How to insert a checkbox in Excel

Method 1: Insert > Checkbox (Microsoft 365)

An event checklist: task, owner, due date, cost, and a Done column. Select E2:E9 and add checkboxes in one go. They live inside the cells, so they sort, filter, copy and fill down with the rows, which is the big improvement over the old kind.

Click a box to tick it, or select one or more checkbox cells and press Space to toggle them. The cell's value is TRUE or FALSE, which you can see in the formula bar. Checkboxes take the font color and size of the cell, so change those to restyle them.

1. Select the empty cells that should get checkboxes, such as E2:E9.
2. Go to Insert > Checkbox (in the Cell Controls group).
3. Click a box or press Space to tick it.
4. To remove them, select the cells and press Delete. Ticked boxes are cleared first; press Delete again to remove the boxes. Home > Clear > Clear Formats also removes them.

Method 2: Developer tab (Excel 2021 and earlier)

If there's no Checkbox button on the Insert tab, your version doesn't have in-cell checkboxes yet. The older form control check box works in every desktop version, but it floats on top of the sheet rather than living in a cell.

Each box has to be linked to a cell to be useful in formulas. The linked cell shows TRUE or FALSE (and stays empty until the box is first clicked). Copying a box keeps the same cell link, so after copying you have to set each copy's link by hand, one at a time. That's the main reason to use in-cell checkboxes where you can.

1. Show the Developer tab: File > Options > Customize Ribbon, tick Developer, OK.
2. Go to Developer > Insert > Check Box (Form Control) and draw the box in E2.
3. Right-click it, choose Edit Text and delete the label text, or type your own.
4. Right-click again, choose Format Control > Control, set Cell link to E2, and click OK.

Count ticked boxes and show % done

Because a ticked box is TRUE, COUNTIF with TRUE (no quotes) counts them. Four of the eight tasks are done.

For progress, divide by the number of tasks: =COUNTIF(E2:E9,TRUE)/COUNTA(A2:A9) gives 50%. Counting the task names rather than the boxes means a task without a box is still counted as not done. The progress bar guide turns this into a bar.

Sum costs for ticked (or unticked) rows

SUMIFS works on TRUE and FALSE too. The booked items (venue, AV kit and two free tasks) add up to 1,620, and the unticked ones still to arrange cost 1,105.

=SUMIFS(D2:D9,E2:E9,FALSE) gives the open amount. Use =IF(E2,"Done","Open") in a status column if people need words rather than boxes, for example in a printed report.

List what's still open, and grey out done rows

In Excel 365, FILTER pulls the unticked tasks into a live to-do list that shrinks as boxes are ticked. =COUNTIFS(B2:B9,"Maya",E2:E9,FALSE) counts one person's open tasks: Maya has none left.

To grey out or strike through finished rows, select A2:E9 and add a conditional formatting rule with the formula =$E2=TRUE. The $ keeps every column looking at the Done box in its own row.

1. Select A2:E9.
2. Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule > Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
3. Type =$E2=TRUE, click Format, choose a grey font and Strikethrough, and click OK.