Tips to customize your forms

On this page

• Customize form responses
• Tips to set up your form
• Ways to share forms
• Customize quizzes

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Customize form responses

Let people edit their form responses

Information collected in surveys can get out of date as circumstances and schedules change. Rather than managing everyone’s updates through several emails, let people edit the responses they’ve submitted.

• If people change their mind or forget to include something, they can update their responses for accuracy.
• Let people rearrange appointments, shifts, and other commitments in event registration forms.
• Allow people to update personal information, such as phone numbers and addresses, in submission forms.

Learn how

You can choose whether someone can edit a response they’ve already submitted.

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. At the top of the form, click Settings.
3. Next to “Responses,” click the Down arrow .
4. Turn on Allow response editing.

Learn more at the Google Docs Editors Help Center

 

 

Allow people to add attachments to forms

If you need to gather additional resources from respondents, let them attach files to a form or quiz question. The files are copied to your Google Drive account, so you can view them anytime in Google Forms.

Note: This feature is not supported using shared drives.

• Collect resumes for job application forms.
• Collect supporting research for a quiz question.
• Collect permission slips for activities and events.
• Collect photos for contests.

Learn how

Allow people to attach files

1. In Forms, open a form or quiz.
2. Click Add question  and enter your request for information.
3. Next to the question, click the Down arrow  and select File upload.
4. If prompted, review the uploading information and click Continue.
5. (Optional) Do any of the following actions:
   • Specify which file types people can upload. Turn on Allow only specific file types and select the types.
   • Change the maximum number of files that people can upload.
   • Change the maximum file size.
   • Set a maximum size for all files collected via the form.

Open attached files

1. In Forms, open a form or quiz.
2. Click Responses.
3. If you want to see all of the files received, click Summary.
4. (Optional) To see the files in Drive, click View folder.
   In Drive, there’s a folder for each form. Files from respondents are stored by question in subfolders.
5. If you want to see an individual’s file, click Individual.
6. Click a file to open it.

 

 

Pre-fill answers in a form

If you use the same form or survey repeatedly, such as for daily tasks or evaluations, send the form with some answers filled in to help people complete it faster.

• Are your students doing peer evaluations? Pre-fill information, such as other students’ names and project titles.
• Asking for feedback on a course, presentation, or other event? Pre-fill information, such as the event title, room number, and presenter.

Learn how

You can send respondents a form with some fields already filled in.

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. In the top right, click More .
3. Choose Get pre-filled link.
4. Fill in any answer fields you want to pre-populate.
5. Click Get link.
6. To send the pre-populated form to respondents, copy and send the link at the top.

 

 

Tailor questions based on answers

You can set up a survey so that people only see certain sections based on their answers.

• Create screening questions, then show tailored question sets for each demographic or audience segment.
• Find out why people chose certain answers.

Learn how

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. At the bottom right, click More  Go to section based on answer. You can also choose Submit form if you want the survey to end based on an answer.
3. Choose specific sections to send people to.

Learn more at the Google Docs Editors Help Center

Tips to set up your form

Use a theme with your organization's branding

Keep your organization's branding consistent by applying a branded theme to your form or quiz.

Learn how

1. In Google Forms, open a form.
2. Click Customize theme .
3. Under "Themes," click a theme.

Note: Organization-branded themes appear only if your administrator makes them available.

 

 

Copy a form or quiz

Create a new form or quiz based on an existing one. For example, if you want two versions of a quiz that differ slightly, make a copy of one and update it. Or, you can tailor a survey by creating several versions for different audiences.

Learn how

1. In Google Forms, open the form or quiz you want to copy.
2. In the top-right corner, click MoreMake a copy.
3. Name the copy.
4. (Optional) To change the file location in Google Drive, click the folder and specify the new location.
5. (Optional) To share the copy with the same collaborators, check the Share it with the same people box.
6. Click OK.

 

 

Customize a form's confirmation message

When people submit a form or quiz in Google Forms, they get a confirmation message. You can tailor this message for any form or quiz. For example, you might want to give people an exact date that you’ll get back to them with the results.

Learn how

You can customize the message people get after they submit the form.

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. At the top of the form, click Settings.
3. Next to “Presentation,” click the Down arrow .
4. Next to "Confirmation message," click Edit.
5. Enter your message.
6. Click Save.

 

 

Randomize questions and answers

Avoid response biases and collect more accurate data by randomizing the order of your questions or answers. Questions and answers appear in a different order for everyone who fills out your form. 

Note: Questions and answers will only be shuffled once per email address. Make sure each address is entered separately and not sent to a Google Group.

Learn how

Shuffle question order

Important: If you want your questions to appear in a specific order, you should not shuffle your questions.

1. At the top of the form, click Settings.
2. Next to “Presentation,” click the Down arrow .
3. Under “Form presentation,” turn on Shuffle question order.

Shuffle answer options

You can shuffle answers to multiple choice, checkbox, and drop-down questions.

1. Click the question you want to shuffle answers for.
2. In the bottom right, click More .
3. Click Shuffle option order.

Ways to share forms

Invite people to review your form

You can work together on a form by sharing it with collaborators. Whoever you invite can edit any part of your form, including responses and where they are saved.

Learn how

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. In the top right, click More .
3. Click Add collaborators.
4. Click "Invite people."
5. In the "Add editors" window, add email addresses to share it with others.
6. Click Send.

Learn more at the Google Docs Editors Help Center

 

 

Add forms to your website or blog

• Feedback survey–Get feedback from visitors to your website or blog.
• Sign-up form—Let people enter their contact information to subscribe to your newsletter.
• Technical support form–Visitors can let you know if something on your website is broken.
• Registration form–Let people register for upcoming events on your website.
• Application form–Let people apply for contests, job positions, and more.

Learn how

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. In the top right, click Send.
3. At the top of the window, click Embed .
4. To copy the HTML that appears, click Copy or press Ctrl + c (Windows) or ⌘ + c (Mac) on your keyboard.
5. Paste the HTML into your website or blog.

 

 

Create an online registration form

Create an online registration form so people can sign up for your event anytime, anywhere.

• Create online registration forms for patients.
• Students or attendees can sign up for a course or event.
• Keep track of who signed up so you can plan your event accordingly.

Learn how

1. Create a new form.
2. Click Add question to add registration questions.
3. Click Send and enter people's email addresses.
4. Click Send.
5. Click Responses to see people’s replies to date.

Learn more at the Google Docs Editors Help Center

Customize quizzes

Lock Chromebooks during a quiz

You can help keep students focused while they take quizzes and tests on their Chromebooks. When students take a quiz in locked mode, they won’t be able to browse other websites or open any other apps.

Learn how

1. Open a quiz in Google Forms.
2. At the top of the quiz, click Settings.
3. Under “Chromebook settings,” turn on Locked mode.

 

 

Assign points to quiz answers

You can specify how many points an answer is worth for these question types: multiple choice, checkbox, dropdown, and short answer. You can also specify how many points a correct answer is worth.

Learn how

1. Open a quiz and click a question.
2. Click Answer key.
3. Next to the question, enter the number of points the correct answer is worth.
4. Click Done to go back to the question. Changes save automatically.

Tip: To change whether people can see how many points a question is worth, or to set a default number of points for all questions, click Settings.

 

 

Validate responses to quiz questions

You can create rules that people have to follow when they fill out your quiz. For example, if you ask for email addresses, you can make sure that people can only submit properly formatted email addresses.

Learn how

1. In a quiz, select a short answer, paragraph, or checkbox question.
2. Click More Response validation.
3. Choose the type of rule you want.
4. (Optional) To let people see an error message when they enter an answer that breaks your rules, enter a message in the Custom error text field.
5. Turn on Required.

 

 

Identify student information in quizzes

Sometimes you want to give the same quiz to different groups. For example, if you’re a teacher and you have different periods for the same class, you might want to identify which period each student is in. Instead of creating multiple quizzes, use Google Forms to create a single quiz that has a section to identify each student’s group.

 

Learn how

1. In Forms, open a quiz or click Blank Quiz.
2. If you’re creating a new quiz, enter the quiz questions.
3. Click Add section .
4. Name your section. Click Untitled Section and enter a section name, for example Student group.
5. Make this new section the first section:
   1. In the new section, click More Move section.
   2. Next to your new section, click the Up arrow to make it the first section.
   3. Click Save.
6. To track students’ names and periods in the new section:
   1. Click Add question and enter What is your name? The short answer format works for this type of question.
   2. Make sure the Required switch is  on so students answer the question.
   3. Click Add question and enter Which period are you in? The multiple choice format or a drop-down list works for this type of question.
   4. Enter the period options.
   5. Make sure the Required switch is on .

      Changes are automatically saved in Forms. 

7. At the top, click Preview  to see how the quiz will appear to respondents.
8. When you’re ready, click Send.

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