Google Forms is a great online service that helps any user to organize poll, quiz, etc. Apart from that, you can also collect answers from various people, host a giveaway contest, use it to recruit someone to your team, host Q&A session, collect opinion and more others. Google Forms can work like a contact form, where you can submit or share your opinion. If you are going to use this service but have never used it before, here are some Google Forms tips and tricks to get a smooth start.
Google Forms Tips and Tricks
Here is a list of some useful Google Forms Tips and Tricks you should know about:
- Add collaborators
- Limit to 1 response per person
- Allow respondents to edit after submit
- Select the existing spreadsheet to collect the answer
- Change confirmation message
- Send email confirmation to respondents
- Get email notifications for new responses
- Embed the form on a webpage
- Add a question or change the question type.
Let’s check all these options.
1] Add collaborators
Suppose, you are two or three people, who want to host an event using Google Forms, then it would be quite time-consuming if you edited the form one by one. Instead of that, you can simply add other people to your form and let them edit at the same time. Also, you should know that more than one person cannot edit the same thing at a time. Obviously, Google Forms will save the latest one. Therefore, you should divide your work before opening the form. Otherwise, there will be a conflict.
To add a collaborator, click on the three-dotted button that is visible on your top right corner after opening a form and select Add Collaborators.
Now, you can enter the name or email address of your collaborator. You can also include a message with the notification so that the recipient can understand everything.
2] Limit to 1 response per person
Let’s assume that you have organized a contest using Google Forms or hosted something using the same. At such times, any person can respond to the Google form as many times as he/she wants. To get rid of this problem here is a simple trick. You can restrict everyone from entering multiple responses. This will require the Google account sign in. Otherwise, the form will not be able to detect the same person. The form will be closed for him/her when he/she enters his/her response. However, it has a drawback. If someone has more than one Google account, he/she can response multiple time. However, that will be less spamming than without this option.
To limit to 1 response per person, create a Google Form and click on Settings. Here, you will get an option called Limit to 1 response.
Just make a tick mark in the respective box and click on Save.
3] Allow respondents to edit after submit
Suppose, you have organized something where it doesn’t matter if someone edits his/her message even after submitting it. At such a point, you can use this trick to let respondents edit even after submitting the response. It doesn’t require any Google sign-in, which means, anyone, who has submitted a response, can easily edit the message.
To provide such an option, create a new form and go to Settings. Under the General tab, you can use the option Edit after submit.
Just enable this option by making a tick in the checkbox.
4] Select the existing spreadsheet to collect the answer
Whenever you use a Google Form to collect something, it will use a Spreadsheet (Google Spreadsheet) to collect all the answers/entries or whatever you have asked for. Every new form will use a new spreadsheet to collect the data. But, suppose, you opened something a few weeks ago, where you have got some responses, and now you want to do the same again. At such a time, if you want to use the existing spreadsheet to collect answers or data, you may have to follow this trick.
So first, create a new form. While creating the form, you will get two tabs i.e. QUESTIONS and RESPONSES. Switch to RESPONSES tab. Here, you can find a spreadsheet button on your screen. After that, you can choose whether you want to create a new spreadsheet or select an existing spreadsheet.
Select the second option and choose the spreadsheet that you want to use.
5] Change confirmation message
Let’s assume that you have created a form to recruit some people. Therefore, you should let the respondents know when you will reply to them. You can add the date in the confirmation message. By default, the confirmation message is. Your response has been recorded. To change it, open a form and go to Settings. In the PRESENTATION tab, you can find the option to change the confirmation message.
You can write anything in this field. However, try to keep it small and meaningful.
6] Send email confirmation to respondents
This is a new way to connect with the respondents. You can send an email confirmation to respondents, which means, the submitter will get an email after submitting the form. Nevertheless, there is no inbuilt option. You have to install an add-on called Email Notifications for Forms. Download it from here for your Chrome browser.
7] Get email notifications for new responses
The trick above will let you send an email confirmation to the respondents that you have got his/her submission. However, this trick will assist you (or the form owner) to get an email notification whenever someone submits a form. To enable email notification, create a new form and go to RESPONSES tab. Now, click on the three-dotted button and select Get email notifications for new responses.
That’s it!
8] Embed the form on a webpage
Do you want to embed Google Form on a web page? This trick is for you. With the help of this trick, you would be able to show any form on any web page but make sure the web page is built with HTML. Other than HTML, you must know what you are doing as this will use IFRAME to display the form. However, at first, create the form and click on Send button. Following that, you will get the Embed option. Just select the desired size and paste the code on the web page.
It should display the form right away.
9] Add a question or change the question type
This is one of the interesting features of Google Forms. You will have the choice to add a question even after sharing the form or while creating your Google Form. You can add Multiple Choice, Dropdown, Paragraph, Checkboxes, or Short answer type questions to the form. Use the + icon on the right side for it. If some question is already added and you need to change the question type, then first select that question, and then use the drop-down menu to select a different question type.
Previously, Google Forms had more options and more importantly, it had regular expressions and conditions. However, these have been dropped in the latest update.
That’s it!
How do I make a Google Form attractive?
To make your Google Form attractive, you can customize the theme including the fonts. For this, open your Google Form, and click on the Customize Theme icon. Now, you can customize the text style for Header, question, and text by changing the font style and size. In addition, you can also add a custom Header image, and change the Background color with any of your favorite colors. All the changes made by you are visible in real time.
How do I organize responses to a Google Form?
There are multiple ways to organize responses to a Google Form. Once you get the responses, open your Google Form, and switch to the Responses section. There, click on the three vertical dots icon, and click on the Select destination for responses option. Now, you can either create a new spreadsheet for responses or choose an existing spreadsheet. The options to download responses as a CSV file to your PC and take a print of all responses can also be used.
Now take a look at these Google Sites tips and tricks to design a better website.
