adding check boxes

[Leslie]

I'm creating a document that has numerous lists of
things. I would like users to be able to "check" the
parts of the list that apply to them. So, I'm wondering
if there is a way to add check boxes (really the ability
to check a box) to a Word document.

Thanks!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It depends on what you want them for. If you're creating a protected
(online) form, you can use the Check Box form field. If you're creating a
printed form that users will fill out with pen or pencil, you can create an
empty box in a variety of ways (more on that later). If you're creating a
document to be filled out on the computer (but not a protected form), you
may want to use the kind of check boxes used in the fax cover sheet
templates that ship with Word. These consist of three components:

1. A MacroButton field that runs one of two macros depending on state.

2. A CheckIt macro and an UncheckIt macro.

3. Checked Box and Unchecked Box AutoText entries (these are just Wingdings
characters that have been saved as AutoText).

When the check box is empty (Unchecked Box is displayed), double-clicking on
the MacroButton runs the CheckIt macro, which substitutes the Checked Box,
and vice versa.

In order to use this type of box in your document, you need to Copy/Paste
the MacroButton field into your document/template, then use Organizer to
copy the macros and AutoText entries to your template (it has to be a
template because documents can't store AutoText entries, but you could copy
them to Normal.dot if you're just creating a document rather than a
template).

If you just need an empty box for users to check with a pen/pencil, you can
use one of several available font characters (such as the shadowed boxes in
Wingdings), or (my favorite) you can create a box using the EQ \x (box)
field. You'll find instructions for this in Word's Help under "Field codes:
EQ (Equation) field," but you can get the same effect by applying a border
to Text in the Borders and Shading dialog. What you want to put a border
around is some spaces, but the trick is that you can't use ordinary spaces:
at least one of them (the last) must be a nonbreak space. So type two or
three spaces and a nonbreak space, then apply a box border to it. You may
need to adjust the font size to make the box the size you want, but I find
this works very nicely.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Leslie]

Thank you so much for the great (and very useful)
information. I am creating an on-line document/template,
but I'm sure I can also use your advice on creating
a "non-clickable" box at some point in the future.

One other question, is there a way to export information
from Word into Excel to be able to sort on it/run pivot
tables? For example, can I export the boxes that were
checked?

Thanks!!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one, but surely someone will.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.