Difference between revisions of "Microsoft Forms"

Latest revision as of 15:54, 30 April 2026

Microsoft Forms is a lightweight tool used to create surveys, quizzes, and polls. While easy to start, following these best practices ensures your data remains secure and accessible to your team.

Step-by-Step Guides

Creating & Designing

Forms start at forms.office.com

Create a new form: Choose between a standard form or a self-grading quiz.
Add branching logic: Send respondents to different questions based on their previous answers.
Using the Evergreen Form Template: Ensure your form meets college branding and security standards.

Sharing & Security

Adjusting Settings: Control who can see your form (Evergreen-only vs. Anyone with the link) and set closing dates.
Sharing for collaboration: Invite colleagues to help edit the form questions.

Send & Collect Responses

When you are ready to go live, click the Collect Responses button.

Send and Collect Responses: choose who can respond and how to send your form.
Shorten URL: Check the Shorten URL box to generate a cleaner, more professional link that is easier to share in emails or on printed materials.
File Uploads & Security: If you need to add a File Upload question, Microsoft requires the form to be set to "Only people in my organization can respond."
- Why? Because uploaded files are stored in a secure SharePoint or OneDrive folder, the system must authenticate the user to ensure the files are handled safely and mapped to the correct respondent.
- Note: You cannot collect attachments from "Anonymous" or external respondents.

Forms Checklist:

[ ] Is it shared with a Team/Group?
[ ] Is the Shorten URL box checked?

[ ] Did you Preview both the computer and mobile views?

Managing Responses

Check and share your form results:
- Open the form for which you want to review the results, and then select View responses.
- See a high-level summary of charts and graphs directly in your browser.

Best Practices

Collaborative Ownership (Don't Fly Solo)

A common mistake is creating a form under an individual's account. If that person leaves the college or is unavailable, the form and its data become inaccessible.

Best Practice: Create a form in a Microsoft 365 Group or transfer ownership to a Team.
Why? This ensures that all members of your department or project team can manage the form and view responses, preventing "orphaned" forms.
Learn how to Move your Form to a Group

Working with Results & Excel

Every form automatically compiles results into an Excel spreadsheet. You can view these in real-time.

⚠️ CRITICAL: Do Not Edit the Linked Spreadsheet
Manual changes to headers or row structure in Excel will break the connection to your form.

To keep your data syncing correctly, do not manually add columns, delete rows, or rename headers directly in the Excel file that is connected to your form.

Doing so can corrupt the sync connection, causing new form responses to stop appearing in your spreadsheet.
If you need to analyze or manipulate the data, Export a copy of the data or use a separate "Pivot" sheet to pull data from the original.
See also: Troubleshooting Form Sync issues

Forms from Microsoft Lists

If you are managing data within Microsoft Lists, you can create a form directly from the list to streamline data entry. See: Create a Form from a Microsoft List

When to use Forms vs. When to use Lists

Forms are for one-way data collection (surveys, simple registrations).
Lists are for ongoing data management and tracking.

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 {{TwoColumn
-|lead=
+|lead= [[File:Microsoft-Forms.svg|50px|left]] '''Microsoft Forms''' is a lightweight tool used to create surveys, quizzes, and polls. While easy to start, following these best practices ensures your data remains secure and accessible to your team.
-[[File:Microsoft-Forms.svg|75px|left]] '''Microsoft Forms''' allows you to quickly create polls, quizzes, and surveys. Data is compiled in real-time and can be exported directly into a spreadsheet for analysis.
 |content=
 <hr />
+===Step-by-Step Guides===
+====Creating & Designing====
+Forms start at '''[https://forms.office.com forms.office.com]'''
+* '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-form-with-microsoft-forms-4ffb64cc-7d5d-402f-b82e-b1d49418fd9d Create a new form]:''' Choose between a standard form or a self-grading quiz.
+* '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-branching-logic-in-microsoft-forms-16634fda-eddb-44da-856d-6a8213f0d8bb Add branching logic:]''' Send respondents to different questions based on their previous answers.
+* '''[[Using the Evergreen Form Template]]:''' Ensure your form meets college branding and security standards.
 <br />
-===Getting Started===
+====Sharing & Security====
-[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-form-with-microsoft-forms-4ffb64cc-7d5d-402f-b82e-b1d49418fd9d Create a Form]
+* '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/adjust-your-form-or-quiz-settings-in-microsoft-forms-f255a4ba-e03c-4e12-b880-f7e8b62e0665 Adjusting Settings:]''' Control who can see your form (Evergreen-only vs. Anyone with the link) and set closing dates.
+* '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-and-collaborate-911d4817-6bbb-4286-80a7-3251afd89e9d Sharing for collaboration:]''' Invite colleagues to help edit the form questions.
-=== [[Using the Evergreen Form Template]] ===
+<br />
-When conducting official college business, '''always use the Evergreen-approved template.''' This ensures the security of sensitive data (like user emails) and helps respondents verify that the form is an official college document.
+====Send & Collect Responses====
+When you are ready to go live, click the '''Collect Responses''' button.
+* '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/send-a-form-and-collect-responses-2eaf3294-0cff-492d-884d-a1dee909e845 Send and Collect Responses]:''' choose who can respond and how to send your form.
+* '''Shorten URL:''' Check the Shorten URL box to generate a cleaner, more professional link that is easier to share in emails or on printed materials.
+* '''File Uploads & Security:''' If you need to add a File Upload question, Microsoft requires the form to be set to '''"Only people in my organization can respond."'''
+** '''Why?''' Because uploaded files are stored in a secure SharePoint or OneDrive folder, the system must authenticate the user to ensure the files are handled safely and mapped to the correct respondent.
+**''Note: You cannot collect attachments from "Anonymous" or external respondents.''
+<br />
+{{infobox|content=
+'''Forms Checklist:'''<br />
+[ ] Is it shared with a '''Team/Group'''?<br />
+[ ] Is the '''Shorten URL''' box checked?<br />
+[ ] Did you '''Preview''' both the computer and mobile views?
+}}
-'''IMPORTANT:''' Start with the template first. You cannot apply Evergreen branding to an existing form later. If you’ve already started a form, you will need to copy and paste your questions into a new one created from the template.
+====Managing Responses====
+* '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/check-and-share-your-form-results-02859424-341d-406f-b32a-9a0fbaf357af Check and share your form results]:'''
+**Open the form for which you want to review the results, and then select '''View responses'''.
+** See a high-level summary of charts and graphs directly in your browser.
-=== Quick Start Guide ===
+<br />
-#'''Access the Template:''' Please submit a [https://forms.office.com/r/N978eF6R9h technology support request] to receive the link.
+----
-#'''Create Your Copy:''' Click the '''More Options (...)''' icon on the template tile and select '''Copy'''.  This creates a duplicate for your own use.
+===Best Practices===
-#'''Personalize:''' Open your duplicate and rename it to match your project.
+====Collaborative Ownership (Don't Fly Solo)====
-#'''Build & Share:''' Add your questions and adjust branching logic. Once ready, you can share via:
+A common mistake is creating a form under an individual's account. If that person leaves the college or is unavailable, the form and its data become inaccessible.
-* Direct Link
+* '''Best Practice:''' Create a form in a Microsoft 365 Group or transfer ownership to a Team.
-*Email Invitation
+* '''Why?''' This ensures that all members of your department or project team can manage the form and view responses, preventing "orphaned" forms.
-* QR Code
+* Learn how to '''[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/move-your-form-to-a-group-921a6361-a4e5-44ea-bce9-c4ed63aa54b4 Move your Form to a Group]'''
-===Linked Spreadsheets===
+<br />
-If you link a form with a spreadsheet to gather results '''do not modify the spreadsheet'''. Changing spreadsheet columns and rows can cause the form data to become unlinked.
+====Working with Results & Excel====
+Every form automatically compiles results into an Excel spreadsheet. You can view these in real-time.
+<div class="alert alert-danger" role="alert">
+⚠️ '''CRITICAL: Do Not Edit the Linked Spreadsheet'''<br />
+Manual changes to headers or row structure in Excel will break the connection to your form.
+</div>
+To keep your data syncing correctly, '''do not manually add columns, delete rows, or rename headers''' directly in the Excel file that is connected to your form.
+* Doing so '''can corrupt the sync connection''', causing new form responses to stop appearing in your spreadsheet.
+* If you need to analyze or manipulate the data, Export a copy of the data or use a separate "Pivot" sheet to pull data from the original.
+* See also: [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftformsblog/how-to-update-to-the-new-solution-for-syncing-forms-responses-to-excel/4229844 Troubleshooting Form Sync issues]
 === Forms from Microsoft Lists ===
-If you are managing data within [[Microsoft Lists]], you can create a form directly from the list to streamline data entry.
+If you are managing data within [[Microsoft Lists]], you can create a form directly from the list to streamline data entry. See:  [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/collect-information-like-a-pro-%E2%80%93-new-microsoft-lists-forms-experience/4086659 Create a Form from a Microsoft List]
-*[https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/collect-information-like-a-pro-%E2%80%93-new-microsoft-lists-forms-experience/4086659 Create a Form from a Microsoft List] (microsoft documentation)
+====When to use Forms vs. When to use Lists====
+* '''Forms''' are for '''one-way data collection''' (surveys, simple registrations).
+* '''Lists''' are for '''ongoing data management''' and tracking.