To add a Likert question in Microsoft Forms, choose Add new → More question types → Likert. Put the statements you want people to evaluate in the rows and use a common set of answer options. Plan the example below around one evaluation for each statement. If you want people to select several applicable items, use a separate Choice question with multiple answers.
The useful result is a question people can answer consistently and a set of results you can check by statement. This guide follows an equipment-borrowing feedback form through setup, required-answer checks, and a fictional six-submission tally.
Prepare the statements and shared answer options
Imagine an office team improving its equipment-loan instructions. It wants to know whether readers understand how to borrow an item, where to return it, and whom to contact when something breaks. Those are three separate judgments, even though they belong to the same process.
Use this question text:
After reading the equipment-loan guide, how much do you agree with each statement? Choose one answer for each statement. Choose “Not applicable” only if this part of the guide does not apply to you. If the instructions are unclear, choose the agreement rating that reflects that.
| Statement to enter | What the team will check |
|---|---|
| I know how to borrow equipment | Whether the borrowing instructions explain the next action |
| I know where to return it | Whether the return location is clear |
| I know whom to contact if it breaks | Whether the reporting route is understandable |
The shared agreement options are Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, and Strongly agree. Add Not applicable separately. It is an alternative to giving an agreement rating, not an extra positive or negative point on the scale. Explain when it applies: someone who needs the return instructions but finds them unclear should be able to disagree, rather than being steered toward Not applicable.
Keep the direction of the options consistent across all statements. Read each statement with every option: “I know where to return it — Disagree” makes sense, while “Where should I return it? — Disagree” does not. A question asking for a location needs a different answer format.
If a statement combines two decisions, split it before entering it. Someone might understand how to borrow equipment but not how to report damage. Combining those ideas into one row would make the response hard to interpret. For broader guidance on wording and labels, see FORMLOVA's five-point satisfaction survey guide.
Add the Likert question in Microsoft Forms
Open the form you are preparing and follow Microsoft's form-creation instructions to add the question:
- Select Add new, then open More question types and choose Likert.
- Enter the question text above.
- Replace the statement placeholders with the three equipment-guide statements.
- Enter the shared options in the agreed order, including the separate Not applicable choice.
- Review the complete question in the respondent preview before sharing it.
Treat the statement text and the answer labels as a pair during editing. If you shorten “I know whom to contact if it breaks,” check that the revised wording still identifies equipment damage. A short label such as “Contact” could refer to requesting a loan, returning an item, or reporting a problem.
Microsoft's current respondent accessibility instructions describe moving between Likert statements and choosing an answer for each one. The mobile instructions identify radio buttons for each statement's options. Read one statement with its available answers, then move to the next statement.
For longer forms, remember that Microsoft counts each Likert statement as one question toward the form's question limit. Three statements therefore count as three questions, even when they appear together. This is the rule in Microsoft's form and question limits; it is not a statement about a maximum number of rows in one Likert card.
For form titles, audience settings, and sharing, continue with FORMLOVA's Microsoft Forms survey and Teams guide. Keep those distribution decisions separate from whether this particular question collects the intended answers.
Separate several statements from several selections
“Multiple answers” can describe two different requirements. Answering three statements gives you three item answers. Selecting both Agree and Disagree for the same statement is a different interaction, and would not provide the single evaluation this example needs.
Microsoft's current respondent instructions describe radio buttons for each Likert statement. Use one selection per statement; collect multiple applicable items in a separate question.
When the real requirement is “choose everything that applies,” create a separate Choice question and enable Multiple answers. Microsoft's current accessible form-creation guide documents that setting for Choice questions. For the equipment guide, the follow-up could be:
What would you like added to the guide? Select all that would help: illustrated instructions, a map of the return location, or a contact list.
This collects improvement requests while the Likert question collects agreement ratings. Someone can disagree that the return location is clear and request both a map and photographs. Those answers complement one another without turning the agreement scale into a checklist.
If several topics each need their own checklist, create a separate multiple-answer Choice question for each topic. Check the wording and test two selections within each question. Do not assume that the number of statements in a Likert question changes how many options a respondent can choose for one statement.
Check Required, blank rows, and the mobile view
Before testing, write down the intended rule: does every statement need an answer, or can someone skip a statement? Also decide what a person should do when the guide does not apply to them. A visible Required control alone does not explain every detail of a grouped question's validation.
Microsoft documents general Required controls in its form-creation guidance. For your Likert question, verify the behavior directly instead of assuming that every row is enforced in the same way as an independent question. Use a draft or a controlled test form and record what happens.
| Test case | What to inspect | Decision before sharing |
|---|---|---|
| Leave every statement blank | The validation message and whether submission proceeds | Does it match the intended minimum answer requirement? |
| Answer only one statement | Whether the remaining statements are required | If all items must be answered, is the current structure sufficient? |
| Choose Not applicable | Whether that choice is available and saved clearly | Can a person avoid giving a misleading agreement rating? |
| Use the same option for all statements | Whether each statement retains its own answer | Are the saved answers attached to the correct statements? |
If you need independently controlled required answers and the grouped question does not meet that requirement, use separate Choice questions with the same agreement options. Test each required setting. This is especially useful when one statement is optional while the others must be answered.
Repeat the reading check on a computer and a phone. Confirm that each statement remains associated with its answer labels, including the longest label and Not applicable. Try selecting an answer and changing it. Check that you can tell which statement you are editing after scrolling, rather than judging the question only from the first screen.
Identify any test submissions in your review notes and exclude them from the reporting sample. A preview submission still needs to be distinguished from an audience response when you inspect collected data. Record the question wording and the date of the check so later edits do not silently change what an earlier response meant.
Reconcile six submissions by statement
Open the form's response view, inspect individual answers, and open the results in Excel when you need to check the underlying data. Microsoft's results guide describes these entry points. Before building a summary, compare one known response with the statement labels in the result view and workbook.
The following table contains six fictional submissions. It is an editorial example, not a screenshot or a claim about Microsoft's exact Excel column headings. “Neutral” abbreviates Neither agree nor disagree only to keep this table compact.
| Submission | Borrowing instructions | Return location | Damage contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Strongly agree | Agree | Agree |
| B | Agree | Strongly agree | Strongly agree |
| C | Agree | Agree | Agree |
| D | Neutral | Neutral | Disagree |
| E | Disagree | Disagree | Not applicable |
| F | Strongly agree | Not applicable | Agree |
For this example, group Agree and Strongly agree as positive, and Disagree and Strongly disagree as negative. Keep neutral and Not applicable separate. These grouping rules belong to this illustrative report; they are not a claim that Forms automatically calculates the table below.
| Statement | Positive | Neutral | Negative | Not applicable | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borrowing instructions | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Return location | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Damage contact | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
For the return-location statement, the six answers are accounted for by 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 6. Five submissions contain an agreement rating; one says Not applicable. The positive share among those five rated answers is 3 ÷ 5 = 60%. If the denominator is all six submissions, the share is 3 ÷ 6 = 50%. Both calculations are arithmetically correct, but they answer different questions.
Write the denominator beside the percentage, for example: “Three of five rated answers were positive; one additional submission was Not applicable.” This keeps the excluded answer visible. It also prevents a reader from mistaking 60% for the share of all submissions.
There are no blank item answers in this fictional dataset. In your real data, count blanks separately before choosing a denominator. Do not silently turn a blank into neutral or Not applicable. Likewise, three statements across six submissions produce 18 item answers, not evidence of 18 respondents. Even six submissions need not mean six different people unless your collection process establishes that.
Use the distribution to decide what to inspect next. The return-location row suggests reviewing that part of the guide, but this small fictional sample cannot establish a general trend. Check the optional improvement requests for practical context, while preserving their separate meaning and counts. For workbook refresh or connection problems, use FORMLOVA's Microsoft Forms and Excel connection guide.
Draft a separate feedback form in FORMLOVA
If your next task is to prepare a new feedback form through AI chat, FORMLOVA can help you draft the questions with their answer rules stated explicitly. For this example, use three independent single-choice questions so that each required answer can be checked separately. Keep the improvement checklist optional.
Here is a request you can copy after connecting a supported AI client. It is an example request, not a conversation that has already created a form:
Create an unpublished feedback form for our equipment-loan guide. Add three required single-choice questions: “I know how to borrow equipment,” “I know where to return it,” and “I know whom to contact if it breaks.” Give each question these options: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, Strongly agree, and Not applicable. Add an optional multiple-choice question asking what we should add to the guide: illustrated instructions, a map of the return location, or a contact list. Explain when Not applicable should be used and that the answers will help us improve the guide. Keep the form unpublished for review and do not send invitations.
Draft clear ratings and a separate improvement checklist
FORMLOVA's free plan includes form creation, publishing, response collection, basic analytics, and CSV/Excel export. Start by reviewing the equipment-feedback draft and its answer options.
Sign up free to draft an equipment-feedback form
After registering and verifying your email, connect a supported AI client and use the request above. The AI service's feature availability, subscription requirements, and costs are separate.
Inspect the saved draft before publishing: all three rating questions should have the intended options and required setting, and the optional checklist should accept several selections. When you run a controlled test, compare the saved answers with a CSV or Excel export. Keep Not applicable distinguishable from a blank and from the middle agreement option.
Advanced analytics, including cross-tabulation, and automatic Google Sheets integration require Standard or higher. You can use the free export to perform your own count reconciliation. This example prepares a separate FORMLOVA form; it does not edit an existing Microsoft form or automatically move its previous responses.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Likert question the same as any multiple-choice question?
The useful distinction is the task: the Likert example asks for a comparable evaluation of each statement using shared labels. A multiple-answer Choice question collects every applicable item. Decide what one saved answer should mean before choosing the format.
Should Not applicable be the middle option?
Keep it separate from the agreement scale. A neutral evaluation and being unable to evaluate the statement communicate different things. In the worked example, neutral remains one of the five rated answers, while Not applicable is reported separately.
Does one Required switch prove that every statement must be answered?
Verify the grouped question with both an entirely blank attempt and a partially answered attempt. If your requirements depend on every item being completed, inspect that outcome explicitly and use independent required questions when needed.
Will Excel automatically provide a Likert score?
First inspect the answers and their statement labels. The grouped counts and percentages in this article are calculations you define for a report. They do not establish that an exported workbook contains a ready-made score, or that assigning numbers to labels produces a validated measurement scale.
Before distributing the form, retain the approved wording, the answer-rule test results, and one reconciled sample. If you are still deciding which questions belong in the form, FORMLOVA's form-creation planning guide helps connect each question to the action its answer will support.
Disclosure and Verification
Microsoft documentation and FORMLOVA's plan definitions were checked on October 24, 2026. The equipment scenario, submissions, and calculations are instructional examples. No logged-in Microsoft Forms operation, live FORMLOVA form creation, customer response data, or measured improvement is claimed.
