Getting started with collecting information with Microsoft Forms is as easy as giving your form a name and description, adding questions, and sharing a link to your form. You can choose from a range of question types, including single or multi choice, test, dates, and ratings. Use the pre-set themes to customise the look of your form. Forms are responsive and display perfectly on mobile devices as well as desktops.
When it comes to collecting responses, you’re in control of who can respond. You can choose to allow anyone to respond or just people from your organisation. I usually copy the link from the Share panel and add it to an email or webpage. However, you can also create a QR code for your form, embed your form in a webpage, or send it through an automatically created customisable email.
Responses can be viewed as an aggregate, individually, or in an Excel spreadsheet. The aggregate view includes summaries for each question, along with graphs. A more details link on each question allows you to drill down further. For greater flexibility, Excel allows you to analyse your data and create tables and graphs to help communicate your findings. With forms created in OneDrive for Business or Excel Online, you have the option to keep your form linked to your Excel workbook so new responses are added automatically.
Microsoft Forms has some other useful features up its sleeve too. Adding sections to a form allows you to break longer forms up into smaller chunks that are displayed as pages when users fill them out. Conditional branching allows you to customise the flow of your questions depending on users’ responses. For example, you might ask if a customer would like to be contacted as part of a customer satisfaction survey. If they answer yes, a section or question asking for their contact details can be displayed.
Integrating with Microsoft Power Automation, allows forms to become frontends for more sophisticated processes. Responses can be emailed once they have been received; added to Microsoft To Do or a plan in Planner, to SharePoint Lists and take advantage of workflow processes; or become part of a Power BI dataset. The opportunities for integration are endless.
How could you use a form to collect data and drive your business decision making?