Google Forms

Google Forms is a software provided by Google that allows users to create, edit, and share different types of forms to gather data.

Some of the basic templates offered are:

• Party Invites and RSVPs
• Feedback Requests
• Application Forms
• Contact Information

and many more...

Creating your Google Form

You can also create your own form from scratch.

1. Navigate to .
2. Sign in with your �鶹��Ƶ Account credentials (or another Google Account)
3. Click the "Blank" sheet with a colorful plus in the center.

You now have your very own Google Form. Here you can add a Name, Description, and many types of Questions to your form before sending it out. You will also see a default "Untitled Question". This will be a Multiple Choice question and can be changed to any of the different question templates found below.

Based on your intended use for this form, there are a variety of question templates to choose from. You can also create sections to split your form into multiple pages.

=Question Templates

Multiple Choice Questions

These are really good questions for giving users a specific number of options (chicken or fish). You can use these to gather simple demographic data as well as discover preferences of those you send the form to.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question. This will be the default question every time you click the 'Add Question' plus button.

Now you can edit each possible answer or add an 'Other' option to your question.

Dropdown Questions

Dropdown questions are very similar to Multiple Choice questions as they can only have 1 answer selected. They may work better if there are a lot of possibilities that cannot be combined. This may be used for other demographic data that may have more possible responses. This may include: States, Countries, Height, Age, or many others that have a lot of options.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the Multiple Choice box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select Dropdown

You will see a similar format to the Multiple Choice question template, but when sending the survey the user will see a list to select from instead of all of the options.

Checkboxes

These questions give users a chance to select multiple responses instead of the singular answer given with Multiple Choice questions. These are really good for marking off available times or selecting a few options from a large number available.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Checkboxes'

Now you can add, delete, and edit your answers. You can also add an 'Other' option.

Clicking on the three dots in the bottom right corner of this question allows you to require a specific number of answers checked. Here, you can also input an error message if this number is not selected. ("Please select 3 boxes")

Linear Scale

Linear Scale questions are typically used to gather qualitative data as a rating of something. This gives the user a line of choices corresponding to the numbers set (range 0 to 10). You can also name the poles of this response ('Never' to 'Extremely often').

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Linear Scale'

You will now see the numbers used for ranges as drop-downs directly under the question. Below these you can set the names of each side of the line.

Multiple Choice Grid

Multiple Choice Grids give users a chance to select a single column response for each row provided. This type of question may be useful in place of a number of Linear Scale questions for collecting ratings data as well as other objectives.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Multiple Choice Grid'

Checkbox Grid

Checkbox Grids give users a chance to select multiple response within each row or column provided. This type of question may be useful for building a weekly schedule or similar block-type answers.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Checkbox Grid'

Short Answer

Short Answer Questions give users a chance to enter short responses, typically 1 to 3 sentences. Users will only be able to see a small part of their response at a time as the text scrolls, keeping the cursor on the screen. This type of question may be useful for short descriptions of an image as well as many others.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Short Answer'

Clicking the three dots in the bottom right corner of the question box will bring up the question settings. Here you can require a valid response and send an error message if the response does not meet the requirements. ("Please explain more. 500 character minimum")

Paragraph

Paragraph Questions give users a chance to input longer bodies of text while seeing the entire response. This type of question may be useful for essays and explanation questions as well as questions with multiple parts.

To insert one of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Paragraph'

Date and Time

These questions are best for gathering specific dates and times from the recipients. Date questions require mm/dd/yyyy and may be best for birthdays planning future events. Time questions will output as 12-hr clock (7:00 pm), even if entered as 24-hr (19:00).

To insert either of these questions:

1. Click the plus inside of a circle next to your current question.
2. You now have another Multiple Choice question.
3. Click the 'Multiple Choice' box on the right side of your question box to reveal a dropdown menu.
4. Select 'Date' or 'Time'

File Upload

A file upload question is a good way to connect files to your form. After adding one of these questions, you will see a few options for restricting file submissions.

1. Allow only specific file types allows you to specify whether you would like a .pdf, .docx, or any other common file type like video and audio files.
2. Maximum number of files will restrict the number of files able to be uploaded in a single submission.
3. Maximum file size will restrict files larger than this size. If allowing multiple file types, this maximum file size may need to be larger to accommodate all file types.

The default Total File Size is set to 1GB which may not be enough for larger classes or multiple large files. To change this, click 'Change' and you can select a limit up to 1TB (1024 GB).

Sections and Subsections

Sections allow you to split your form into multiple pages. This can be done to show progress on longer forms as well as tailoring one form that covers multiple sections of users (student, faculty, professor) and can then give each section of user a slightly different form.

Creating Multiple Sections

To create a section, click the bottom button on the right side of the screen. This should look like two stacked rectangles and will be located on the same bar as the "Add question" button.

You now have two separate sections and can name each one. After completing each section, the user will be sent to the start of the next section by default. After all sections have been completed, the user will be prompted to submit the form.

From here, you can navigate to the Section Settings panel (three dots in the upper right corner of each section). This menu will allow you to duplicate, move, merge, and delete each section.

Linking Questions and Sections

Once you have multiple sections created and populated with questions, you can begin setting up a form that gathers information based on answers to previous questions.

This can be done using Multiple Choice, Dropdown,

To do this:

1. Navigate to the question you wish to split the form.
2. Click the Question Settings button (three dots in the lower right corner of the question box)
3. Click Go to section based on answer.
4. Select the section that you wish to go to if that answer is selected.