Choice Eliminator for Forms

Google Apps Script Feature: Choice Eliminator for Forms

2015.09.23

Google Apps Script used to be an intimidating subject before the advent of Add-ons for Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms. Add-ons allow for the powerful automation and increased productivity without having to deal with code.

Google Forms is perhaps the greatest beneficiary of Add-ons. There are several Add-ons that help Google Apps users to better manage form responses. One such Add-on is Choice Eliminator.

With this Add-on, choices will be removed as people submit your form. You can set the number of times an option can be selected and once that number has been reached, it will be removed from the form. This works for multiple choice, choose from list, and checkboxes questions.

Here’s how to use Choice Eliminator: (Note: Add-ons are not supported by the new Google Forms yet. You will have to revert to the old Forms to use this script.)

Installing

1. Have your Google Form in editing mode.
2. Click Add-ons and select Get Add-ons
3. Search for Choice Eliminator and click the Free button associated with it.
4. Grant authorization and it will be available in your Add-ons menu in Google Forms.

Setting Up

1. Have your Google Form in editing mode
2. Select Choice Eliminator from the Add-ons menu and click Start
3. A sidebar window will open with a list of your multiple choice, choose from list, and checkboxes questions. Click one to open its pulldown menu and click Eliminate Choices.
4. Click the Choice Options button in associated with your question. A window will open where you can set the number of times a choice can be used. Click the blue Save button.

Below are a series of gifs showing this process:

Your form is ready to go! Notice, in the gif below, that as we submit a form with our choice (5:20-5:40), it is eliminated from the list of options when we go to submit another response.