Microsoft Excel —

Have a Cell Ticked or Unticked upon Selection

Sometimes it's difficult to make choices with checkboxes. Fortunately, you can simplify this process using a basic bit of code.

You can use Excel workbooks to collect data for surveys. Usually you do this by offering users a number of answers to choose from and placing a checkbox next to each choice. Users then check the appropriate checkboxes. The problem with using this method, though, is that your workbook soon can end up with hundreds of checkboxes.

Instead, you can use some very simple VBA code to tick any cell within a specified range as soon as it's selected. If the cell within the specified range is ticked already, the code will remove it. The trick to the code is the use of the letter "a" in a cell whose font is set to Marlett. When it's time to add up the results, simply use the COUNTIF function to count the occurrences of the letter "a", like this:

=COUNITIF($A$1:A$100,"a")

The following code examples work only on the range A1:A100, but you can modify them easily to suit any range. To use the code, activate the worksheet on which the ticks should be displayed, right-click the Sheet Name tab, and select View Code. Paste in either CODE 1 (if you want the cell ticked when it's selected) or CODE 2 (if you want the cell ticked when it's double-clicked):

'CODE 1 - tick cell with selection
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
 If Target.Cells.Count > 1 Then Exit Sub
    If Not Intersect(Target, Range("A1:A100")) Is Nothing Then
        Target.Font.Name = "Marlett"
        If Target = vbNullString Then
           Target = "a"
        Else
           Target = vbNullString
        End If
    End If
End Sub
'CODE 2 - tick cell with double-click
Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
    If Not Intersect(Target, Range("A1:A100")) Is Nothing Then
     Cancel = True 'Prevent going into Edit Mode
        Target.Font.Name = "Marlett"
        If Target = vbNullString Then
           Target = "a"
        Else
           Target = vbNullString
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Once the desired code is in place, simply close the window to get back to Excel and save your workbook. If you need to see whether the cell is checked, just examine its contents.