Online forms are an excellent way to conduct research, collect feedback, test knowledge, and more. Hereโs how to use Microsoft Forms to create surveys, feedback forms, quizzes, and other interactive forms.
Microsoft Forms is a web app that allows users to create various types of forms that gather information from people online and store that data in the cloud for review.
Why is this useful? Surveys, questionnaires, and other interactive forms are a vital part of doing business. They provide a great way to interact with employees, teammates, customers, and potential business partners. You can use online forms to collect customer feedback or business requirements, conduct market research, gauge employee satisfaction, register attendees for an upcoming event, test learnersโ knowledge after a training course, and more.
Forms is included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions for individuals and businesses, and a limited version is available for free to anyone with a Microsoft account. In this cheat sheet, we will cover how to use this program to create questionnaires, add specific types of questions, and view and analyze the responses.
Microsoft offers a variety of form templates you can adapt for your own purposes, and we will discuss how to use them โ but first weโll take you through the steps of building a form from scratch so youโll know how all the parts and pieces work. Weโll also cover how to use Copilot, Microsoftโs generative AI assistant, to draft forms for you.
In this article:
- How to create a form from scratch
- How to create a form from a template
- How to create (and edit) a form with Copilot
- How to create a quiz
- How to change your formโs theme
- How to share your form
- How to view responses
How to create a form from scratch
To start using the Microsoft Forms app, navigate to your Microsoft 365 home page, sign in if you havenโt already, and click on the Apps icon in the left panel. (If you donโt see a navigation panel on the left, click the Expand Navigation icon in the upper left corner.)
On the Microsoft 365 home page, click Apps.
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The Forms app should appear on the main part of your screen near the bottom. If it isnโt there, use the search option at the top of the left panel to search for forms and launch the app.
If you donโt see Forms on the main M365 Apps screen, use the Search function to find it.
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If this is your first time using Microsoft Forms, you will be presented with the welcome screen shown below, which offers templates for various types of forms. From here, select Survey to start your form.
The Forms welcome page shows templates for various types of forms to help you get started.
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If youโve used Forms before, youโll instead see a home page with a few templates plus any forms youโve created or that have been shared with you. Click the New Form button at the top of the page.
The Forms home page shows templates on top and your forms below.
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Either way, youโll start a new, blank form. If you see a panel listing suggested templates on the left side of the screen, click on the X at the top of the panel to remove it; youโll learn how to use templates later on.
Close the templates panel on the left so your new form can take up the whole screen.
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Changing the formโs title
First, change the title of your form and add a description. This is the first thing anyone will see when they open your questionnaire, so make sure the title is easy to understand and explains what youโre trying to do.
To add a title, click on the title field (which might say something like โLetโs get started! Whatโs your form about?โ or simply โUntitled formโ), and you will be able to edit the title and add a description.
Change the title and add a description for your form.
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Adding questions
Below the description is a โQuick start withโ link. If you have access to Microsoft 365 Copilot, youโll also see a โDraft with Copilotโ option. You can ignore that for now; weโll cover using Copilot to create forms later in the article.
To add a new question, click the Quick start with text. A menu appears showing multiple types of questions you can add to your form.
Choose which kind of question you want to add.
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Choice: Multiple-choice questions allow you to designate a set of answers from which the user can choose. You can also add an Other option, where users can type in a unique response.
By default, a multiple-choice question allows the user to select just one answer. To change this, click the Multiple answers slider at the lower right to toggle it on. The radio buttons next to the answers change to checkboxes, and users can choose more than one.
This multiple-choice question lets respondents choose more than one answer and includes an โOtherโ option.
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To rearrange the answers in a multiple-choice question, hover your cursor over the answer you want to move until you see six dots appear to the left of the item. Click and hold the six dots, then drag and drop the answer to its new location.
Text: This is an open-ended question where you allow the user to type in an answer โ good when you want to collect individual information such as an email address or hear detailed thoughts from respondents. Text responses can be up to 4,000 characters. By default, text response boxes are designed for short answers, but if you turn on the Long answer toggle, the response box will expand as the user types.
To restrict responses to a particular format, such as a number, an email address, or a web URL, click the three-dot icon in the lower-right corner of the question box and select Restrictions. The Number format is selected by default. To specify that the number be within a certain range, such as between 10 and 500, click the Is number dropdown, select Between, and type the appropriate numbers in the boxes to the right.
Restricting the responses for a text question to numbers between 10 and 500.
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To change to a different format restriction, click the Number dropdown on the left, choose the format you want to restrict, and specify additional parameters.
Rating: Allows respondents to rate performance, typically on a scale of 1 to 5 (bad to excellent). This can give you an idea of how employees feel about their manager, for instance, or how customers view your product or service. You can adjust the number of levels provided (up to 10) or change the rating symbols from stars to numbers, hearts, smiley faces, checkmarks, or others.
Date: Displays a calendar and asks respondents to select a specific date, such as the date an item is requested.
Ranking: Lets respondents rank items in order of preference or importance to them.
Likert: Displays a list of items, each with its own rating scale. A common scenario for this type of question would be to find out how satisfied employees are with various company benefits.
Net Promoter Score: Asks respondents how likely they are to recommend your product or service, on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely).
A typical Net Promoter Score question.
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Section: This is not a question type but instead lets you create a new section within your survey, as covered below under โBuilding out your form.โ
Once youโve selected the question type, enter the question and responses you want respondents to see, then make any adjustments or restrictions, such as the โmultiple answersโ option for multiple-choice questions.
Here are a few additional tasks youโll likely use when adding questions to your form:
- To make a question required (respondents must answer it in order to complete the survey): turn the Required toggle on at the lower right of the question box.
- To explore additional options for a question, such as the ability to shuffle responses or add a subtitle: click the three-dot icon to the right of the Required toggle.
- To add an image or video to a question: click the image icon on the right. On the โInsert mediaโ pane that opens, choose Insert Image or Insert Video. For an image, you can do a Bing web search, browse your OneDrive folders, or upload an image from your computer. For a video, you can paste in a YouTube URL. In a multiple-choice question, you can also add an image to each of the options.
You can add an image or video to a question.
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Building out your form
To add more questions to your form, just keep clicking the Add new question button that appears below the previous question and repeating the steps above. Here are a few more things that are useful to know how to do:
To edit a question: simply select the question and make your changes.
To duplicate a question: select the question and click the Copy question button at the upper right of the question box. A copy of the question appears immediately below it. This is handy if you have more than one question with similar formatting: you can save time by duplicating the question and editing it rather than starting from scratch each time.
Using the Copy question button can save you time.
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To delete a question: select the question and click the trash can icon at the upper right of the question box.
To move a question up or down: select the question and use the up or down arrow icons at the upper right of the question box.
To insert a question in between existing questions: select the question above the place where you want to insert the new question. Click the Insert new question button (which appears in place of โAdd new questionโ) and proceed as usual.
To add a new section to the survey: select the question above the place where you want the new section to appear. Select Add new question or Insert new question and then click on Section. Enter a title for the new section. You can optionally add a subtitle and image or video as well.
It can be helpful to break a form into sections.
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Adding branching to your form
This feature is optional, but itโs powerful: You may have one or more questions in your form that you want to branch โ that is, if the respondent answers the question one way, you can send them to a different follow-up question than if they answer the question another way. Thus, branching makes the most sense for multiple-choice questions.
Itโs best to wait until youโve added all your questions to the survey before you add branching. Once youโve done so, select the question you want to branch, click the three-dot icon at its lower right, and select Add branching.
In a multiple-choice question, a โGo toโ menu will appear to the right of each option. You can click Next in any of these boxes and choose a specific question to send the survey taker to.
Adding branching to a question lets you set different follow-up actions for different responses.
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How to create a form from a template
Rather than starting a new form from scratch every time, you can get a head start by using one of the templates Microsoft provides. Go directly to Microsoftโs Forms template gallery or navigate there from the Forms home page by clicking Template gallery at the right side of the โExplore templatesโ area near the top.
Here you can choose from a variety of templates including a market research survey, manager feedback survey, office facility request form, and more. Click on the Employee satisfaction survey to open it in your browser.
The Forms template gallery has more than a dozen templates to choose from.
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Youโll see a form thatโs prepopulated with questions and answers. You can edit any of the existing questions, delete those you donโt want, and add your own questions into the mix.
Using templates gives you a head start on many standard business forms.
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Starting from a template not only saves you from having to enter all your questions manually, it may also provide valuable questions you wouldnโt think of on your own.
How to create (and edit) a form with Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot is the AI assistant thatโs integrated with Forms and other Microsoft 365 apps. Access to Copilot in Forms is included with Microsoft 365 Individual and Family subscriptions, while M365 Business and Enterprise users need a separate M365 Copilot subscription. (Copilot isnโt available in Forms with a free Microsoft account.)
If youโve worked with tools like ChatGPT or Claude, you understand that AI assistants can help you quickly perform actions that could be time consuming to do manually. In this section, youโll see how to quickly create a survey using M365 Copilot.
First, go to the Forms home page and click on New Form. After youโve given the new form a title and description, click the Draft with Copilot link to the right of โQuick start with.โ Type in a prompt outlining the survey you want Copilot to create, such as the following:
Please create a survey that asks readers how they enjoyed the โMicrosoft Forms cheat sheet 2025โ article. It should be five questions long and all questions should be required. Also, give it a modern green style layout.
Then click Generate, and Copilot will create a survey draft.
A feedback survey generated by Copilot.
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If you like the survey draft, you can select Keep it. If you donโt, you can click the circular arrows icon to have Copilot try again or the trash can icon to delete it. A final option is to add more details to the prompt to refine Copilotโs output.
If you decide to keep the survey Copilot drafted, you should review it carefully and edit it. All generative AI tools make mistakes, Copilot included. In the example survey it created in response to the prompt above, for example, it included the text โThis survey uses a modern green style layout for a fresh experienceโ in the description โ not something youโd want in the final survey.
Also note that Copilot may not be able to do everything you request. For instance, it wasnโt able to style the form with a theme/layout in my testing (even though it said it did) โ a limitation that may change with time. But itโs still a great starting point and a major timesaver.
In addition to drafting entire new forms with Copilot, you can ask it to create individual questions as youโre building out a form. Just click Add with Copilot or Insert with Copilot and enter your prompt.
You can also ask Copilot for ideas to enhance any form. When youโre working on a form, youโll see a banner across the top that says, โCopilot has suggestions to improve your form.โ Clicking this will generate some suggestions, such as choosing a fresh design.
Copilot can suggest ways to improve an existing form.
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Finally, you can use Copilot to improve individual questions. If you select a question in a form, youโll see a Copilot button alongside the copy, delete, and move down / up buttons in the upper right of the question box. Click it to open up a prompt where you can describe the changes youโd like Copilot to make to the question.
Asking Copilot to rewrite a question.
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How to create a quiz
Quizzes are similar to surveys and other questionnaires, but with correct and incorrect responses. You can assign points to each question, report respondentsโ scores, and explain why certain responses are right or wrong. A quiz is a good way to assess how well attendees of a training course have learned the subject matter and coach them in areas they donโt fully understand.
To create a new quiz, go to the Forms home page and click the New Quiz button at the top of the page.
Starting a new quiz.
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If you have access to Copilot in Forms, you will be presented with a Copilot prompt window. You could enter a prompt (including source material to base the quiz on) to have Copilot generate a quiz instantly. But for the purposes of this tutorial, click the X at the upper right to close out the prompt window.
The new quiz page looks just like the new form page. Indeed, creating a quiz is just like creating a form โ you add questions the same way, except that you designate the correct answer and assign a point score to each question.
When you enter the answers for a question, youโll see a circled checkmark to the left of each answer. Click one of the checkmarks to mark it as the correct answer. Then go to the Points box at the bottom of the question box and type the number of points the question is worth.
Quizzes let you test respondentsโ knowledge.
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How to change your formโs theme
Now that weโve covered the functional aspects of Microsoft Forms, letโs look at how you can change the look and feel of your questionnaire. Above your form to the right, click the Style button to open a panel with various layouts and themes. Look around and select a theme that you like to represent your company.
Choose a theme that suits your company and the form itself.
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To preview how your form will look to respondents as theyโre filling it out, click the Preview button at the top right of the page. You can toggle between Computer view and Mobile view by clicking the buttons at the top right of the preview page.
You can see how your form will look to both desktop and mobile users.
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How to share your form
Once your form is finalized and youโre ready to start sending it to clients, employees, or other respondents, select the Collect responses button at the top right. On the pane that appears, you can create and customize the link that you will use to share your questionnaire with others.
Business users can send out a survey link publicly or privately.
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If you have a business account and this survey is meant for people outside your company, click the first option, which allows anyone to respond. If itโs meant for employees in your company, choose the second option. And if youโre looking for feedback only from specific people in your organization, choose the third option and enter the names or email addresses of those people.
If you have a personal account, you will only have the option to allow anyone to respond.
Next, select the option to shorten your URL so that itโs less spammy and easier to share with other people in a text, email, or instant message. You can send the link out by clicking the Copy link button and pasting it into an email or other message. Alternatively, you can fill out the form on the right to send an email or Teams message with an embedded link.
How to view responses
Microsoft automatically keeps track of all responses to your form and provides you with a summary of that information in a visual dashboard. Click the View responses button at the top right to see your summary.
Forms collects and summarizes your surveyโs responses.
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To view responses individually, click the more details button on the right-hand side of your initial summary of responses. On this page, you can scroll through all of the responses that youโve received to your form.
Viewing the answers from an individual respondent.
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You can also export your results to Excel for offline viewing. Click Open results in Excel to the right of the initial summary.
Click this button to export your results to Excel.
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Lastly, you can share this results page with anyone you want via a link provided by Microsoft. Click on the three-dot icon to the right of the โInsights and actionsโ title on the right and choose Share a summary link from the pop-up menu. Forms will generate a link that you can copy and share.
Sharing a summary link.
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This article was originally published in November 2023 and updated in October 2025.
