Google Forms, the company's popular forms tool, is one of the best options for creating online forms without having any knowledge of PHP, HTML, and CSS. The downside is that, unlike these types of forms, it does not have as many options as the marking code allows us. This does not mean that it does not have advanced functions to design forms to our liking. In fact, it integrates a series of tools that allow us to export the data to a CVS to insert grids. Previously we already showed you twenty tricks for Google Maps and many others for Microsoft Word. This time we have made a compilation of up to ten tricks for Google Forms to get the most out of Google forms.
Download custom templates from Google Forms
Creating a form in Google Forms from scratch may take longer than we would like. This is the reason why the company has implemented custom templates.
In addition to the ones shown on the main screen, we can choose from a total of twenty-two templates if we click on Template Gallery just above the default templates .
Change the Google Forms theme (colors, fonts, background image ...)
Once the template is chosen, Google allows us to modify the appearance of our form by changing different aspects of the theme. The colors, the background image, the typography ...
To do this, we will click on the icon of the color palette located in the upper right corner with the form in question open. We can upload our own images and choose any background color. This is not the case with text fonts, which are limited to three.
Add add-ons and plugins to Google Forms
If the functions that come by default in Google Forms fall short, we can install add-ons and external plugins from the Google store, most of them free.
In this case, we will click on the three Options points located in the upper right corner and we will click on Complements . Below we will see a multitude of plugins to install for free. Visual editors, form duplication tools and a long etcetera.
It should be noted that some of these plugins may not be verified by Google , which is why we must be cautious when installing one. If the plugin in question requires a large number of permissions, it is best to report it to Google.
Add collaborators to Google Forms forms
A very useful option if we are doing collaborative work. Adding new participants to our forms is as simple as clicking on the three Options points mentioned above and selecting the Add collaborators option .
Now we can add participants through an email or by sharing the URL that the tool will generate.
Export responses to table in CSV format
The Responses section of Google Forms can be a mess if we receive hundreds and hundreds of responses. For this reason, Google has implemented a new function that allows us to export all the results to an Excel CSV document.
As simple as clicking on the green icon at the top in the Answers section . A spreadsheet will automatically be generated with all the embedded content. We can also select a sheet already created previously so that the results are stored within it.
Add a countdown timer to forms
We return to the topic of plugins and add-ons, and this time with one in the form of a timer. The plugin in question is Timify.me, and it can be downloaded for free from the Google Forms store.
After having entered the token sent to our email to validate the plugin, we will go to the developer page and select the form to which we want to add a countdown (we must first access with our Google account). Finally, we will choose the maximum response time and the countdown will automatically be added .
Mark all questions as required
If we want to ensure that all participants answer all questions before submitting the form, Google Forms implements an option to mark all questions as mandatory.
As simple in this case as clicking on the three Options points and clicking Preferences. Then, we will enable the option to Mark the questions as mandatory .
Receive the answers of the forms in the email
It is not a native functionality of Google Forms, but one implemented by third-party plugins; specifically, Email Notifications for Forms.
Same procedure as in the case of the timer: we will install the extension in Google Forms and add our email to receive all the responses in the form of mail .
Merge two form sections in Google Forms
Form questions, as is well known, are divided into sections that are created automatically when we enter a new question. Combining them and putting them together can be a good solution to keep a certain uniformity in the form in question.
To do this, we will click on the last section that we want to combine with the first and we will give the three points corresponding to the section Options. We will give Combine with the previous one and both will automatically join . We can follow the same process in all sections to have a totally uniform form.
Limit the data entered in the form
Limit the number of responses, the amount entered in number within a predetermined range, the number of eligible options, or whatever we can think of. With the formLimiter plugin you can limit all types of data.
As with the previous plugins, the installation process is very simple. Once we have it in our Google Forms session, we will configure each field of the form with the data that we have previously predefined .