by Svetlana Cheusheva, updated on
The tutorial will teach you how to quickly add multiple checkboxes in Excel, change the check box name and formatting, as well as delete one, several or all checkboxes on a sheet.
In last week's tutorial, we stared to discuss Excel Check Box and showed a few examples of using checkboxes in Excel to create a beautiful checklist, conditionally formatted To-Do list, interactive report and a dynamic chart responding to the checkbox state.
Today, we will be focusing mostly on technicalities and how-to things. Of course, this information is not as exciting to learn as practical examples, but it will help you create and manage your Excel checkboxes in the most efficient manner.
Microsoft Excel provides two types of controls - Check Box Form control and Check Box ActiveX control:
Form controls are much simpler than ActiveX, and you will want to use them in most cases. If you decide to go with Check Box ActiveX controls, here's a list of the most essential differences for you to consider:
To insert a checkbox in Excel, do the following:
Note. If you don't have the Developer tab on your Excel ribbon, right click anywhere on the ribbon, then click Customize the Ribbon… The Excel Options dialog window will appear, and you check the Developer box in the right hand column.
To quickly insert multiple check boxes in Excel, add one checkbox as described above, and then copy it using one of the following techniques:
Notes:
When using checkboxes in Excel, you should distinguish between the check box name and caption name.
The caption name is the text you see in a newly added checkbox such as Check Box 1. To change the caption name, right click the checkbox, select Edit Text in the context menu, and type the name you want.
The checkbox name is the name you see in the Name box when the checkbox is selected. To change it, select the check box, and type the desired name in the Name box.
Note. Changing the caption name does not change the actual name of the checkbox.
You can select a single checkbox in 2 ways:
To select multiple checkboxes in Excel, do one of the following:
Note. The names displayed on the Selection pane are the checkboxes names, not caption names.
Deleting an individual checkbox is easy - select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
To delete multiple checkboxes, select them using any of the methods described above, and hit Delete.
To delete all checkboxes at a time, go to the Home tab > Editing group > Find & Select > Go To Special, select the Objects radio button, and click OK. This will select all the check boxes on the active sheet, and you simply press the Delete key to remove them.
Note. Please be careful when using the last method because it will delete all the objects in the active sheet, including checkboxes, buttons, shapes, charts, etc.
The Check Box Form control type does not allow many customizations, but certain adjustments can still be made. To access the formatting options, right-click the checkbox, click Format Control, and then do any of the following.
On the Color and Lines tab, you can select the desired Fill and Line:
No other changes are allowed for a Check Box Form control in terms of formatting. If you need more options, e.g. setting your own font type, font size, or font style, use a Check Box ActiveX control.
The Size tab, as its name suggests, allows changing the size of the checkbox.
The Protection tab allows locking and unlocking checkboxes. For the locking to take effect, you need to protect the sheet.
The Properties tab lets you position a checkbox in a sheet. The default setting - Move but don't size with cells - ties the check box to the cell where you've placed it.
On the Alt Text tab, you can specify the Alternative text for the checkbox. By default, it is the same as the checkbox's caption name.
On the Control tab, you can set the initial state(default state) for the check box such as:
To give a slightly different look to the check box, turn on 3-D shading.
To link a checkbox to a certain cell, enter the cell address in the Cell link box. You can find more about linked cells and what advantages this gives to you here: How to link checkbox to cell.
This is how you can add, change or delete a checkbox in Excel. If you are looking for real-life examples of using checkboxes in Excel, please check out the following resources.
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