Add checkboxes, star ratings, and other controls to cells

You can add a checkbox, star rating, slider, stepper, or pop-up menu to a table cell. These controls let you update the data in your table dynamically.

Add checkboxes or star ratings to cells

You can format cells with checkboxes to constrain a cell’s values to only the binary values of 1 or “true” (selected) and 0 or “false” (unselected). They’re useful for creating simple checklists.

Star ratings constrain a cell’s value to zero to five stars, and they’re useful for rating or ranking items in a list.

  1. Select a cell or a range of cells.

  2. In the Cell pane of the Format inspector, choose Checkbox or Star Rating from the Data Format pop-up menu.

  3. Do any of the following:

    • Select or deselect a checkbox: Click it.

    • Select or deselect multiple checkboxes: Select the cells, then press 1 to select all checkboxes or 0 to deselect all checkboxes.

    • Toggle multiple checkboxes: Select the cells, then press the Space bar to change all checkboxes. The checkboxes are toggled based on the top-left checkbox in the selection. If that checkbox was selected, all checkboxes are deselected and vice versa.

    • Enter a rating: Select the cell, then click the dots in the cell.

    • Set the rating for multiple cells: Select the cells, then press 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to set all ratings to that value.

    • Increment or decrement the rating for multiple cells: Select the cells, then press + to increment or - to decrement the values.

If you use a star rating in a formula, the rating is interpreted as its numerical value.

Add sliders or steppers to cells

You can format cells as sliders or steppers that constrain a cell’s number, currency, or percentage value to a range that you specify.

  1. Select a cell or a range of cells.

  2. In the Cell pane of the Format inspector, choose Slider or Stepper from the Data Format pop-up menu.

  3. Do any of the following:

    • Set the value displayed at the start of the slider’s or stepper’s range: Enter a value in the Minimum field.

    • Set the value displayed at the end of the slider’s or stepper’s range: Enter a value in the Maximum field.

    • Set the number of units between each stopping point on the slider or stepper: Enter a value in the Increment field.

    • Format cell data: Choose an option from the Format pop-up menu, then use the additional controls to further specify how the data appears.

Add pop-up menus to cells

You can add a pop-up menu to a cell, then specify the options that appear in the pop-up menu.

Numbers recognizes menu options that are numeric values, including dates and durations (as well as text). Therefore, formulas can refer to cells where the pop-up menu is set to a numeric option.

  1. Select a cell or a range of cells.

  2. In the Cell pane of the Format inspector, choose Pop-Up Menu from the Data Format pop-up menu.

    If some or all of the cells you selected already contain data, the pop-up options are prefilled with the values from the selected cells, for up to 250 cells (checkboxes are interpreted as “true” or “false” text, and star ratings are assigned their numeric value between 0 and 5). You can edit these options if you want. Repeated values in the selected cells are treated as a single pop-up menu item. The pop-up menu in each cell is set to the cell’s original value.

    If all of the cells you selected are empty, the pop-up options are placeholder items (“Item 1,” for example).

  3. In the list of options, double-click an item (a prefilled value or a placeholder), then type the text you want to appear in the pop-up menu.

    Repeat this process for each item you want to change.

  4. To add another item to the pop-up menu, click Add item button, then type the text you want to appear.

    You can add up to 250 pop-up menu items.

  5. Specify how the pop-up menu appears:

    • Rearrange an item: Drag it up or down in the list of menu options.

    • Leave cells blank if no item has been chosen: Choose “Start with Blank” from the pop-up menu.

    • Display the first item in the pop-up menu as the default entry for cells in which no item has been chosen: Choose “Start with First Item” from the pop-up menu.

    • Delete an item: Click it, then click Delete item button.

While navigating a table, you can press the Space bar to open a pop-up menu in a selected table cell, use the arrow keys to choose an option, then press Space bar to select a value.

Remove or change a control

You can remove the controls from table cells and make them empty, unformatted cells, or you can convert them to a different format.

  1. Select a cell or a range of cells.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Remove all content from the cells: Press Delete.

    • Change the type of control: In the Cell pane of the Format inspector, choose a different option from the Data Format pop-up menu.

      Cell values are converted from one type to another. For example, if the cells originally contained pop-up menus and you convert them to text format, they retain their content as text. Or, if the cells originally contained steppers and you convert them to a number format, they retain their original values as static numbers.

      Not all data types can be converted (for example, a list of textual items in a pop-up menu can’t be converted to a number format). If you try to convert to an incompatible cell format, the cell controls aren’t removed from the cell.