Forms

A form is a kind of doc: questions anyone can answer from a link, with no account. Each response becomes a task where you say, so requests from clients, customers or anyone else land in your work instead of your inbox.

#Making a form

In Docs, choose New → Form. A form opens on its Questions tab, with a block of text to say what it's for, then a name and an email question.

Add question offers short text, long text, email, number, one choice, several choices, date, checkbox, link, files and signature - and, after a line, a heading to split the form up and Text.
Type the question in place. Add help text under it, mark it Required, and drag it by its handle to move it.
Fills in puts an answer on the task as well: its description, its due date (a date question), its priority or labels (a choice named like one), or a custom field of the same kind.

#Files

A Files question lets people attach a brief, a brand guide or screenshots - up to 5 files, 25 MB each, of the kinds your workspace takes. They drop them in or choose them, see each one upload, and can remove one before sending. They need no account: the form's link lets them attach files to that form and nothing else.

The files land on the task the response makes, each shown in its description as a file you can open, and they're listed on the response. They count toward your workspace's file storage. Files attached to a form that's never sent are cleared away after a day.

#Signature

A Signature question has the person sign - typed or drawn - and agree to sign electronically. A code goes to their email to confirm it before the response is kept, so a form with one needs an Email question. Their signature is kept with a record of who, when and exactly what they signed. See Signatures & sign-offs.

#Header and footer

The Header above the questions and the Footer below them are for whoever fills the form in: a name, a logo, who it's from, contact details. They use the same text as a text block. The page shows no workspace name or logo of its own, since one workspace can hold forms for people under another name.

#Text

A Text block needs no answer: put one anywhere in the form to say what it's for, explain a question or say what happens next. Click it to write, with the same editor as a page - formatting as you type and / for blocks.

The people filling it in may have no account, so a text block keeps to what they can see: text, headings, lists, checkboxes, quotes, dividers, tables, images, code blocks and inline code (type it between backticks, or select text and choose Code). @ references, live task lists, embeds, diagrams and math aren't offered, and a link to something in the workspace stays a link.

Under the questions, A preview of your form shows it as someone with the link sees it, and follows your changes. Sending it there only checks the answers - turn on Make the task when I send it to send a real response. The email and the screen after it's sent have their own live previews on the On submit tab.

#What happens when someone sends it

The On submit tab says where each response goes.

Rules are tried in order. The first whose query matches the answers makes the task: in a project or Space, from a template, with an assignee, labels, priority and a due date.
A rule's query reads answers as answer.<question>:value, in the same query language as Tasks: answer.what-do-you-need:Website answer.budget:>5000. Choices go by name, numbers and dates can be compared (>, <), a checkbox is yes or no, text matches what it contains, and any or unset mean answered or not. A - in front excludes. The query bar suggests the form's questions and their values.
Add condition writes the same query for you: pick a question, how it compares, and a value. Each condition shows as a chip under the query bar.
Anything else makes the task for a response no rule matches. With no rules, every response goes there.
A task's Title can hold answers: type @ and pick a question. It shows as a chip and is filled in with what they answered. A chip follows its question when you rename it; if you take the question out, the chip shows struck through and fills in nothing.

Every time, the task's assignee is told in their Inbox, and the answers go in the task's description.

#Email a copy

Turn on Email the sender a copy of their answers to send them one (it needs an email question). Write its Subject with answers in it the same way, or leave it blank for "Your answers to" and the form's name. The email as it will look shows right beneath, with sample answers, and changes as you type. Nothing is sent.

#After it's sent

What the person sees once they've sent the form. It uses the same text as a block of text, and @ puts one of their answers in it, shown as the question's name in braces, like {Your name}.

The Sharing tab:

Public link - anyone with it can fill the form in. Turn it off and the link stops working at once.
Send to people by email - each person gets their own link, with their email filled in. It takes one answer, and the list shows who has answered.

A form's links are shared links like any other: they show in Settings > Shared links, with when each was last opened, and turn off on the workspace's schedule unless you choose otherwise.

People who send a form aren't members and can't see anything else in the workspace, so forms are free. Sending is guarded against bots and floods, with limits high enough that people filling a form in never meet them - a whole office sharing one network can send as much as it likes. If someone asks for a copy of their answers many times in an hour, the response is still taken, only not copied again.

#Responses

Each plan takes a number of responses a month per workspace (Free 100, Team 1,500; see Plans & billing). When a workspace has used its month, the form stops taking answers until the 1st: people using its link are told it isn't taking answers right now, and someone sending it from the app is told why.

The Responses tab lists everything sent: who, when, which rule took it, and the task it made. Open one for its answers, as they were asked at the time - a signature with its audit record. The task links back to its form in its description.

Responses are seen by the workspace's admins and members who see the form's place - never guests. Moving the form to a Space moves its responses too. Each one shows in Activity as made by the email it came from, via the form (activity.kind:response).