How To Create and Share a Google Form

Google Forms is a free Google web app and was formerly a part of Google Sheets. Users can create surveys, quizzes, opinion polls and other types of forms to bring projects to life. Google users can create, edit, update and share a Google form for free. In this article, we will look at how to create and share a Google form.

If you are looking for a simple way to create forms to be used as team surveys or opinion polls, Google Forms is the way to go. You can set up a form very quickly, share it and analyze the results from the web and mobile seamlessly. Sign in to your Google account to get started.

How To Create a Google Form

To create a Google form, you have a few options:

• Directly go to Google Forms
• Select Google forms from the Google Apps icon (from any Google app)

• From Google Drive
  • Select New
  • Select Google Forms (see options)

You can start a blank form or pick a template. There are a lot of templates available in the gallery for free to get started. Some good ones to start are RSVP, sign up, event registration and a contact form.

I have selected a Blank form to start off. Right away, you are presented with the form builder where you can define questions or more so the form. Start with naming the form in the top left corner. By default, it will be titled Untitled form. You can also add a description to the form but is optional. Available look and feel customizations including theme options, background color and font style.

If you are using a template, you will be presented with some predefined questions and options. In case you are starting off from scratch (similar to this example), a sample question will be presented.

Add Questions to Google Form

Click the + from the form builder menu (right side) to add questions. Available question options include short answer, paragraph, multiple choice, checkboxes, drop-down, file upload, date and time. Linear scale, multiple-choice grid and tick box grid are some great add-ons.

If you have a set of predefined questions in some other form, you can easily import them. Make your form stand up by adding titles, descriptions, images and videos to your questions. Another great feature is the ability to define sections.

Once all the questions, options and themes are set up, the next step is to preview the form. Important to note, you can preview the form at any time by hitting the preview eye (from the Form builder header) as you create it.

How to Define Google Form Settings

The next step after the form is configured is to define the settings.

Define Responses Settings

This will allow you to manage who can access your form and the information which is collected. Open the form and click Settings from the top menu. From Responses expand the section by clicking the down arrow.

Collecting email addresses, sending responders a copy of their response, allowing response editing after submission, and limiting to a single response are some key settings available.

Define Presentation Settings

Next up – we would want to review how responses are presented. From Settings expand the next section called Presentation. From here you can:

• Customize the message presented after the form is submitted.
• Allow reviewers to submit infinite form responses.
• Allow reviewers to see the results after the form is submitted.
• Disable autosave for all form respondents.

How to Send Google Form

The form is configured with questions and is all set to be sent to people. From the form editor screen – click the Send button from the header (you can’t miss it).

You have multiple options to send out your form. You can send it:

• by email
• create a short link and share
• copy a link and share
• embed it on the website
• Share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Send screen allows you to customize the email message if you are sending it by email. From this screen, you can also add more editors to the form. A great plus, if it’s a feedback form or a survey in which participant numbers are expected to be higher – good to have more editors.

To pause or disable accepting responses for a form, select Responses from the editor and turn off the toggle. select the three dots (menu icon) from Responses to change the response destination (spreadsheet), and download responses as a .csv file.

Next up – you share the form and await responses to analyze them 🎉. The responses screen will start to populate as respondents submit the Google form.