Google Forms: How To (for blogger users)

I don't create a new form for each contest.  I have a master form and just copy that one, adjust the information and post it.  I would recommend signing up for a gmail account, since it will make accesses your forms much easier.

Here are the steps to setting up a new form:

1. Open Google Documents
2. Click on CREATE NEW (upper right side of screen)
3. From the drop down menu, select FORM
4. A new window should pop up with a form for you to edit.
5. TITLE your form
6. Enter any information that might help your entrant complete the form.  I include my email address in case there is an error or someone is having a problem.
7. Edit the questions:  Start with a name, then you can continue adding questions until you get what you want.
8.  You can choose different options from the drop down menu for each questions, either text, multiple choice or check box.
9. When you are happy with your form SAVE IT.

You can also make it fancy and insert a background by clicking on the THEME button on the upper right side of the template maker. They add new ones all of the time.  I prefer plain so it doesn't clash with my blog layout.

OK, now let's insert it into your blog post.  You have two choices:  It can be part of the post or a link that will open in a new window.  They both work the same and if you have formatting issues, you may want to use the link. 

To LINK:

1. On your google form, look down at the very bottom of the form where it says:

You can view the published form here: https:="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4581275855741224398" id="view-form-link" spreadsheets.google.com="" viewform?formkey="
( I deleted the rest, since it won't go anywhere.)

2. Click on that link which will take you to your form.
3. Copy the web address from your browser and paste that to a link in your post.
4.  Please paste the link to something easy to find.  If you are typing all caps, use the whole line as your link.  Or just use caps on the word you are linking to.  I can't tell you how many times I have searched for the form link.  Make it obvious!
5. Test your link!  I learned this important lesson from another blog I post to.  You don't want angry people looking for a contest and the link doesn't work.

To INSERT (embed)

1. Click on the MORE ACTIONS tab on the left side of your form
2. Be sure to be in EDIT HTML of your blog post.  The code may or may not work on COMPOSE.  I haven't figured out why it works sometimes and not other times.
3. Click on EMBED and you will get a code which is what you will paste to your blog post.
4. Your code should look something like this:

iframe src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dDk3TkxFSzlPMXJpdlRGdzVGNU5HNnc6MQ" width="760" height="954" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...
5.If you want your form to look nice and neat, you will want to edit the WIDTH of the form so it fits your post.   I change that standard 760 to 420, which makes my form fit my blog perfectly.  You may have to adjust your width and experiment.  I leave the height alone, so you don't have to scroll down to enter.  Yes, it takes up more room, but I think it makes it easier for people to enter their information.
6. Again, check out your post in PREVIEW to make sure it looks right.

To check your responses, go back into google documents and your entries should be visible when you re-open the form.

Once you create your sample entry form, you can just make a new one by copying it.
1. Open Documents and find your form.
2. Open your form and click on the FILE tab. 
3. Choose the MAKE A COPY option
4. RENAME your form.  I just use the book title. You need to do this if you have multiple contests.
 5.Edit your form by opening it and clicking on FORM at the top of the toolbar if you need to make changes.

NEW INFORMATION: (added 12:52pm)
Recently Google added new features to FORMS that I didn't know about. You can do more with it.  To read all of the new features -- check out this link HERE



If I missed something or it doesn't make sense, post a comment or send me an email:  maryinhb@gmail.com