Question Types and Editing a Form

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How to create different types of questions and the implications for the final form.

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Question Types and Editing a Form Solution
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Quick reference

Question types and editing a form

Several elements can be added to a Google Form from the sidebar, including several types of questions.

When to use

When you need to add content to your Google Form.

Instructions

“Add” sidebar

  • Add question - Add a question
  • Add Title and description - Add a title with a description
  • Add image - Add an image
  • Add video - Add a video from Youtube
  • Add section - Add a new page

Question types

NOTE: Click the three dots to access additional options

  • Short answer - Write less than one line of text
    • Data validation: Control what counts as an acceptable answer
  • Paragraph - Write multiple lines of text
    • Data validation: Control what counts as an acceptable answer
  • Multiple choice - Choose one option
    • Go to section based on answer: Send the respondent to a specific page based on the option they chose
    • Shuffle option order: Randomly mix question options
  • Checkboxes - Choose multiple options
    • Data validation: Control what counts as an acceptable answer
    • Shuffle option order: Randomly mix question options
  • Dropdown - Choose one option from a dropdown list
    • Go to section based on answer: Send the respondent to a specific page based on the option they chose
    • Shuffle option order: Randomly mix question options
  • Linear scale - Choose a point on a line
  • Multiple choice grid - Choose options from several rows and columns
    • Limit to one response per column: Allows each column to be selected only once
    • Shuffle row order: Randomly mix rows
  • Date - Choose a date
    • Include time: Includes time
    • Include year: Includes year
  • Time - Choose a time
    • Time: Respondents ender a point in time
    • Duration: Respondents enter a period of time

Question options

  • Duplicate - Create another identical question
  • Delete - Delete this question
  • Required - Respondents must answer this question before they can complete the form
  • Description - Add a description
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  • 00:04 In order to get great results from your forms, you need to ask great questions.
  • 00:10 So let's get familiar with the different question types available to us.
  • 00:14 Again, we are dealing with our basic color quiz, but
  • 00:18 of course this isn't much of a quiz if I've only asked one question.
  • 00:22 So let's see how we can add more.
  • 00:25 In the right hand side, we have a small sidebar and
  • 00:28 at the very top is the ability to add a question.
  • 00:32 But let's take a quick look at the other options available to us here as well.
  • 00:36 We can add an additional title and description.
  • 00:39 This is different than the title at the top of the quiz,
  • 00:42 perhaps we'd like a section heading or a title somewhere in the middle of our quiz.
  • 00:47 We also have the ability to add an image or even add a video in our quiz.
  • 00:53 And lastly, if we'd like to break things up into multiple pages,
  • 00:58 we can add a separate section.
  • 01:00 But let's start at the top with adding a question.
  • 01:03 So I'm gonna add a new question, and
  • 01:05 one of the first decisions you will want to make is what type of question this is.
  • 01:10 So I'm gonna start by typing in the question, I'm gonna ask what is your name.
  • 01:16 But of course I don't want this to be a multiple choice question,
  • 01:19 in fact Google Forms is smart enough it has looked at my question,
  • 01:23 and yeah, it's actually given me what I desire.
  • 01:26 I want a short answer question.
  • 01:29 By clicking on this drop-down, you can see the Full list of questions and
  • 01:33 answer types available to you.
  • 01:35 In this case, I want to select Short answer.
  • 01:38 And, the user will receive just a single text
  • 01:42 box to input their first and or last name.
  • 01:45 But because this is most valuable to me,
  • 01:48 I'd actually like to make sure that this question is always answered.
  • 01:51 So I'm gonna come down here and I'm gonna select Required,
  • 01:55 and that means that the user will not be able to submit
  • 01:58 this form until they have successfully answered this question.
  • 02:03 Two other things we want to be familiar with.
  • 02:05 If we want to remove a question we simply select the trashcan, and
  • 02:09 if we'd like to duplicate this question, we can select this icon here.
  • 02:14 Okay, let's add another question, and in this case I want to add a sliding scale.
  • 02:21 The question I'm gonna ask is how likely will you share,
  • 02:28 This quiz with others?
  • 02:34 And again Google Forms has done a very good job of giving me what I desire.
  • 02:38 I want a linear scale.
  • 02:41 So you've probably seen this many times in the past.
  • 02:44 They're gonna get a ranking or a variety of radio buttons, in this case,
  • 02:49 between 1 and 5.
  • 02:50 Now you can change these settings if you like.
  • 02:53 Maybe I'd like to give them a few more options.
  • 02:55 I'm gonna select a 7 in this case.
  • 02:58 And to be even more helpful, to be even more clear, you can add labels.
  • 03:03 So for number 1 I'm gonna say Not likely, and for
  • 03:07 number 7 I'm gonna say Very likely.
  • 03:11 Just so the user is very clear as to what these numbers represent.
  • 03:15 Now just before we preview this quiz,
  • 03:17 let's change the order of some of these questions.
  • 03:20 I'd like this question to be first in this particular form.
  • 03:24 So to move any question, just click and drag these six small dots and
  • 03:29 then drag your question to the desired location.
  • 03:33 Perfect.
  • 03:34 I'm gonna ask them their name first, followed by the primary color question,
  • 03:39 and then I've got my scale down below.
  • 03:41 So let's go back to our preview icon and we can open up this form and
  • 03:46 see exactly what it will look like to users who receive it.
  • 03:51 You will see that it has a red asterisk with the first question,
  • 03:54 that's because we made that question required, and they will not be able to
  • 03:59 successfully submit this quiz until something is entered in this field.
  • 04:04 We have our favorite primary color question here.
  • 04:07 And then lastly, we have our linear scale.
  • 04:10 So here, you see our two labels, Not likely on the one side,
  • 04:13 Very likely on the other side.
  • 04:15 And then we can make our selection here.
  • 04:18 So get familiar with the different types of questions available to
  • 04:23 you as you're creating your forms here within Google Forms.

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