Open Forms and click Import Form, or open Assessments and click Import Assessment. Upload a PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, RTF or plain text file, or paste a public Google Forms or Qualtrics link, then click Import. Equip reads the source with AI in the background and builds a new custom form or assessment from it, with the sections, questions, answer options and required flags it found. You get a notification when it is ready, and you should always review the result before using it.
Participants are labelled Clients, Students, Residents or Explorers depending on the account type. This article calls them participants.
Who can do this, and where
Importing happens in the Equip web app only.
You need the Forms module set to Administrator on your role to import a form, and the same on Assessments to import an assessment. Account owners always qualify.
Importing is enabled per account, and forms and assessments are switched on separately. If the Import Form button is not on your Form Library page, it is not enabled for your account.
Steps
Click Forms in the left navigation to import a form, or Assessments to import an assessment.
Click Import Form or Import Assessment at the top of the page. A panel opens with two ways in.
To use a file, drag it onto Upload a File or browse for it. One file per import.
To use a link, paste it into Form URL instead. Leave the file empty if you are using a link.
Click Import.
Equip closes the panel and shows "Your form is being imported. You will be notified when it is ready." Assessments show the same message with the word assessment.
When it finishes you get an in-app notification and an email titled "Your form import has completed", with a button to open the new item.
Open it and check the questions, types, answer options, sections and required flags before anyone uses it.
What you can import
Source | Detail |
Files | .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .csv, .rtf, .txt |
Maximum file size | 10 MB |
Google Forms | Links of the form |
Qualtrics | Survey links of the form |
Microsoft Forms | Not supported. Open the form in a browser, print it to PDF, and upload the PDF. |
Other public web pages | Accepted. Equip fetches the page, strips the markup and lets AI read the text. Results vary, so a document usually works better. |
Limits and what the errors mean
Errors from the upload panel appear in red inside the panel, and the import stays open so you can correct it.
"Please upload a file or provide a form URL." — nothing was given, or the URL was not a valid http or https address.
"Unsupported file type. Please upload a PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, RTF, or plain text file." — the extension is not on the list above.
"File is too large. Maximum file size is 10 MB." — split the document or export a smaller version.
"Microsoft Forms links cannot be imported directly. Please open the form in your browser, print it to PDF, and upload the PDF file instead."
"This Google Form appears to be private or restricted. Please make sure the form is set to accept responses, or try exporting it as a PDF and uploading the file instead."
"File upload failed. Please try again." — the upload did not complete. Retry it.
Things that go wrong after the panel closes arrive as a notification titled "Your form import has failed", which says to check the file and try again. The notification does not say which of these it was:
Only the first 30,000 characters of the source are read. A long handbook or a multi-form packet loses everything after that point. Split it up.
Nothing could be read from the file. Scanned or photographed PDFs with no text layer are the usual cause. Print or export a text-based PDF instead.
Your account's monthly AI usage limit is reached. Imports work again when the limit resets.
The Google Form or Qualtrics survey is private or closed.
Once the import succeeds, note what it does and does not set:
It always creates a new custom form or assessment. Nothing existing is overwritten or merged.
The new item is Active straight away.
If something with the same title already exists, Equip appends (Copy) to the new title.
Preferences are Equip's defaults, not the source's. In particular a new imported form has Require Subject on and Require Signature off. Set the preferences, approvers and subscribers yourself.
A choice question that arrived with no answer options is turned into a Long answer question, so nobody is left with an unanswerable question.
A question type Equip does not recognise becomes a Long answer question.
Importing a PDF does not give you a fillable PDF form. It reads the questions out and builds a normal custom form.
Acceptance questions are a forms-only type. Importing the same document into Assessments turns those into Short answer questions.
Best practices
Use clean source files. Clear numbering, labelled sections and explicit answer choices import most accurately.
One form per file. A packet of several forms produces one jumbled item.
Prefer text-based PDFs. A PDF exported from a document imports far better than a scan.
Check the required flags and the question types. These are the two things AI most often reads differently from how you meant them.
Check matrix questions. A grid becomes one Likert scale question per row, sharing a Group Label. If the rows came out separately, give them the same group label and the same answer options.
FAQ
Does importing overwrite an existing form?
No. Every import creates a new item. If the title matches something you already have, Equip adds (Copy) so you can tell them apart.
How long does an import take?
Most finish in well under a minute, but the work happens in the background so you do not have to wait on the page. Equip notifies you in the app and by email when it completes or fails.
Can I import a private Google Form?
No. Equip has to be able to read the form's public page. If the form is restricted or closed, open it in your browser, print it to PDF, and upload the PDF instead.
Why did my Microsoft Forms link get rejected?
Microsoft Forms does not expose its questions to anything but a browser, so there is nothing for Equip to read. Open the form, press Ctrl+P or Cmd+P, save it as a PDF, and upload that file.
My import failed and the message doesn't say why. What do I check?
In order: is the file under 10 MB and a supported type, does the PDF actually contain selectable text rather than a scan, is the document shorter than about 30,000 characters, and is the link publicly reachable. If all four are fine, contact support so we can look at the error.
Half my questions are missing. What happened?
Long sources are truncated after 30,000 characters, and everything past that is never seen. Split the document into one form per file and import them separately.
The imported form looks wrong. Do I have to start again?
No. It behaves like any other form or assessment. Edit the question text, change types, reorder with drag and drop, fix answer options, and add or remove sections.
Does an imported assessment come with scoring set up?
No. The import brings across the questions, answer options and order. Review the assessment's own settings afterwards, the same as you would for one you built by hand.
Related
Create a form
What are Forms, and when should I use them?
Copy an existing form
Creating an Assessment
Choosing Between Forms and Assessments