How to Link Multiple Checkboxes in Excel (3 Easy Methods)

Method 1 – Using a Formula with a Cell Reference

We have to prepare a dataset containing different tasks as shown below.

Steps:

• Go to the Developer tab and select Insert.
• Select the Checkbox icon from the Form Controls field.

• Put the cursor in the cell where you want to insert the checkbox. The cursor will change into a plus (+) sign.

• Click on the cell and a checkbox will appear.

• Press Ctrl and select the checkbox.
• Right-click on the mouse to open the Control Menu.
• Select Edit Text from there.

• Select the text with the mouse and press the Backspace key on the keyboard.

• Drag the Fill Handle icon to copy the checkbox and fill the other cells with checkboxes.

• Press Ctrl and select the first checkbox.
• Go to the Formula Bar and type ‘=’.
• Select cell C5.

• Press Enter to link the first checkbox to cell C5.
• The C5 cell is linked with the checkbox located at the D5. If you check the box, you’ll see TRUE in C5.

• Repeat the procedures for other checkboxes.
• You will be able to link multiple checkboxes in Excel. You can tick the box and set the adjacent value to TRUE or FALSE.

Method 2 – Using Format Control to Link Multiple Checkboxes

Steps:

• Go to the Developer tab and select Insert.
• Select the Checkbox icon from the Form Controls field.

• Put the cursor in the cell where you want to insert the checkbox. The cursor will change into a plus (+) sign.

• Click on the cell and a checkbox will appear.

• Press Ctrl and select the checkbox.
• Right-click on the mouse to open the Control Menu.
• Select Edit Text.

• Select the text with the mouse and press the Backspace key on the keyboard.

• Drag the Fill Handle icon to copy the checkbox and fill the other cells with checkboxes.
• You will get the following checkboxes.

• Right-click over the checkbox and choose the Format Control option from the Context Menu.

• Type or select the cell ($C$5) in the space of the Cell Link option from the Control tab where you want to make a link with the checkbox.
• The default value of Checked is TRUE, and FALSE is for Unchecked.
• Click on OK.

• The C5 cell is linked with the checkbox located at the D5 cell. If you check the box, you’ll see TRUE in C5.

• Repeat the procedures for other checkboxes.
• You can tick the box and set the adjacent value to TRUE or FALSE.

Method 3 – Embedding VBA Code to Link Multiple Checkboxes in Excel

Steps:

• Go to the Developer tab and select Insert.
• Select the Checkbox icon from the Form Controls field.

• Put the cursor in the cell where you want to insert the checkbox. The cursor will change into a plus (+) sign.

• Click on the cell and a checkbox will appear.

• Press Ctrl and select the checkbox.
• Right-click on the mouse to open the Control Menu.
• Select Edit Text from there.

• Select the text with the mouse and press the Backspace key on the keyboard.

• Drag the Fill Handle icon to copy the checkbox and fill the other cells with checkboxes.
• You will get the following checkboxes.

• You may need to display the Developer tab on the ribbon.
• From the ribbon, go to the Developer tab.
• Select Visual Basic from the Code group or press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor.

• In the VBA window, go to Insert and select Module.

• Insert the following code:

Sub Link_Check_Boxes_to_Cells()
Dim icheck As CheckBox
Dim xcol As Long
xcol = -1
For Each icheck In ActiveSheet.CheckBoxes
  With icheck
    .LinkedCell = _
    .TopLeftCell.Offset(0, xcol).Address
  End With
Next icheck
End Sub

• Close the Visual Basic window and press Alt + F8.
• When the Macro dialogue box opens, select Link_Check_Boxes_to_Cells in the Macro name.
• Click on Run.

• You can tick the box and set the adjacent value to TRUE or FALSE.

Things to Remember

When adding a checkbox to a worksheet or linking multiple checkboxes, we need to keep certain things in mind.

✎ To insert checkboxes in your worksheet, you must enable the Developer tab.

✎ When we have dragged the Fill Handle down to add the checkboxes. In this case, double-clicking on the Fill Handle will not work.

✎ To delete a checkbox, you need to put the cursor on the checkbox and right-click, and then, press Delete from the keyboard.

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