Changing Checkbox State in Word Templates with RadWordsProcessing

Environment

Product Version	Product	Author
2024.2.426	RadWordsProcessing	Yoan Karamanov

Description

When working with Word templates that include checkboxes as content controls, you may need to change the state of a checkbox based on certain conditions. This KB article provides a method to programmatically check or uncheck a checkbox using the RadWordsProcessing library.

This KB article also answers the following questions:

• How can I programmatically check a checkbox in a Word document?
• How do I modify the state of a checkbox in a Word template?
• What is the method to change checkbox states in Word documents using C#?

Solution

To change the state of a checkbox in a Word document, follow these steps:

1. Identify the content control that represents the checkbox.
2. Change the checkbox's state to either checked or unchecked.
3. Update the visual representation of the checkbox accordingly.

Below is a method that demonstrates how to achieve this:

private static void ChangeCheckboxState(SdtRangeStart sdt)
{
    if (sdt == null || sdt.SdtProperties.Type != SdtType.CheckBox)
    {
        return;
    }

    // Get the paragraph that is parent of the checkbox
    Paragraph paragraph = sdt.Paragraph;

    // Get the index of the SDT start in the paragraph's child collection
    int index = paragraph.Inlines.IndexOf(sdt);

    // Get the Run that represents the checkbox' value
    Run checkBoxValue = paragraph.Inlines[index + 1] as Run;
    CheckBoxProperties properties = (CheckBoxProperties)sdt.SdtProperties;
    if (!properties.Checked.HasValue || !properties.Checked.Value)
    {
        properties.Checked = true;

        if (checkBoxValue != null)
        {
            checkBoxValue.Properties.FontFamily.LocalValue = new ThemableFontFamily(properties.CheckedState.Font);
            checkBoxValue.Text = ((char)properties.CheckedState.CharacterCode).ToString();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        properties.Checked = false;

        if (checkBoxValue != null)
        {
            checkBoxValue.Properties.FontFamily.LocalValue = new ThemableFontFamily(properties.UncheckedState.Font);
            checkBoxValue.Text = ((char)properties.UncheckedState.CharacterCode).ToString();
        }
    }
}

To apply this method, iterate through the content controls in your document, and call ChangeCheckboxState for each checkbox you wish to modify. Alternatively, get the first SdtRangeStart and update its state:

SdtRangeStart stdStart = document.EnumerateChildrenOfType<SdtRangeStart>().First();
ChangeCheckboxState(stdStart);

Notes

• Ensure that you have identified the correct content control by checking its tag or other properties.
• The visual representation of the checkbox is determined by the font family and character code specified in the CheckedState and UncheckedState of the CheckBoxProperties.

See Also

• Working with Content Controls
• Content Controls (Structured Document Tags)