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FormsGen

Google Forms to PDF

A PDF of the responses and a PDF of the blank form are two different jobs. Both routes, with the one that Google does not document flagged as such.

People searching for this want one of two completely different files, and most guides answer only one of them.

The first is a PDF of the answers: a document you can email to a committee, attach to a report or keep as a record. That one is straightforward, and the route runs through the linked spreadsheet.

The second is a PDF of the empty form: something to print and hand to people who will not be filling anything in on a phone. Perfectly reasonable, and a common need in schools, clinics and anywhere with patchy signal.

Work out which one you need before you start, because the two routes share nothing.

Where the FormsGen app fits, and where it does not

It exports responses to CSV and Excel, and opens the linked spreadsheet, but it does not produce a PDF. For that, the routes below are Google’s own and your browser’s.

Why it helps

Decide which PDF you want first

A document of the answers and a printable blank form share no steps at all. Most of the frustration around this comes from following instructions for the other one.

Tidy the spreadsheet before you export, not after

Hide the columns nobody needs, freeze the header row and set the print range while you are still in Sheets. A PDF cannot be edited afterwards, so anything left messy stays messy.

Print settings live in the spreadsheet, not the PDF

Landscape, scale to width, repeated headers on every page: all of that is set in Sheets under File then Print, and it is the difference between four readable pages and eleven unreadable ones.

How to do it

  1. 1

    For a PDF of the responses, start by linking to a spreadsheet

    Open the form, click Responses, then Link to Sheets at the top right and choose Create a new spreadsheet. The responses now exist somewhere that can produce a document.

  2. 2

    Arrange the sheet the way the PDF should read

    Hide columns you do not need, widen the ones you do, and freeze the header row so it repeats. Ten minutes here saves rebuilding the file after someone points out that column F is cut off.

  3. 3

    File, then Download, then PDF

    For more control over orientation, margins and page breaks, use File then Print instead, which opens the same export with the layout settings exposed. File then Email as attachment sends it as a PDF without downloading it first.

  4. 4

    For a printable blank form, print the form itself

    The form editor's overflow menu offers a print option, and your browser's print dialogue then offers Save as PDF as the destination. This is the one route on this page that Google does not document in its own help pages, so treat the exact menu wording as something to confirm on screen rather than to follow blindly.

Questions people ask

Can I get one PDF per response?
Not natively. Google Forms has no per-response document export. That job is a mail merge, and it needs an add-on such as Document Studio or Form Publisher, which fill a template with each response in turn.
Why does my PDF run to eleven pages?
Because the default print settings fit the sheet at full width across as many pages as it takes. In Sheets, under File then Print, set the orientation to landscape and scale to Fit to width. Most response sheets drop to two or three pages.
Will the PDF include the charts from the Responses tab?
No. The summary charts live in Forms, not in the spreadsheet, and they are not part of any export. Rebuild the chart in Sheets if you need it in the document.
Can people fill in the PDF and send it back?
Not usefully. A PDF printed from a Google Form is a picture of a form, not a fillable one, and anything written on it has to be typed back in by hand. If you need paper answers to become digital ones, photographing the completed sheet is a different job entirely.
Does the FormsGen app export to PDF?
Not to PDF. It exports responses to CSV and to Excel and opens the linked Google Sheet, but producing a PDF is done through Google Sheets or your browser, using the steps above.

PDFs are Google's job. Building the form is ours.

Get it on the App Store

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Export Google Forms Responses to Excel

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