How to Create Fillable Forms in Google Docs

There are essentially two kinds of forms you can create using the Google Docs suite of apps. If you want to create a basic form for occasional use, such as an employment contract or a nondisclosure agreement, you can use Google Docs. If you are creating a survey, you're better off using the Google Forms app.

Google Docs is better suited for creating printable forms. Google Forms is ideal for gathering data from a large number of respondents.

Using Google Docs to Create Fillable PDFs

Google Docs itself is extremely limited in its ability to generate forms. Its ease of use makes it a good choice if you're creating forms to be printed and filled out or filled out by people with any PDF editor, such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. However, the information they put on the form can't be automatically sent to a spreadsheet or database, so if you need to pull data from hundreds of forms, this isn't the solution you need.

You can make a basic form in just a few minutes or – if you're looking for something more – you can use any of the thousands of Google Docs templates you can find by doing a Google search. If you use a template, remember to make a copy first and save it to your own Google Drive folder so that you can edit it.