SMDS Help Desk

There are two ways to search for tools in SMDS – either using >Find Tools or Manage Tool 

• Find Tool–will take you to a page that displays the major categories of Success Measures tools.  
  1. NOTE: Whether or not you have access to specific tools within any of these categories depends upon your organization’s subscription to SMDS. If you are interested in learning more about the tools that exist within a specific topical area, you can find lists of tools with a brief explanation at the successmeasures.org website, or contact Success Measures at [email protected]

• Manage Tools–will take you to a page where there is a list of your organization’s tools. 

Both ways are outlined below.

Find Tools 

• Place your cursor over the Data Collection Tools tab.

•  Select Find Tool.

• At the Find Tool page you will see a search box where you can type a tool name or portion of a tool name and then click the Search icon. This will bring up a list of any tools that your organization has with that word in the title.

When you click the search icon, a list of relevant tools will appear.

On the list you will be able to see the tool name and the type of tool that it is (i.e., survey, tracking sheet, observation tool etc.).

There are two options available for previewing tools and questions.

Option 1

• Click on the green plus sign under Tool or Module to see more details about the tool. 

• A row will appear which shows how many questions are in the tool, and what languages are available for that tool.

• Click the green View Questions button to display the questions and answer sets for the tool. When you click the View Questions button, the system will open a new page where you can see all the questions in the tool, and if you click on a question the answer options will display.

Option 2

• Click on the Tool Name instead of the green plus sign. 

This will take you to a new page that displays the tool with its questions. 

• Click on any question to see the answer options. 

• In this view you also have the option to click the green button to Expand Description and see any tag words the tool was tagged with when it was created, and what categories of community development the tool creator selected as being relevant to this tool. This information might help you understand what types of programs and situations the tool creator intended this tool for.

• Click Collapse Description to hide that information.

• At the bottom of the page, you will see that you have two options for how to look at the tool, Word Format and Preview. 

• Click on Word Format to download the tool as a Word document. The Word version of a tool can be formatted for page spacing, to insert your organizational logo, or other formatting to make it visually comfortable for respondents to fill out the tool on paper. 

• Click on Preview to see how the tool appears in SMDS when you enter a response or how it displays when a respondent clicks on a hyperlink or uses a QR Code to fill out the survey.  You can test answering questions in Preview, as well as test the skip logic if there is any in the tool.

• To return to the tool builder view, click the Close Preview button.

Manage Tools 

• Place your cursor over the Data Collection Tools tab.

• Select Manage Tools.

• This will take you to a page where there is a list of your organization’s tools. Use the search box at the top of the page to find the tool you need or scroll through the page. 

You can change the search box field to look for a specific tool by name, category, type, or status.

You can sort the list of tools by any of the column headings by clicking on a specific column heading.

Click on the tool name under the Display Name header, and a page will open with the tool questions and answer sets. Option 2 steps under Find Tool for more details.

To the right of the Tool Name at the Manage Tools page you can see what languages the tool is available in.  When you are in the tool, if it has more than one language, you can view the questions and answer sets by clicking on that language option in the top right and then click Select.

Organizations Can Share Tools and Receive Shared Tools

At the Manage Tools page, at the top left you will see two categories, My Tools and Received Tools. Most of the time you will be working in the default setting which is My Tools.   The Received Tools will be empty unless your organization has a Sharing Relationship with another SMDS system subscriber who has elected to share specific tools with your organization. Contact [email protected] if you want to learn more about sharing tools.