In order to iterate on and discuss the content and structure of a form, it is sometimes easier to view the form contents in an Excel format.
Within Dimagi we frequently use "Excel definition" files that have different forms on each of the tabs of an Excel document. We can then easily share and review the form content without having to use the form builder.
You can export a form once you have opened the form builder by clicking on "edit" on any form.
On the left side of the screen, within the question tree of form builder, you will see a drop-down menu that looks like three stacked lines. Selecting this will open the formbuilder settings. Click ACtions and then download.
After you click on Export From Contents a pop-up box will appear:
Put your cursor in the box, select-all, and copy all of the contents.
Then open a blank Excel tab and paste the contents- they should automatically separate into columns:
NOTES
If you make changes to the content in the excel file (i.e. display text, validation, etc.) you will have to manually make these changes in the form builder. That means you cannot update the form by importing the altered excel file. It is possible to do this for display text only by using the Form Bulk Translation tool. If you want to build forms using an Excel file you can try a tool like Formhub.
If you want to have a column which cleanly shows the choice value for questions with choices, you can do this in Excel with the formula =IF(B2="Choice", TRIM(MID(A2, FIND("-",A2)+1, 100)), "")