Autocrat Script Turns Information You Collect from Students via a Form into a Document

The Problem: Google Forms are a great way to collect information (book numbers, answers to multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank quesitons, URLs to digital projects, etc.) from students. However, if students are submitting longer responses, reading them in a spreadsheet isn't ideal.

The Challenge: Find a way to easily merge the information from a spreadsheet into a shared (with the student or someone else) document.

The Solution: Andrew Stillman's Autocrat script. (When I finally found this solution in December and it worked I was so happy I sent him a Starbucks gift card.) Once you create the document template and insert the script into your spreadsheet you can

• choose what format you want to merge to (doc, email, PDF)
• choose the folder where you want the resulting doc to reside
• automatically name the doc to meet your naming convention needs
• automatically share the doc with the student (if you want)

Stillman's directions are easy to follow--they are part of the link above AND will be added to a sheet in your spreadsheet once you install the script. The only issue I had on my first attempt is that when I went to insert the script I kept getting a message that there was a server error and I should try later. I did--several times within a few hours' time and kept getting the same error message. Then, the next day when I came back to it to try again, it was there! I suspect it was there the whole time after the first install, and I had just encountered a weird glitch.

Here's a little overview of my test results:

Ready to try it?
Awesome. Here's a tip that will increase your chances of success: Give yourself enough time to read all the directions, create the necessary doc  template, form, etc. AND test it all once you have it set up. Then, once you do try it, come back here and tell us about it.