Google forms just got better. Most of us have come to rely on Google forms. They are a great way to collect information, check for understanding, poll a group on a variety of topics, quickly assess the mood in a room, and enable individuals or groups to record their thoughts on a variety of topics. These are just a few ways you can use forms. In my book, the possibilities are endless.
However, the formatting options for the text used in the titles and the question or direction sections have been very limited. Google has now given its users additional font styling options. We also have the ability to customize the header, sub-header, and body text separately throughout the form. This highly requested feature allows you to easily change the look and feel of your forms.
Let’s take a look at how these new styling options will look and why you might want to use them. The update enables you to bold, underline or italicize the text. You can also hyperlink a word or a phrase to a website and include lists in your descriptions.
New Formatting Options in Google Forms
In the example below you can see why you might want to make text bold or italicized. It draws your attention to the directions given. You should also notice that you can make a list in the description. However, this option is not available in the title section.
In order to do this, you will need to click in the description box, and the formatting options will appear. You will also see that you have the option to remove any formatting you have used.
Adding a Hyperlink
If you want to hyperlink to another document, you can easily do that by highlighting the text and clicking on the insert link icon.
Italics
Italicizing can be useful to draw attention to something. I like italicizing the words “First and Last” to draw attention to how I want someone to insert their name.
Roll-out for New Features
Google is making this available to all Google Workspace customers as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. They also are making it available to users with personal Google Accounts. They began rolling this feature out on June 28. If you don’t see it in your account yet, be patient. Sometimes it takes several weeks for new features to be turned on for all accounts.
Although I’m thrilled with these new formatting options, I’m always wanting more! Two features they have not yet given us are font type selections and the ability to have these new customization features in the body of each question. However, I must remind myself to give them time. Good things do come to those that wait, right?
Resources
Google Support for styling options for fonts in Google Forms.
Google’s announcement on the new changes to Google Forms.
Blog Post: Forms + Content = A Teacher’s Best Friend
Blog Post: Five Hacks for Google Forms
