How to Create a Survey in Office 365 SharePoint

Creating a survey in Office 365 SharePoint is a straightforward process that can help you gather valuable insights from your team or organization. SharePoint's built-in survey functionality allows you to create, distribute, and analyze surveys with ease. Let's dive into the step-by-step process of creating a survey in Office 365 SharePoint.

Before we begin, ensure you have the necessary permissions to create and manage surveys in your SharePoint site. If you're an administrator, you can grant these permissions to specific users or groups.

Setting Up Your Survey

To start, navigate to your SharePoint site and click on "New" in the top-left corner. From the dropdown menu, select "Survey (to start blank)" or "Survey (from an existing list)" if you want to base your survey on an existing list. For this guide, we'll choose "Survey (to start blank)".

Next, you'll be prompted to enter a title for your survey. Make it clear and concise, so respondents know exactly what the survey is about. After entering the title, click "Create" to proceed.

Creating Survey Questions

Now that your survey is set up, it's time to add questions. Click on the "Edit" button at the top of the survey to start adding questions. SharePoint offers several question types to choose from:

• Choice: Single or multiple-choice questions with predefined answers.
• Text: Open-ended questions where respondents can enter their own text.
• Rating: Questions with a scale for respondents to rate their response.
• Date/Time: Questions that require respondents to enter a specific date or time.

Choose the appropriate question type for your survey and click "Add new question" to create your first question. Enter the question text, select the question type, and configure any additional settings. Once you're done, click "OK" to save the question.

Repeat the process to add more questions to your survey. You can also reorder questions by dragging and dropping them into the desired sequence. Once you've added all the necessary questions, click "Stop editing" to exit the edit mode.

Customizing Survey Settings

Before distributing your survey, you can customize various settings to suit your needs. Click on the "Settings" button at the top of the survey to access these options:

• Survey Options: Enable or disable survey features like allowing respondents to change their responses, setting a deadline, or requiring a response from everyone in the audience.
• Question Settings: Customize individual question settings, such as making a question required, setting a default value, or displaying a question only to specific respondents.
• Survey Style: Customize the survey's appearance by changing the theme, fonts, and colors.

Configure these settings as needed, and click "Save" to apply the changes.

Distributing Your Survey

Now that your survey is set up and customized, it's time to distribute it to your respondents. Click on the "Distribute" button at the top of the survey to access the distribution options:

• Email: Send the survey via email to specific recipients or distribution lists.
• Link: Generate a unique link to the survey, which you can share via email, instant messaging, or social media.
• Share: Share the survey with specific users, groups, or everyone in your organization.

Choose the distribution method that best suits your needs, and follow the prompts to send or share your survey.

Monitoring and Analyzing Responses

Once respondents start submitting their answers, you can monitor and analyze the responses in real-time. Click on the "Results" button at the top of the survey to access the response summary. Here, you'll find a summary of responses for each question, as well as detailed charts and graphs to help you visualize the data.

You can also export the response data to Excel for further analysis or to create custom reports. To do this, click on the "Export to Excel" button in the results summary.

Creating and distributing surveys in Office 365 SharePoint is an efficient way to gather valuable insights from your team or organization. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you'll be well on your way to creating engaging and informative surveys that drive informed decision-making.

As you continue to use SharePoint surveys, you'll find that they integrate seamlessly with other Office 365 applications, allowing you to collaborate and share data with ease. So go ahead, create your first survey, and start reaping the benefits of this powerful tool.