top of page

How to use Google form?

You've probably answered more than one Google form this year alone. Due to its ease, practicality, and free use, all you need is a Google account, it is one of the most widely used form creation tools today.

Forms have many functions, the most common uses are for registration and opinion polls, but they can be used for many other things, such as personal tests/quizzes, evaluation tests, market research, obtaining personal information, attendance lists, sending anonymous messages, evaluating products or services, etc. Have you ever needed to make a form and didn't know how? Have you ever wanted to facilitate a process and not been able to create a form? Have you answered several forms and always wanted to learn how to make one? Your time has come!

NOTE: If you prefer, there is a PDF summary of the instructions with images at the end ;)

The first step is to log in to your Google account and open Google Drive. Then click on the "New" button and then "More". Google Forms is the first option that appears, you can choose to create one blank or based on a template. There are 12 different templates that you can choose to edit instead of creating a new one from scratch. Well, I'm going to explain how to build a completely new one. When created, by default, the form already has a title, "Untitled form", and a multiple choice question.

There is a side menu on the right with the main actions you can take within the form:

  • add a new question.

  • import questions.

  • add title and description.

  • add image.

  • add video (only accepted from YouTube) .                      

  • add section.

Each section appears on a different page when answering the form, so the division into sections serves mainly to organize large forms by sub-themes but can also be used to target specific questions based on previous answers. Each section must have a title, if the space is left blank the name of the first section will appear in all of them (which by default is "Untitled form"), and an optional description. The three little balls at the top right of each section allow you to duplicate it, move it, delete it, and merge it with the previous section. In addition, the two arrows allow you to hide the answer options for each question in the section, facilitating a systemic view of the questions in the section and ideal for a final conference. Below the end of the section, if there is more than one, you can indicate which section should be shown next. This function is very useful when there are specific sections for each answer and not every section needs to be answered by every person.

The questions are effectively the heart of the form and Google offers 11 different question options with different answers: 

  • Short answer - presents a small space for an answer.

  • Paragraph - presents a large space for an answer.

  • Multiple choice - allows the selection of only 1 option per question.

  • Checkbox - allows you to select several options per question.

  • Drop-down list - allows the selection of 1 option in list format, which is advisable when you have many alternatives, which would make the question too long.

  • File upload - allows you to upload files, there are various settings, such as which type, which maximum size and which maximum number of files

  • Linear scale - consists of evaluating something in a scalar score.

  • Multiple-choice grid - allows only 1 selection per line from a few common answer types for various topics.

  • Checkbox grid - allows several selections per line from some common answer types for several topics.

  • Date - provides a calendar for selecting a date.

  • Time - provides a clock for selecting a time.

Within each question you can add one, and only one, illustrative image. There are also lower settings that allow you to duplicate and delete the question, as well as the mandatory question setting, which will mean that the person can only move on to the next section or submit the form after answering the question. There are also 3 little balls in the bottom right-hand corner which, in addition to adding a description to the question, can offer other functionalities depending on the type of question, such as: validating the answer, if it is an open question; going to the section based on the answer, if it is a multiple choice question; sorting the options randomly, if there is more than one answer option for the question; limiting to one answer per column, if it is a grid; including year and time, if it is a date question; and opting for time or duration, if it is a time question.

 

For answer validation, Google already has email validation, URL validation, length validation (i.e. maximum or minimum number of characters), number validation (which can be greater than, less than, equal to, different from, between two values, an integer, among others) and regular expression validation, where you can define what it contains or doesn't contain and whether or not it matches a formula you define.

For example, to ensure that a person enters a cell phone number in the format (xx) 9xxxx-xxxx, you can use the expression: [(][0-9][0-9][)][9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][-][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]. It indicates that you need to type an opening parenthesis, then two digits between 0 and 9, then a closing parenthesis, then four digits between 0 and 9, then a hyphen and finally four more digits between 0 and 9. Or, to ensure a valid CPF (xxx.xxx.xxx-xx), you can use the expression: [0123456789]{3}[.][0123456789]{3}[.][0123456789]{3}[-][0123456789]{2}. It indicates that you need to type three digits from the ones mentioned (0 to 9), then a dot, then three more digits from the ones mentioned (0 to 9), then another dot, then three more digits from the ones mentioned (0 to 9), then a hyphen and then two more digits from the ones mentioned (0 to 9).

For the option to go to the section based on the answer, you can choose in each alternative which section will be displayed next if you choose that option, for example in a question asking if the person lives in Brazil, if they answer "yes" they can be asked in which state or city and if they answer "no" they can be asked in which country. For this to work correctly, the question configured must be the last one in the section.

Another tip regarding questions is that in the case of questions that offer more than one answer, you can copy a list containing "enter" from other files (e.g. Word or Excel) and each line of the list will be added to a different alternative, making it easier to create all the answer options.

Once you've created the entire structure of the form's sections and questions, it's time to customize the theme, i.e. add a header image and change colors and fonts. To do this, click on the paint palette icon in the top right-hand corner. If you choose to upload an image from your computer for the cover, remember that the format is very long horizontally and will probably cut off your image if it is not made in the correct proportion.

Next to the customization icon there is an eye icon, by clicking on which you can see how your form will look to those filling it out. This is very useful for checking during creation and also for the final check.                       

As the form is completed, you can track the number of responses via the "Responses" tab. The answers are also available in three different views:

  • summary, which shows all the answers to all the questions.

  • question, which shows all the answers to just one question at a time.

  • and individual, where the answers to all the questions appear for each of the people who filled them in.

You can also create a spreadsheet with all the responses, which is automatically updated with each new response sent. In this tab, you can also allow or disallow the form to accept responses and, if it doesn't, you can customize a message to appear to anyone who tries to enter the form. Finally, in the three little balls in the top right-hand corner of the tab, there are other settings, such as printing the answers, receiving an email notification for each new answer, downloading the answers and even deleting them all.

 

There are even more settings, in the gear icon (top right of the page), where you can choose to collect emails, send copies of the answers to those who filled them in, limit to one answer per account, allow or disallow editing of the answers after submission and allow participants to view graphs and answers (in the case of tests where there are correct answers). It can also be configured to show completion progress to users who are answering the form, to shuffle the questions, to indicate a link to fill in the form again and to edit the confirmation message that appears when the form is sent. There is also a test tab, where you can configure scores and other parameters used in assessment tests.

Next to the gear icon there is a "Send" button. By clicking on it you can share the form by email, by link (if you use this option remember to copy the short URL) and via the social networks Twitter and Facebook. In this section you can also add collaborators, i.e. other accounts that have permission to edit the form.

As if that weren't enough, there are more options in the three little balls in the top right-hand corner of the page, including: making a copy of the form, moving it to the trash, printing it, adding collaborators, setting some preferences, selecting add-ons, and generating an automatically filled-in link. This is for when you already want to direct a response, for example confirmation of participation in an event, and you already send a link with the correct date of the event filled in, the class filled in and other information that will be standard for that specific audience.

  Finally, there are add-ons that are like extensions to Google forms and allow even more functions, such as opening and closing the form automatically on pre-defined dates, stopping the receipt of responses after a certain number of completions (very useful if you're using it to register for something with a maximum number of participants) and many other options that you can search for if you need them.

That's a lot, isn't it? Are you feeling more confident about creating forms on Google? Download the PDF with the summary and illustrations to refer to whenever you need to.

 

I've also made a template form with an example of each type of question and various settings explained in the post if you want to explore the features. All I ask is that you don't edit my document! Create a copy on your own drive and edit that version only!

Tell me what you didn't know and what you liked most about Google forms! Was the text useful to you?

print.PNG

©2024 Ser de Maestria. Produced by Bárbara Barnabé.

bottom of page