Note: Interestingly, the legacy check boxes cannot be used readily until you apply protection to your document. Here, you can control the checkbox size, default value, etc. Double-click the box to open the Check Box Form Field Options window. Word creates a shaded square box, which is unchecked by default.

If you choose to use a legacy checkbox, click the check box icon under the section Legacy Forms from the Legacy Tools drop-down list.

Now, place mouse cursor in front of the control and then use the TAB key to move it horizontally, SHIFT+TAB to move it in the opposite direction, press ENTER key to move it a step down, and press the Backspace key to bring it a level up. Switch to design mode by clicking the control. You may find it difficult to format ActiveX checkbox controls if you are not in Design Mode. Note: The ActiveX Control checkbox provides extended features as compared to the Legacy checkbox. You can even insert a picture instead by clicking the row named Picture from the Properties sheet. Alternatively, you can delete the default caption to retain only the checkbox. On the Properties sheet, under the tab Alphabetic, against the row Caption, enter a caption for the checkbox. Right-click the checkbox control and select option Properties from the right-click menu. If you deactivate the design mode, the checkbox becomes clickable and you can use it to create a Form.

Design Mode option is activated within the group Controls. Notice that the control is in Design Mode. Word creates something like the following. If you choose to use the checkbox control available under ActiveX Controls section, click the Checkbox (ActiveX Control) icon. Both the sections have check box controls.A drop-down list appears, which contains two sections: Legacy Forms and ActiveX Controls. On the Ribbon, under the tab Developer, within the group Controls, click the icon Legacy Tools.Read the following article to know how to enable it. Note: If you could not see the Developer tab on the Ribbon, you may need to enable it from Word Options. You can find the checkbox control on the Developer tab of the Ribbon menu.

See the following example:Īdding checkbox controls to create a electronic Form (Word 2007) You may need to add check boxes in your Word document mainly for two reasons:ġ) To create an electronic Form containing clickable checkboxes, which can be used to capture user feedback (like a survey) see the following example:Ģ) To create a printable checklist, containing a checkbox against each item in the document.

How to make a clickable box in word