Forms basic

What can you do with Forms?

Manage event registrations, create a quick opinion poll, and much more. With Google Forms, you can create and analyze surveys right in your mobile or web browser—no special software required. You get instant results as they come in. And, you can summarize survey results at a glance with charts and graphs.

What you need:

G Suite account & 10 minutes

Create your form

To start, we’ll create a new form and add questions. Forms automatically saves every change you make.

In this section, you learn how to:

1.1 Create a new form
1.2 Add questions
1.3 Edit questions

1.1

Create a new form

Choose an option:
- From forms.google.com, click Blank or choose a template.
- From drive.google.com, click New > More. Next to Google Forms, point to the Right arrow arrow_forward_ios and click Blank form or From a template.
Name your form: In the top-left corner, click Untitled form or the template form name and enter a new name.
(Optional) Do any of the following actions:
- Add a description: Under the form name, add your text.
- Change the background color or theme: Click Color Palettepalette and then choose a color or theme drive_image.

1.2

Add questions

If you’re using a template, you can skip to Section 1.3 to edit your form. You can always come back here if you want to add or edit existing questions.

Click Untitled question and enter your question. You get suggestions based on your type of question.

(Optional) To change the question type, click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down.

Add response options (if applicable for your question type).

(Optional) To specify if people must answer the question, clickRequired.

To add more questions, choose an option:

To add a new question, click Add question add_circle.

To add a copy of the existing question, click Duplicate content_copy.

Note: Changes are automatically saved, and you can preview your changes at any time.

1.3

Edit questions

You can add things like images and videos to a question at any time. You can also reorder and delete questions.

Edit a question:

Select a question and do any of the following actions:

Drag to reorder a question. You can also drag and reorder answers.
Delete a question.
Click More more_vert to:
- Add a description or hint.
- Shuffle the answer order.
To shuffle the question order, click Settings settings > Presentation. Check the Shuffle question order box and click Save.
Add an image to a question. You can also add images to answers or forms.
Add a YouTube video.

Choose form settings and preview

When you’re done adding questions, you can choose form settings and preview your changes before sending it out.

In this section, you learn how to:

2.1 Choose form settings
2.2 Preview your form

2.1

Choose form settings

Decide who can access your form and whether to collect email addresses from people. By default, form sharing is limited to your organization and email collection is turned off.

Choose form settings:

Click Settings settings > General and choose from the following options:

Collect email addresses—Collect respondents’ email addresses.
Response receipts—Send copies of responses on request or automatically.
Restrict to your organization’s users—Limit your form’s audience to your organization. Uncheck this box to distribute your form externally.
Limit to 1 response—Allow people to complete your form only once.
Edit after submit—Let people change their answers after submitting them.
See summary charts and text responses —Let people see a summary of everyone’s answers.

When you’re done making changes, click Save.

Let people review and edit your form:

At the top right, click More more_vert > Add collaborators.
Under Invite people, enter the email addresses of the people you want to share with.
Click Send.

Whoever you invite can edit any part of your form, including responses and where they are saved.

2.2

Preview your form

While you’re changing your form’s settings, you can preview it to see what the changes look like. You’ll also want to preview it when you’re done.

Preview your form:

At the top right, click Preview visibility. The preview opens in a new window. To edit the form, click Edit create or go back to your editing window.

Send your form

Now, you’re ready to send out your form and start collecting responses.

In this section, you learn how to:

3.1 Send your form
3.2 Pause or stop response collection

3.1

Send your form

When you’re ready to send out your form, you can send it by email, copy and paste a link in a chat or email message, embed it on a website, or share a link on social media.

Send your form:

At the top right, click Send.
(Optional) To collect email addresses, choose an option:
- If the form’s audience is limited to your organization, checkAutomatically collect respondent’s your organization email address.
- If you’re distributing the form externally, check Collect email addresses.
Choose how you want to send the form:

A. Email—Click Email email. Enter email addresses in the To field. You can customize the subject and message contents.

B. Link—Click Link insert_link. You can shorten the URL. Click Copy and paste the link into a chat, conversation, or email.

C. Website content—Click Embed code. You can specify inline frame dimensions. Click Copy and paste the HTML into your website or blog.

D. Social media—Click one of the social media icons.

3.2

Pause or stop response collection

When you create a new form, response collection is automatically turned on. You can pause or stop it. For example, if you find a mistake after sending out a form, you can pause response collection until the error is fixed.

Pause or stop response collection:

In your form, click Responses.
Click Accepting responses. It changes to Not accepting responses.
(Optional) Add a message that people see if they try to reply. If you’re pausing response collection, you might add something like: "This form is currently paused. Please try again later."

Analyze responses

After you send out your form, you’ll see responses on the Responses tab. You can also get an email when new responses arrive.

In this section, you learn how to:

4.1 See responses in Forms
4.2 See responses in Sheets
4.3 Download responses as a CSV file

4.1

See responses in Forms

You can see a summary of all responses or look at individual responses on the Response tab. To switch between individual responses, click the individual’s email.

4.2

See responses in Sheets

To analyze your responses further, you can send them to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is linked to your form, so responses appear in real time.

Send responses to a new spreadsheet:

On the Responses tab, click More more_vert > Select response destination.
Click Create new spreadsheet.
(Optional) To change the name, enter a new one.
Click Create.

Send responses to an existing spreadsheet:

On the Responses tab, click More more_vert > Select response destination.
Click Select existing spreadsheet.
Click Select.
Select your spreadsheet and click Select.

To open your spreadsheet from Forms, click View responses in Sheets drive_spreadsheet. The spreadsheet opens in a new window. To go back to Forms, click Form> Show summary of responses or go back to the Forms window.

Stop sending responses to a spreadsheet:

On the Responses tab, click More more_vert > Unlink form.
Click Unlink to confirm.

4.3

Download responses as a CSV file

To export responses for analysis in other programs, you can download them as a CSV file.

On the Responses tab, click More more_vert > Download responses (.csv).

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