### Overview

Explore shows your survey results question by question, each with the visual that suits it — a bar chart for scales and multiple choice, an ordered table for ranking questions, and a written AI summary for open-ended answers. If you're running product surveys, every chart puts your products side by side. Testing three flavours and wondering how overall liking splits between them? That's one chart on Explore.

You don't have to wait for fielding to finish — the charts show whatever has come in so far, so you can spot a trend while there's still time to act. While your project is collecting, a banner reads **Data collection in progress. Results may be incomplete.** — a reminder, not a block.

### Where to Find Explore

Insights opens on **Summary**, so click **Explore** in the tab bar. It's there from the moment your project is created, on every project type, with a placeholder standing in until the first responses arrive.

### Choosing What You Compare

Three selectors in the **Settings** sidebar decide your columns:

- **Survey** — which survey you're reading. It defaults to the roll-up across your **Trial Surveys**, which is what puts your products side by side. Pick an individual survey and the **Products** selector disappears, since those surveys aren't product-specific.
- **Products** — which products and [Product Groups](/content/help/product-groups/index.html) become columns.
- **Segments** — these don't narrow your charts, they add columns. Each [segment](/content/help/segments/index.html) is crossed with each product, so two products and two segments give you four columns, not two.

On a concept study, **Products** reads **Concepts** throughout; a survey-only study has no products to choose.

### Reading the Charts

Each bar chart has its own controls underneath it:

- **Aggregation** — **Percent** (the default) or **Count**.
- **Orientation** — **Vertical** or **Horizontal** bars, on everything except scale questions.
- **Chart Type** — scale questions get this instead: **Grouped** gives one bar per scale point; **Stacked** collapses the scale into top, middle and bottom bands. Some scale lengths have no bands, and those stay grouped.
- **Sort** — reorder the answer choices by survey order, alphabetically, or by number of responses.

These apply to that one chart and aren't saved, so change them freely. Ranking and open-ended questions have no chart controls.

Above each chart, the **Responses:** strip shows how many people answered that question in each column — so if a chart looks thin, check there before you suspect your filters.

Explore doesn't test for [statistical significance](/content/help/significance-and-metrics/index.html) — to check whether a gap is real, open the same question in [Crosstabs](/content/help/crosstabs/index.html).

### Working Through Open-Ended Answers

Open-ended questions aren't charted. Instead you get a panel headed **Powered by Highlight AI**: a written summary of what people said, then rows of topic and sentiment buttons.

The summary is written for exactly what you're looking at — the survey, products and segments you have selected — so changing your selection gives you a different summary. New responses rewrite it the next time you open the question.

**Topic buttons** are the themes found in the answers, most-mentioned first. **View All** is always first and clears the filter.

**Sentiment buttons** let you read only the positive or only the negative answers. Each is labelled with a count and a percentage, like **42 Responses (35%)**, so you see the balance before you read a word — hover the coloured icon to confirm which sentiment a button stands for.

Click any topic or sentiment button and the verbatim answers appear, along with a **Search** box for narrowing further by keyword.

**Filter By** in the sidebar narrows this panel and nothing else. It restricts the summary and the verbatims to a single column, while your charts, ranking tables and the **Responses:** strip carry on showing all of them.

**Tip**: Combine the two rows — pick the topic participants mention most, then the negative button. It's the shortest route from "the score dropped" to "here's why".

### Adding Your Own Topics

Chasing a theme the automatic topics didn't pick up — a competitor's name, a complaint your team keeps hearing? Add it yourself.

Click **Add topic** at the end of the topic buttons, type a name in **Topic name**, and click **Add**. Every response on that question is classified against it, the counts fill in on their own, and from then on it filters the verbatims exactly like an automatic topic — including on questions with too many responses for automatic topics.

- You get up to five of your own topics per question, on top of the automatic ones.
- Each carries an **X** to remove it. Removal is immediate, with no confirmation.
- Your topics are shared, not personal — anyone on the project can add or remove them.
- Unlike automatic topics, they're kept current as new responses arrive.

### Exporting the Page

Click **Download PDF** at the top right and save the file from your browser's print dialog. It contains the charts exactly as they're drawn on screen — selected products, segments and chart settings included — and open-ended questions print with their verbatim lists fully expanded, even where you have no filter applied.

**Tip**: Narrow your products and segments first to produce a version aimed at one audience. For a built deck and spreadsheet rather than a print of the page, see [Instant Reports](/content/help/instant-reports/index.html).