How To Make A Checklist In Word

Checklists are helpful tools that can help you stay organized. Whether you’re creating a personal checklist or sharing it with your work team, it’s an invaluable way of staying on top of your tasks.

However, you may also want to make a printable checklist that you can use or hand out to others.

Either way, it’s a simple task that is quick and simple to do and can take less than five minutes.

How To Make A Usable Checklist In Word

Making a checklist in Microsoft Word is super simple. While some older versions of MS Word may not be compatible with this method, it should work for the Word 2010 version and newer.

Suppose you’re sharing your checklist for work purposes.

In that case, it’s also important to remember that if any of your team members have older versions of the software, they won’t be able to contribute.

To make a clickable checklist in MS Word, you can take these steps:

1. Launch MS Word and open a new or existing document. 
2. For a clickable list, you’ll need to enable the developer tab. You can enable it by clicking on the Files tab and navigating to Options. 
3. Under the Options setting, select the Customize Ribbon button. 
4. This will open the Customize the Ribbon and keyboard shortcuts window. There is a Main Tabs menu on the right-hand side of the window. Scroll down this list and click the Developer box. This will enable the developer tab and add additional features to Word. 
5. Exit the Customize Ribbon window. You should see a new tab labeled Developer at the top of your screen. It is usually located between the View and Help tabs. 
6. On the page of your Word document, type out your list. 
7. Select the Developer tab and select the icon that looks like a checkbox. This is the Check Box Content Control button. This will create a checkbox where your cursor is located. So it’s important to click the area where you want your first box to appear. 
8. Once the box is created, you can copy and paste the box in front of as many tasks or to-do items as you’d like. 
9. Click the inside of the box to check or un-check it.

How To Change Clickable Checklists In Word

Your checklist will automatically be marked with an X when you mark a task as complete.

However, you can change the symbol on the inside of these checkboxes with a few easy steps.

1. Type your list in MS Word. 
2. Open the Developer tab located at the top of your page. It should be in the middle of your taskbar, between the View and Help tabs. 
3. Click the Check Box Content Control button. The icon should look like a small checkbox. Make sure your cursor is located at the point on your page where you want the box to appear. 
4. When the checkbox is created, select it and go back to the Developer tab. 
5. Find the Controls section and click Properties. A new window should open entitled Content Control Properties. 
6. Scroll down to Check Box Properties. Underneath this heading, there are two options: Checked Symbol and Unchecked Symbol. Next to each option is a small Change button.
7. Click the Change button and pick the symbol you want to appear when your check or uncheck boxes. 
8. Click OK. 
9. Copy and paste the changed checkbox before each task item in your document.

How To Group Clickable Checklists In Word

When you’re working on a checklist in Word, it’s easy to accidentally make changes to your list. This can be particularly frustrating when you want to share your Word document with others.

To avoid unwanted changes to your clickable checklists, you should group and lock them.

You can do this in 6 steps which take less than two minutes, and ensure your document is safe from accidental changes.

1. Create a list in MS Word. 
2. Using the above methods, add all the checkboxes you want. 
3. Using your cursor, highlight the entire list of tasks and their checkboxes. 
4. Go to the Developer tab and go to the Controls section. Click the Group button. 
5. A drop-down menu should appear with two options: Group and Ungroup. Click the Group button to lock your checklist. This will stop any unwanted changes from taking place. 
6. If you want to make any additional changes to your checklist, you will need to repeat steps 1 through 5 and click Ungroup. Once you have altered your checklist, you can regroup it again before sharing it with others. 

How To Add Indentations To Checklists In Word

When you’re making a checklist, it can be frustrating to have a misaligned list of tasks. Your format may become misaligned when your tasks are longer than one line.

But there is an easy fix for this problem, and it can help you to keep your lists clean and organized for sharing.

You’ll need to add indentations to fix this formatting issue with your Word checklists. You can add indentations by following these steps:

1. Create a list in MS Word. 
2. Using your cursor, highlight your list. 
3. Go to the Home tab. You can find this tab in the taskbar at the top of your page. 
4. Navigate to the Paragraph section. A small arrow icon is at the bottom right-hand side of this section. Click this icon to launch Paragraph Settings. 
5. A new window should open on the Indents and Spacing tab. Beneath the Indentation heading, there are two options: Left and Right. 
6. Click the box beside the Left option and change the amount to 0.25 by typing it in. 
7. There is a box labeled Special on the right-hand side of these options. Use the drop-down menu to choose the Hanging indentation style. 
8. Click OK to save your changes. 
9. If you want to change the indentation styles for any of your other lists, you can do this by altering the value beneath the By option. This can be found on the right of the Special box.

How To Make A Checklist In Word For Printing

If you want to create a checklist in MS Word to print out and fill in yourself, you will need to use a different method to the one for usable lists.

Making a printable checklist is just as simple and will take less than two minutes to complete.

To make a checklist in MS Word for printing, you can follow these steps:

1. Launch MS Word and create a new document. You can also open an existing one. 
2. Go to the Home tab at the top of your page. It is located on the left-hand side of your taskbar. 
3. Navigate to the Paragraph section and click on the first icon. The icon looks like a small bulleted list or three vertical dots beside horizontal lines. Click the small arrow next to this icon. 
4. When the drop-down menu opens, select Define New Bullet. 
5. A new window will open. Under Bullet Character, click the Symbol button. 
6. Choose the symbol you want to use as a checkbox. Make sure the symbol isn’t solid, as you won’t be able to see any checks you may make to them. 
7. Click OK.