How to Create a Google Docs Form

Make your own forms for anything you need

What to Know

  • Visit docs.google.com/forms and select Blank or a template.
  • From Docs, Sheets, or Slides: File > New > Form; from Sheets, Tools > Create a Form to link it to a spreadsheet automatically.
  • Enter your questions and options.

This article explains how to create a Google Docs form.

Start a Google Form

While it was once an option in Google Sheets, Forms is a separate tool now. You can access it inside Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The most popular way to use Forms is by creating a Google survey.

  1. At the top of each form are tabs for Questions and Responses. Go to the Questions tab, then give the form a name and description, or more likely, instructions about how to proceed. Responses are stored on the Responses tab, but you can also have responses automatically added to a spreadsheet.

    Sidebar in Google Forms
  2. On the Responses tab, you can turn off Accepting responses and add a message for users who attempt to fill out the form. You can also receive email notifications for new answers, download a CSV file, print, and delete all responses. 

  3. A few options allow you to customize the form with a theme color, background color, and font. You can also add images, hover text, and YouTube videos to this area. To access these settings, select the palette icon at the top of the page.

    Palette and Eye icons, as well as side panel in Google Forms
  4. Next to the palette are preview and settings. You can preview the form and answer each question to make sure everything works correctly. Settings include whether to collect email addresses and if respondents can submit more than once, which you might want if you use the form to capture ideas, for example. You can also make the form a quiz that permits auto-grading if you add an answer key.

Google Form Response Format Options

You can customize the format of responses you receive in many ways. A blank form contains one question, and you can add more by clicking the plus symbol on the right.

The default is multiple-choice, but there's also short answer, paragraph, check boxes, drop-down lists, scales, grids, date or time, and file upload. These options make Google Forms versatile. In addition to quizzes, you can use it for applications, homework submission, contests, and more.

Google Forms question format options.

Once you choose the answer type, you can further customize it, input multiple-choice or drop-down options, add other as an option, and enable or disable multiple answers. As you add more questions, you can duplicate your work if you plan to ask questions with similar choices. For example, "What is your favorite food?" followed by "What is your least favorite food?"

For all questions, you can decide whether an answer is required or not.

Add Sections to a Google Form

For a contact form or short survey, one page is probably suitable. However, if you have a longer questionnaire, divide it into sections. That way, you won't overwhelm the recipients. Select the button on the right under the YouTube symbol to add a section. Each section can have a separate title and a description or instructions.

Section marker in Google Forms

You can drag and drop questions between sections as needed as well as duplicate sections. Tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner, then select Duplicate Section. The menu includes options to move a section, delete a section, and merge with the section above.

Add Follow-Up Questions

There are times when you might want to ask questions based on previous responses. For example, if you ask a true or false question and want an explanation when the respondent enters false. To do this, add a section with a multiple-choice or drop-down response. Tap the three-dot menu in the lower-right corner and select Go to section based on answer.

Go to section based on answer option in Google Forms

For each option, you can send the respondent to the next section or to any other section in the form, or skip to Submit form to end that respondent's participation.

Store Responses in Spreadsheet

For all forms, you can store the answers in a Google spreadsheet so you can organize and manipulate the data. You can either create the form from Google Sheets, as described above, or link it to a spreadsheet in settings.

  1. From Sheets, go to Tools > Create a Form. Otherwise, go to the Responses tab of the form. Click the green icon on the right to open a spreadsheet. Then, either create a new spreadsheet or select an existing one.

  2. Select Create or Select to proceed. By default, a new spreadsheet has a column for each question you created and a timestamp column that shows when the response was input. As you create more questions or edit existing ones, the spreadsheet updates.

    Green sheet symbol in Google Forms

    If you linked the form to an existing spreadsheet, a response tab is added to it.

Share and Send the Form

You can share Google Forms with others if it's a group effort. Select the three-dot-menu, choose Add Collaborators, then enter the email addresses or copy the sharing link.

When the form is to your liking, check the settings before you send it. You can limit users to one response, allow them to edit their response after submitting it, link to the results if you're doing a poll, and change the confirmation message after someone submits their responses.

You can send and share a form with potential respondents in a variety of ways. Start by clicking Send at the top of the page.

Send via options in Google Forms
  • Send in an email: Click the envelope icon and enter the recipients' email addresses, a subject, and a message.
  • Share the link: Click the link icon to copy the link to the form. You can also get a shortened form of the URL that starts with goo.gl/forms.
  • Post it on social media: Click the Facebook or Twitter icon on the right.
  • Embed it on a website: Click the greater than/less than symbols to copy the HTML code. You can also adjust the width and height of the form.

Build a Quiz With an Answer Key

Google Forms are a useful tool for quizzes since you can input the correct answers and assign point values. Your students can get instant feedback, and you don't have to go through a stack of papers. Alternatively, you can delay sending out the results and reviewing any questions that don't have a definitive answer, such as one with a short answer or paragraph response format.

Google Forms answer key for quiz about U.S. capitals

After you collect the responses, you can see the average and median grades. You can also view each question to see how many got it right vs. wrong.

You can edit a template as you would edit a blank form. It's just a starting point.

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