Coalball Labs

Answer Points: Guide & FAQ

Answer Points gives every answer option in your Google Forms™ its own point value and writes a total score for each response to a Google Sheet. This page covers setup, how scores are calculated, and what to do when something looks wrong.

Install

  1. Open the Answer Points listing in the Google Workspace Marketplace and click Install. Or, in any form, click the three-dot More menu, choose Get add-ons, and search for "Answer Points".
  2. Review and allow the permissions. Answer Points asks for four:
    • See and edit the form you open it in (only that form)
    • Show a sidebar in the form editor
    • Run a trigger when someone submits the form
    • Create and edit only the spreadsheets the add-on itself creates
  3. Open any form, click the puzzle-piece Add-ons icon at the top of the editor, then choose Answer Points > Set up scoring.

Add-ons install on your Google account, so Answer Points is available in every form you edit. If you use a work or school account and can't install it, your Google Workspace admin may need to allow it.

Set points

The sidebar lists every question it can score, with its type in brackets:

Short answer, paragraph, date, time and file upload questions aren't listed, because they have no fixed options to score.

  1. Type a number next to each option. Blank means 0. Negative numbers (for example -2) and decimals (for example 2.5) are allowed.
  2. Watch Highest possible score update as you type.
  3. Click Save points. You'll see a message like "Saved. 4 questions scored, max 28 points."

A question counts as scored only if at least one option has a non-zero value. Questions where every option is 0 or blank don't appear in the Scores sheet.

Added a question after opening the sidebar? Close the sidebar and open it again from Answer Points > Set up scoring.

Turn on auto-scoring

Click Turn on auto-scoring. The add-on saves your points first, then:

The status box shows Auto-scoring: ON and an Open scores sheet link. To stop, click Turn off. Responses submitted while it's off aren't scored until you run Score existing responses.

If several people edit the same form, auto-scoring only needs to be on for one of them. It runs under the account that turned it on, and writes to that person's Scores sheet. If another editor already has it on, the sidebar says so and asks before turning it on for you too, because each response would then be scored twice (once in each person's sheet).

Score existing responses (backfill)

Click Score existing responses to score everything already submitted. The add-on saves your points, then rewrites the Scores sheet from scratch: one header row plus one row for every response in the form. When it's done you'll see "Scored 57 existing responses." (with your count).

Run it again whenever you change points, add or remove scored questions, or rename questions. New responses always use your latest saved points, but rows already in the sheet keep their old scores until you rescore.

Important: this clears the first tab of the Scores sheet before writing. Put your own notes, formulas and charts on a second tab so they're never overwritten.

Read the Scores sheet

Each row is one response. Columns, left to right:

Column What it holds
Submitted (UTC) When the response was submitted, in UTC, as yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
Email The respondent's email, if your form collects email addresses. Otherwise blank.
Total Points earned across all scored questions
Max Highest possible total
Percent Total ÷ Max × 100, rounded to one decimal. Blank if Max is 0.
One column per scored question Points earned on that question, titled with the question text, in form order
Response ID The unique ID Google Forms gives each response

The Scores sheet is separate from the responses sheet Google Forms can link to your form. Answer Points never writes to that one.

Tips:

How each question type is scored

Question type Points earned Max possible
Multiple choice, Dropdown Points of the chosen option Highest option value
Checkboxes Sum of all ticked options Sum of all positive option values
Linear scale Points of the chosen number. Each number defaults to its own value (1 = 1 point, 5 = 5 points) until you change it and save. Highest value
Multiple-choice grid Each row earns the chosen column's points. Rows add up. Highest column value × number of rows
Checkbox grid Each row earns the sum of its ticked columns. Rows add up. Sum of positive column values × number of rows

Other rules:

Worked example

A form with five scored questions:

Question Points you set This respondent answered Earned Max
Multiple choice: "What's your budget?" Under $1,000 = 0, $1,000 to $5,000 = 5, Over $5,000 = 10 Over $5,000 10 10
Checkboxes: "Which tools do you use?" CRM = 2, Spreadsheet = 1, None = -3 CRM, Spreadsheet 3 3
Linear scale 1 to 5: "How urgent is this?" Defaults: 1 to 5 4 4 5
Multiple-choice grid, 2 rows Disagree = 0, Neutral = 1, Agree = 2 Row 1: Agree, Row 2: Neutral 3 4 (2 × 2 rows)
Checkbox grid, 2 rows Email = 1, Phone = 2 Row 1: Email and Phone, Row 2: Email 4 6 (3 × 2 rows)

The checkbox Max is 3, not 0, because negative options are left out of Max. A respondent who ticked only "None" would earn -3 on that question.

Troubleshooting

New responses aren't showing up in the sheet.
Check that the sidebar shows Auto-scoring: ON, that at least one option has a non-zero value, and that you clicked Save points. Then look for a Last error line in the status box.

The sidebar shows a "Last error" line.
It shows the time (UTC) and message of the most recent response that failed to score. Fix the cause if the message makes it clear, then click Turn off and Turn on auto-scoring to clear it. Run Score existing responses to fill in anything that was missed. If you're stuck, email us the full Last error line.

I deleted the Scores sheet.
That's fine. If the sheet is in the trash or the add-on can't open it, it creates a new one the next time it scores a response, or when you click Turn on auto-scoring or Score existing responses. Run Score existing responses to refill it with earlier responses.

I renamed the Scores sheet or its tab.
Nothing breaks. The add-on finds the sheet by its ID, not its name, and writes to the first tab whatever it's called.

I edited an option's text and its points disappeared.
Points are matched to the exact option text. When you change the text ("Over $5k" to "Over $5,000"), that option's points reset to blank. Reopen the sidebar, type the value again, and click Save points. Reordering options doesn't affect points.

The column headers changed but old rows didn't.
Saving points updates the header row right away. Existing rows keep their old layout and scores. Click Score existing responses to rebuild them.

Timestamps look a few hours off.
The Submitted column is always in UTC, whatever your time zone.

Score existing responses fails on a very large form.
Google limits how long an add-on can run at once. If backfill fails on a form with many thousands of responses, email us with the response count.

Uninstall

  1. In the sidebar, click Turn off so no more responses are scored.
  2. Optional: to remove your point settings from the form, clear every point value in the sidebar and click Save points.
  3. Open the Answer Points listing and click Uninstall.
  4. Delete the Scores sheet from your Drive if you no longer need it. It's an ordinary spreadsheet you own.
  5. Optional: remove the add-on's access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
  6. If you joined the Pro waitlist and want your email deleted, email us and we'll remove it.

Contact

Email coalball.labs@gmail.com. Answer Points is made by Coalball Labs, a one-person software studio. It helps to include the question type and, if there is one, the Last error line. Please don't send us your respondents' personal data.

See also: Privacy policy · Terms