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Microsoft started testing checkboxes in Excel in October 2023.
Exceldictionary showed how checkboxes can be used to create an attendance tracker.
The upcoming checkboxes feature in Microsoft Excel makes it easy to visualize certain data.
Since I track the attendance of the American football team I run, I was interested immediately.
Excel already has aform of checkboxes now, but I find them clunky and unintuitive.
The new checkbox feature is much more useful, and I also find it easier to use.
Sorting a table’s columns in Excel allows me to see who is struggling when it comes to attendance.
When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates."
Keeping track of things isn’t a foreign concept, but it can be tricky to streamline.
Previously, I used boxes set as 1 or 0 to indicate attendance.
Excel can be set to only count a checkbox if it is true or false, allowing you to use checkboxes in data sets.
While that worked fine, it wasn’t elegant and lacked some functionality now seen in checkboxes.
Little things like being able to select a box and press space to toggle a check are quite handy.
This also works when you have multiple boxes selected.
it’s possible for you to then use that value for tracking data.
At the top of my spreadsheet, there’s a total attendance for players and another category for coaches.
I could then use those values to create totals, averages, and other metrics.
This particular spreadsheet has my data set up within a table, so it has sortable columns.
One works in recruitment and the other is a primary school teacher.
Both of them said they wanted a copy of the spreadsheet to use at work.
I know that’s anecdotal, but I think interest in checkboxes within Excel will be large.
