You created a Google Form, and you want to retrieve all your responses. This article explains where your data are displayed and how to open your responses spreadsheet.
Responses in Google Forms
A response in a Google form includes the replies to all questions made by a form respondent when they submitted the form. Google Forms counts a single form submission as one response.
Data from all responses is available immediately after each form submission in the Responses tab.
The Responses tab contains 3 subtabs: Summary, Question, and Individual.
In the Summary subtab, you can review all replies submitted to each question in the form.
For different types of questions, you can see a graphical breakdown of the replies. For example, for multiple choice questions you can review the percentages of people who selected one answer or another.
In the Question subtab, you can review how all respondents replied to a question. You switch between questions with the paging buttons at the top.
In the Individual subtab, you can review how each individual respondent answered all of the questions.
Responses spreadsheet
For each Google form, you can store responses in a spreadsheet, also called the responses spreadsheet.
Google Forms does not create and link a responses spreadsheet automatically.
You can create a Google form responses spreadsheet manually by clicking the Create Spreadsheet button in the Responses tab.
If you have responses in your current Google form, creating a responses spreadsheet opens a brand new Google spreadsheet which contains all responses data gathered so far.
In the responses spreadsheet, a column represents a question in your Google form, and a row represents all replies to all form questions given by a single form respondent.
You can also use the responses spreadsheet to more easily compare differences between respondents' answers to questions.
How do you link a Google Sheet to your form to retrieve all responses?
To create a the Responses spreadsheet, click on the green spreadsheet icon in the Responses tab.
If you never created a spreadsheet from your Google Form, you will see the following pop-up.
You can either create an entirely new spreadsheet, or you can select an existing one (a new tab will be created at the bottom of your existing spreadsheet).
If you select an existing spreadsheet, you can have several different forms linked to this specific spreadsheet separated by different tabs.
In our example, we created a new spreadsheet. To do so, select Create a new spreadsheet. Then, click Create.
How does your responses spreadsheet look like?
Your spreadsheet opens in a new window.
The first column contains your Timestamp, which indicates the date and time the recipient submitted the form.
Then all the questions are displayed on the header (first row) of your spreadsheet (displayed in the same order as in your Google Form), and you can see how each recipient answered to your questions.
Why is your responses spreadsheet useful?
For several reasons, your responses spreadsheet can be used to:
- Create dynamic charts: You can use Advanced Summary by Awesome Table
- Quickly compare your recipients’ answers
- Know when the recipients have submitted your form
- Have different forms linked in one Google Spreadsheet
- Make sure Form Publisher has generated attachments or added linked URLs (depending on your configuration)
Note: If you want to transform any data into beautiful, dynamic and functional apps from a data source Google Spreadsheet, we suggest you to use Awesome Table!