Checkbox issues

Question

I have two tabs that contain a list of activities that need to be performed for users of a project.  The tabs don't appear if no boxes are checked on a View (known issue), and only checked boxes  appear in a View, not the entire list.  My users do not want to have to edit the issue to see how many activities have started or been completed.

I set up a custom field of Checkboxes choosing multiple values using checkboxes.

However, once the boxes are checked, they all run together on the issue.  That was unexpected.

The user has to edit the list to see the actual checkboxes.

Question 1: Is it accurate to say that I will need a separate checkbox for each line item / activity to avoid the run-on issue?

Question 2: Is it possible to set a default value like a "?" so that they're not null, but can still be checked by the user?  When I looked at defaults, it only had defaults for the text, not the checkbox.

Thank you for any suggestions!

unknown · Answer

Thank you, @Joe Pitt .  I know that not seeing unchecked boxes was a WAD (working as designed), but I hoped I could set a default value in the box to make it non-null, but not checked.  I tried making a Select List instead of check boxes, but it wasn't as clear to the user.  As an FYI, this particular project is for software implementations at external customers and rather than having a dozen sub-tasks for each implementation, they wanted a checklist of major milestones.

Setting up each activity as it's own checkbox, rather than having multiples grouped under a heading, it at least avoids the run-on text and keeps it in a sequential list.  I was hoping someone else had found a workaround that I had missed.  =)

Joe Pitt · Answer

I don't know why the display changed to cause the run-on. However, your users don't need to edit the issue to see what is done. Any box checked will display, and if nothing is displayed nothing is checked. And technically this isn't an 'issue' which implies something that is an error. It is a designed for behavior. If you really want them to be displayed replace the check boxes with a select list and and have a default value displayed such as No or N/A.