Linking the Check Box to a Cell

2 of 4: Linking the Check Box to a Cell

In the earlier post, Adding Check Boxes, we added the Form Check Box control to our spreadsheet. In this post we explore adding an ActiveX Check Box to the spreadsheet, and how to link a Check Box to a cell. The linked cell will display True, when the Check Box is checked, and False when unchecked.

 

Form Check Box

Of the two types of Check Box controls, Form and ActiveX, the Form control is the simpler of the two types.

Form Check Box features:

• simple management, with comparatively few options
• compatible with the XLS file format (Excel 2003 and earlier)

Watch this ~3m video to see how to place the Form Check Box and link it to a cell.

To Link the Check Box Form Control to a Cell

1. Add the Form Check Box control (for details, see earlier post or review the above video).
2. Right + Click on the Check Box control and select Format Control.  The Format Control dialog appears.
3. On the Control tab, click in the Cell link field, then type or select the cell.
4. OK.

ActiveX Check Box

For more programming power, use the ActiveX Check Box. Similar to Form Check Boxes, the ActiveX Check Box has additional options.

ActiveX Check Box features:

• additional formatting and programming options
• designed to be associated with macros
• compatible with the XLSM and XLTM file formats (macro enabled file and macro enabled template, respectively)

Watch this ~3m video to see how to place the ActiveX Check Box and link it to a cell.

To Link the Check Box ActiveX Control to a Cell

1. On the Developer Tab, In the Control group, Click the ActiveX Check Box control, then Click + Drag to place on spreadsheet.
   Note: the spreadsheet is automatically placed in Design Mode.
2. Right + Click on the Check Box control and select Properties.  The Properties dialog appears.
3. Click in the Caption property field and delete the text (i.e., CheckBox1).
4. For the BackStyle property, click drop-down and select 0 – fmBackStyleTransparent.
5. Click in the LinkedCell property field and type the cell reference (i.e. F10).
6. Close the Property dialog.
7. On the Developer tab, click Design Mode to toggle Design Mode off.

 

Next: Using DSUM!

Cheers!

hɔuᴉnb

Previous post and additional reading:

• Adding Check Boxes
• Formatting Indents in  Excel
• Excel Data Consolidation
• More Excel Tips

Comments and questions are always welcome!