Survey Sample Form

This Microsoft Outlook sample message form makes it easy to create surveys. Instead of building a different form for each survey you need to conduct, you can use this single form to create many different types of surveys. It supports five different types of questions:

Simple text
Yes/No
Five-level agree scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree
1 to 10 (user enters a number)
Multiple choice (up to five choices)

When the user receives the survey, the form uses a wizard-like format to display the questions one at a time and allow the user to go back and change answers. The form returns responses to the sender in both Q&A and comma-delimited formats and then deletes the survey item.

Setup

Download the Survey.zip file (13.6 kb), then unzip it and open the Osurvey.oft file. Choose Disable Macros when you see the macro prompt.
Follow the procedure below for publishing the form to the Organization Forms library so that every one in your organization can

To publish a form with Outlook 97:

In the open item that you want to publish as a form, choose File | Publish Form As.
In the Publish Form As dialog box, enter a Form name, which will be used to select the form from the folder menu or forms library.
Click Publish In and select the location where you want to publish the form, then click OK.
Back in the Publish Form As dialog, click Publish.

To publish a form with Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000:

In the open item that you want to publish as a form, choose Tools | Forms | Publish Form.
In the Publish Form As dialog box, use the Look In list and Browse button to select the location where you want to publish the form.
Give the form a Display name, which will be used to select the form from the folder menu or forms library, and Form name.
Click the Publish button.

After publishing, the form is installed and ready to use.

Published form locations

Outlook forms can be published to three different types of form "libraries":

Personal Forms	Library of forms stored in your Personal Folders or Exchange Server mailbox.
Organization Forms	Library of forms stored on the Exchange Server for group use. You need permission from the Exchange Server administrator to publish to this library.
Folder Forms	Library of forms associated with a particular folder, either in your mailbox or Personal Folders or in a public folder on the Exchange Server.

To remove a published form, choose Tools | Options | Manage Forms, and use the Forms Manager that pops up. This function is not available in Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode, only in Corporate/Workgroup mode.

For more information on distributing forms, see How do I distribute Outlook forms to other users?

Usage

To create a survey, run the Survey form, then follow these steps:

Enter the recipients in the To box and subject in the Title box.
Pick a question type from the Type box.
Type the text of the question in the Question box.
Click Add.
Repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining questions.
Adjust the question order with the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
If you do not want the results to include a comma-delimited list of the answers, clear the Format Response in CSV format box.
Click Send to transmit the survey.

The user receiving the survey must open it to answer it and will see the first question with a place to provide the answer (the exact control depends on the type of question), plus Next, Back and Finish buttons, as in a wizard. When the user clicks Finish, the form creates a reply to the survey sender and compiles the responses into the body of the reply message, in Q&A and, if the Format Response in CSV format box was checked by the survey sender, comma-delimited format.

Notes

Take a look at the Read page of the form to get a better idea of how it works. All the necessary controls for showing the questions are present. The form code simply displays the appropriate control for each question and hides the others.

The number of questions is stored in the Mileage field and the question type and text in the Body of the survey form message.

Limitations

The Survey form is designed for use within an organization. If you want to use it over the Internet to external recipients, see To send a form via the Internet. Recipients will need to be warned to expect a Disable/Enable Macros prompt and must respond Enable Macros for the form to work.

Because of the way the form's code populates the necessary controls when it opens, you cannot create a new survey with this form, then save it in Drafts for resending or resend it from the Sent Items folder. You need to create a fresh survey every time.

Problems

No specific known problems.

More Information

Microsoft Outlook Forms
Microsoft Outlook Forms Samples
Saving and Publishing Microsoft Outlook Forms
Questionnaire and Quick Survey (Microsoft sample forms for education)

Updated 01 May 2000