Thread: Google Docs

STEP 1: You need to have a Google account to access Google Documents (docs.
google.com) . You can easily sign up for one at the Google website (www.google. com/accounts). Once you have signed in, go to 'New I Spreadsheets'. This should open up the Google Docs spreadsheet application on your Web browser. The layout of the spreadsheet application is pretty intuitive. There is a File menu, with commandsfor 'New', 'Import', 'Open', 'Save', 'Copyspreadsheet', 'Print', 'Export', 'Spreadsheet Settings', 'Notification Rules' and 'Close'. 'Edit', 'Sort', 'Formulas' and 'Revisions' open up as a horizontal toolbar. Excel shortcuts and functions are compatible, for instance, [F2] to edit a cell, [Ctrl]+[Cl for copy and 'Sum'.

STEP 2: We shall start by first saving the spreadsheet. Go to 'File I Save', type in a filename, for instance, 'Pot Luck Sheet' and press 'OK'. Then click on the 'Share' tab at the right of the Web browser window. This will open up the 'Share' options titled 'Share this document'. In 'Invite people' choose the option 'to fill out a form' and click 'Start editing your form .. .'. A new browser window should open up with two tabs-'Edit form' and 'Preview and send'. If this doesn't happen, you need to change your popup blocker settings to allow popups to appear in the Google Docs website. If you are currently using the default popup blocker by Internet Explorer, go to 'Tools I Internet Options I Privacy', and click the 'Settings' button under 'Pop-up Blocker'. Add the URL 'docs. google.com' in the field 'Address of Web site to allow' and press 'Close'.



STEP 3: We shall start by entering in some text to help people fill out the form. In the text box allotted for this purpose, enter 'Please enter in the required information carefully before hitting 'Submit". We can then proceed to filling up the form and entering the first question as 'First Name'. Choose 'Text' from the drop down list for 'Question Type' and click 'Done'. Similarly add in the questions for 'Middle Initial' and 'Last Name' by clicking '+ Add a question'. STEP 4: Adding in a drop down list is easy¬type in the question 'Food Restrictions', select 'Choose from a list' for 'Question Type' and in the text field that appears, simply type in 'Non-vegetarian' and press [Tab] or [Enter] to proceed to the next item on the list. When you are done with adding in items to the list, click 'Done'. In a similar way, you can also add in a check box list, add in a new question 'Food Items', select 'Check Boxes' for 'Question Type', and add in your food items. Finish off your form by filling in fields for 'Beverages' and 'Medical or Allergy Information', note that for the last field you can set the 'Question Type' as 'Paragraphs' if you believe that some answers might be verbose. You can also experiment with the application a little bit; for instance, change the Food Restrictions field from a drop down list to a multiple choice field. If after you hit 'Done', you find that there has been an error in a question, you can simply select that question with your mouse, and click the 'Edit' link that appears next to it.

STEP 5: After entering in all the form fields, click 'Save'. Go to the 'Preview and send' tab to check if the form looks just as you wanted it to. In case you want to add some items, or more information to the form, this is when you can go back to the 'Edit form' tab and make changes. Check the Web page that the users will see by clicking the link 'Go to live form'. If you are satisfied with the result, as seen in the 'Preview' pane, you can 'Invite people to fill out this form' by entering in the e-mail addresses of the recipients. If these e-mail addresses are already in your Gmail contacts, you can simply click the link 'Choose from contacts'. Otherwise, you will have to enter them in manually or use the cut-and-paste method. Once the recipients addresses are in, you can customize the e-mail message they will receive by adding in some personal text, for instance, 'What are you bringing to the Pot Luck party?' Now you can choose 'Include the form in invitation email', or 'Let people see existing responses'. Let's check the last option since it would be beneficial for users if they can see who is bringing what and then decide what they should get.

Once all this is done, click 'Invite People'. Once you get the confirmation that the invitations have been sent, you can close the Web browser. STEP 6: The responses to your form will be automatically added to your Google Docs spreadsheet. If you notice that not all the invitations have been sent out, you can always go to the spreadsheet and 'resend' the form. Note that the questions of the form have been automatically added as column headers in the spreadsheet. Once all the results are in, you can export the sheet to a variety of file types-CSV, HTML, XLS, PDF, ODS and TXT.

With the concept of electronic forms, data collected from surveys can be easily analyzed in a spreadsheet program. Gone are the days were surveys needed pen and paper to be filled in