How to add date based questions in Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms includes a variety of question types which help you collect information in different ways. Depending on the type of data you need, you can choose from options such as Text, Choice, Rating, Likert, Ranking, File Upload, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Date questions. Each question type is tailored to a specific purpose, making it easier to gather accurate and consistent responses from your audience.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the Date question type. The Date question allows you to collect a specific date from respondents. When completing the form, users can either select a date from a calendar picker or manually enter a date in the format M/dd/yyyy.

Date questions are useful when collecting information such as training dates, event registrations, preferred booking dates, birthdays, or project deadlines.

When to use a Date based question

Date questions are ideal whenever you need respondents to provide a specific date rather than typing free-form information. By using the built-in date picker, you reduce the risk of inconsistent data entry and make responses easier to analyse.

Common uses for date questions include:

• Event registrations
• Training session bookings
• Employee leave requests
• Project milestone tracking
• Customer appointments
• Membership renewal dates
• Birthdays and anniversaries
• Preferred delivery dates

Add a date based question

To add a date-based question:

1. Login to the Microsoft Forms website at https://forms.cloud.microsoft/.
2. You may need to log in with your Microsoft 365 username and password.
3. Open an existing form to add the date question, or click New Form or New Quiz from the menu:

4. Scroll to the bottom of the form and click + Add new question:

5. From the options, click Date.
6. A blank date-based question will appear:

7. Type the question into the Question field e.g. What is your DOB?
8. As with the other question types, you can include an image as part of the question, we’ll look at this in the next section.
9. Turn on the Required setting (bottom right corner) if respondents must provide a date before submitting the form:

10. Click the More settings (ellipsis) button in the bottom right corner of the question to access additional options, including:
    • Subtitle to provide extra instructions or information.
    • Add branching to direct respondents to different questions based on their answers. Check out this post for more information about using branching.
11. The date-based question is now complete.

Add an image to a date question

Forms allows you to add a media component to a date based question. This could be a visual prompt to help readers answer the question or it may make up the main part of the question E.g. Identify the missing component from the image provided.

1. Click back into the date question you just created.
2. Click the Media icon to the right of the question area:

3. The Insert Media pane will open on the right side of the screen.
4. Select if you wish to Insert Image or Insert Video:

5. I’ve chosen to Insert Image.
6. You will now see options to perform an Image Search, access your OneDrive files or Upload an image from your computer:

7. Select from the options to insert an image.
8. The image will now be displayed within the date question.

Delete a question

If you no longer need to keep a question, you can easily delete them.

1. From the date question, click the Delete button.

2. The question will be deleted from the Form.

How the Date Question Appears to Respondents

When respondents select the date field, a calendar picker is displayed, allowing them to choose a date quickly and accurately. They can also type the date manually if preferred.

Outside of the US: For those using a Microsoft Form outside of the USA, you will notice the Date question type asks for the date input in the M/d/yyy format. Unfortuantely at this stage, there is no way to change the date input format within the form itself. The date format displayed is determined by your browser, device, and Microsoft 365 regional settings. I personally find that using Google Chrome and Firefox I see the US date format however accessing the same form in Microsoft Edge, I see Australian date format (d/m/yyyy).

Preview the Quiz

To preview the quiz or form, and check what it will look like, click the Preview button on the main menu area.

The Date question type provides a simple and effective way to collect date information in Microsoft Forms. It is ideal for scenarios such as event registrations, appointment bookings, training requests, and project deadlines where accurate date information is important. Using a dedicated date field helps ensure responses are entered consistently, reducing errors and making the data easier to review and analyse. By taking advantage of features such as the calendar picker, required fields, subtitles, and branching, you can create forms that are both user-friendly and efficient to manage.

If you have any comments please leave them below and don’t forget to check out my other posts for Microsoft Forms.