Microsoft Forms Survey Examples and the Ideas Behind Them
Microsoft Forms survey examples run from employee satisfaction and post-event feedback templates to photo competition votes, volunteer recognition nominations and festival experience surveys that organisers publish as live forms. Microsoft's template gallery adds sign-up sheets and registration information, and the American Library Association shares health, digital learning and summer reading template sets.
Written by BuyPollVotes editorial desk | Last checked
Where the published examples come from
Microsoft describes Forms as a product for creating and sharing online surveys, quizzes, polls and forms, built to collect feedback, measure satisfaction and test knowledge. That description is the frame every example sits in. The template gallery names ready-made starting points such as an employee satisfaction survey and a post-event feedback survey, and the guidance on those templates says they can serve surveys, sign-up sheets and registration information. A creator therefore rarely starts from nothing; the usual route is a template edited down to the questions that matter.
The American Library Association goes further and publishes whole template sets for Microsoft Forms. One set covers health services aimed at patrons and their families, listing healthy cooking, healthcare information and online exercise classes. Another covers digital learning services built around access to technology, technology-related skills and confidence. A third covers summer reading, written to keep school-aged children reading through the summer and limit learning gaps. These are examples with a shape worth copying: a clear audience, a short purpose statement and questions that serve it.
- Microsoft's Teams documentation shows a recurring survey built on an employee well-being measurement template, chosen as the example in its own walkthrough.
- The same walkthrough points to the create-a-recurring-survey option, which turns a one-off form into a regular check-in rather than a single collection.
Live forms from organisers
Templates are not the only examples. Real organisers publish live forms, and each one shows a different job a survey can do. South West STEM Fest asked participants to complete a short survey about their festival experience. AIA West Jersey used a form to determine winning photographs in a photo competition, telling members it needed their help to pick the winners. The City of Siloam Springs published a Microsoft Forms entry form for a neighborhood Christmas display contest, with a click-to-enter link in its announcement.
Awards and recognition work the same way. CU Boulder runs nominations for a Global Engagement & Service Award through a Microsoft Form that requires sign-in with a CU Identikey, which ties every submission to an authenticated person. Rugby Union SA publishes a link for volunteer recognition nominations and asks people to click through and nominate an individual. One form, one purpose, and a deadline the organiser controls. That is the pattern behind nearly every published Microsoft Forms survey example worth studying.
- A photo vote, a contest entry form and an award nomination can look identical in the builder; the difference is the rules the organiser attaches outside the form.
- Entries and nominations usually need the organiser to reach a person, so the form has to capture contact details cleanly rather than bury an email address in free text.
Question types a forms survey uses
A forms survey is assembled from items, and each item takes one kind of input. Choice questions present options and let the creator decide whether a person selects one or several. Text items carry typed input, which is how a name, an email address or an open comment gets captured. The product description counts surveys, quizzes, polls and forms among the things Forms can build, and the item list is what separates them: a poll leans on Choice items, a quiz adds knowledge testing, a survey mixes whatever the purpose needs.
The Choice format carries most of the voting and preference work, and it draws the sharpest questions from readers: how required behaves, whether more than one answer is allowed, and what happens to the options once the form is live. Those behaviours are worth spelling out, because they are narrower than most people expect.
- Choice: options a respondent picks from, one or several depending on the toggle the creator sets.
- Text: typed input for a name, an email address and open comments.
- Recurring builds: Teams lets a creator set a survey to repeat, using the employee well-being measurement template as the worked example.
Contact details, name and email fields
Multiple fields on a single question are a common wish and a common stumbling block. A question in Forms holds one input, so name, email address and other contact details are built as separate items in the same form rather than fields packed into one prompt. The text item is the tool for each one, and the form gathers them in whatever order the creator places them.
That structure has a practical upside for organisers. Every detail lands in its own response column, which makes the exported sheet easier to sort, keeps an email address clean for follow-up and lets a nomination process reach the right person without untangling a combined field.
- One item per detail keeps an email address in its own column instead of inside a paragraph of text.
- The order of items is the order a respondent meets them, so contact details usually go first or last by design.
What the Choice format allows
The required switch and the multiple-answers switch do different jobs, and neither behaves the way the question above hopes. Required applies to the whole item: a respondent must answer it before continuing, and it cannot be pinned to one option inside the question. The multiple-answers toggle works the other way round. When it is on, every option becomes selectable, so the respondent can pick several rather than one.
In practice that means the combination many creators want, one option made required while several picks are allowed, is not a setting the product offers. The closest path is wording: state in the question what a complete answer looks like, and let the toggle handle the rest.
- Required: a per-question switch that forces an answer before the respondent moves on.
- Multiple answers: a per-question toggle that permits several picks across all options.
- Neither switch works at the level of one individual option.
Formatting, spell check and text limits
The question editor is deliberately plain. Bold, underline and a font change are not controls it offers, so emphasis comes from how an item is worded and where it sits in the sequence. There is no spell check in the builder either, which is why anyone writing long introductory text tends to draft it in an editor that checks spelling and paste the finished version across.
Plain is a fair trade on a tool built for speed. The simplicity is why a library association can hand out template sets and expect non-designers to edit them, and why an organiser can put a contest entry form together in minutes rather than days.
- No bold, underline or font-type control sits in the question editor.
- No built-in spell check protects long text written directly in the builder.
- Wording, order and the form-level description carry whatever emphasis the creator needs.
Three things Forms leaves out
Three limits come up again and again in real questions about Forms. A table of free-text fields for particular rows or columns is not something the free or pro versions offer as a question type. Questions cannot be created dynamically while the form is live; the item list is fixed before sharing. And there is no percentage-complete readout for a respondent who abandons a survey halfway: responses arrive as counts of completed submissions, so a partial answer shows up as a row with gaps rather than a figure.
Read the table below as a map of what each published example actually asks for, and the pattern is hard to miss. None of the organisers named here needs dynamic questions or spreadsheet-style inputs. A handful of Choice and text items covered every job, from a photo vote to an award nomination.
- A grid of free-text fields for chosen rows or columns is not offered as a question type in the free or pro versions.
- Questions cannot be generated while a form is live; the list is fixed in the builder before sharing.
- There is no percentage-complete readout for a respondent who stops partway through.
Rules and disqualification risks
An organiser's published rules sit above any form. AIA West Jersey's photo vote, Siloam Springs' entry form and the award nominations all carry conditions set outside the builder: who may take part, when the form closes and how winners are checked. A form collects what arrives; it does not grant eligibility.
The same applies to volume. Organisers can see response counts and timestamps, and where tracking is switched on, the identity behind each submission, which is exactly how a contest organiser screens for fake or duplicate entries. A form open to anyone with a link collects whatever it is given, and no example on this page changes that. When a prize is attached, the organiser's rules on how votes must arrive decide what counts. No template, no shared link and no shortcut overrides that check, and anyone submitting on behalf of others should expect the organiser to look.
- Entries can be reviewed one by one before a winner is confirmed.
- A recurring check-in survey, like the Teams example, is judged over weeks of responses rather than one submission.
- Disqualification comes from the organiser's rules, not from the form itself.
| Example | Organiser | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Employee satisfaction survey | Microsoft's template gallery | Staff feedback and check-ins |
| Post-event feedback survey | Microsoft's template gallery | Event follow-up |
| Health programs templates | American Library Association | Patron health services |
| Digital learning templates | American Library Association | Technology skills and access |
| Summer reading templates | American Library Association | Reading through the summer |
| Festival experience survey | South West STEM Fest | Participant feedback |
| Photo competition vote | AIA West Jersey | Choosing winning photographs |
| Holiday display entry form | City of Siloam Springs | Contest entries |
| Global engagement award nominations | CU Boulder | Award nominations, sign-in required |
| Volunteer recognition nominations | Rugby Union SA | Recognising volunteers |
How to do it
-
Pick the template that fits
Start from the gallery example closest to the job: employee satisfaction for workplace check-ins, post-event feedback for a finished event, or a library-style template set for a public programme.
-
Build the questions and the answer options
Keep each item to one input, add a Choice question for picks and text items for name, email address and other contact details, then decide which items are required.
-
Share the link and read the responses
Send the form, watch the response count build and export the answers. Partial submissions surface as incomplete rows, so the gaps are visible without a completion percentage.
Common questions
Can multiple fields be used on one question, such as name, email address and other contact details?
No. A question in Forms holds one input, so name, email address and other contact details are built as separate items in the same form. Each detail then lands in its own column when the responses are exported.
For a question with the Choice format, can you make one option required but allow more than one answer?
No. The required switch applies to the whole question, not to one option, and the multiple-answers toggle opens every option for selection rather than a single one. The combination of one pinned option plus several picks is not a setting Forms offers.
Can you do formatting such as bold and underline, or change the font type?
No. The question editor carries no bold, underline or font-type control, so emphasis has to come from how an item is worded and ordered. Long introductory text is best drafted elsewhere and pasted in finished.
Is there spell check?
No. The builder has no spell check of its own. Creators who write long instructions or descriptions normally check the text in a tool that does, then paste it into the form before sharing.
Is there a way to find out the percentage complete if a respondent doesn't fill the entire survey out?
No. Forms reports responses as a count of submissions, and a respondent who stops partway leaves missing fields rather than a percentage. Partial answers surface as incomplete rows, so an organiser sees the gap without a completion figure.
Can one create Forms survey questions dynamically?
No. The item list is fixed in the builder before a form is shared, and the live form does not generate new questions based on earlier responses. Changes happen in the editor, and what a respondent sees follows from that fixed structure.
Do organisers run contests through Microsoft Forms surveys?
Yes. AIA West Jersey used a form to help determine winning photographs in a photo competition, and the City of Siloam Springs published an entry form for a neighborhood Christmas display contest. Award nominations follow the same route at CU Boulder and Rugby Union SA.
Where these facts come from
- cswgroup.co.uk. cswgroup.co.uk/home/education/stem/south-west-stem-fest/.
- ala.org. ala.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/SurveyTemplates_MicrosoftFormsWord.pdf.
- forms.office.com. forms.office.com.
- support.microsoft.com. support.microsoft.com/en-us/forms/survey-your-team-to-check-in-and-stay-connected.
- create.microsoft.com. create.microsoft.com/id-id/forms-template.
A template or a shared link does not make a survey contest-legal: the organiser's published rules always sit above the form. This page cannot tell anyone how to win a contest, never promises that submitted answers escape an organiser's review, and does not cover automated answering of any kind. A form records what arrives; it does not verify intent.
X prohibits coordinating with or compensating others to inflate engagement metrics, and it names Polls among the features covered. The Pet Industry Business Awards name the consequence in their own contest: a business may be investigated, lose votes or be disqualified on reasonable evidence of purchased votes. No seller can stop an organiser from doing that.
Slido says it is alerted when an event gets an unusually high number of votes in a very short time, and Crowdsignal says its built-in measures detect patterns of potentially abusive voting. Ordinary participation arrives spread across the voting window, from different people at different moments. Nothing on this site is a method for getting a vote past a check, and a vote that a tool blocks does not count.
Organiser rules differ: the RSPCA Pet of the Year Awards allow extra votes through donations on their official mechanism, while OpenTable Australia treats a vote cast in exchange for money or a reward as null and void. Both are contest rules, not statutes, and whether payment is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Orders are refused for any contest whose rules ban paid votes, and for political ballots.
Votes ordered for a poll that never appear on its count are refunded after the poll closes. A refund never covers an organiser's decision: Localsearch may void all votes for a disqualified nominee, and Mentimeter says a user whose access it cancels under its Acceptable Use Policy is owed no refund or compensation. No result is promised.