Shuffle & Closed Forms

Choice Eliminator is designed to sit quietly alongside your Google Forms configuration. Two settings are worth calling out: shuffle question order / options and not accepting responses.

Shuffled Options

Google Forms can shuffle the order of answer choices for each respondent. This is compatible with Choice Eliminator.

Choice Eliminator works on the underlying choice list of the question, not on the order respondents see. When a choice hits its limit, it's removed from the question itself — so every respondent, regardless of order, sees the same live set of available options.

• Elimination works the same with shuffle on or off
• Removed choices are removed for everyone, not just for the next respondent in a particular order
• Restoring a choice (by raising its limit or clearing responses) brings it back into the shuffle pool

Closed or Unpublished Forms

If your form isn't accepting responses — either paused manually or never published — Choice Eliminator won't mutate the form.

Why? Google's Forms API rejects mutations on a form that isn't live. Rather than produce errors every time a submission arrives, Choice Eliminator checks whether the form is accepting responses before touching choices. If it isn't, the check is a no-op.

What this means

• Pausing a form: safe. Choice Eliminator won't interfere.
• Unpublished forms (common for newly created Google Forms): safe. Choice Eliminator waits until you publish.
• Reopening a form: elimination resumes on the next submission. The current counts are still tracked, so options that were already full remain removed.

Other Form Settings

• Linked spreadsheet: Choice Eliminator doesn't touch your linked spreadsheet. Any export / backup is a separate Google Sheet.
• "Add other" option: Preserved. Custom "Other" responses are unlimited and don't count toward any choice limit. When every predefined choice is full, the "Other" option remains available instead of showing a "No spots available" placeholder.
• Quiz settings: Unaffected. Point values and correct answers stay put.

Tips

• If you're preparing a form but not ready for respondents, keep it unpublished — Choice Eliminator won't fight you
• Use the Refresh counts button after reopening a long-paused form if counts look stale
• If you've edited responses directly in the linked spreadsheet, a Refresh counts rebuilds from the live form responses