Google Gets Closer to the Enterprise Offering Form Templates

By Barb Mosher | Published Dec 1, 2008

Like using Google Apps? There are a lot of templates to choose from, so you don't need to start from scratch. And if you liked all those templates, then you'll probably love these new ones — Forms Templates.

Yes, you heard correctly, Google Apps now has Form templates. Templates for documents, spreadsheets, presentations and now, best of all — forms.

Google Templates

These forms range from personal forms for maintaining a food diary to various website forms such as contact us and event registration.

The functionality available is pretty cool:

Send your form via email and include the form in the actual email, as well as have a link to the online version of the form
Embed the form into your own web pages
View a Summary of completed forms through a web page or in a Google Spreadsheet
Edit the confirmation notice displayed once the form has been completed.

Contact Us Form

Sample Form via Email

Summary of Completed Forms

Edit Configuration of Forms

Customize the Form Format

You can also customize the form template as required by doing the following:

Adding new questions (text, paragraph, multiple choice, checkboxes, choose from a list, sliding scale)
Deleting questions
Changing a current question (label, input type, required/not required)
Adding Help Text
Move the questions around (change their order)

The Form functionality is very nice. The only thing we noticed you couldn't do was change the layout — form fields are shown one below the other.

Having the ability to create forms and make them immediately available either in your website, on a Google site or through email is very nice. This type of functionality should be very popular with people who build their own websites and don't have a lot of technical knowledge to build forms.

The functionality is also great for basic surveys, event registrations, etc — things that many small to medium sized business want to do online but don't currently have the ability.

It's very likely that Google may be making inroads into the enterprise as they increase the capabilities found within Google Apps,