Uploading Files to Google Forms With Form+

How to use Formpl.us to create a file upload feature in Google Forms.

NOTE: This tool has made several changes since I first created this video 2 years ago (like their pricing--now only free for up to 15 uploads a month, pretty pathetic). I will try to create an updated version at some point. In the meantime, I don't routinely read and respond to comments, so please help one another, if someone asks a question you can answer. Thanks for understanding!

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Closed Caption:

hey this is randy and welcome to Matt
tech TV in this episode I'm going to
show you is a really powerful and
easy-to-use tool called form plus i just
found this tool I'm don't know how long
it's been out there but it's new to me
and I thought might be something that
you would find valuable what 4 plus does
is it allows you to create features in
your google forms which google forms are
fantastic easy to use a lot of lot of
applications for them but this allows
you to add the functionality of being
able to upload files through a Google
Form
so just as an example let's say that you
were someone that had posted a job
an available job you could have an
online application where in in which
applicants can go fill out all the
information but then they could also
click a button that and where they could
submit and upload their resume which
would then be put into your Google Drive
really a cool tool so i'm going to show
you how this works we're going to go
through the creation of one really
quickly
now first of all let me tell you need to
go to form plus thats form PL . us and
register and you'll have to do
by joining your google account to it
that's okay because that's what that's
how you have to add the functionality
into your Google Drive
so go ahead and register there and then
go to your Google Drive login and one of
the things that you'll see is you will
see in the create button that you've
added this form plus tool so i'm going
to click on that and you get this whole
new tool that you didn't have before
it's the form plus builder and i'm going
to create a real quick for him what I'm
going to do is I'm going to create a
form as if i had sent home or I'd posted
online and electronic copy of a parent
survey where I wanted to get parent
information contact information things
like that but I don't want them to print
it out and bring it back to me i just
want them to submit it online so i'm
going to create a forum for that i'm
going to click here on untitled form
just like we do in google docs i'm going
to give it a title i'm going to call it
parent survey save it and then I'm gonna
add a few elements now this is a cool
interface it's just click and drag
so let's say the first thing i want is
the student's name i'm going to click
and drag that up
here and right now it's just a text
input box but i don't want to say text
input i'm going to click on that and I
wanted to say
student last name
I don't think that I need the word
placeholder in my place holder box and I
know I don't need any help text for that
when it's pretty easy
click Save i'm going to click another
one over here and i'm going to click to
edit it and then i'm going to make its a
student first name again i don't need
the word placeholder and I don't need
help text on that one
make it required and then i might do
something like maybe I want him to
indicate what class . the rim
I mean I can use their several tools
here there's a select tool like multiple
choices checkbox radio
i'm going to use this in line radios
tool which is really cool
click it and i'm going to say class .
and then I can add all my class periods
ok click Save and that's pretty much it
as far as the Student Information really
all that information does it helps me
when it when i get the spreadsheet
that's going to result from this it
helps me sort my information and get it
organized
so the next thing i want to do is I want
to add this file upload tool so i'm
going to click on file upload and i'm
going to drag this over into my survey
form that I'm creating again I want to
do a little editing I don't want to say
file button that's obviously too generic
so I'm going to say parent survey upload
and click save and now basically I'm
through because I've got the choose file
button it's going to allow them to
choose to click on it and browse to it
as I'll show you in just a minute
so the last thing i need to do is click
create form that was a real simple short
and simple in there and it will take
just a couple seconds and here is my
form it gives me a nice preview of what
it's going to look like
ok and notice over here there is a
there's a link to it you can also do it
you can get embed codes and things like
that so that you can show it on your
site you can also shorten the URL if
you'd like but anyway there's my URL and
we'll come back to that in a minute
right now i'm gonna show you have a
survey works if i wanted to i could
actually go directly to it through that
link but i can also take it right here
through my preview so i'm going to say
i'm going to get my survey name and
she's in fifth period and then i'm going
to choose a file I'm going to browse to
the file of the parent survey which in
this case i'm actually going to pick
something totally different
it's a little jpg there and i'm going to
click Submit then matter what the file
is i can upload all kinds of different
files and upload movie files i can
upload a PDF second upload word
documents powerpoints all kinds of
things and so now it's been submitted
sets successfully
now if i go back into my google Drive
here's where you find all this this is
really cool it creates a form plus
folder and you'll notice there's my
parents survey right there if I want to
get back in it and edit it i can click
that it will take me right back in to
form plus and my forum where I'll be
able to edit it and I'm gonna do that
right now
there's my survey results and since i
did submit one I should be able to see
them yet there's pebbles Flintstone
she's in fifth period and then i also
have this folder here that gets created
called parent survey file submissions
and you can see there's the file that i
uploaded nice and securely in my google
Drive
that's really yet now the only other
thing I would add is that sometimes the
way you want to do this is actually to
use this link if you if you want to do
all the bells and whistles of a Google
form then go in
create your google form the standard
route then go in and create your
submission peace in your form plus tool
copy this link here which you can do by
right clicking and saying copy and then
you can go into your for many google
form that you've created and you can
just paste that into a text field and
that link will show up as a live link
when people visit that form online to
complete it
they could click that live link use that
part for the submission and go back into
the form to complete the form
so that's it i hope that you find this
valuable i see a lot of potential
applications this can be used as a
student assessment tool as well students
could come in here and complete surveys
or tester or whatever you know
reflection activities and then upload
the files that they've completed a lot
of powerful uses for this tool that's it
for this episode I hope that was
beneficial and look forward to talking
to you the next time