Multiple drop downs on Microsoft Forms

Question

Hi

I have created a form with an activity question that staff members can tick e.g. counselled a patient

I have then added drop down options for each activity (alphabetical list of hospital wards so staff can select which ward they counselled the patient on)

What I am wanting is two additional drop downs each time a ward is selected

1. Duration (mins) of counselling session
2. What medication was discussed (with 5 drop down options)

Does anyone know if this is possible or am I best doing the form on excel.

Thanks and appreciate any advice!

Answer 1

Hi Laura,

Microsoft Forms does not support dynamically adding drop-downs based on selections, but you might want to use branching logic as a workaround to guide users through additional questions. Here’s how you can set it up:

1. Add the Ward Selection and the two additional questions.
2. Apply Branching Logic: Click on the three dots (…) next to the ward question. Select Add branching and set it so that choosing a ward directs users to the duration and medication questions.

3. If needed, repeat the branching for each ward so users only see relevant follow-up questions.

More details on setting up branching can be found here.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you need further clarification.

Community Moderator | Sophia

Answer 2

Hi Sophia

Thank you for the reply. I will have 18 “activities” and most of these will require a ward drop down plus duration and medication. Would branching work for this? I wouldn’t be able to have another 18 questions with duration and medication drop downs as the form would be too long; or do the branching questions only appear when a ward is selected? And so the form unselected only shows the 18 activities not the 18 activities plus 18 durations and 18 medications? Sorry if that’s confusing :) thank you

Answer 3

Hi Sofia

So I have played around with it thank you, and what I want is the 18 activities to show on the form when user goes into it. The user should be able to tick any activity or more. What is happening is I have added two activities with the medication and duration branching, but when I go back into preview only the first question shows I.e form only shows second activity once first one has been selected- thanks!

Answer 4

Hi Laura,

Thank you for the update and for testing the branching logic! Yes, branching questions only appear when a specific option is selected, so your form will initially show only the 18 activities. Once a user selects an activity, the related ward, duration, and medication drop-downs will appear dynamically. This way, the form remains clean and doesn’t show all the follow-up questions at once.

It sounds like you've got it working as intended! If my response was helpful, feel free to vote on it. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated and helps me improve future responses. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank you for your time and patience, we hope you have a great day!

Community Moderator | Sophia