Using Google Forms for Your Google Docs

Are you using traditional spreadsheets to gather several bits of information into one source?  There is an easier way to do this: Google Docs.  With Google Docs, you can create an online spreadsheet that can be accessed by as many people as you want.  And, if you are using Google Forms for your Google Docs, you can gather this information much more quickly and easily.  But how can this help a real estate agent?  Let me explain.

Let's say, for example, that your company is hosting a major 4-day conference involving agents from all over the country.  You are in charge of gathering all the information on who is coming, what days they will be there and what seminars they will be attending.  Your boss wants all this information created in a single spreadsheet so they can see how many chairs to set up and what size rooms are needed for each seminar.  Traditionally, you would send off emails to every single agent you are inviting to the conference, wait for your inbox to overflow with responses and spend hours of your time tediously plugging this information into your spreadsheet software.

With Google Docs, you create an online spreadsheet, send out a single email and have the real estate agents add their responses to the spreadsheets themselves.  But, there's an even better way to do this.  With Google Forms, your agents don't even have to open a spreadsheet at all.  They simply fill out a form you create and send via email and their answers get automatically placed in the appropriate sections of your online spreadsheet for you.

In order to create your own Google Form, all you have to do is:

1. Open your online spreadsheet through Google Docs.
2. Click on the tab at the top labeled "Forms".
3. Choose "Create a Form" from the drop down menu.
4. Enter your subject line and introductory message.
5. Add the questions you need answered.  You can choose whether you want the answers in text form, a paragraph (for comments/questions), multiple choice, checkbox, a list or scale (ie, from a scale of 1-5) via the "Add question" drop down menu in the upper left hand side of the page.
6. Click send and you're done!

As the real estate agents reply to your email, their answers are automatically plugged into your spreadsheet for you.  Using Google Forms for your Google Docs makes creating a professional-looking spreadsheet much quicker and easier.  I wonder if Active Rain used this for their New Orleans Rain Camp?  Hmmm...