27 June 2019

10 Advanced Google Forms Tips and Tricks


If Google Forms is not yet your go-to form maker, it’s time for us to change your mind. There are a lot of powerful tools hidden away in places you may not find unless you know what you’re looking for. We’re here to make sure you know some advanced Google Forms tips and tricks.

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1. Choose Your Response Destination

If you’re a moderate user of Google Forms, you probably already know that you can choose between storing your results as a spreadsheet or keeping them within the form. However, you may not know which one to choose or why.

You can choose your results destination by clicking the More (three-dot icon) button and picking Select Response Destination. Then either create a new spreadsheet or add the responses as another tab to an existing spreadsheet.

Select Response Destination Google Forms

If you want to quickly send your responses to a spreadsheet, you can also click the green Create Spreadsheet button. Or to download right to your computer, Select More > Download responses (.csv).

If you decide to create a new spreadsheet, it will reside in Google Sheets with the name you assign or the default which is the form name. If you choose to add to an existing spreadsheet, you’ll pick the one you want in the pop-up window for Google Sheets.

Using a spreadsheet to store results is ideal if you want to manipulate the data. You might prefer to keep the results in forms though if you are expecting more than 400,000 responses as that’s the limit of rows in a regular Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Regardless of which destination you choose, you can always go to Responses > Summary to get a more visual view of the results, which is perfect if most of your questions are multiple choice or can be graphed in some way.

2. Receive Notification for Submissions

If you would like to receive email notifications when someone submits your form, you can set this up in just two clicks.

Click the More (three-dot icon) button on the Responses tab and pick Get email notifications for new responses. The email address you will receive responses to is the address for the account you use to log into Google Forms.

Get Notifications for Responses Google Forms

3. Insert Google Forms Multiple Pages

In order to spruce up your form and make it seem more manageable to respondents, it’s possible to add multiple pages by inserting sections.

Go to the last block on your page and click the Add Section button from the toolbar. You can assign a header and description to each page, which allows you to clearly separate questions of a certain kind or for a specific type of respondent.

Add Section for Multiple Pages Google Forms

4. Embed an iFrame of Your Form

If you want to use Google Forms to create a contact form for your website or for some other purpose where it’s useful to embed the form as an iFrame, it’s easy to do so.

Click Send on the top right of the form page. Then, click the Embed icon, adjust the width and height of your iFrame if you like, and click Copy. You can then paste the code where you need it.

Get Embed Code Google Forms

5. Create an Auto-Grading Quiz

For teachers, an auto-grading quiz in Google Forms is a really easy way to save some time. On your main Google Forms page, click Template gallery at the top. Scroll down and under Education, pick Blank Quiz.

Click Add Question from the toolbar, enter the question, and click Answer Key to provide the correct answer and point value for the question. When your respondents finish the quiz, they will see an option to View Score. This shows them all questions answered, marked as correct or incorrect, and the points they received.

Auto-Grading Quiz Results Google Forms

6. Turn a Form Into a Quiz

If you create a form that you want to use later as an auto-grading quiz, this is simple. On the form page, click the Settings (gear icon) button on the top right. Select the Quizzes tab and turn on the toggle for Make this a quiz and click Save.

Make Form Into A Quiz Google Forms

You can then go to the form and insert the answer keys and point values just like if you created the quiz from the start.

7. Obtain a Pre-Filled Link

You might want to pre-fill some answers on a form for your respondents. For example, you could use this to jumpstart a contact form on your website. Click More on the top right of the form page (next to Send) and then select Get pre-filled link. Next, just fill the form out as you would like the respondents to do for any given question and click Get Link.

You’ll then see on the bottom left that your link is ready, just click Copy Link and then paste it where you want to share it.

Get Link Auto-Filled Form Google Forms

8. Adjust Defaults for Emails, Required Questions, and Point Values

If you plan to create forms down the road and always want to collect email addresses, you can mark a setting to make this a default. In addition, if you intend to make all questions required or use the same point value for quiz questions, you can set these defaults as well.

Click More on the top right of the form page (next to Send) and then select Preferences. Now in the pop-up window, mark the checkboxes for any or all of these options. This is a great time-saver if you plan to use the same settings on forms moving forward.

Change Default Settings Google Forms

9. Add Logic Branching

Logic branching is a fancy way of saying that your respondent will go to a particular page based on the answer they give. For instance, if you say you’re Australian, the questions will relate to Australian regions. If you choose a certain age range as an answer, you could have age-appropriate questions afterward.

You can use this for any question where the user can give one answer from a choice of set answers. Click the More (three-dot icon) button for the question and pick Go to section based on answer.

Then select where you want to direct your respondent from the dropdown box. You can also have them submit the form instead of sending them to a new section.

Logic Branching Google Forms

10. Use Scripting

There are no scripts for the forms per se, but there are ways to use scripting if you like. Select the Settings (gear icon) button on the top right of the form page and choose Script editor. You’ll start with a clean slate in a new tab where you can enter your script. Just click File > Save when you finish.

Open Script Editor Google Forms

For some Google Forms script examples and help, head over to the Google Apps Script page for developers.

Looking for More Google Forms Help?

These Google Forms tips and tricks are just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve also covered how to use Google Forms for your business and we have a guide that might just be the best guide to Google Forms you’ll find.

Read the full article: 10 Advanced Google Forms Tips and Tricks


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