Time & Duration

This is a common question from people who run a survey on sleep habits or log how long an activity takes. You need times that you can compare. A short answer question gets you 10pm, 22:00 and ten at night and you have to clean these up by hand. Google Forms has a time question, but the form around it keeps Google's look. With Formfacade, you can add a time question in the form's "Edit" tab and your users enter the time the same way every time. Even better, you can collect a duration in hours, minutes and seconds or use a validation for 24 hr time.

Let's start. Create your form and follow the steps below.

Time question allows users to enter the time in 12 hr am/pm format. You can also let users enter duration [of an activity] in hours, minutes and seconds.
A form titled Form with time questions, with a duration question in hours, minutes and seconds and a short answer question for 24 hr time
For example, if you want to conduct a survey to determine the sleep habits, you can ask users about their sleeping schedule using time questions. What time do they usually go to bed? What time do they wake up? How much time after they go to bed do they actually sleep?

How to add a time question?

  • On the page that opens, name your form, click Build form and click Proceed. It can take about a minute.
  • You will land on the form's "Preview" tab.
  • Click on "Edit" tab
The tabs Edit, Preview, Share and Responses, with Edit marked
You can use the time question to capture time in 12hr AM/PM format by following the steps below.
  • Click on the + icon (Add field) in the toolbar on the right and enter your question
  • Select Time in the question type list
  • Enable the Required toggle button to make this a mandatory question
A Time question in the Edit tab with the question, the question type and the gear icon marked

How to add a time question to capture duration?

You can use the time question to capture duration by following the steps below.
  • Click on the + icon (Add field) in the toolbar on the right
  • Select Time in the question type list
  • This option is only in Google Forms. Click on the form's title, click on the ⚙️ icon, select the "Advanced" tab and click Launch next to "Edit this form with Google Forms". Google Forms will open in a new tab
  • In Google Forms, click on the ⋮ icon on the question and select Duration
  • Enable the Required toggle button to make this a mandatory question
A Time question set to Duration, with the three dots icon, Duration in its menu and the Required toggle marked
  • Open the form's "Edit" tab again, so that your form picks up the change. If you do not see it, wait a few seconds and reload the page.

How can I change the time format to 24 hr (HH:MM) military time?

Google Forms time question offers limited customization. You can either accept time in 12 hr am/pm format or duration in hours, minutes and seconds. However, you can use the short answer question with regular expression validation to accept time in 24 hr HH:MM military time format.
  • Click on the + icon (Add field) in the toolbar on the right
  • A new Short answer question will be added
  • Enable the Required toggle button to make this a mandatory question
  • Click on the ⚙️ icon at the bottom right of the question, select the "Answer" tab and click Configure under Validation
  • Select Regular expression, select Matches and enter the pattern ^(0[0-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-3]):[0-5][0-9]$ as shown below
  • Click Save
The Validation section with Regular expression, Matches and the pattern for 24 hr time, with the rule and the Save button marked

Summary

If you need a time or a duration from your users, a short answer question will give you answers in many formats. With the time question in Formfacade, users enter the time in 12 hr am/pm format or a duration in hours, minutes and seconds and you can use regular expression validation for 24 hr time. Create your form and complete the steps above.

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