Google Sheets Add-Ons for Creating Forms

As you would see from the wide variety of tutorials that we already have in our library, you can do so many things with Google Sheets, from simple calculation to advanced data analysis! Sometimes, however, the exact feature that you need is either not possible within the current design of Google Sheets, or it requires you to code it via the Google Apps Script. For these times, there is a third option: via the Google Sheets add-ons! Google Sheets has a wide variety of add-ons that you can install in order to add functionality to any spreadsheet. Some of the additional functionalities that add-ons can provide are the following:

• Data gathering
• Forms
• Spreadsheet formatting
• Number crunching

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As Google has its own Google Forms, you can integrate Google Forms with Google Sheets. Google Forms, however, has its own limits. For example, Google Forms allows you to create a new spreadsheet storing the form responses, so that you can apply data analysis methods available via Google Sheets. However, you cannot list questions in Google Sheets and then generate Google Forms from the spreadsheet. 

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Why do we mention this? Setting up Google Forms can be a hassle. It does not have an automated method of generating forms from a set list of questions. Fortunately, we have add-ons that can accomplish that exact goal. In this article, we will list three add-ons for generating Google Forms from Google Sheets. 

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How to install add-ons to Google Sheets

To access Google Sheets add-ons, click Extensions in the main toolbar, then Add-ons, then Get add-ons.

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Google Workspace Marketplace will be loaded.

The Google Workspace Marketplace is where add-ons can be accessed and then added to your Google Sheets spreadsheets. They are third-party apps that add functionality to Google services such as Google Sheets. Here are the steps, using SyncWith | Any API as an example.

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Step 1: Click on an add-on, then the page containing the description of the add-on will appear. To install it, click the Install button. 

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Step 2: A small box with the label Get ready to install will appear. Click Continue. 

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Step 3: A new window will appear, asking you to select the Google account where you want to use the add-on.

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After selecting the account, the list of permissions will appear. Click Allow. 

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The add-on will now be listed under Extensions. To select the add-on to use, simply go to Extensions option in the main toolbar and click the add-on. 

FormCreator

With more than 10 million users, FormCreator is the most popular add-on for generating forms from a list of questions in Google Sheets. When you first enable FormCreator from the Extensions option in the main menu, you will choose to either create a form quiz with feedback or none. A form quiz with feedback is simply a quiz that contains the correct answer. This is best when you are creating the form as a quiz. If you are creating the form to collect responses, you should choose the plain form quiz.

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A sheet named FormCreator Questions Template will appear that contains several columns for options for each question, depending on the type of question you use. It also contains sample questions for each type. You can add questions, add their choices, and then configure them.

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Once you are done, go to Extensions, click FormCreator, then click Create Form. You will be prompted to add the name of the Form, and then click on the button beside the Quiz label if the form is a quiz (thus having numerical value for each correct answer). Click Create Form.

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Here is the screenshot of the resulting form:

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FormCreator is not exactly free: you can only add a limited number of questions to your forms per week, and you will need to pay for a subscription if you want to add more than 30 questions to your forms per week. 

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Types of questions you can create with FormCreator

• Multiple choice
• Checkbox
• Grid
• Scale

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Form Builder

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With almost 1.4 million users, Form Builder takes a slightly different approach by relying on the formatting of your existing list of questions, and then offering a set of options so you can set which column contains the question and which columns contain the choices (for the case of multiple choices). 

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After setting the options, click Get. It will scan the rows and then identify each question and its options. You can check the list before loading it to Google Forms. If everything works well, click Create, then click Import Selected. 

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Sample sheet generated by Form Builder for Sheets:

Types of questions you can create with FormCreator

• Multiple choice
• Checkbox
• Dropdown box

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Form Maker

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Trailing Form Builder closely with more than 1.3 million users, Form Maker is another robust alternative. Like FormCreator, you also use a preformatted sheet to list the questions and specify the relevant options for each one. To create the preformatted sheet, click Create sheet. Afterwards, add the questions to the sheet to 

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After you finish adding information about the form, click Form, then click Update/Add. 

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You can receive a 10 day free trial for the add-on, but afterwards you must pay a subscription fee, ranging from $30.00 to $300.00 per year. 

Types of questions you can create with FormCreator

• Short text and Paragraph text
• Multiple choice
• Dropdown
• Checkbox
• Scale
• Grid and Checkbox Grid
• Date and Time