How to show the response summary for review before submit?

Boobesh Ramalingam
Boobesh Ramalingam
Co-founder of Guesswork.co.
"Can I check the answers I submitted in Google Forms?"- Quora

This is a common question from people who submit a Google Form and then wonder what they sent. For example, you take membership applications and a wrong date or a misspelled name means going back and forth with the applicant. Google Forms doesn't have a built-in feature to review responses before submit and letting people edit later means sending them a copy and leaving their answers open to changes at any time. The workaround is to use the Google Forms response validations along with the edit response option. With the Formesign - Signature for Google Docs addon, you can show the summary of response before submit. Even better, each applicant checks their answers and clicks Agree, so a wrong date gets caught before it reaches you.

Let's start. Open your form in Google Forms and follow the steps below.

#1 The workaround

If you are creating your form in Google Forms, you can create rules that users have to follow when they fill out your form. For example, you can mark fields as required so that users don't skip these fields. You can also add response validations to form fields so that the answers meet the specific criteria. For example, you can add a text email validation to ensure that the email address is properly formatted.
How to set rules? You can mark the questions in your form as required or optional. Additionally, you can specify additional rules for question types such as short answer, paragraph and checkboxes question.
  1. Open your form in Google Forms
  2. Click on + icon to add a question
  3. Enter the title
  4. Select the preferred question type
  5. Enable the Required toggle button to mark it as mandatory
  6. Click on the ⫶ More icon next to the Required toggle button
  7. click Response validation to set the relevant rules
With the ability to set rules, you can ensure that there are no incomplete or incorrect submissions. However, this does not guarantee that the information is accurate.
A short answer question titled Email with the rule Text, Email, and Required, the More icon and Response validation in its menu marked
When you are creating an application form or a membership form, you want the applicants to provide accurate information. You can add an "I agree" checkboxes question that allows the users to consent that they have reviewed their responses and that it is accurate. If it is a single page form, users can easily scroll to review the responses before they submit the form. If it is a multi-page form, it makes it tedious for the users to review their responses.
By default, respondents cannot make changes to their responses once they have submitted the form. You can enable the "Allow response editing" option and also set up the "Send responders a copy of their response" option in Google Forms.
  1. Open your form in Google Forms
  2. Click Settings
  3. Click Responses
  4. Select "Responder input" for the "Collect email addresses" option
  5. Select "Always" for the "Send responders a copy of their response" option
  6. Enable "Allow response editing" option
When the user submits the form, they will receive a confirmation with a copy of their response along with the edit response button. This will allow users to review their responses and make edits if required. It is important to note that the users will be able to make edits to their responses anytime.
The Responses section of Google Forms settings with Collect email addresses set to Responder input, Send responders a copy of their response set to Always and Allow response editing on, all marked

#2 Review before submit

The workaround only allows you to reduce mistakes and provides an option to correct them if required. If you would like to show the response summary for review before submit, you can set it up using the Formesign - Signature for Google Docs addon.
  1. Install the Formesign - Signature for Google Docs addon from Google Workspace marketplace
  2. Open your form in Google Forms
  3. Click on the addon icon
  4. Click Formesign - Signature for Google Docs
  5. Click More options ...
  6. Click Proceed if the addon asks to modify the form
  7. The More options panel will be displayed
  8. Click Share in the Share this with users row
  9. Formesign Share page will open in a new tab
  10. Click on "Edit" tab
  11. Click on the Submit setting gear icon in the After page row at the end of the form
  12. A panel with the tabs Button, Consent and On submit will be displayed
  13. Click Consent
  14. Check the show consent screen option and click Save to display the response summary in the consent screen shown before submit
  15. Click Preview to test the form
The Consent tab of the Submit setting panel, with the Consent tab, the ticked Show consent screen while submitting form option and Save marked
When the user fills the form and clicks on the submit button, the consent screen shows the form's title and each answered field with its answer. They click on the Agree button to submit the response or click Close.

Summary

If applicants send wrong answers, you go back and forth and Google Forms doesn't have a built-in feature to review responses before submit. With Formesign, you show the response summary in a consent screen before submit and each applicant reviews it and clicks on the Agree button, so you get them right the first time. Open your form in Google Forms and complete the steps above. If you have any questions, write to support.

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