How to Create a Free Poll for your Website

Intro: Follow these steps to create a free poll for your website using Google Spreadsheets.

Step 1: Go to the Google document’s homepage and click on “new” and “spreadsheet.” On the top menu, you should click on the “form” button and click “create form.”

Step 2: A wizard should open. Now you can name your form and then choose a question to poll your visitors on. Under the question type, select multiple choice, and choose answers from which your visitors will select from. Once you are finished you should click “done, next choose recipients.”

Step 3: Under preferences at the bottom left hand corner, you should check off customer confirmation message and type the message you prefer. At the top right corner, click “embed” and copy the highlighted text. Now you should go to your website and go to your html code. Paste the code into your website. The results to the poll will go straight to that spreadsheet. Now close out and click save.

Step 4: To create a free poll, you must now click on the spreadsheet which you just created and in cell C2 type the first possible answer, in D2 type your second answer, in E2 type your third possible answer, and etc.

Step 5: We can now set up your spreadsheet to add up the totals for you. In the cell C3, right under your first answer, you should type =(COUNTIF(B2:B10000, “your first possible answer”) and type the same for D3, E2, and etc. Just change what is in parenthesis. For example, in cell D3, you would type, =(COUNTIF(B2:B10000, “your second possible answer”).

Step 6: In your spreadsheet, you need to highlight all possible answers (C2, D2, E2, and etc.) and the numbers under them (C3, D3, E3, and etc.) Once this selection is highlighted, click the edit tab on the far left and then click the chart button on the right. Then “chart or gadget” should appear and you will click “chart.”

Step 7: Select what kind of chart you would like, add your title, and make sure to select “no legend.” Then click “save chart.”

Step 8: Click the arrow at the top right corner of the chart and then click “publish chart.” A box should appear with the html code for the chart. You can now add this chart wherever you want on your website.

Tips: There is no need to republish the chart to your website every so often because it updates automatically every 5 minutes.

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