Do you use Google Forms and regularly depend on user data to run your business? We understand how frustrating it would be when customers or users type incorrect information. One of the most prevalent methods to prevent users from providing inaccurate data is to utilize a dropdown list that allows the users to select appropriate information from the list of options offered.
Google Forms is undoubtedly one of the most popular productivity and marketing tools. But if you use Google Forms as a primary tool, you will eventually hit the wall as Google Forms are not dynamic. Assume that you have two dropdown lists, and you want to limit the values displayed in one list based on the value selected in another. A survey app, for example, may ask for the region (Africa, Asia, or Europe) and then for a country within that region. It is impossible to implement such connected dropdowns with Google Forms.
What are connected dropdowns? They are a collection of dropdown lists where the value of the second list depends on the selection made on the first. Industries may use this capability to create more accurate and efficient data collection and processing apps. Google Forms do not support connected dropdowns, but Clappia makes it easy to add them.
Clappia also overcomes Google Forms' restrictions by incorporating features like GPS location, QR code/Barcode scanner, live tracking, image and signature uploading, etc. These improved features enable businesses to replace computers and spreadsheets with smartphones and transform their business by boosting productivity and efficiency. The best part is you don't need to write a single line of code to create apps using Clappia.
The first step in creating an app with Clappia is to create a free account and personalize your workspace. After configuring your workspace, you can use drag-and-drop blocks to create mobile apps.
Clappia's App Designer Blocks include a variety of data input, upload, and processing blocks, as well as options for adding workflows, incorporating analytics, and integrating with other APIs.
Clappia includes the Drop down block as part of the Data Input Blocks, which you can use to create a predefined list from which the user can select appropriate values. Additionally, you can use multiple Drop down blocks to incorporate connected or dependent dropdowns for dynamic data selection.
To learn more about the connected dropdown feature, watch this video.
Scenario: A manufacturing company with plants and warehouses worldwide noticed a significant gap in their manual incident management process, which required workers to manually report anomalies by typing the description into Google Forms. Furthermore, workers had to take notes manually and later update Google Forms in areas without internet access.
It caused various issues, such as increased resolution time, lack of visibility of the anomaly, inaccurate or insufficient information provided by the worker, and so on. As a result, the manufacturer sought to automate it by requiring field workers to adhere to a set procedure regardless of their location or the plant under inspection.
In a recent event, a worker made a mistake by reporting an operational fault of a machine present in a different location. Clappia’s connected dropdowns can quickly solve such problems by allowing you to validate accurate information and use them in real-time to make decisions.
Connected dropdowns with Clappia allow choosing the country name, and based on the country name; the plant location will be automatically populated. Another level of dependency can also be created, allowing one to choose a machine ID based on the plant location. It will enable the worker to select the machine under inspection accurately. In addition, depending on the selected device, the failure type and reason can be set accurately.
Furthermore, workers can use the app to enter information from any plant without an internet connection.
Connected dropdowns may appear insignificant initially, but using them in your app guarantees that you always deal with correct information. Furthermore, they make the app look structured, make it simple to use, and assist you in making intelligent business decisions.
When you use Google Forms, data is only available for manipulation after you press the submit button. Clappia, on the other hand, has hundreds of drag-and-drop blocks that allow you to take data dynamically, process it, provide output, and utilize them to make real-time decisions.
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Build Custom Apps With Connected Dropdowns Without CodingGet Started - It's free!
Google Forms is a free tool mostly used as a survey form to gather data from users.
It has basic features due to which other alternatives having advanced features are being used .
Google Forms is free to use which has basic features to build a form like Short Answer, Paragraph, Multiple Choice, Check boxes, Dropdown, File Upload, Linear Scale, Multiple Choice grid, Checkbox grid, Date & Time. In this day and age, these features are not enough as more advanced forms with many useful features are required by the users where they can enter most of the input easily.
One such feature is the Connected Dropdown. Connected Dropdown is one of the most useful features that lets the form builder to segregate and easily guide the user to choose the right option.
Google Forms has a dependent functionality in its dropdown feature where the user will be diverted to a section based upon selecting an option from the dropdown list. Google Forms cannot connect one or more dropdowns as the user selects options from each dropdown list.
Therefore the search for alternatives to Google Forms with Connected Dropdowns is inevitable.
Clappia is one of the best Google Forms alternatives where you can easily create advanced form-based apps or online forms similar to Google Forms with Connected Dropdowns.
Sign-in to your Clappia dashboard and click on the ‘New App’ on the left side. Type in the name of your form in the ‘App Name’ section and select your desirable icon and color. Clicking on ‘Create App’ takes you to the editing panel of your form.
Click on ‘Add a section’ and name it accordingly. Click on the ‘Add Field’. Now simply click on the icons from the data input blocks to your form and select and save the Dropdown block. In the ‘Options’ field on the right panel, enter the product in it (Lights, Laptops and Processors). Click on the add field and select one more dropdown from the data input blocks menu. In the ‘Options’ field of the second dropdown block, enter the text in the form of: Product||Brand
In this example:
Lights||SYSKA
Lights||Phillips
Laptops||HP
Laptops||Dell
Laptops||Acer
Laptops||Lenovo
Processors||AMD
Processors||Intel
This implies that when the user selects Lights in the first dropdown only SYSKA and Phillips will be shown as options in the second dropdown. The same goes for Laptops(HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo) and Processors(AMD, Intel) also.
Now in the second dropdown block, select Level 1 dependency in the ‘Dependency Fields’ option as the first dropdown. This logic implies that the user will get to choose the brand which is meant for that particular product.(Lights - SYSKA or Phillips, Processors - AMD or Intel, Laptops - HP, Dell, Acer or Lenovo)
You now have a form with the format of a Google Form that has a connected dropdown.
Just drag-and-drop the blocks to place them according to your desired sequence. Click on ‘View App’ and your form is ready to use.
Go to ‘Edit App’ on the top right side and click on ‘Distribute’. Click on the ‘Link Sharing’ button below and a panel with a link appears on the right side. Activate the ‘Enable link sharing’ feature to share the form. Below that is the link of the form that we just created using multiple Dropdown blocks.
You can share this link with anyone to access the form and fill it.
Below pictures show how the form looks:
You can click on the ‘Submissions’ option on the top right side and view all the user submissions neatly formatted in a table where the product and the brand is present. You can also download this data by just clicking on the download option on the top right side in the form of an Excel Sheet.
In Clappia, the dropdown block is the same as the dropdown feature in Google Forms. The stand out feature is connecting two dropdown blocks such that the input of one defines what should be the input of the other, which is not possible in Google Forms. This helps the user to avoid confusion and enter the input easily which inturn streamlines the input data to be formulated in the submissions sheet.
Apart from the connected dropdown features, there are some other important features that Google Forms doesn’t have, like:
Therefore, the search for other alternatives which can accomplish the above use cases is preferred.
While Google Forms is a good tool to create basic forms, Clappia is one of the best Google Forms alternatives to create basic as well as advanced forms.
It doesn’t matter what your technical expertise is, you can easily build powerful applications just by using drag-and-drop blocks in Clappia.
You now have a Google Forms alternative with a Connected Dropdown.
