Google Docs Spreadsheet makes it easy to create and run polls.

There are quite a lot of polling applications available on the web. Some of them are really useful but many of them are not and can be cheated. Instead of maintaining another account for running polls how about using Google Spreadsheet to create and run polls if you already have a Google account (you might already!)?

In this walk-thru let’s create a sample poll to get the opinions of some of DemoGeek.com’s readers to see if they would really prefer to see more of screencasts than screenshot based posts at DemoGeek.com and also to find out which topic they prefer the most.

Step-1: Sign in to Google Docs Account

The basic, sign in to Google Docs.

Step-2: Create a New Form

Start by creating a new form by clicking on the “New >> Form" menu option.

Step-3: Poll Title and Description

When the page loads up you should be able to see a similar page like the above screenshot. Couple of things make up a poll, a title, a description, the questions and answers. Start by giving the poll a title and a decent description.

Step-4: Create Questions and Answers

Now, it’s time to fill out the questions and the possible answers. Type-in a question title and help text and then choose the type of answers from the "”Question Type” dropdown list.

The possible Question Types are,

For this example, let’s choose Multiple Choice as Question Type and type-in the answers as above. Once done click the “Done” button. If you want to make this question a required question then check the “Make this a required question” option.

Step-5: Add More Questions

Let’s add one more question to our poll. Click on the “Add Question” button at the top of the page and then choose the type of question you want to add. Let’s choose Checkboxes question type this time.

Once again, type-in the title, text and then type-in the answers for each choice. Once done click on the “Done” button.

By now, your poll will look like the screenshot above and is ready to be send out.

Step-6: Send the Poll out

Click on the “Email this form” button at the top of the page.

Fill-in the email address to whom you want to send the poll and hit the “Send” button. The poll will now be emailed to the recipients and the sender will get an email from Google Docs acknowledging the sent poll.

Recipient View

The recipient will receive an email similar to the above and will be able to pick their choice and can submit the poll by clicking on the “Submit” button.

You might get a warning similar to the above screenshot, just click on the OK button to continue submit the poll. That’s all you have to do to respond to the poll.

See the Poll Responses

After a while, the poll creator will obviously be interested to see the responses. It’s very simple to check the responses, sign-in again to your Google Docs account and then open the spreadsheet that has the poll title.

Click on the “Form(1)” menu and then click on the “Edit Form” menu option.

When the poll gets loaded click on the “See responses” button and then click on the “Summary” menu option.

Google Docs will display the responses in a neat format with graphs to visually give you an understanding of the response.

Running polls with Google Docs is pretty simple and straight-forward. I hope you find it useful. If you have any questions regarding this please let us know in comments.