How to make Google form public and accessible for everyone ?  

Are you a teacher or instructor who wants to collect student responses using a Google Form, but need anyone with the link to be able to access the form?

Furthermore, making your Google Form public is an easy way to share it widely with a wider audience without having to manually send it to each person.

Follow the simple steps to make your Google Form accessible to anyone who can access it and submit responses.

• First, open your form and click “Submit” at the top.

• To make the form accessible to the public, click “Get Link” button.

• Choose “Anyone with the link” so people don’t need a Google account to participate.

• Once you’ve copied the web link, you can publish it anywhere.

You can publish your Google Form on your website, your learning management system, or your social networks to make the form accessible to a wider audience. Students, clients, or anyone your form is intended for can easily find and complete it from any device.

All responses will automatically appear in your Google Drive for easy viewing and analysis. No more sifting through dozens of individual emails.

Step-by-Step guide to make a Google Form public

Before we begin, it’s important to understand what it means to make a Google Form public.

Initially, when you make a form public for responses, anyone with the link can view it and send you responses.

Furthermore, this is a great way to gather feedback from a wide range of people or create a survey that can be shared on social media or other online platforms to increase your response rate.

Follow below mentioned steps to make Google form public:

• Firstly, open the Google Form that you want to make publicly accessible from the direct link or form link. If you haven’t created a form yet, you’ll need to do so first. You can learn how to create a Google Form from scratch.

• Secondly, within the Google Forms interface, navigate to the Settings tab.

• Thirdly, on the Settings tab, find the Responses section.

• Then, in the response section, you will find the “Login required” option. Disable all options in this section, including the one that limit to 1 responses to only one per user, to use the default settings for your Google Form.

• Next, to share your form with the public, locate and click the “Send” button located in the top-right corner of the interface.

• Then, you have a pop-up window with several options to share your Google Form.

• Email: This method allows you to send invitations to complete the form via email address. You can customize the subject line and message and even insert the online form directly into the email.

• Link: If you prefer to share the form via link, Google Forms will generate a unique form link or custom link for your form. Anyone with access to this online form link can complete the form, regardless of platform.

• Embed HTML: Embed option allows you to copy an HTML code that can be used to embed the form directly into a web page, making it easily accessible to users.

• Social Media: If you want to share your form on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, you can do so directly from the Google Forms interface.

• Finally, to track and manage responses, you can use Google Sheets. Go to the Answers tab and click on the green spreadsheet icon. This will allow you to efficiently monitor and manage all responses you receive. However, keep in mind that a Google account is necessary for the user to complete the form if it includes a file upload.

Note: You can also create a custom message to customize the message that appears when someone attempts to answer after you have closed the responses.

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Things to consider while making a Google Forms public

Making a Google Forms public is simple, but there are a few things to keep in mind to maximize your chances of success.

How to test If Your Google Form Is Public ?

Once you’ve finished setting your Google Form to public, you may be interested in learning how to confirm that it’s indeed accessible to everyone.

• Firstly, click the Submit button and switch to the URL tab.

• Secondly,copy the URL provided.

• Thirdly, open a browser tab where you are not automatically signed in to your Google Account. For example, you can use an incognito tab in Google Chrome or browse as a guest.

• Finally, paste the copied link into the browser’s URL field.

If your form is truly public, it should open without asking to login. However, if a pop-up window appears asking you to log in, this indicates that your form is not yet public.

In this case, go back to your form and make sure you have correctly adjusted the settings to make it public.

Ensure Public Access but Restrict Editing 

• Firstly, respondents can only view and provide responses; they cannot edit the form or see other responses unless they have editor access.

• Secondly, collaborators, who can edit the form and responses, can be added by clicking “More Options” and selecting “Add Collaborators.”

• Thirdly, set form access to “Restricted” to grant editing access only to specific people you choose.

• Finally, avoid selecting “anyone with the link” as this makes your form publicly editable, which is generally not recommended. 

Control Response Collection

• When your form goes public, you may receive numerous responses.

• To stop collecting responses, go to the Responses tab within your Google Form.

• Find the “Accept responses” setting, which is initially activated.

• To stop receiving responses, simply turn it off.

• You can even add a custom message for those who try to reply after you’ve stopped accepting replies.

Broaden Your Survey Reach with Public Forms:

• By making your form public, you can expand the reach of your survey to a broader audience.

• These steps allow you to efficiently manage the accessibility and response collection of your public form on Google Forms while ensuring that editing privileges are restricted to authorized contributors.

How to make Google form public but not editable ?

By adjusting the restriction settings of your Google Form, you can control who can view and respond to your form. For example, if you share your form on our website, respondents can fill it out, but they can’t make any edits.

Furthermore, the only scenarios where recipients can directly edit your Google Form are:

• Additionally, if you specifically add them as a collaborator on the form.

• Similarly, if you grant editor access when sending the form via email.

Therefore, as long as you refrain from assigning recipients as editors or contributors, there’s no need to worry about them having the ability to make changes to the form, even if it’s publicly accessible.

Also Check: How to recover Google accounts ?

How to share a Google form with external users ?

Google Forms is a powerful tool that allows you to create and distribute surveys, questionnaires, and online forms.

But what if you want to share your Google Form with people outside your organization or domain? In this section, we’ll show you how to share a Google Form with external users in a few easy steps.

• Firstly, open a form inGoogle Forms.

• Secondly, at the top of the form, click Settings.

• Next to Answers, click the down arrow.

• In last, turn off Restrict to users from [yourdomain.com] and their trusted organizations.

This will allow anyone with the link to complete your form. You can also share your form with collaborators who can edit it by following these steps:

• First, open a form inGoogle Forms.

• Then, at the top right, click More.

• Next, click Add Collaborators.

• Furthermore, click “Invite People.”

• Then, in the “Add Editors” window, add email addresses to share with others.

• Finally, click Submit.

How to add Collaborators to Google form ? 

In specific situations, you may find it necessary to grant editing privileges to your colleagues or form with collaborators, especially when working together to create and improve a customer feedback form.

Follow below mentioned steps to add collaborators:

• Firstly, click the three dots next to the Submit button in the upper right corner of your screen. This action will reveal a new menu.

• Secondly, select the “Add Collaborators” option from the dropdown menu.

• In last, within the General Access section, you will find several options for sharing links:

Restricted (“Only people with access can open with the link”): Use this option to precisely control who can make changes to your form. Simply add their email addresses to the “Add Editors” section to grant them access.

The name of your organization (“Anyone in this group with the link can edit”): This method allows access exclusively to people within your organization. It’s particularly useful if your business operates its own Google Workspace account.

Anyone Who Owns the Link (“Anyone on the Internet with the link can edit“): This option provides open access to anyone on the Internet who owns the link, allowing them to edit the form.

What are alternative way to set up customizable access ?

Therefore, there are no alternative platform to set up customizable access in Google Forms. Google Forms only offers two options to control access to forms:

Make the form public: This allows anyone with the link to view and complete the form.

Make the form private: This allows only the people you invite to view and complete the form.

Consequently, if you need more granular control over access to your form, you will need to use a third-party form builder.

Some popular third-party form builders that offer customizable access include:

JotForm

Jotform is a powerful online form builder that helps you create professional-looking forms in minutes, without any coding required.

Typeform

Typeform is a conversational form builder that helps you create engaging and interactive forms that feel more like a conversation than a survey.

Formstack

Formstack is a no-code form builder that helps you streamline your workflow and automate tasks, so you can focus on what matters most.

Wufoo

Wufoo is a user-friendly form builder that helps you create and manage forms online, without any coding required.

Cognito Forms

Cognito Forms is a powerful online form builder that helps you create and manage forms, payments, and workflows, with a focus on security and compliance.

These form builders typically offer a variety of features to customize access, such as:

• Restrict access to specific email addresses or domains.

• Require users to sign in before they can fill out the form.

• Create different roles and assign users to those roles..

• Set due dates for forms

If you need to customize access to your Google Forms, we recommend using a third-party form builder.

These form builders offer more features and flexibility than Google Forms when it comes to controlling access.

Why make a Google Form public ?

Publicly sharing your Google Form is a great way to break down accessibility barriers, thereby allowing a wider range of people to contribute their different points of view.

Furthermore, it’s a simple and secure method to distribute your form or survey and collect valuable feedback.

However, it is important to note that while respondents can complete your public Google form, they do not have the ability to modify the form or make changes to its content.

Conclusion  

Primarily, making your Google Form public is a user-friendly way to effortlessly gather diverse perspectives.

Furthermore, by sharing it across multiple platforms, respondents can easily submit responses from any device. Similarly, the collected data is conveniently stored in your Google Drive.

While ensuring the integrity of your form, remember that respondents cannot modify the form itself.

For advanced access control, explore third-party form builders like JotForm, Typeform, Formstack, Wufoo, or Cognito Forms.

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