned on in the Cross Table Tool. Admins can adjust this using the Setup menu to control what users can access.
To open the setup window, click Setup. You’ll see a panel with different sections that let you customize the user experience.
Available Setup Panels
Hierarchical filter (only visible if your project uses one)
Variable subsets (only visible if present in the project)
Question blocks (only visible if present in the project)
Questions
Calculation types
Static filters
Time periods, moving averages, and intervals
Weighting
Base size limits
Favorites and sharing
Export Options
Table Key
Optional features
Device filtering
2: Hierarchical Filters
If your project includes a hierarchical filter, you can:
Turn it off
Set a custom label
Choose which nodes are visible
Allow single or multiple selections
This setup works the same way as it does in StoryTeller.
3:Variable Subsets
If your project includes Variable Subsets, you can use them to control which questions and answers appear in reports. They filter content based on user access rights.
In the Cross Table Tool:
Users see only the subsets they have access to.
A default subset is shown based on their access settings.
If only one subset is available, the list is hidden automatically.
Subsets filter content in the Row & Column, Filter, and Compute Variable views.
Example:
If Variable Subset A hides Question X, but Subset B does not—and both are selected—Question X will still appear.
Steps to use Variable Subsets in CrossTabs
1. Click Setup.
2. Open the Variable subsets panel.
3. Enter a label (optional).
4. Choose between single or multiple selection.
5. Select which subsets should appear.
Alternatively if the workbooks are allowed, the setup button can be found on the bottom left corner.
3.1: Favorites and Variable Subsets
When a user shares a Favorite, others will only see it if they have access to the same Variable Subset.
Example:
User A shares a Favorite built on Subset A. User B, who doesn’t have access to Subset A, won’t see the Favorite.
3.2: Question Blocks
In the Question blocks panel:
By default, All blocks are shown.
To limit them, choose Select, then check the blocks you want to include. Unchecked blocks won’t appear in the tool.
For the user, when Question Blocks have been made available, they can be found just above the list of questions.
4: Question Block for Computed Variables
When you create a computed variable in the Cross Table Tool, it’s automatically placed in a question block called Computed variables. This helps you easily find and manage the variables you've added. The Computed variables block appears as soon as you create your first computed variable.
5: Questions
In the Questions panel:
The default setting is All.
To control which questions are shown, choose Select and check the ones you want to display. There is also a toggle marked labelled “Activate ability to display question and answer codes”. What this does is enable the end user to show the question/answer codes in addition to the labels. This often makes it easier to locate the questions they are trying to find.
6: Calculation Types
This section is where you select the calculation types, weighting options and the and statistical testing options that you want to make available to the users
The calculation type options:
% Categorical questions
Mean- Numeric Questions
Sum-Numeric questions
Min-Numeric questions
Max- Numeric questions
Median-Numeric questions
Percentile- Numeric questions
Correlation Analysis
Significance testing
Benchmark calculations
Rank
Type of Test
Two independent sample Z test
Two independent sample T test
Two dependent sample Z test
Two dependent sample T test
Weighted
Weighted-effective base
Unweighted-Option A ( available in Z test only)
Unweighted- Option B (names “unweighted” in T test)
7: Static Filters
This applies a filter to all tables created within the report and it cannot be changed by the end user.
To set up static filters:
Open the Static filter panel in the setup.
Choose the filter variables you want to apply.
You can also decide whether the filter summary shown above the table includes notification of the static filter.
Note: Selecting multiple options within a filter variable uses OR logic. Selecting across multiple filter variables uses AND logic.
8: Base Size Limits
Base size settings for the Cross Table Tool and StoryCreator work the same way as they do in StoryTeller:
Custom limit is the default option.
You can apply up to 2 sets of predefined limits. These are question specific limits which are defined by the admin on the variables page.
Learn more: How to Warn Report Users for Low Base Sizes.
To offer predefined sets, enable them in Setup.
Once enabled, users can choose which of the limits to apply to their reports.
9: Favorites and Sharing
You control sharing options in the Favorites and sharing panel:
Sharing with all users is turned on by default.
Sharing with individual users is turned off by default.
Admins can choose to turn off sharing entirely. Users will still be able to save personal Favorites but won’t be able to share them.
Note: Admins can always see all user-created Favorites for support purposes. Also, changes to settings like base sizes or units won’t affect Favorites that were already saved.
10: Export Options
This toggle enables the user to export to Google Sheets in addition to Export.
11: Optional Features
Allows you to select optional features of Computing variables and/or Formatting rules
Here you can enable two slightly more advanced features for users.
Compute variables allows the user to generate derived variables for example, a combination of Age & Gender.
Formatting Rules allows the user to define rules to highlight specifc cells of the table for example, highlight in green anything with a percentage score over 75
12:Table Key
The Table Key is a set of descriptive text added to the table in the top left corner just below the table title. Here you can define what information is to be used and shown in the key.
The list of available options is as follows:
List of table key options:
Time period
Filter text
Weight
Benchmark
Significance test
Significance test limits
Correlation
Base limits
In the diagram above you see which items are shown by default but you can change this selecting and deselecting on the list as required.
13:Device Filtering
You can choose which device size you would like it to be displayed on. By default, all reports are available on all device sizes but by using this feature you can restrict certain reports to specific device types.
For example, if you feel the crosstab report would not work well on a mobile phone (small device) then you can disable it here. Anyone logging in via a mobile phone would then not see the crosstab report listed.