MS Word Radio Butttons

This post is technical. It provides a way to implement radio-button style check boxes in a Microsoft Word document. This is something that Microsoft seems to have overlooked.

How to Create Mutually Exclusive Check Boxes by Using a Macro

Background: A friend of mine was using MS Word to produce a survey for her office. She wanted to allow the user to open the document and select one 6 ratings for a survey by selecting a check box. She found out that there was no way in Word to have the other check boxes turn "off" when one was turned on. She called me for help. I wrote her this small VB solution. It is very flexible and can be used by anyone.

Microsoft offers a solution to this problem on their website. But it is really lame because it requires the user to update the program every time they add, change, or remove a check box. I figured I could do better and make one that would never need to be changed. Mine is smart enough to figure out how to group checkboxes without the user having to learn how to program.

• In your Word document, go to Tools > Macro > Visual Basic Editor. This will launch the MS Visual Based editor.
• In the Project Explorer Window you will see your project with a folder named "Microsoft Word Objects".
• In that folder you will see "ThisDocument". Double click on that to open up the code window.
• Then insert the follow code.

Sub Radio_Check_Box() ' ================================================================ ' This program allows a MS Word document to have check-boxes that ' behave like radio buttons. ' By Ron Larson - ron.d.larson@gmail.com ' May 2005 ' ================================================================ ' Use Instructions ' To use this, specify 'Radio_Check_Box' in the field 'Entry' ' under 'Run Macro On' in the properties for a check box. ' - Right click a check box ' - Select 'Properties' ' - Pull down the combo box under "Run Macro On Entry:" ' - Choose "Radio Check Box" ' - In "Field Settings - Bookmark" text box, enter a unique name ' this control in the format "groupid_value", where "groupid" ' is a common name between the checkboxes in the radio button ' group, and "value" is unique within the group and represents ' the value selected. ' ================================================================ ' Details ' The program works by grouping check boxes on the active document ' by a common name. This is called a "group name". It assumes that ' all checkboxes that share the same group name as part of a radio ' group collection. ' If a member of the group is selected, the program scans the ' document for other checkboxs that share the same group name and ' turns them off. This way, only one check box in the group can ' be on. ' ' A document can have more then one group. ' ' A check box does not have to belong to a group. This can be ' specifed by not putting a name in the bookmark field. Or putting ' a name that does not have a "_". Or by putting a name that is ' unique within the document. ' ' Clicking a check-box that is controlled by this logic will only ' turn it on. It will not turn off. ' ================================================================ ' Group Name ' The key to this is the bookmark name you select for your checkbox. ' That is what connects the checkbox in a radio-button relationship ' with each other. ' ' The program assumes that all checkboxes that are part of the same ' radio-button group will have a common group name. The bookmark ' name is formatted as 'groupname_value". ' "groupname" is the name of group of check boxes. ' "value" is a unuque value ' ' Example: A form as two check boxes as an answer to a "Yes/No" ' question. The names should be "question1_yes" and "question1_no". ' The group name is "question1", and the values are "yes" and "no". ' ' Example: A form has rating question where the user is asked to ' rate the information as helpful on a scale of 1 to 9. ' The names should be "rating_1", "rating_2", "rating_3",... ' and "rating_9". The group name is "rating". ' ' ================================================================ Dim fSelectedField As FormField Dim selected_group, selected_name As String ' Go Through each of the selected fields selected_group = "" selected_name = "" For Each fSelectedField In Selection.FormFields ' Form field must be a check box. ' What is my checkbox's group name? If fSelectedField.Type = wdFieldFormCheckBox Then selected_name = fSelectedField.Name selected_group = formfield_group_name(fSelectedField.Name) Else Return End If Next ' Go Through each of the fields For Each fSelectedField In ActiveDocument.FormFields ' Form field must be a check box. If fSelectedField.Type = wdFieldFormCheckBox Then ' See if we are on top of the check box we selected If fSelectedField.Name = selected_name Then fSelectedField.CheckBox.Value = True Else ' No.. see if it is a member of our group If selected_group = formfield_group_name(fSelectedField.Name) Then ' It is, so switch it off fSelectedField.CheckBox.Value = False End If End If End If Next End Sub Function formfield_group_name(field_name) As String ' ================================================================ ' Function to extract the group name from a control field name. ' The group name is left of the last "_" found in the name ' ================================================================ If IsNull(field_name) Then formfield_group_name = "" Return End If If Len(field_name) < 3 Then formfield_group_name = "" Return End If last_underscore = 0 For I = 1 To Len(field_name) If Mid(field_name, I, 1) = "_" Then last_underscore = I End If Next I If last_underscore > 0 Then formfield_group_name = Left(field_name, last_underscore) Else formfield_group_name = "" End If End Function

Then insert the check box form fields into the Word document. You will find them on the "Control Toolbox" toolbar.

Right click the check box and pull up properties.

• Set the default value to "Not Checked"
• Set Run Macro On Entry to "Radio_Check_Box"
• Set Bookmark to whatever name you want, such as "grp01_a".

The bookmark name must be unique for each checkbox in the document.