Add checkboxes, star ratings, and other controls 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, 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 impacts your data overall. 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, tap , then tap Format.

   To edit a cell that already has a slider or stepper, touch and hold the cell, then adjust the selection range to include the cells you want.

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 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, tap , then tap Format.

   To edit a cell that already has a pop-up menu, tap the cell, then adjust the selection to include the cells you want.

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

   If any of the cells you selected already contain data, the pop-up options are prefilled with 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 options 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 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: 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.