Adding an initial message to a drop-down list
Problem
You want to create a drop-down list of answer categories and force respondents to select an answer other than the default one.
Solution
Create a non-selectable initial drop-down list category with code the following:
Discussion
Usually, the initial category shown by default off a drop-down list is empty or is a message such as "Select a category". This initial category is selected by default in HTML but this is usually not an answer that the questionnaire designer wishes to record (it would be like recording the absence of a selection in a radio group).
The code for the proposed first category creates an initial category labelled "Select a category" and makes it non-selectable — which, in the context of a drop-down list, means that selecting it produces an error message.