Add checkboxes, star ratings, and other controls to cells

You can format cells with checkboxes, which are are useful for creating simple checklists. A cell with a checkbox can only have a value of either 1 or “true” (selected) or 0 or “false” (unselected).

Cells with star ratings can have a value of zero to five (stars), which are useful for rating or ranking items in a list.

1. Tap a cell or select a range of cells, tap , then tap Format.

2. Tap Checkbox or Star Rating.

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

Sliders and steppers allow you to vary the values in your cells (within a range) one at a time, to see how the variation affects your data or charts overall. You can specify the range of variation for the cells’ values.

1. Select a cell or range of cells, tap , then tap Format.

2. Tap to the right of Slider or Stepper.

3. Do any of the following:

   • Set the minimum and maximum values displayed for the slider or stepper: Tap Minimum Value and Maximum Value, then type a value for each.

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

   • Format cell data: Tap Number, Currency, or Percentage to choose an option. Tap to the right of a format option to specify how the format appears.

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

Numbers recognizes menu items that are numeric values, including dates and durations, as well as text. Formulas can refer to cells where the pop-up menu is set to a numeric item.

1. Select a cell or range of cells, tap , then tap Format.

2. Tap to the right of Pop-Up Menu.

   If any of the cells you selected already contain data, the pop-up items are the values from the selected cells, for up to 100 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 cells are treated as a single pop-up menu item. The pop-up menu in each cell remains set to the cell’s original value.

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

3. Tap an item in the list of options, then type the text that you want to appear in your pop-up menu.

   Repeat this process for each item in the menu.

4. To add another item to the pop-up menu, tap , then type the text that you want to appear.

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

5. Specify how the pop-up menu appears:

   • Delete an item: Tap , then tap Delete.

   • Rearrange the items: Drag at the right of each item.

   • Leave cells blank if no item has been chosen: Tap Blank.

   • Display the first item in the pop-up menu as the default entry for cells in which no item has been chosen: Tap First Item.

6. When you’re finished editing the menu items, tap outside the list of pop-up options.

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

1. Select a cell or range of cells.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Remove all content from the cells: Tap Delete.

   • Change the type of control: Tap , tap Format, then tap another cell format type.

     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 numbers). If you try to convert to an incompatible cell format, the cell controls aren’t removed from the cell.