The Google Form by Email is a Google script that sends the form data in an email when a user submits the Google form. The data can be sent as HTML, plain Text or as PDF attachments.
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Send Google Forms by Email
1. Get email notifications with the form data when someone submits your Google Forms.
Your can email a copy of the form to the submitter as well.
Introduction
With the Google Forms email notifications script installed, you can send instant email
notifications to one or more email address from your Gmail account. The email notication can
also include all the form data as a PDF attachment and you can format the emails with your
logo and other elements using HTML tags.
For support, send an email to Amit Agarwal at amit@labnol.org or tweet @labnol.
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2. Step 1: Initialize the Google Form
Google Forms stores all the form responses inside a Google Spreadsheet. We will install the
Google Script for sending form notifications inside this sheet. To get started, open your
Google Form and click on "View Responses" to open the associated Google Spreadsheet.
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3. Open the Script Editor
Inside the responses spreadsheet, click on Tools -> Script editor as shown in the screenshot
here.
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4. Install the Google Script
Delete everything that you see inside the Google Script editor
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5. Paste the Google Form Script
Copy-paste the entire Google Forms script in text area. You can find the script in the email
that you received after your purchase of the Google Forms premium edition.
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6. Save the Google Script
Press the Save button (or choose Save from the File menu) and give your project a name.
Let's call it Google Forms. Click OK to save the project name and close the Google Script
Editor window.
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7. Step 3: Authorize Google Forms
Switch to the Google Spreadsheet and RELOAD (or refresh) the page. You'll see a new
Google Forms menu appear in the menu bar. Click Configure Notifications to get started.
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8. Grant Access
The first time you run the Google Forms script, you'll need to authorize it to send email
notifications. Click on Continue to open the authorization wizard.
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9. Accept
Authorize the program to access your Google account. It needs these permissions to read
the form responses from the spreadsheet and also send emails on your behalf using your
Gmail account.
The script runs in your own Google Account and not a single byte of your data is shared or
uploaded anywhere. You can also view the entire source code inside the Script editor of the
spreadsheet. Click the Accept button to continue.
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10. Step 4: Configure Google Form Notifications
Once the Google script is authorized, it will open the form configuration window where you
can specify how the email notifications should be sent and what should be included in the
notifications. The various fields are explained in detail on the next page.
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11. Form Field Configuration
1. Email Address - Select the email address that the script will use to send notifications.
This is useful if you have a personal and work email address and the work address is
set as an alias in the personal address.
2. Sender's Name - This name will appear as the sender's name in the outgoing email
notifications.
3. Users to notify - Specify a list of email addresses who will receive the email
notifications. You can add multiple email addresses separated by commas.
4. ReplyTo Address - If someone replies to the email notification, their replies will be
sent to this address (optional).
5. Email Submitter - Select YES if you want to send a copy of the submitted form data
to the form submitter's email address.
6. Recipient's Email Column - Specify the column in the spreadsheet that is storing the
email address of the form submitter. If you selected "YES" for option E, the emails will
be sent to this address.
7. Email Format - The script will send email notifications as HTML but you can also
choose to include the form data attached as a PDF file.
8. Include Form Data - By default, all the entered form data is appended to the outgoing
email notification in a tabular format. Say NO if you would like to include only selected
form fields.
9. Subject Line - Enter the subject line of the email notifications. You can even include
form fields in the subject line using the {{form field name}} notation.
10. Email Body - This is the body of email notifications and, like the subject line, you can
add form fields too. The text may be formatted using standard HTML tags.
Let me show you a quick example on how to use the {{name}} notation to insert form fields
inside the email message body and subject line. These are replaced with the actual value
entered by the form submitter.
In our Google Form, we have fields like Name, City and Color Choice. Now if we are to insert
these fields in the email subject or body, we will add them as {{Name}}, {{City}} and {{Color
Choice}}. When a user submits a form, the {{Name}} variable will be replaced by the value
they have entered in the Name field.
We can also use HTML tags to format email notifications. For instance, use the <img src>
tag to insert your company's logo or use <b> to bold any text in the email.
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13. Save Form Configuration
Click the Save Configuration button to save your changes and then close the configuration
window. Your Google Forms trigger is now set and whenever someone submits a form, an
email notification will go out.
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14. Test Google Forms
To test your Google Forms notifications, choose the "Form" menu in the Google Sheet and
select Go to Live form. Submit a test entry in your form and go to your Gmail account. Look
into the Sent Items folder and if you see a form email there, you are all set to go live.
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15. Limitations
Google Forms allows unlimited number of submissions but Google has set a limit on the
number of recipients that you send emails to in the 24 hour period.
For free Gmail accounts, Google allows to send emails to a total of 100 recipients in a single
day. In the case of Google Apps for business accounts, the email quota is 1500 email
recipients per day.
If you are not getting email notifications, chances are that you have exhaused your daily limit.
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16. Get Going
You can get the Google Forms Notifications script (premium) from Digital Inspiration. For
support, contact Amit Agarwal at amit@labnol.org or tweet @labnol.
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