15 reasons Forms is one of the most underrated tools in the Microsoft 365 suite

You might not have noticed it before, but if you click on the app launcher in Microsoft 365 you will see an app called Forms. At first glance it’s just a simple survey tool, however there are a number of excellent features that might just put this app on your favourites list.

1.       Easy to use

Microsoft Forms allows you to build simple forms and surveys in minutes. It’s very user friendly and intuitive - there’s no need to have any kind of technical skills whatsoever to use it. 

2.       Web Based

It’s web based which means it can be accessed by you and anyone filling in the form from any browser on any device.

3.       Real time response analysis

You can view form responses and analyse results in real time from within the Forms app. You can also easily export the results to Excel for further in-depth analysis.

4.       Integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications including SharePoint and Power Automate

Microsoft Forms integrates well with other Microsoft 365 applications such as Power Automate where you can take the results from a submission to populate SharePoint lists or trigger other business processes.

5.       Users can attach files with their form submissions

This is a great alternative to sending files via email – they can now be uploaded directly within the form and actioned along with the form responses.

6.       Your form can be shared externally

By changing the setting of your form to “Anyone can respond”, you can share your form with external anonymous users.

7.       You can set responses to be anonymous

You can set responses to be anonymous by unticking “Record name”.

8.       You can receive an email notification each time a new response is submitted

Again, another simple tick box will allow you to receive an email each time a new response to your form is submitted.

Note that only the user who created the form will receive the email notification.

To send a notification to multiple users, a simple workflow in Power Automate will need to be set up.

9.       The “Thank you” message upon submission can be customised

If you would like your users to see a custom message upon submission of a form, you can customise this easily in the form settings.

10.       Branching logic can be applied to questions

Before you get started with branching, it’s a good idea to make sure all your questions are created. You can then add branching logic to your form so that it changes according to a specific response and questions only appear if they are relevant.

11.       Forms can be easily duplicated

You can easily duplicate forms you have previously created – this is great for similar surveys or making changes to a Form whilst keeping a copy of your original.

12.       You can shuffle your questions

You can randomly shuffle the questions in your form so that they are in a different order each time the form is filled in.

13.       You can change the language or add additional language options to your form

Microsoft Forms gives you the option to set a primary and additional languages for your form.

Users will be able to toggle between the languages on your form depending on their preference

14.       Customise the theme of your form

The colour and background of your form can be customised to any theme you would like.

15.       Embed your form on external websites

Forms still work great when embedded on external websites. Just note that you will have to set your form to “Anyone can respond”.

As you can see, Microsoft Forms is a great tool and there are so many use cases for it such as Leave request forms, job application forms, company surveys, reimbursement forms etc. It may not have a ton of advanced features, but it is beginner-friendly and very powerful when used in conjunction with other Microsoft 365 apps.