Google Forms
Now this is useful: Google announced today that you can create forms using spreadsheets in Google Docs. You may find it easiest to open a new spreadsheet, save the blank document, and go immediately to “Share,” where you’ll find the share as a form option. Following that will offer you the chance to create a form using a wizard. All of which is cool. But the kicker is that you can then send this form out via email and your recipients can fill it in without having to log into Google or, indeed, have Google accounts. Their data, sent by reply, then gets fed right into your spreadsheet.
The image below is of an email I sent to myself in order to see how easy filling out such a form would be. As you can see, it’s a piece of cake:
This makes surveys and stats collection pretty easy, it seems to me.
Thank you Google. Thank you Simon!
Hi Simon, and thank you for posting this article, I wonder if you can do the same by posting such form on a page in a Website and still get the answers right into the spreadsheet, I did it, but when you click “send” it takes the user to the login page ?? Thank you for your response.
GK
Yes, you can put the form on a page or as a link to the form. You must first send (share) the form with yourself, i.e. send the form to yourself, the links you will receive in the email will show a direct link to the online form. This is the link you will use if you choose to display a link only. If you choose to embed the form into your webpage, there is an option when you have created the form on the ‘preview and send’ page, at the top right you are allowed the option to embed, click on that copy the code and you are off to the races.
Users will not have to log in to fill out the form.