I've used the Insert button here on Knol, to insert various things into various Knols of mine, such as tables, images, and video. And once I actually inserted a map. That was quite daring!
But I read the list more carefully the other day and see both Spreadsheet and Spreadsheet Form. I think everyone knows what a Spreadsheet is, but what the heck is a Spreadsheet Form?
When I pick it, I get a pop-up window that says "No Forms" and then says "or insert a web address here". So somehow these Spreadsheet Forms must live on the internet. The instructions are not very clear are they!
Well how about inserting a Calendar then? It tells me "paste the URL to your calendar". I was assuming that somehow Knol would create a Calendar for me. Oh well.
What about inserting a document? That one wants a web address as well. What I was kinda thinking was that it would allow me to find a document on my computer. But maybe it doesn't mean that kind of document.
Okay so now I've found someone else who inserted a "Google Doc" so I went over to docs.google.com and poked at it for a while until I figured out how to create a form (I think). So here goes:Google Spreadsheet
Not published? What the heck does that mean. I don't see anything like that at docs.google about publishing. There is something that says "Share", so maybe that's it. Let's try this again then:Google Spreadsheet
Okay so I poked around here and there and maybe it's this. You have to open the spreadsheet, and once you're on the page where it's open there is a button in the upper-right hand corner that says Share and clicking on this gives you an option to Publish. That is not clear, if that's the problem. So let's try this again. Nope it's even worse, now it says "URL is not supported" when I try to insert the new URL the publishing step gave me. So now what?
Okay that's weird, so after I thought it wasn't working, all of the sudden it starts working... So there's a delay? You got me! Oops well it's not working. It's showing me the completed spreadsheet that I would see if I were monitoring your response back, but that's not the form I created! You should just see the question, not everyone's answers.
O...K. One more time than I will have to choke somebody. Once the speadsheet is open, you can go to Menu Form and then Edit Form. A new page will pop up and at the bottom it says something like "See Live Form at this URL" or whatever. If you cut and paste that URL you get something reasonable looking so let's try it again!My First Google Spreadsheet Form
Okay then! Now we're getting somewhere. I still don't know what a Spreadsheet Form is, but at least we have a Google Docs Form to use!
If I were working at Google, here's what I would do to this. I would make it so the first time you arrive on the docs.google.com site and don't have any forms it leads you hand-in-hand through the steps instead of just throwing you head-first into shark infested waters. Well it only took me 20 minutes to figure it out, but I'm a computer programmer!
Okay now I've added a response. It evidently takes it about ten minutes before the response actually will appear here. I refreshed the page a few times, went to docs.google.com, deleted the second sample question above, saved it, came back here and my previous response suddenly appears. So I assume there's a delay. It's however an interesting application that I've evidently unwittingly discovered a way to show all previous responses. Surely there's an application for something like that. Sort of a bulletin board thing I suppose.
I tried shortening the question box height and evidently it doesn't like any size less than about 300 pixels. At 250, it wants to cut off part of the bottom text.
But I read the list more carefully the other day and see both Spreadsheet and Spreadsheet Form. I think everyone knows what a Spreadsheet is, but what the heck is a Spreadsheet Form?
When I pick it, I get a pop-up window that says "No Forms" and then says "or insert a web address here". So somehow these Spreadsheet Forms must live on the internet. The instructions are not very clear are they!
Well how about inserting a Calendar then? It tells me "paste the URL to your calendar". I was assuming that somehow Knol would create a Calendar for me. Oh well.
What about inserting a document? That one wants a web address as well. What I was kinda thinking was that it would allow me to find a document on my computer. But maybe it doesn't mean that kind of document.
Okay so now I've found someone else who inserted a "Google Doc" so I went over to docs.google.com and poked at it for a while until I figured out how to create a form (I think). So here goes:Google Spreadsheet
Not published? What the heck does that mean. I don't see anything like that at docs.google about publishing. There is something that says "Share", so maybe that's it. Let's try this again then:Google Spreadsheet
Okay so I poked around here and there and maybe it's this. You have to open the spreadsheet, and once you're on the page where it's open there is a button in the upper-right hand corner that says Share and clicking on this gives you an option to Publish. That is not clear, if that's the problem. So let's try this again. Nope it's even worse, now it says "URL is not supported" when I try to insert the new URL the publishing step gave me. So now what?
Okay that's weird, so after I thought it wasn't working, all of the sudden it starts working... So there's a delay? You got me! Oops well it's not working. It's showing me the completed spreadsheet that I would see if I were monitoring your response back, but that's not the form I created! You should just see the question, not everyone's answers.
O...K. One more time than I will have to choke somebody. Once the speadsheet is open, you can go to Menu Form and then Edit Form. A new page will pop up and at the bottom it says something like "See Live Form at this URL" or whatever. If you cut and paste that URL you get something reasonable looking so let's try it again!My First Google Spreadsheet Form
Okay then! Now we're getting somewhere. I still don't know what a Spreadsheet Form is, but at least we have a Google Docs Form to use!
If I were working at Google, here's what I would do to this. I would make it so the first time you arrive on the docs.google.com site and don't have any forms it leads you hand-in-hand through the steps instead of just throwing you head-first into shark infested waters. Well it only took me 20 minutes to figure it out, but I'm a computer programmer!
Okay now I've added a response. It evidently takes it about ten minutes before the response actually will appear here. I refreshed the page a few times, went to docs.google.com, deleted the second sample question above, saved it, came back here and my previous response suddenly appears. So I assume there's a delay. It's however an interesting application that I've evidently unwittingly discovered a way to show all previous responses. Surely there's an application for something like that. Sort of a bulletin board thing I suppose.
I tried shortening the question box height and evidently it doesn't like any size less than about 300 pixels. At 250, it wants to cut off part of the bottom text.