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I made a spreadsheet to share with a colleague, featuring some checkboxes, and they complained that the checkboxes weren't working. But they were working fine for me. I figured out that I was using desktop Excel, and they were accessing the sheet via Excel online (Microsoft 365).

Minimal working example:

  • Excel online > New workbook
  • Cell A1 > Insert > Checkbox
  • Cell B1 > =A1
  • Toggle the checkbox. B1 flickers to TRUE and then immediately back to FALSE.
  • Open the workbook in the Excel desktop app - cell B1 shows TRUE/FALSE correctly (whether you toggle the checkbox in the browser or the app).

Same behaviour in Firefox, Edge, and Chrome. Any thoughts?

side-by-side comparison

benshepherd
  • 1,825

1 Answers1

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OK, I found a stupid workaround. Using RAND we can force Excel to recalculate the reference to the checkbox. Set cell A2 to =A1+0*RAND()=1. Now it shows the correct value whether the box is checked or not.

spreadsheet working correctly

benshepherd
  • 1,825