What are Google Forms and What are They Used For

Every business has to conduct polls and surveys among employees and customers, collecting important data. Google Forms helps to solve these problems easily and quickly. From our article, you will learn what Google Forms are, what the capabilities of this tool, how to create a questionnaire with it, and what alternatives are better to use if your needs go beyond this service.  

Content:
1. General characteristics of Google Forms
2. What are Google Forms for?
3. Advantages and disadvantages
4. How to create a survey in Google Forms
5. Examples of using Google Forms
6. Google Forms Integration
7. Alternatives to Google Forms
8. Summing up

Google Forms is an online survey administration tool with which you can make a poll, test, questionnaire, data collection form. It included in the Google Drive software package (comes bundled with Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Slides).

In 2008, Google Forms were just a part of Google Sheets. Developing the tool, the developers periodically supplemented the features. In 2016, Forms were spun off into a separate program.

To understand how to work with Google Forms, you do not need to take special courses. The application has an intuitive interface. To create a questionnaire or survey, there are many ready-made templates. If none of them are to your liking, you can make an individual version. The range of settings is quite wide: embedding a picture or video in a question, answers with options or open (with the ability to give a reasoned explanation of one's position), complex questions with conditions (after answering the user is automatically redirected to a page dedicated to this answer).

You can work collectively on the creation and correction of forms, which is very convenient. Distribution of the finished questionnaire is carried out by placing a link to it or sharing. The results are displayed in the form of a graph, since the answers sent by the respondents are automatically included in Google Sheets.

Google Forms is a cross-platform service. This means that you can use it not only on a personal computer, but also on a tablet or smartphone. All data is successfully synchronized between devices.

The scope of Google Forms is extensive: education, medicine, economics, business, services. Most often they are used to conduct a survey among the company's customers or to check the level of knowledge of students.

Basically, the Google Forms tool is in demand today for solving such problems:

Among the advantages of Google Forms are:

Cons of the online tool:

The first step is to sign in to your Google account. Then click the Google Application icon and select the Forms icon from the list that opens.

The second step is to click on the "+" sign in the lower right corner of the window. Check out a set of ready-made templates (click on the icon you like to view) or start creating an individual version.

The third step - in the window that opens, you will need to perform the following actions in order:

It's all. The form is ready. You can not look for the Save button, it is not here. The form is saved automatically.

Important point! If you plan to collect personal data of people through the form, do not forget to check the box "Consent to the processing of personal data". It should be the last question with the only possible answer "Yes" and marked "required". To confirm their consent, the user only needs to click on this answer.  

Google Forms has firmly entered our digital life. Surely, many at least once faced with filling out a questionnaire or survey created using this tool. Consider a few examples of successful use of the program.

Kharkiv call center NewCall opened a vacancy for an operator (client manager). Applicants for employment were asked to fill out a form, and then wait for a connection via the Telegram messenger. The form included both multiple-choice questions and self-answer fields:

On the Pisochynsʹkyy Litsey "Mobil" website, teachers post assignments for their students, accompanying them with links to a form with a control test to test previously acquired knowledge. These forms usually consist of 12 multiple-choice questions. Each correct answer is worth 1 point. Here is an example of a form dedicated to the topic “Mental and spiritual components of health”:

As part of the annual international festival "Book Arsenal" in 2017, the competition "The Best Book Design 2017" was announced. Ukrainian publishing houses could apply for those books that were created by Ukrainian designers or illustrators and printed between May 2016 and April 2017. The application form looked like this:

All questions except the last one were marked "required".

The Google Forms tool existed for a long time on its own and did not interact with other Google services in any way. Form responses are now freely integrated into Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Drawings .

You can place a diagram on your Docs page with an article, which will be automatically constructed from the answers sent in the forms. It is very convenient that the data is not just copied, but duplicated. So when you get new answers, all you have to do is click the Refresh button and the chart will show the changes. Anyone who you give the right to edit a document or presentation can do the same.

Want to get the most out of Google Forms? Then it's worth integrating them with other systems and services using ApiX-Drive . This platform provides the ability to integrate with hundreds of different applications. It allows you to transfer information from your forms to other programs, send personal notifications. In a word, you will be able to tie almost all your workflows on forms.

Here's what you can do with and with the new Google Forms responses in an integration built with ApiX-Drive:

There is only one caveat: in order to work with ApiX-Drive, your forms must be linked to Google Sheets. Check if the entries from your forms are stored in a table specially created for this purpose. If yes, you can integrate this table with other services. For example, with Asana .

The fastest and most reliable way to embed a Google form on your site is to copy and paste the special code into the desired page of your site.

This code might look like this:

Instead of "Form ID", you need to substitute a unique identifier. Getting it is very simple: open the form in edit mode and copy part of the address bar.

After inserting such a code into the page, the corresponding Google work form will appear on your site, which visitors can use.

Many people like Google Forms. And this is not surprising: a free and uncomplicated online form builder is able to quickly and efficiently poll your entire audience. True, those who have special wishes that go beyond the functionality proposed by the developers may have difficulties. The uncomplicated design and the lack of some functions make it impossible to meet the increased needs for collecting information.

If you have non-standard form requirements, it is recommended to choose a suitable alternative to Google Forms. The main criteria are sufficient flexibility and adequate cost. We suggest you familiarize yourself with online tools that can compete with Google Forms:

Google Forms is one of the most convenient and simple online tools for collecting various information. Even a beginner with minimal computer skills can manage it.

The well-thought-out structure and content of the created form turns it into an effective means of attracting new customers or obtaining important data from employees, testing the level of students' knowledge or conducting sociological research. All that is required of the user is the ability to choose questions in such a way as to get the maximum benefit from the answers for himself or the company.

Apix-Drive is a universal tool that will quickly streamline any workflow, freeing you from routine and possible financial losses. Try ApiX-Drive in action and see how useful it is for you personally. In the meantime, you are setting up connections between systems, think about where you are investing your free time, because now you will have much more of it.