Excel 2024: Checkboxes

In late 2023, Microsoft added a checkbox icon to the Insert tab. As I write this in January 2024, the feature is still in beta. Adding a checkbox to a cell seems to be a special number format that displays True/False values as either checked boxes or unchecked boxes.

In this image, I selected seven cells and then inserted a checkbox.

This does several things: It inserts the value FALSE in each cell. It formats the cell to display the FALSE values as an unchecked box.

When you click a checkbox, it toggles from False to True. The formula bar shows either FALSE or TRUE.

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The checkbox can be center, left, or right-aligned.

If you clear a cell that has a checkbox, then you have created an empty cell with an unusual property. When you move away from the cell, the cell appears empty. However, when you select the cell again, an empty checkbox half appears. This state seems to be encouraging you to click the grey checkbox to bring it back as a True value. It feels like Excel is saying..."you used to have a checkbox here. Would you like to bring it back?"

The following image shows the three possible states of a checkbox. This is a feature that seems it will change before making it to general availability.