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Despite Google Forms’ popularity, plenty of users still prefer to use Google Docs to collect data and preferences. Depending on the use case, Docs may offer more advantages, such as print-ready layouts, long-form content, and team collaboration features.
Why Use Google Docs to Build Forms
- More control over formatting: Lets you design forms with custom layouts, fonts, and tables
- Print-ready documents: Ideal for forms that need to be printed or filled out by hand
- Better for long text: Handles detailed instructions or multi-section content more naturally
- Signature-friendly: Allows you to add signature lines or create signable PDFs
- Easier collaboration: Enables teams to comment, edit, and refine the form together
- Great for templates: Works well for documents meant to be downloaded or printed, not submitted online
- Professional layout options: Produces official-looking documents suited for business or government use
How to make a form with Google Docs
- Create a blank Google Doc.
- Insert a Table with the number of columns and rows you need. You can insert more tables later on.
- Type your text questions or fields.
Turn cells into answer blanks by pressing the
Shift or Ctrl key and clicking the borders (except the bottom right ones), then use the border fill pencil to make them white.- Add choice questions.
For single-select questions, Insert a Smart chip and choose dropdown.
Add your options in the popup.
We recommend putting a placeholder as the first option, since Google Docs shows this in the cell by default.
For multi-select questions, click the checklist icon and type the options.
- Click Share on the top right and choose who can access your link. Be sure to set it to Viewer mode so your master file can’t be edited, and ask them to Make a copy to fill out.
A quicker way to create professional forms
Since Google Docs specializes in documents, creating forms with it takes time and requires repetitive actions (e.g., highlighting borders to make blanks and turning cells into headers). It’s also limited. You can’t use ranking or rating fields, make questions required, validate answers, or add conditional logic. It’s a good thing intuitive form builders like Fillout lets users build professional-looking singe-page forms.
Simply create a Fillout form. Drag and drop fields into your form from the left-hand panel and enter your questions or options.
Click Publish on the top right and Share your form link. Answers are automatically compiled in the Results page.
You can also send summaries to respondents by toggling Respondent notifications in form settings, include a Link to edit submissions, and customize the email.
Advanced features
- Pre-built address fields with US states
- Automatic email and phone validation
- Numerous field types: signature, opinion scale, file upload, choice matrix, and more
- Conditional logic to show or hide questions based on answers
- Real-time result compilation that can sync to Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, and more
- Respondents can edit their submissions
- Form designer for fully-branded, professional layouts
- Hundreds of customizable ready-to-use templates to save time and speed up form creation
Building forms for your business, organization, or event doesn’t have to take up so much time. While Google Docs lets you have flexibility in layout and formatting, form builders like Fillout let you create professional, feature-rich forms in just minutes.
Written by
Mikhaela Presillas is the Marketing Manager at Fillout. She lives in Manila where you can often find her trying out new restaurants and cafes in the city or exploring new destinations.
