Unwanted checkboxes appear in a shared Excel file

Joe Perry 20 Reputation points
2025-02-28T16:22:27.74+00:00

I created an Excel file for members of my club to share and gave them a link and allowed them to edit it. All they need to do is to enter a 'Y' or a 'N' in the cells along a row which is headed by their name. I check and archive the file every day. The file periodically gets cells filled with checkboxes although no one is inserting them and they are completely unnecessary. I have no idea how they are suddenly appearing. How can I stop this happening?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Windows
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  1. riny 665 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-03-01T08:49:19.8966667+00:00

    I suspect that this is due to what is described in the thread below from the MS Techcommunity.

    https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/ExcelGeneral/convert-to-checkboxes/4386135

    It seems that the Online version of Excel offers the option to users (though not all) to convert Y/N into checkboxes. The user must actively choose to do so. I find it hard to believe that Excel just does this by itself and only sometimes.

    1 person found this answer helpful.

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