Master Microsoft Forms: Your Ultimate Guide to Surveys, Quizzes, and Polls

Microsoft Forms is a versatile tool that makes creating surveys, quizzes, and polls a breeze. Whether you're collecting feedback, organizing an event, or conducting a quiz, Microsoft Forms can help you gather and analyze data with ease. In this guide, we'll walk you through how to use Microsoft Forms effectively.

There are two ways you can access Microsoft Forms. 

Option 1: 

1. Sign into office.com with your credentials. 
2. In the top left corner click the app launcher (9 dotted square) to expand the application menu bar.
3. If you don’t see Forms in the Apps menu, select “All apps” icon and find Forms there. 

Option 2:

1. Navigate to forms.office.com

How to Navigate the Forms Dashboard

Navigating the Forms Dashboard is straightforward and user-friendly. Here’s how you can make the most of it:

Getting Started: When you open Microsoft Forms, you'll have several options right at your fingertips:

• New Form: Start a fresh survey, questionnaire, or feedback form
• New Quiz: Craft a quiz for educational or training purposes.
• Quick import: Quickly generate a form or quiz from an existing file.

Navigation Options: The navigator options in Microsoft Forms serve to enhance user experience and streamline form management. Each option has a specific purpose:

• Recent Tab: Quickly access forms and quizzes you've recently worked on, saving you time searching for them.
• My Forms Tab: View all the forms and quizzes you’ve created, providing an organized list of your own work.
• Filled Forms Tab: Keep track of forms or quizzes that you have completed or submitted, helping you review your past responses.
• Shared with Me Tab: Access forms or quizzes that others have shared with you, facilitating collaboration and teamwork.
• Favorites Tab: Easily find and access forms or quizzes you've marked as favorites, ensuring that frequently used or important forms are always at your fingertips

Groups: At the bottom of the dashboard, you'll find a list of your groups. Here, you can create forms and share them with your team, ensuring smooth and effective collaboration.

Now that we've mastered the Dashboard, let's dive into creating our first form!

• Click on the New Form button to get started.
• In the “Let’s get started! What’s your form about?” box, give your form a title and a brief description of what it’s about.
• Next, click on Quick Start to choose the type of question you’d like to begin with. Here’s a quick look at the options available:

• • Choice: Create multiple-choice questions where respondents can select one or more answers.
  • Text: Allow respondents to provide open-ended text responses for more detailed feedback.
  • Date: Let respondents pick specific dates using a calendar.
  • Ranking: Enable respondents to rank items in order of preference.
  • Likert: Use a scale to measure attitudes or opinions, ranging from strong agreement to strong disagreement.
  • Rating: Ask respondents to rate items using a star or numerical scale.
  • Upload File: Let respondents upload files, such as documents or images, as part of their responses.
  • Net Promoter Score: Measure customer loyalty by asking how likely respondents are to recommend your product or service.
  • Section: Organize your form into sections, which is especially useful for creating multi-page forms or grouping related questions
• You can also make questions required or optional by toggling the required button. For more customization, click the three dots to add subtitles, labels, or even apply branching to your questions.

How to customize your form 

• After creating the content for your form, in the upper right corner select Style. Here you can choose a background image and theme for your form, or by selecting the suggested or customized tab. 

How to send off your form and collect responses 

• Once you've customized your form, click on the Preview tab at the top to see how it looks on both mobile and desktop. If needed, you can go back and make any adjustments or edits.
• To share your form, you can either copy the provided URL under Collect Responses and send it as a link, or simply enter the name, group, or email address in the box below and hit the green button to send it directly.

• Below the box, you also have the option to send the form as an invite, generate a QR code, or have your web designer embed it on your website with the provided code. You also have the option to send via Outlook or a Teams (message only) at the bottom of the box.

• As responses start coming in, head over to the View Responses tab to view all the data. You’ll be able to see the results displayed in both graphs and detailed data, giving you a clear overview of the responses.

Now that we've covered how you can use Forms to turn your data into actionable insights, we encourage you to dive in and get started right away by signing in to Microsoft Forms with your M365 account.

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