Check Boxes: UI Text Guidelines

A check box presents the user with a single yes or no decision, or a decision between two opposite choices.

Label all check boxes.
Use sentence caps for check-box labels.
Write check-box labels as sentence fragments (or imperative sentences) with no ending punctuation.
Avoid long check-box labels.
If a check-box label also labels the control that follows it, use a colon.
For check boxes in a set or in a group box, write parallel labels of approximately equal length.
Use select and clear in instructions for check boxes—for example: "To add a component, select its check box. To remove the component, clear its check box."
Write check-box labels so that they describe the checked (selected) state of the check box.
Use grammatically positive phrasing for all check-box labels. Do not phrase a label so that selecting a check box means to not perform an action.

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Exception: You may use a "Do not show this (item) again" check-box label on wizard welcome pages, dialog boxes, and messages.
Do not use a check box and its label as part of a larger grammatical unit. Don't use controls in the middle of a phrase, clause, or sentence. This is not a localizable design because the order of grammatical units varies from language to language.
Spell "check box" as two words instead of one.

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check box

Checkbox
Do not repeat words unnecessarily at the beginning of check-box labels. Repetition makes it harder for the reader to scan the text and differentiate among the options.

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See Also