Easy Forms with Google Docs

After researching and writing yesterday's post about how public school system is using Google Forms to help track flu symptoms, I wondered how easy, or difficult, it is to set up an online form using Google Docs. I decided to find out for myself and, in about two minutes, I had created a form, sent it out via email, and had the code to link to it from a web page. Not only that, the data collected was populated to a spreadsheet that I could view instantly from my Google Docs page. Very impressive. The ease of use was amazing.

The steps to create this form were simply:

1. Go to Google Docs
   You will need to set up an account if you do not already use Gmail or have a Google account.
2. From the Google Docs menu bar, click New then Form
   Select your form type and add questions, save and your form is ready to use.
3. Using the form designer menu bar, you can change the theme (look) of the form, distribute it via email, view responses as either a summary or spreadsheet or embed the form.

Data In (try out  my form, it's OK to make up data)  Kelly's Google Docs Test Form

Data Out   (spreadsheet) 

Google Forms is a very easy way to create a registration form or survey. To see how it's done, watch the video below:

Now, that I've done this, of course I want more, as in more control over the presentation of the form. The folks from Morning Copy in Australia have done a fine job of detailing how to give your Google Form the style it needs to fit the design or layout of your web site. Click How to style Google forms to learn more.

If you've designed some good looking forms and want to share, please include a link in the comment section below.

Update 9:43 a.m.: This post uses the term "form" and the example above is a blog registration form. A survey is nothing more than a form that displays answers in the form of options (multiple choice, checkboxes, etc.). Google Docs provides the tools to add these answer formats (and others) to a form. Just click on the Question Type pull-down menu to see all of the options. Also, the video below describes how to set up a survey form.

Comments

[Thomas Costick]

I'm fairly new to Google Docs myself and tried a simple form recently (a survey on people's preferred puddings, very serious!).

In many cases one thing I would include on the form is a field for the person's name, so this can be seen in the created spreadsheet.

This is such a useful tool for collaboration and information gathering.

[Z. Kelly Queijo]

Thomas, thanks for your comment. I think this one tool, that once you start using it, you'll be hooked. I've looked at other free survey tools and this just seems so easy to me. Plus, I like being able to look at the spreadsheet and just refresh when I want to see updated activity. You're smart to start out with a simple survey and then add more complexity as the comfort level grows.
-Kelly

[Tom Markiewicz]

I recently tried using their forms recently and was disappointed with the lack of customization. I decided to go with Wufoo for the time being.

[Tom Markiewicz]

Just read that customizing article you linked. I stand corrected. Should have done some more research!

[Z. Kelly Queijo]

Yea, those folks at Morning Coffee served up some great advice. It's much easier to customize after reading their post. I had tried editing the entire web page form and got nowhere, then after reading MC's post, I just copied the code between start of form and end of form tags and it worked beautifully. So a little more hands-on than some may want, but if you plan to use forms/surveys often, you could set up a template and just paste in the form code. I'm going to experiment with that next.
-Kelly