Looking for online form/spreadsheet to help plan large group vacation
May 11, 2017 7:57 AM Subscribe
I'm in charge of an extended family multi-generational vacation to Florida this December, and I'm looking for a way to get feedback from everyone to gauge their interest in the millions of possible activities. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know what to use, but I've drawn a picture of what I'd like it to look like for each person when they click on the link I send them. Can you recommend an easy free tool to accomplish this?
Each row corresponds to a different activity, which I can explain with a brief description so people know what it entails. Each column corresponds to a different person. For each activity, a person can click yes, maybe, or no. (Thumbs up, meh, and thumbs down emojis would also work, as would a rating system from 0 to 5 stars, or any other obvious rating scale.) Parents should be able to respond for their kids (e.g. in my picture, Adult 1A or 2A could fill in the form for Child 1A).
Each row corresponds to a different activity, which I can explain with a brief description so people know what it entails. Each column corresponds to a different person. For each activity, a person can click yes, maybe, or no. (Thumbs up, meh, and thumbs down emojis would also work, as would a rating system from 0 to 5 stars, or any other obvious rating scale.) Parents should be able to respond for their kids (e.g. in my picture, Adult 1A or 2A could fill in the form for Child 1A).
Response by poster: Thanks. Would Google survey allow people to answer for their kids? Or would they have to take the survey once per person? Ideally they could answer for themselves and their kids at the same time, rather than doing it over and over for each person.
posted by billtron at 8:14 AM on May 11, 2017
posted by billtron at 8:14 AM on May 11, 2017
(It's Google Forms, not Surveys, I think.)
In the settings for it, you can choose to either restrict the survey to one-per-user (though users have to log in with Google Accounts for this to even be possible in the first place), or you can choose to let users take the survey multiple times. In the latter instance, the final "thanks for taking this survey" page will include a link that says something to the effect of "fill this out again". Clicking on the link will take the user back to a blank version of the survey and they can do it again.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:25 AM on May 11, 2017
In the settings for it, you can choose to either restrict the survey to one-per-user (though users have to log in with Google Accounts for this to even be possible in the first place), or you can choose to let users take the survey multiple times. In the latter instance, the final "thanks for taking this survey" page will include a link that says something to the effect of "fill this out again". Clicking on the link will take the user back to a blank version of the survey and they can do it again.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:25 AM on May 11, 2017
Here's what it would look like in Google Forms, btw.
The matrix table you drew isn't really possible (there is a matrix table question type, but it's one choice per column, not multiple choices like you have).
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:29 AM on May 11, 2017
The matrix table you drew isn't really possible (there is a matrix table question type, but it's one choice per column, not multiple choices like you have).
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:29 AM on May 11, 2017
Best answer: You can also just do this with google sheets.
Set up your rows and cols the way you have them drawn and then add data validation for Yes, No, Maybe. If people can be trusted to fill out just their column, then you're golden and it's one activity. Here, I started one for you.
posted by Medieval Maven at 8:29 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Set up your rows and cols the way you have them drawn and then add data validation for Yes, No, Maybe. If people can be trusted to fill out just their column, then you're golden and it's one activity. Here, I started one for you.
posted by Medieval Maven at 8:29 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. The google sheet looks best for our purposes, but it's good to know about google forms in case I have to do this again.
posted by billtron at 9:10 AM on May 11, 2017
posted by billtron at 9:10 AM on May 11, 2017
Yes, Google sheets. And if someone messes up and deletes someone else's data, it's available (at the time, there's a timestamp with the last edit, or "all changes saved" which brings up a log of all past edits to the document.)
I just finished grad school and had to do lots of team projects with people across the country. We used google drive for almost all of our collaborating because it is free, easy to use, and super great at colloborative documents.
(Actually, I work at a school district and the district is all google drive - it really is a great tool.)
Forms is good, too, but based upon your picture, sheets is what you are looking for.
If you want to get crazy, you can start locking the different columns or rows so that people can only edit certain boxes, but it's largely unnecessary.
posted by firei at 6:07 PM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
I just finished grad school and had to do lots of team projects with people across the country. We used google drive for almost all of our collaborating because it is free, easy to use, and super great at colloborative documents.
(Actually, I work at a school district and the district is all google drive - it really is a great tool.)
Forms is good, too, but based upon your picture, sheets is what you are looking for.
If you want to get crazy, you can start locking the different columns or rows so that people can only edit certain boxes, but it's largely unnecessary.
posted by firei at 6:07 PM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by Ftsqg at 8:00 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]