Surveys in Excel, hosted on the web

Note: We are currently updating this feature and rolling out changes, so you may have a different experience than what is described below. Learn more about upcoming functionality improvements in Create a form with Microsoft Forms.

Surveys let other people fill out your list—like a sign-up sheet or questionnaire—where you can see it all in one place online. Here’s how to create your survey in OneDrive and OneDrive for work or school:

In OneDrive for work or school

To get started with building a survey, follow these steps:

Insert Form for Excel option in Excel for the web

  1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 with your school or work credentials.
  2. Click New, and then select Forms for Excel to begin creating your survey.

Note: Forms for Excel is available for OneDrive for work or school and new team sites connected with Microsoft 365 groups. Learn more about Microsoft 365 groups.

Note: Your survey is saved automatically while you create it.

Choice, text, and rating question types displayed for a form.

Want to add more choices? Click Add Option to add more choices than the default two choices. Click Add “Other” Option to add a choice option that displays the text Other. To remove a choice, click the trash can button next to it. You can also choose to make a question required or allow multiple choices for a question by changing the settings at the bottom of the question. To have Microsoft Forms randomly shuffle the order of the options displayed to users of the survey, click the ellipses button (. ) and then click Shuffle options.

Tip: Click the ellipses button () and then click Subtitle to add a subtitle for a question.

<a href=Suggested answer options for a question" />

Some choice questions will trigger auto suggestions.

Click on the suggested options to add as choices. In the following example, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are selected.

Copy question button

Tip: To copy a question, select it and then click the Copy Question button

in the upper right corner.

Text question displayed with number restriction between 1 and 6

Text questions also allow you to set restrictions when you need to have numbers as the answer. Click the ellipses button () and then click Restrictions. You can choose to restrict the numbers by selecting from the various options such as Greater than, Less than, Between, and many others.

Preview computer mode for a class survey form

Click Preview at the top of the design window to see how your survey will look on a computer. If you want to test your survey, enter answers for the questions in preview mode and then click Submit.

Preview mobile mode for a class survey form

Click Mobile to see how your survey will look on a mobile device.

In OneDrive

Important: Excel survey is retiring soon. While any existing surveys you've created in OneDrive via Create > Excel survey will still work as expected, use Microsoft Forms for any new survey creation.

Near the top of the screen, click Create, and then click Excel survey.

Create Excel survey

You’ll get a form that walks you through creating your survey.

Tips for creating your Excel survey

Survey command

Make form questions work for you

As you add questions to your form, remember that each question corresponds to a column in the Excel worksheet.

Survey questions corresond to worksheet columns

Think of how you’ll use the information in the resulting worksheet. For example, giving people a list of choices instead of letting them type their response lets you sort and filter the responses.

Picking from a list of choices makes sorting and filtering easy

To set this up, go to Home > Survey > Edit Survey, and click on a question to edit it. Pick Choice as the Response Type, and then put each choice on a separate line in the Choices box.

Choice field

Try other response types, too.

Note: Columns in the spreadsheet are built as you add questions to the survey form. Changes you make to the survey form are updated in the spreadsheet, unless you delete a question or change the order of questions on the form. You'll have to update the spreadsheet manually in those cases: delete the columns that go with the questions you deleted, or cut and paste columns to change their order.