check boxes as radio buttons

[rose]

I know I know - See the article "Making groups of Check Box Form Fields
mutually exclusive (so that they behave like radio buttons) " at:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/ExclusiveFmFldChbxs.htm

BUT - What I need is a solution to this the "little quirk" , please?

There is one minor but unfortunate drawback to doing this; if the user tabs
or uses their keyboard arrow keys to go from one form field to the next, each
checkbox form field will become selected, in turn, as they reach it (and the
others will be deselected); so they have to use the mouse, not the keyboard,
to select the checkboxes .

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi rose,

When you use check boxes as pseudo radio buttons in a protected form, there
is *no* solution to that "little quirk". It's just the way check boxes work.
There are several alternatives:

- If you need only "yes" and "no" choices, use only one check box and word
its label so that checked means "yes" and unchecked means "no". Most
situations consisting of two mutually exclusive choices can be handled this
way.

- If you're using a protected form because you also have other form fields,
and you have more than two choices, then use a dropdown form field instead
of the check boxes. It's not quite so nice as option buttons because the
user can't see all the possible choices until s/he opens the dropdown, but
otherwise it's quirk-free.

- Use real radio buttons (option buttons) from the Control Toolbox. They
will work in a protected form or in a regular unprotected document. Control
Toolbox objects do have some "issues", such as not scrolling properly. More
info at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnword2k2/html/odc_activeX.asp.

- Replace all the in-document form fields with bookmarks, and create a
userform to collect the information to fill in the bookmarks. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms/CreateAUserForm.htm. You can put real
option buttons on a userform. The only issue here is the amount of work it
takes to set up a userform.

 

[rose]

Thanks, Jay. I was afraid of that. Yes I do have a number of choices and
the client does not prefer a list box, and I'm relieved because in this case
I didn't find it appropriate.

The issues with control toolbox are worth avoiding since document will be
used by a wide range of departments.

Although the userform does seem interesting, time is an issue.

I thank all of those who come to this site, not only for answers, but for
QUESTIONS!!!