Google Surveys are one of the most used features of Google Drive since 2008. Taking surveys was never easy, but this tool has not only assisted in creating surveys effortlessly but also helped in distributing them on different platforms alongwith recording feedback automatically in a comprehensive manner. Today not only business professionals but people from various fields are regularly using this tool.

If you are a student working on your field assignment or maybe a researcher and are new to this feature, we have made a complete guide here to get you started with this tool in a jiffy. Here is how you can make a Google Survey in 11 simple steps, followed by guides to help you customise the survey form further, share it as well as collaborate with other users to work on the survey.

Creating a Google Survey

Step 1: Open Google Drive on your browser and tap on the New button.Step 2: From the drop-down menu hover to More and click on Google Forms.

Step 3: A form will open in a new tab. Give your survey a title using the Untitled form box at the top.

Step 4: You can also set an optional description to give your survey a professional look, by clicking on Form Description under the title, as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 5: Now to prepare your survey questionnaire, click on the Untitled question bar to write a question.

Step 6: There are various options using which you can get your response to the said question like short answer, multiple-choice, checkboxes and many more. To enable any of the ones simply press the pull-down arrow next to your question and choose the same from the drop-down list.

Let’s understand a bit about these options.

Multiple choice: As you might be familiar with this one, it is a widely used format where the respondent has to choose one alternative which he finds correct from the given options.
Checkboxes: Whereas with checkboxes, you can give more than one response.
Short answer and paragraph: These options can be used when you are seeking a detailed reply to the given query.
Drop-down: It resembles the multiple-choice option wherein instead of marking your desired response, you select one from the arrow pull-down menu.
Linear Scale: Here, you register your answer on the rating scale of 1 to 5.
Date and Time: Simple selection of date and time is what required from the respondent.

Step 7: If you have selected multiple-choice, tap on the Option1 bar and write a preference for the response and for adding more alternatives, click on the Add Option button.Step 8: To make the response mandatory simply hit the toggle icon at the bottom right of the question.Step 9: For listing more questions, click on the Add Question icon from the side toolbar.Step 10: With every new question, you can also change the response type or simply retain the previous one, it all depends on the users.Step 11: Besides adding a question, you can also put other add-ons, which are as follows.

Two rectangle boxes: This helps in breaking the survey in different sections.
The TT bottom: Whereas, it is used to add another title and description for defining a new section in the survey.
The photo and video button: Allow you to illustrate and make the survey more elegant.
Import questions button: If you have already prepared the related questions to the said survey in the past, by using this option, you can directly import all the required ones to your new survey.

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How to Customise the survey theme?

Step 1: Click on the palette icon at the top of the screen.

Step 2: From the drop-down menu, choose any of the options to customise your survey appearance.

Header: With this option, you can either choose an image from the Google Drive library or can upload one from your device.
Theme Colour: It allows you to choose a colour for the survey header boundary, which can even be customised further.
Background Colour: As the name suggests, you can assign a colour to your survey background.
Font Style: For styling the look of your questions and title.

Step 3: You can preview the survey at any time by clicking on the eye icon from the toolbar at the top.

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How to add a Collaborator to the survey?

This feature is beneficial when two or more people are working in unison on a project. Instead of working separately on new ideas and questions for the survey, they can provide valuable input on a single platform alongwith analysing the progress together.

If you wish to collude with a friend or a colleague or maybe want to seek expert opinion for your survey, this is how you can add a collaborator.

Step 1: Tap on the send button at the top right of the screen.Step 2: On the pop-up window, go to the bottom left of the page and click Add Collaborators.Step 3: Sharing settings page will unfold, on the said tab go to the email address bar under invite people and write the email address of the person you wish to send the collaboration link. You can also impose some limitation on others by hitting on restriction checkbox. Step 4: Finally click on the Send button to post the link to the collaborator’s email address. Also read: How to close Google Forms manually and automatically?

How to customise settings?

Step 1: Click on the gear icon at the top right corner of the screen for tweaking your survey further.Step 2: On the settings window, you get several options under three heads, namely General, Presentation and Quizzes.

General: Below this selection, you can select the Collect email addresses option to receive the emails of the respondents. You can also limit the responses to one for every responder. If you want the respondents to get a copy of the form, tap on Response receipts. Also, if you apply the Requires sign-in option, the respondents will have to sign-in with their Google account to fill the survey.

Similarly, if you want the respondents to edit the survey after submitting the result, tick mark on Edit after submitting under the Respondent can: sub-heading (refer to the screenshot above).

Presentation: Underneath this heading, you can choose to shuffle the questions every time responder fills the survey repeatedly and also make the respondent see progress bar so that they know how many questions are still unanswered.

Quiz: If you want the survey to be in a Quiz form, then click on the Quizzes option at the top and then turn on the toggle besides Make this a quiz. When you are done with the tweaks, click on Save option at the bottom right.

Also read: How to create and embed Google Form in Gmail, WordPress and a website?

How to share the survey?

Step 1: After finishing with the customisation hit the Send button from the toolbar at the top.

Step 2: A pop-up will appear from where you will get multiple options for distributing the survey.

Send via mail: If you have the email addresses of all the people you are targeting, add their email alongwith the subject and a message to garner their attention.

Send via hyperlink: It is the fastest and easiest way of sending your survey. All you need to do is to copy the URL and send it to your targeted crowd by either embedding it in any document or through any messenger platform.

Send via HTML tag: You can also send the survey by embedding the HTML code into Blackboard or any other learning management system.

Social media forums: Survey can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter, among other social networks.

Step 3: After you’ve sent the survey, you can check all the feedback by clicking on the Response button. Also read: How to join or leave a Google Classroom?