How to create a survey in Microsoft Forms: step by step, Likert, branching and sharing
Microsoft Forms is the free form and survey builder that comes with a Microsoft account. This guide goes step by step from a blank form to a survey link you can send: which question types to use, Likert scales, sections, branching and the settings to check before sending.
Quick summary
- Go to forms.office.com, sign in with a Microsoft account and choose New Form; add each question with Add new.
- Single or multiple choice questions use the Choice type; a 5-point agreement scale over several statements uses Likert; a 0–10 recommendation score uses Net Promoter Score.
- Split long questionnaires into Sections by topic; branching is in the question's three-dot menu (Add branching).
- Before sending: choose Anyone can respond if respondents are outside your school or company, then press Collect responses for the link or QR code.
- Responses are in the Responses tab and open in Excel for analysis.
What is Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is Microsoft's app for forms, surveys, quizzes and polls, used in the browser at forms.office.com or inside Microsoft Teams. It is free with a personal Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail); schools and companies on Microsoft 365 usually have it in the accounts they give out. Responses are summarized on the page and can be downloaded as an Excel file.
Compared with Google Forms, Microsoft Forms has built-in Likert, Ranking and Net Promoter Score questions, while sections and branching work a little differently. If your team uses Microsoft 365, a Microsoft Forms survey opens with everyone's own school or work account.
Step 1: create a new form
- Open forms.office.com and sign in with your Microsoft account.
- Choose New Form. Use New Quiz only when answers need to be graded.
- Click the title to name the survey and add a description: purpose, expected time to complete, privacy promise and how to get in touch.
- Press Add new to add the first question.
You can also start from a survey template and edit it. To change a form that was already sent, make a copy (three-dot menu, Duplicate) so old responses are not mixed in.
Step 2: pick the right question types
| Question type | Use it for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Choice | Gender, age, occupation, Yes/No questions | Turn on Multiple answers to allow several choices; the three-dot menu has a Drop-down style for long lists. |
| Text | Comments, reasons, short answers | Turn on Long answer for paragraphs; you can restrict it to numbers. |
| Rating | Star or number rating of one criterion | Choose the number of levels and stars or numbers. |
| Likert | Several statements on one agreement scale | Statements are rows, agreement levels are columns. |
| Date | Date of birth, date of service | Respondents pick it on a calendar. |
| Ranking | Ordering factors by priority | Harder to analyse than Likert; use it only when you really need an order. |
| Net Promoter Score | Likelihood to recommend, 0–10 | For customer surveys. |
| Upload file | Collecting photos and documents | Only with work or school accounts, and respondents must sign in. |
Turn on Required for questions the analysis cannot do without, such as demographics used to compare groups. Keep sensitive questions optional with a Prefer not to say choice.
Step 3: build a Likert scale
For research scales with several observed items, the Microsoft Forms Likert question is the neatest choice: each statement is a row and levels such as Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly agree are the columns. Give each construct its own Likert question, named after the construct, so respondents know what they are rating.
Keep the same number of levels and the same column order for every Likert question. In the Excel export each Likert row becomes a column holding the text of the chosen level, so recode it to numbers 1–5 before analysis; choosing 5 or 7 levels and coding are covered in the guide on Likert scales.
Step 4: sections and branching
Questionnaires of 15 questions or more should be split into sections: add a Section (in the extended question list) for each topic such as General information, Experience, Evaluation. Respondents see one section at a time, which feels lighter than one long page.
Branching lets each group answer only the questions meant for it. For example, in a screening question Have you used the product, people who choose No go straight to the last question or to the end of the form. To set it up:
- On the question that branches, open the three-dot menu and choose Add branching.
- For each choice, pick the question or section to go to; leave Next to continue in order.
- To end the survey after a choice, pick End of the form.
Branches only go forward to later questions. When done, press Preview and walk through every branch once.
Step 5: settings before sending
Open the form's three-dot menu, choose Settings and check:
- Who can fill out this form: choose Anyone can respond when respondents are outside your school or company. Only people in my organization requires a work or school sign-in.
- One response per person: only available when limited to your organization; turn it on when each person may answer once.
- Start and end date: set them if the survey is open only for a period.
- Shuffle questions: avoid it when the questionnaire has sections and branching.
- Email notification of each response: turn it off for large surveys so your inbox does not fill up.
Step 6: share the survey link
Press Collect responses. You can Copy the short link forms.office.com/r/…, download a QR code for a poster, embed the form in a web page or send it by email. Post the link in your class group or Teams with a short introduction: who runs the survey, how long it takes and how the data will be used.
Before sending it widely, have 5–10 people from your target group try it and note which questions are unclear. This is the pilot test, which fixes problems while they are still cheap.
Step 7: view results and export to Excel
The Responses tab shows how many people answered, a chart per question and each individual response. Press Open in Excel to download all answers: one row per person, one column per question, each Likert row as its own column. The file goes into SPSS once the text is coded as numbers, as when you export Google Form data to SPSS.
Test the questionnaire before sending it out
Before sending it to hundreds of people, run through every branch and check the response spreadsheet: are the columns in order, are skipped questions blank where they should be, does the Likert coding work in SPSS. AutoFillForm reads Microsoft forms from their share link, lets you set answer ratios for each question and send a few test responses to check these points on a copy of your questionnaire. Test data is only for technical checks and must never be reported as real answers.
Frequently asked questions
References
- Microsoft. (n.d.). Microsoft Forms help & learning. Microsoft Support. https://support.microsoft.com/forms
- Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (4th ed.). Wiley.
- Joshi, A., Kale, S., Chandel, S., & Pal, D. K. (2015). Likert scale: Explored and explained. British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 7(4), 396–403.
The thresholds in this article are common conventions in the sources above. Check them against your supervisor's or target journal's requirements.