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The Center for Instruction and Technology

Last Updated: 01/31/2012
Getting Started with Google Spreadsheets
Forms







Learning Objectives

Create form and add questions
Structure your questions
Ways to share your online form
Retrieve your data

Create and Name your Form

1. Open DonsApps, choose the Documents link on top left.
2. Click the Create button > choose Form.
3. Title your form. Fill out a description if desired.
4. Check if you would require login and collect respondents usernames.
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Last Updated: 01/31/2012


5. Start creating your questions.

Note: All forms are associated with spreadsheets.

Apply a Theme
1. Choose a theme for your form by clicking the button on top left.
2. Click the Apply button to commit.

Edit and Add Questions
1. Click the Edit icon next to each of the question to edit content.
2. Start with adding a Question Title.



3. Then, under Help Text, type your question or leave blank.
4. Choose a Question Type for your question. You can add different types of questions to
your form. Here are some of the question types you can choose: checkboxes, grid, drop-
down lists with options, multiple choice, paragraph text, which allow for long answers, and
scale, to ask your invitees to grade something in a scale from 1-5, for instance.
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5. Choose if you are finished.
6. Check the box next to Make this a required question if your question is required.
7. Click on the button to add a new question. Select the type of question
you would like to add. Add section headers if you'd like to divide your form in sections to
make it easier to read and complete. Simply select Section header from the Add item
drop-down menu.
8. Choose Save or Next, Choose Recipients.
9. Invite people to take the survey by sending them an email. Enter their emails in the To:
box separated by comma. Choose to show form inside the body of the email or as a link.,
and set other Preferences. Click Invite People after you are finished.

Duplicate Questions
Click on the icon to duplicate a question, then drag to the proper location in the form.

Reposition Questions
Select the desired question, when you see the cursor turned into a four-headed arrow, drag and
drop the question to another location.

Text
Text allows you to type in a short answer such as your name and address.

Paragraph Text (Comments)
Paragraph text allows you to enter a large text entry such as comments.



Delete this
question by
clicking the X
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Last Updated: 01/31/2012
Multiple Choices
Users can only select one choice from the list.



Checkboxes
Checkboxes allows you to choose more than one item from a list.

Choose from a List
This is a drop-list. Users can only select one choice from the list.

Questions on a Scale
Scale questions allows you rate something on a scale of whatever number you would like to set
e.g. on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest.

Adding Section Header
If your form is lengthy, you can organize it into different sections. One way to manage this is to
add Section Header to describe the different section layouts in your form.
1. From the Add item drop-down menu, select Section Header.
Once you have created your Section Header, you can start to add Header Text and an optional
Description for the section.

Adding Page Break
If you've created a long form, for example, and would like to make it easier for your respondents
to fill it out, you can add page breaks.
1. From the Add item drop-down menu, select Page break.
Once you have created your Page Break, you can start to add questions to the new page.
Type over the
Option field to add
more choices
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Last Updated: 01/31/2012

Note: This feature is available for multiple choice questions only.
Allowing Navigation to a Specific Page
You can allow users to go directly to the appropriate section from a Multiple Choice question
type by checking the box Go to a page based on answer. Specify the page to go to
depending on the users choice. IMPORTANT: Create a Finish Section at the end of the form.
Make sure you point the user to the correct page based on their choices.



Rearrange Form Questions
You can just drag the question and drop to the appropriate location.

Save the Form
Click the Save button on top right to save the form. Auto-save is available in Google
Forms.




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Last Updated: 01/31/2012
Edit Confirmation Message
1. Under More actions, choose Edit confirmation.
2. Enter your confirmation and click Save.
3. Check the Publish response summary to allow all viewers to see
all submitted data. After submitting the form, viewers see See previous responses option
in the confirmation. (Uncheck the box if you wish otherwise.)







Include Email and URL Link in Confirmation Message

To include a URL link in your confirmation message, type the URL. e.g.
www.usfca.edu.
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Last Updated: 01/31/2012
To include an email link, type the email address. e.g. marydoe@usfca.edu.



Share the Form

You can share forms in three ways: Linking, Embedding and Emailing.

1. To link your form, use the public URL at the bottom of your page that you can use to set
link.


2. To embed your form, choose More Actions > Embed on the top right of the screen. Then,
copy and paste the iFrame code into your webpage.


3. To email your form, click the button, fill out the information and click
Send. Either choose to include or not include the form in the email.


Note: You can send this form to people inside or outside the USF community e.g
@yahoo.com, @gmail.com.




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Your form becomes a spreadsheet in Google Docs after you are done and saved it. The form is
private by default, but you can also share it or publish it. You can manually add data to your
spreadsheet without having to rely on the form.







From the spreadsheet view, you can also click the Share tab and choose Invite People to share
with more people edit to view or to edit.

Edit your Form

In the spreadsheet view, choose the Form tab. Select Edit form to edit.
If youd like to enter data, select Go to live form to enter data.
To delete form, choose Form > Delete form.



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Last Updated: 01/31/2012
Duplicate Form
Sometimes, you might want to use an existing form as a base template, where you can modify it
slightly and save it for another purpose. In this case, you can duplicate the form.

1. In Spreadsheet view, choose File > Make a Copy to copy the existing form.
2. Rename your form.
3. Delete all the data and rows from the previous form while keeping the Headers.
4. Choose Form > Edit form to modify your form accordingly. Save.
5. In Spreadsheet view, you can delete any columns that might no longer applicable.
6. Test your form and check your data.

Chart Data

In the spreadsheet view, choose the Form > Show summary of responses to chart data
summary.




Note: If you delete questions you want removed from the form, the spreadsheet column will NOT
be deleted, so you won't lose any prior responses, but it will no longer be filled with any new data.
You can insert columns for your own data - calculations, notes and more, which are not in the form.
Or, you can insert rows under your column headers to create calculations of results (such as counts of
each answer, etc.)

New form responses will always be added after the last row with any content.

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Last Updated: 01/31/2012
See Revision History

If you have edited the form data in the spreadsheet view, and would like to review the revision
history, choose File > See Revision History.


OPTIONAL: Embed Forms on Google Sites Created in DonsApp

Besides sending a link of your survey to your audience via email, you can embed the form into a
web site if you have one.

1. To create a new Google Site inside DonsApp, click on Sites to create a new Google site.


Note: Review our Create a Google Site document online for details.

2. After you have created a new page by clicking the New Page button, choose Web Page
template to use, and then click the New Page button.



3. Start entering your content. To insert your form, choose Insert > Spreadsheet form.
4. Select Forms from the left column, and choose the appropriate form from the right
window. Then, choose Select.



5. Specify the width to display your form inside your page.
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6. Click the Save button, and click again to save your page. Now you will see
your form on your page.



7. Click the button and choose Share this site to share set permissions for
who can view or edit this site. To make this site public i.e. everybody in the world can
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view it, check the box next to Anyone in the world may view this site (make it public) under
the Advanced Permissions area.