How to Set Up Response Validation in Google Forms
Whenever you create a form using Google Forms, you can collect responses from anyone on the internet who has a link to your form or who you've shared it with.
While it's helpful to have a way to get so many comments from so many people on the internet, it can also cause problems. People don't always answer questions the same way, which can leave you with messy and hard-to-sort results.
To make things easier, it's a good idea to set up response validation in your Google Forms. This will compel people to fill out the form to answer your questions as you need them.
Adding Google Form Elements
You can create comprehensive online surveys using Google Forms, and you can even embed them on your website.
The process of creating a Google Form requires putting together the elements one after the other.
To do this, sign in to your Google account and navigate to the Google Forms page. Launch a blank form or form template, and you're ready to start creating your first form.
You can add one element at a time by selecting the + on the right and choosing the type of element you want to add to your form.
There are three types of questions associated with the ability to use answer validation in Google Forms.
- Short Answer: One Line Answers
- Paragraph: Multiline Answers
- Check Boxes: Multiple Choice Selections
Each of these questions has its own set of validations that you can configure.
Short Answer Validation
When you need a short answer in response to your Google Form, you can select the three dots in the bottom right corner of this element to add validation. Just select Validate response to do that.
Select the drop-down list next to Number to see the different validation options you have.
Depending on how you want your users to respond, you can limit their response based on one of these options.
Here's how each works:
- Number: Limit a numeric entry to a specific range.
- Text: Make sure the response contains specific text.
- Length: Limit the answer to a maximum number of characters.
- Regular expression: Make sure the response contains at least some text.
Whenever you select one of these response validation options in Google Forms, you will see the validation limits explained in a descriptive sentence for the benefit of users.
Just set the validation parameters you want and don't forget to add the error text so the user sees the correct response message if they type something out of the range you specified.
Limiting short answers is useful when you need data like "age" or "year" and want to prevent the user from accidentally entering a value that doesn't make sense.
This way, answer validation in Google Forms is a great way to automatically check and alert users when they've entered something that doesn't make sense.
Validation of the answer to the paragraph
If you want to use paragraph response validation in Google Forms, just add a paragraph element to your form. Then select the three-dot icon in the lower right corner and choose Answer Validation.
Now when you select the drop-down arrow next to Length, you will see that there are only two response validation options.
Indeed, for the paragraph form element, it makes sense to limit these two parameters. These include:
- Length: Keep the total length of the entered paragraph below or above a specific limit. This is a good way to prevent form users from typing an entire book into the paragraph field.
- Regular expression: Make sure that what the user has entered contains or does not contain specific words or expressions.
Remember, if you want to require the user to enter text in the paragraph element, be sure to turn on the Required toggle switch.
Limiting paragraph entries like this is a great way to not only avoid extremely long answers but validating regular expressions can help ensure that the user answers the question being asked.
Response Validation checkbox
Checkbox form elements also have their own separate response validation options. Like the other form elements above, add a Checkboxes element, then select the three-dot icon in the lower right corner of the box.
Select the drop-down arrow next to Select At Least to see all response validation options for the Checkboxes item.
As you can see, the validation options for the checkboxes form element are straightforward. These include:
- Select at least: Require the user to select at least a certain number of checkbox options that you have listed for them.
- Select at most: Prevent the user from selecting at most a fixed number of listed checkbox options.
- Select Exactly: Require the user to select an exact number of checkbox options that you have listed.
Checkbox answer validation ensures that users don't skip answers or provide limited answers that don't make sense. For example, if you ask them to select 4 out of 10 preferences from a list and they only select 2, you want to make sure to alert them that they forgot to select the correct number of checkboxes.
Should You Use Response Validation in Google Forms?
You don't have to use answer validation every time you use any of the above options in Google Forms, but it's available whenever you need to prevent your users from going out of bounds with your questions. form.
Using response validation in Google Forms can make filling out your form too difficult, so use it sparingly. But used wisely, it can help ensure that you don't end up with errors or nonsensical answers in your form responses.
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