Microsoft Forms omits unanswered questions in print of responses

Question

I have an existing form that has a 'question' at the bottom that is intended to be left blank. I would print out the responses & use that last blank question as a manual checklist for office use. Recently, when I print the form it only prints out the answered questions, omitting my blank 'for office use' question that I need to continue printing. How can I get this to print out again?

Answer 1

Hi @Pam Cain, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.      

Based on the details you shared that when you print Microsoft Forms responses, the final question you intentionally leave blank for office use is no longer appearing in the printout. I truly understand how important this checklist is for your education workflow, and I appreciate the time you took to explain your process so clearly. 

This behavior occurs because the current Print response output in Microsoft Forms can omit questions that have no response value, which means intentionally blank fields may be excluded from the print layout. This is a known limitation of the built in response printing experience, and there is no native setting to force all unanswered questions to always display in the printed individual response. 

Below are some options that will suit your situation: 

1/ Ensure the “For office use” item is always included by capturing a minimal placeholder 

• This approach keeps your checklist line printing by making sure the question is never truly empty in the response. 
• Open your form in Microsoft Forms and edit the last question text to clearly indicate internal use, for example: 
  For office use (enter a placeholder such as N/A): 
• Ask respondents to enter a single placeholder value such as N/A or . so the field is not blank. 
• Print the response again using Responses then View results then Print response and the question will appear because it contains a value.  
• Reference: Print a form - Microsoft Support 

2/ Print a blank copy of the form and attach it to each printed response 

• This keeps your “For office use” area fully blank while guaranteeing it prints every time, regardless of what the respondent answered. 
• Open the form in edit mode. 
• Select More form settings then choose Print Form to print a blank version of the form.  
• When you print an individual response, attach the blank form page behind it and use the last question area as your manual checklist. 

3/ Create a controlled print layout via Excel export (best for consistent, repeatable printing) 

• This method gives you full control over the printed output and ensures the “For office use” section always appears, even if the response is blank. 
• Go to your form’s Responses tab and select Open in Excel to export the response data.  
• In Excel, create a simple print template sheet (for example, a “Print View” tab) that includes: 
  • The key response fields you want to display 
  • A dedicated For office use section with blank lines or checkboxes 
• Print the template for each response (or save as PDF from Excel) so your checklist is always included in the output. 

If you need full automation, you can also use Power Automate through Microsoft Power Platform Community Forum Thread to generate a PDF using a template, which is the recommended workaround when Forms printing does not include unanswered questions. 

This is a specific channel related to Power Automate. You'll get the most qualified group of respondents, and other partners who read the forums regularly can share their knowledge or learn from your interaction. 

Apologies for redirecting you to a different community as the members of the posted category focus on users with Microsoft 365 concern and have limited knowledge about Power Automate, so to get a quick and better assistance, let me redirect you in the correct way.   

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If you have any updates regarding the issue, please feel free to share them with me.       

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. I look forward to continuing the conversation.  

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Answer 2

To address the issue of Microsoft Forms omitting unanswered questions when printing responses, you may want to consider the following workaround:

1. Modify the Form: Ensure that the last question, which is intended to be left blank, is set up in a way that it is recognized during the print process. You might want to add a default placeholder text (e.g., "For office use") in that question to ensure it appears in the printout even when left blank.
2. Print Preview: Before printing, use the print preview feature to check how the form will look when printed. This can help you confirm that all necessary questions are included.
3. Export to PDF: If printing directly from Microsoft Forms continues to omit the blank question, consider exporting the responses to a PDF format where you can manually adjust the layout and ensure that the blank question is included before printing.

These steps may help you retain the blank question in your printed responses for your manual checklist purposes.