Is it possible to add a checkbox/button equivalent?

Question

What I'm looking for is a one click enable/disable or toggle in some form. The closest I've come is manually editing a cell to enter a 0 or 1, but I'm hoping there's a nicer pattern.

I know there's no checkbox functionality in a Google Sheets but is there a way to get equivalent functionality somehow?

Answer 1

Google launched the last week (April 2018) a feature to insert checkboxes on cells. Just select a cell, the click the menu Insert > Checkbox

For further details see Add & use checkboxes.

NOTES:

• The default values for checkboxes are TRUE / FALSE but they could be customized to use any values as equivalent of MARK/UNMARKED checkbox. If your cells already have data, select the cells, then select Data > Data Validation... on the Criteria select Checkbox, then a input box will shown for the TRUE / FALSE values to be used.

• According to Additional details on new macro recorder and formatting options in Google Sheets this could take several weeks to be available for all accounts. In my case this is available for one G Suite account but not yet for my others accounts. Now it should be available for all accounts

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Related

• Add a CheckBox with a script

Answer 2

That was way too convoluted, there's a MUCH simpler way to do it, I've added another field "quick and easy checkboxes", a quick and easy way of doing it is to:

1. Right click cell, select "Data Validation"
2. Under Criteria, select "List of Items"
3. In the "List of items" field, paste this: ☐,☑
4. Save. You should now have a drop down list of both of the above options.

Voila! No extra sheets, no coding, nothing. If you want to get fancy you can create a "Conditional Formatting" option where ☑ squares are GREEN and ☐ squares are RED.

I have included a sample in the sheet you provided.

Answer 3

The best checkbox solution I've seen so far is the one used in this template (Here's a public document created by the template that you can view without logging in to Google Drive).

They have two cells in an extra sheet with a character or image of an unselected checkbox and one of a selected checkbox. Then in the cell where you want to use the checkbox, set the data validation to "Items from a list" and "Create list from range" and select the two cells with the characters/images. You then get a dropdown in that cell where you can select either option.

This doesn't provide the one click on/off toggle, but it's pretty close.

Update: I just set the document to editable by anyone. Without that you wouldn't be able to see how the selection works.

Answer 4

I used Matthijs's solution which worked for me. I had a hard time following along and understanding his answer though so here's the step-by-step solution:

1. Use this template
2. Copy both of the checkboxes on the "Function" sheet
3. Return to your Drive file and add another sheet
4. Name the new sheet "Function"
5. Paste both checkboxes into cells A1 and A2
6. Copy the blank checkbox from A1
7. Return to the sheet on your Drive file where you need the checkbox
8. Paste the blank checkbox into the cell where you want to have a checkbox
9. Select Data > Validation
10. In the "Criteria" dropdown, select "List from a range"
11. In the field next to that dropdown, enter "Function!A1:A2"
12. Click "Save". The checkbox should now have a tiny triangle-shaped validation button located at the top of the checkbox cell.
13. Copy the checkbox & paste into all other cells where you need a checkbox

Answer 5

As noted by Rubén Google Sheets now has real checkboxes. Standard TRUE/FALSE checkboxes can be inserted by from the Insert menu (Insert > Checkbox). But you can also insert custom values for the checked and unchecked states by using Data Validation to insert checkboxes (values can be numbers or strings).

Caveats when using the Data Validation method:

1. Do not first insert checkboxes from the Insert menu. Start with blank cells.
2. After adding the checkboxes by this method the cell values will not be set to the unchecked value you specify in the data validation window. You have to manually check and uncheck the cells for the value to be updated to that unchecked value.

Google's help page

My blog post about checkboxes in Sheets in which I discuss the above in a bit more detail.

Answer 6

Yes, it is possible. http://code.google.com/googleapps/appsscript/articles/bracket_maker.html has a good sample, including how to add a button to a spreadsheet to run some Google Apps Script in Section 4. This can then be used to write the 0/1 to a hidden cell.

Answer 7

There's another possible option: a button that marks the selected cell as "checked" or "unchecked". This requires two steps: 1) click on cell; 2) click on button to check or uncheck the cell.

1. Insert image into your spreadsheet ("Insert">"Image...")
2. You can move it e.g. on the first row, and then freeze this row so it is always visible
3. Open script editor ("Tools">"Script Editor...")

4. Copy this function:

    function toggleCheckBox() {
    var cell = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getActiveCell();
    if(cell.getValue() != '☑')
       cell.setValue('☑');
    else
       cell.setValue('☐');
    }
   

5. Save script, close it and return to spreadsheet.

6. Click on the image you inserted, and choose "Assign script". Enter function name: toggleCheckBox.

7. You may be prompted for permission when you first click the image.