Horizon Info Services More of IT for Less

Google Forms have always been a convenient easy way to gather simple information, but have lacked some of the features found in commercial survey tools. We are happy to share that this is changing. With several recent rounds of updates, Google Forms have are maturing.

Quick and simple, Google has added about 70 themes for Forms that add some color and character to your information gathering efforts.

With the ability to embed Google Forms on web pages and within emails, they are a powerful tool for gathering information. Recent upgrades are addressing some of the limitations of the tool.

• Section headers can be added to give longer forms more structure.
• The editor supports fixed-width
• The ability to edit multiple forms at once
• A new HTML structure is more suited for skinning and Javascript applications
• Forms will display in the user’s localized language

Last fall, Google released a public template gallery for Google Apps. Last week, Google released template galleries for domains using Google Apps Premier and Education Editions.

Now, any user in the domain can submit a template to be shared with all other domain users. Templates exist for Docs, Spreadsheets, Forms, and Presentations.

This feature should improve your ability to standardize the look and feel of corporate documents.

Click Here to learn more …

Google Forms now include the ability to add themes with background images and color selections.

Learn more here …

The following features have been added to Google Apps (multiple editions) over the past week or so.

In Gmail:

• Mark as Unread Update:
  If you’re reading a conversation that had unread messages when you opened it, when you mark it as unread, Gmail will only mark as unread the messages in that conversation that were unread when you first opened the message.
  
• Analytics for Gmail:
  Premier and Education administrators can now view statistics about how their organizations are using Gmail (like users’ locations, languages, length of visit, etc.) in Google Analytics. This extends the Analytics statistics currently available for the control panel, Google Docs and Google Sites
  
• Name Format Options:
  Google Apps Administrators can now choose how users’ names will be displayed in Gmail. Administrators can select whether to display names either as: First Last (example: John Smith) or Last, First (example: Smith, John).
  Administrators can also choose whether to allow users to customize this setting.

In Google Docs (Forms):

• Form Summary Page: Provides current information about completed responses to a Google Form (attached to a Google Spreadsheet)
  
• Collect username in Google Docs: You can now automatically collect a respondent’s username when they submit a form in Google Docs.

When you create a form, associated with a spreadsheet, you can now elect to share results — a summary of responses — with your collaborators, or with everybody that fills in the form.

Learn more here.

The following new features are available in Google Spreadsheets:

• A mobile-friendly view with filtering, sorting and row-by-row editing
  
• The ability to define attributes of a cell and require that input meets those data validation rules, improving how spreadsheets can be used to gather and manage data
  
• A form summary page with information about completed responses, making it easier to review response information saved in the underlying spreadsheet

With these features, Google has improved the capabilities of Forms as a tool for data gathering and entry.