How to create an online survey for free using Google Docs

2011-09-30T19:24:00.000+05:30

Why might you need to create your own online survey? Need to get the opinion of several of your friends or family members about an idea you have? Or maybe you are at the office and want to know what projects people think are the most important for your department? Whatever the case may be, most people have ended up using SurveyMonkey for creating online surveys.
However, there’s another way now that you can create your own online surveys and track the statistics easily online and that’s using Google Docs. They just released a new feature in the spreadsheet program whereby when you go to share the document, you can choose an option to fill out a form.
	The best thing about using Google Docs is that you can create a form easily, email it to anyone with an email address, and they can complete the whole survey without having to sign in! They can even fill out the form directly from their email client, no need to bring up a web page at all!
A form is always linked up with a spreadsheet, so if you create a form, then you’ll get a spreadsheet and vice versa. This is because all of the responses are automatically added to the spreadsheet and kept track of there. You can also install an iGoogle widget that will list your recent active forms with the new responses highlighted.
To create a new form, click on New and then click Spreadsheet.

Then click on the Share tab at the top right of the new spreadsheet.


On the Share this document tab, you’ll see a new option called to fill out a form. Go ahead and click on that radio button and you’ll get a new set of options.

Click on Start editing your form and for the first step, you’ll need to give your form a title and description. Then you can type in a question along with some help text and choose what type of question it will be: textbox, multiple choice, checkboxes, or choose from a list.

*****
The interface is very slick and works fast, no need for page refreshes to add more questions, etc. Everything works while you’re on the same page. You can also re-order the questions in any order you like. After your online survey is completed, you can then choose who to email it out to. Remember they don’t have to have a GMail account and nor will they have to sign into anything. It’s not a fabulous tool for creating online survey forms, but it definitely gets the job done quickly and easily. I’m guessing that eventually they will come out with form themes that look more professional than just plain black and white. Enjoy! Source: Google Docs Blog Courtesy : Online Tech Tips

Netbooks and Notebooks

2010-06-23T19:29:00.000+05:30

I was just surfing over internet looking for Laptops for someone, when I stumbled across something termed as Netbook. I had to explain Netbook to someone so just collected details and then thought why not post it, this might help many others who are in a dilemma of whether to purchase a Notebook or a Netbook.
I’ll brief you about the technical details; however will have to help you with the generally used terms, so that we are on the same page when we discuss the specifications.

NOTEBOOKS

Very commonly known as LAPTOPS, Notebooks have derived their name as they look like (in appearance) an actual Notebook of papers. The sizes of Laptops have been reduced, and now because of much technical advancement in the field of processor, motherboard, chipset, battery designs etc, the size has reduced considerably. Now-a-days the Notebooks (Laptops, as you call them) are super-thin, and much more powerful than the actual Laptops that we had some decades back. Notebooks are now much lighter and much powerful than they were before. People can even carry them in their school/college bags, and the sturdy body can easily tolerate the jerks and bumps etc.
A Notebook is a mobile computer with a full sized keyboard and a flip up monitor.
These days, it does not have space for built in floppy disk drives but instead provides communication ports so that an external drive can be connected. This allows a Notebook to be much thinner than a Laptop.
There is no official (technical, legal) difference between a "Notebook" and a "Laptop" computer. Most people use the terms interchangeably.

NETBOOKS

Netbooks, as the name suggests, are sleek devices which have almost all features of a Notebook, but their development is more concentrated for providing connectivity to networks like, LAN(Local Area Network) using Ethernet, MAN(Metropolitan Area Network) using Firewire or other such ports, WAN(Wide Area Network, like INTERNET) using either of the above two ways. It also provide wireless facilities like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infra-Red (Varies from Company-to-Company and Product-to-Product). Such systems are powerful enough to even setup Ad-hoc Networks. And in fact it is quite simple to connect systems via Ad-hoc Networks.

Netbooks are very much similar to Notebook, but one can never call Netbook as a Notebook, reason being. Notebooks are very powerful (when it comes to computation, facilities, resources etc.), where as Netbooks are rather built for lighter applications, generally related to Internet etc.
A Netbook or mini PC is a mobile computer with a keyboard smaller than full size (some are less than half the size) and a flip up monitor. It might not have space for built in storage drives but does provide ports for connecting an external drive. They often have solid state hard drives (but some have "real" hard drives). Solid state hard drives are smaller than real hard drives, use far less power (longer battery life, even with smaller, lighter weight batteries) and they should be far more reliable (but some problems have been reported with some of them) because they have no moving parts. Some Netbooks now have "real" hard drives. Netbooks usually have no optical drive at all (e.g. no CD or DVD drive), and will typically have smaller screens than full size Laptops. They may have slower or lower power CPUs and Video than full size Laptops. The presumption being that one is just using them for E-Mail, Web Surfing and Routine, non-intensive Office applications. Netbook’s expandability is very limited, these are designed to do a few fairly simple task and not designed to do "everything".
Netbooks have Excellent Portability due to small size and light weight. These are good enough for basic computer tasks and are relatively cheaper than Notebooks.

With the evolving technologies, manufacturers have left no room for differences between Laptops, Notebooks and Netbooks, still, there are, some general guidelines we can use. Laptop computers, Notebooks and Netbooks use the same basic form factor -- the main differentiation is size.
There's no universal definition upon which you can rely.

Ankiit Saxena

How to create an online survey for free using Google Docs

Netbooks and Notebooks