Friday November 8 |

by Santiago Baraya ( @_idigital )

I was given the responsibility of presenting how to use Google Forms to the PDT for Friducation.

I did a Friducation presentation for the PDT on how to use Google Forms. The objectives of the presentation were to showcase the tool’s advantages and any limitations, as well as explain some applications.

First, what is Google Forms?

Google forms is a google docs/google drive application and works as a click, drag and drop tool. It is commonly used on websites and digital platforms for customer service, contact forms, questionnaires and surveys.

To start using Google Forms you only need a Gmail or Google apps account (gmail based email accounts for people and companies with their own domain). The service is free for all Gmail and Google apps users.

To create your first Google Form try these easy steps:

1. Log into your Gmail or Google apps account.
2. Click on the Google drive logo.
3. Click on the red “Create” button at the top of the left sidebar.
4. Click on “Form”.
5. You are good to go.

Once you have created a form you are free to get creative with it, as if you were doing a drawing on paint or doing a presentation on Microsoft Powerpoint.

After you create a form your dashboard will have access to analytics and statistics for all the submissions you receive, and optionally you will be able to see the information on a Google Spreadsheet.

What are some of the advantages of using Google Forms?

1. It’s Free! (yes, Free)
2. It’s easy to use.
3. You can create custom surveys and personalize them with your personal / company’s brand identity.
4. It tracks submissions.
5. It calculates statistics for your and puts them in an easy-to-use dashboard.

What are some common uses for the tool?

Customer service, contact forms, questionnaires and surveys.

Finally, there is one bit of advice I would like to share with you.

Once you have a first reply you should think twice before modifying your form because any additional fields will be pushed over to the next available column in you replies spreadsheet. It’s a big glitch for tracking, especially if your form has a lot of fields and important statistics.

If your form is very general or only has a small number of fields my recommendation is to just create a new form from scratch. It’s easy to do and will work just fine 🙂

It would be very cool if you could tell us how you like the tool after you try it and if you find anything else that would be interesting to add to this article. Also, it would be amazing if you could send us a link to check out your first form.

Cheers!

For more information watch: A tour of Google Forms