How to remove choices in Google Forms

Have you ever wanted to have selections automatically disappear in Google Forms? I have found myself needing this option a few times from group project selections, to field day activity choices, and even parent-teacher conference timeslots. In the video below I explain how to use a Google add-on plugin to automatically remove choices when a predetermined number of selections is reached. Below the video there is a step-by-step guide as well.

Step 1 Create a Google Form

Go to drive.google.com and go to New –> More –> Google Forms. A new tab will open when you hit Google Forms.

Step 2 Install the Choice Eliminator 2 Plugin

Once you new form loads, go to the settings icon located on the top right of the page. It will appear as three small dots.

From there go to Add-ons

Search for “Choice Eliminator 2” in the search bar on the top right.

Select Choice Eliminator 2 and hit Free. Note: In the screenshot above I already have it installed so it shows manage instead of Free.

Step 3: Make you Form

Create your Google Form as usual. Choice Eliminator 2 allows you to use Checkboxes, Dropdown, and Multiple Choice question types. There are some small possible issues with multiple choice questions that I will address at the end of this post. Not all of the questions in the form need to have choices eliminated.

Step 4: Enable Choice Eliminator 2

Once you have completed your form, go to the add-ons button on the top right. It will look like a puzzle piece.

Select Choice Eliminator 2 and a window will pop-up on the screen.Go to Configure.

A new pop-up will show on the bottom right of your page. This is where you can select which questions will have choices eliminated along with setting the numbers of each possible response.

Step 5: Configure Choice Eliminator 2

In the pop-up on the bottom right-hand side of the page, you will want to select which questions you want to enable limits on.

In my example, I only have one question so I select it and enable Eliminate Choices.

After you select the checkbox, the gear icon to the right will change color.

Select the gear icon to configure you answer limits. When you select it, you will get an additional pop-up.

Step 6: Test

You will want to test your form to make sure everything is working properly before you release it into the wild. Don’t worry, you can reset all of the answer selections down the road.

In the example above all choices are limited to one response. Once I select hockey and submit it, hockey will disappear from the answer choices as shown below.

A few notes

When you first run Choice Eliminator 2 you will get a warning message if you are using multiple choice questions. This is because Google changed how they process question types and multiple choice questions require a bit of extra processing time. That means if someone answers the question at or near the same time (within about 2 seconds) the selections can go over the set limit.

Choice Eliminator 2 handles this by giving the later response a blank answer.

At the end of the day this is a valuable add-on that has lots of uses for education and beyond.


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45 responses to “How to remove choices in Google Forms”

  1. Chris Thornett Avatar
    Chris Thornett

    Thanks for the post. Question: Do you have to have the Choice Eliminator 2 add on open when you send the survey out to students? Or will all of the setting save?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      As long as you have the plugin enabled on your end, it will save the settings. The students do not need to have the plugin, only the person who creates it and has it configured.

    2. Michael Wetzel Avatar
      Michael Wetzel

      I have used Choice Eliminator a lot but now it is no longer available. Any other suggestions?

      1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

        It’s still available. Get it here.

  2. Jamie Melton Avatar
    Jamie Melton

    Do you have any suggestions and/or troubleshooting ideas when the counts do not track while using a drop down selection for choices? It worked successfully the first few times I used it, but now when I have students sign up it does not eliminate the choices properly.

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      Hey Jamie I would love to help. How much time is being given between submissions? From my experience it takes about 2-5 seconds for the form to register that a submission has been made and for the updates to be made to the choices. If there is a flood of submissions at the same time, the form will not update properly.

      I have had hit and miss success for drop down answer selections and I’m not totally sure why. I’ve always had success with multiple choice selections.

  3. James Avatar
    James

    Thank you for this. Is there also an addon that I could use that closes an answer option but doesn’t remove it from the list? Just that it changes color or can not be selected anymore? Thank you.

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      I haven’t found an option to do that or a plugin that does that, but I’ll keep an eye out.

  4. Liss Avatar
    Liss

    Hi Nathan
    I have an active form set up for audition booking times, and audtionees should only be booking one audition time, however I’ve just had someone change their mind and book a second audition! Is there a way to add their first time back into the mix, so someone else can book it? Fingers crossed you know, cos I’m stumped!

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      Hey Liss,

      That’s a great question. Yes you can go back and add in their time. What you need to do is go into the settings and do one of two things.

      1. You can increase the number of times that the time slot can be selected before it hits it max and goes away OR

      2. You can reset that section of Choice Eliminator 2 so that the count is set back to zero.

      If you need help with this please let me know and I will make a post on how to do it.

      1. Steve Avatar
        Steve

        I’m concerned that If I reset a section, I’ll open all of the choices up again and lose track of those that had already selected. Eg. One person who didn’t follow instructions will then require everyone else to re-submit the form.

  5. Noha Avatar
    Noha

    Thanks, That helped a lot.

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      Anytime. Please let me know if there are any other tutorials that you would like to see.

  6. Mary p Avatar
    Mary p

    Will the form record which pupil has chosen the time slot?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      As long as you have an input spot on the form for the student to put their name.

  7. V Nixie Avatar
    V Nixie

    I am using this google form for people to chose tasks. I have chosen the checkboxes option as they need to choose at least 2 (they can choose more than 2 if wanted). I have added the rule that they cannot move forward unless they choose at least two as I find some don’t read directions ;). I have also added add on so that each task has only a certain amount available. My issue (that I’m wondering if there’s a solution to), is that once the options are less than 2, it won’t allow them to move forward. Will I need to track and manually alter once I get down to the wire so that the ‘choose at least 2’ isn’t there at the end? Or is there a way around this automatically?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      I’m trying to think of a good choice for you but I’m having some trouble. What you could consider doing is instead of checkboxes do a multiple choice. Have the first two questions required and any additional questions would be optional. That may cut down on choices getting eliminated too quickly.

    2. CA Avatar
      CA

      Same issue here. I have multiple choice, but when it hits the maximum capacity (chosen by me) it shows the information that “No more option” as a multiple choice. So it still allows the person to move forward as if the person was filling the form. I would like somehow to show the message under “Responses – Not accepting responses” instead. In this case a person won’t be allow to move forward at all and at the same time an email is generated to me saying that the limit was achieved. That would be great. Any solution for this?

      1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

        As of right now I do not know of a solution to the problem. I usually close the form from accepting responses when this happens or I use formLimiter to do so automatically via a time window.

  8. […] Once the activity is full, it automatically removes itself from being a choice in the Google Form (If you want to see how to do that click here). About 400 students fill out the form and from there, they each need a custom schedule that shows […]

  9. Agus Luqman Avatar
    Agus Luqman

    how to restore the choice automatically every 00:00?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      You have to manually go back into Choice Eliminator and reset the counts. There is no automatic option for doing so.

  10. Vera Avatar
    Vera

    I have another problem. I state multiple choices twice a week, updating them twice a week; when a person chooses the choice stated a week earlier, the Choice Eliminator erases everything that happened before and starts showing choices that were available two, three, even four weeks ago, including the ones that have been selected long time ago and shouldn’t have been shown as available choice. Please help!

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      Are you removing the previous questions or are you adding new questions?

  11. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    I would like to use this for an event registration for 550 people. Have you ever used it for such a large number? Any suggestions of how to format it before I send it out as to minimize glitches?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      The main thing to be careful of is making sure that all 550 people don’t reply at or near the same time. There needs to be a 2-3 second difference between submission and the next person opening it for it to work properly.

  12. Erica Henry Avatar
    Erica Henry

    I created a form for 3 dates with 3 time shifts for a book fair. I set the choice eliminator to 2. I then entered my name in twice to see it before I sent out. I deleted my responses; and said time shift doesn’t appear? I also reset the count?? Any ideas? Or add the row back in manually? Thanks

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      You have to go back into choice eliminator and reset the count from there. Deleting them in the spreadsheet doesn’t do anything because choice eliminator doesn’t talk to it.

  13. trojan obelix Avatar
    trojan obelix

    I got always

    : No item with the given ID could be found, or you do not have permission to access it.

    Any idea what’s going wrong?

  14. alialewy Avatar
    alialewy

    Why not work on more than 5 questions

  15. ori landsberg Avatar
    ori landsberg

    hi.
    i’ve created a form with more then 5 q with choice eliminator and it’s not working…
    I guess it’s not possible to use choice eliminator with more then 5 q, am I right?
    If so, do you know another way?

    thanks!

    1. joellen Avatar
      joellen

      I am having the same issue. I know it recommends not to have more than 5 but once people make the one choice it goes to the end. So they really are not scrolling through all questions. They need to answer one and choice eliminates after 2, but nothing is working. It worked last night when I created it, but now it’s not. So frustrating!!!!!

  16. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    What is the easy way to reset answers after testing or to reuse the form?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      I usually just go back and erase all of the form data and reset the counts.

  17. fredrikeinarsson Avatar
    fredrikeinarsson

    Hello! I’m trying to create a form help me and my students choose from 15 different activities for a field trip. I would like them to be able to make first, second and third choices, so that I can put together groups of approximate sizes. the issue is to create a list that accepts this, and preferably removes the first hand choice when they choose their second hand choice, and so on… I hope I’m making myself clear, and that you perhaps have a solution form me… thanks in advance =)

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      Great question. There are a few ways to do this. If all of your students are picking as a group, you could have the choice limit set to one and have the group submit it three times. The first submission would be first choice and so on. If you want to have all of your students pick individually I would do it slightly differently. Inside of eliminating choices, I would have them do a rating scale. Have them rate only three of the options and you can see their ratings on the results page. From there you can break down groups. Let me know if that helps or if you would like me to create something for you to better show what I mean.

  18. David Carrales Avatar
    David Carrales

    I am trying to create a “sign up” sheet that will be sent to indivduals who will have the option of selecting a single date and time for a conference call. I have six dates and each date has different times. I created a multiple choice question for each date with the times as the items of choice. I want the times to go away from the date once the time has been selected. I am using the Choice Eliminator add-on, but when I apply it to the six multiple choice questions it then requires a response for each multiple choice question even though an individual is only selecting a time from a single date. As a result, they can’t submit the form. When I remove “Required” from the multiple chioce questions, the choices do not get eliminated. Any advise on how to fix this?

  19. Allan Houben Avatar
    Allan Houben

    Can you copy a form with the limits intact?
    When you delete all responses, do the limits revert?

    1. Nathan Nagele Avatar

      No. You have to manually reset them.

  20. Holly M Fitzgerald Avatar
    Holly M Fitzgerald

    I just installed this and when I go to Add-ons, Choice-Eliminator 2, the only I option I see is Help. I don’t see Configure. Please advise.

  21. Maria Castro-Alvarez Avatar
    Maria Castro-Alvarez

    I used it for 100 students to sign up into different activities, but even though I set up limits, the form kept collecting students over the limit. Any suggestion?

  22. Eli Camp ND, DHANP, VNMI Avatar
    Eli Camp ND, DHANP, VNMI

    Hi Nathan. I have a slightly different issue – if there is another thread to post on, let me know.

    I have created a form using the checkbox grid. It is for people to place an order for items that have different options. But, not all items have all the options available. So I am looking for a way to restrict choices by item. Here is a link to the form. https://forms.gle/LmEpDPa1ubj5b8ny9

    In the section where the checkbox grid starts:
    The first item is Abies, but there is no 10M available.
    Second item Acetic acid, there is no 30C available.
    Third item, Aconitum, all are available.

    And so on. Most have all, some have 1 or 2 or even 3 not available.

    Is there a way to “turn off” or gray out options that are not available?

    Eli

  23. Caroline Williams Avatar
    Caroline Williams

    Hi Nathan! Can you help?
    I’m setting up a booking system and have used drop down for my session times (2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm) Sessions 4pm and 8pm have NEW MEMBERS ONLY written after them.
    For some reason, the “NEW MEMBERS ONLY” keeps disappearing and leaving just the time and therefore Im getting responses to it from existing members wanting to book that time 🙁
    its driving me bonkers! everytime I correct it, it works for a few responses then defaults back again.
    Also, all responses are set for 29 places but its not counting down in configure?

  24. Jaclyn Avatar
    Jaclyn

    This add-on is no longer available, right?

  25. Aytazaz Ali Raza Avatar
    Aytazaz Ali Raza

    I have a question if I create a google form for my fellow colleague, and he wants to add / remove any of the given multiple choices from the question without my help. How can he do such?

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