Consent forms are widely used in healthcare, education, research, sports, business, events, and various other industries to obtain authorization from individuals to collect contact details, provide information about the service or activity, and outline associated risks and terms. Common use cases include acknowledgment forms, travel consent, liability waivers, and media release forms.

Create a google form

You can use the + Add Question option to add fields to your form and collect the necessary details from your users. You can choose the Short Answer and Paragraph question types to collect open-ended text input, and the Multiple Choice and Dropdown question types to provide a pre-defined list of answer choices.

You can use the TT Title and Description option in Google Forms to add details about the service or activity, and to outline associated risks and terms. This feature allows you to format text with bold, italics, underline, and lists for better readability.

You can add a Checkboxes question with a clear title and “I consent” as the answer choice. Mark this question as required to ensure users cannot submit the form without providing their consent.

Limitations with using google forms:

Google Forms does not have versioning or audit logs, making it difficult to ensure a comprehensive record of changes and submissions. As a result, consent details and information cannot be preserved in the way some industries or legal requirements may demand.
Google Forms offers basic customization options, but you may not be able to create highly tailored workflows or dynamic content based on user responses, limiting its flexibility for more complex use cases.
While Google Forms is widely used and can be legally binding if the checkboxes are set up properly, the legal validity depends on the jurisdiction.

Show consent page using Fillable PDF addon

You can use the Formesign - Fillable PDF addon to display a consent screen before the user submits the form and automatically record the user's consent by generating a PDF document with form responses and consent.

Open your form in google forms > click on the addon icon > click Formesign - Fillable PDF > click Show consent screen > select Existing Google Docs template > select the document, click Next to generate a consent page using the selected document.

Edit Template: Open the google docs selected as the consent screen > click Extensions > click Formesign - Fillable PDF > click Edit template > Edit template side panel with the form fields will be displayed > you can click on the fields in the Missing fields section to add in the document. The added fields will be moved the Fields in the doc section. You can use the Google Docs formatting options to customize the template as needed.

When the user fills the form and clicks on the submit button, Formesign automatically generates a consent screen based on the Google Docs template and displays it. Users will have to click on the Agree button to submit their response.

You can view the submitted responses and the signed PDF document in the Formesign Responses and the Formesign Reports page. You can also setup your form to sync the PDF documents to your google drive folder and send them as an attachment via email.

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How to create a consent form using Google Forms?

Create a google form

Show consent page using Fillable PDF addon