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I will make an interactive checklist for work in Excel 2016. I see more possibilities of using active x controls instead of form controls. In a form control, you can not even resize the checkbox (that you tick in).

Have read a lot about that it's a bad idea to use Active X in Excel and that you should use form control instead but what are the real disadvantages?

I can't find any disadvantages on the link. Maybe that you must allow active x when you open the file, but I do not see that as a disadvantage.

Xtreme
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  • Possible duplicate of [What is the difference between "Form Controls" and "ActiveX Control" in Excel 2010?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15455179/what-is-the-difference-between-form-controls-and-activex-control-in-excel-20) – xxbbcc Oct 16 '17 at 19:48
  • There is no disadvantages on the link about Active X. Maybe that you must allow active x when you open the file, but that is not a real disadvantage. – Xtreme Oct 16 '17 at 19:55
  • You may want to read it once more. – xxbbcc Oct 16 '17 at 19:55
  • Form controls *are* ActiveX controls. Microsoft just intentionally limited them in order to not overwhelm the programmer. Which did inspire a big after-market of we-can-do-better controls, probably what you are talking about. So take your pick, just keep in mind that there is a required install step to get them deployed onto the user's machine. And that whomever created them probably stopped supporting them so if you run into a problem then it is difficult to get help. On SO as well. – Hans Passant Oct 16 '17 at 22:55

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Active X pro's: Lots of options, Lots of events (VBA), Lots of formatting options, Lists return the selected value rather than the index number.

Active x cons: Cumbersome to use one macro for multiple controls, Sometimes cause of trouble with file corruptions.

Form Control pro's: Simple to use, Can be used on chart sheets, Assigning control to a macro is simple, Little known problems.

Form Control con's: Lists return the index number rather than the selected value.

Generally speaking, I recommend using the controls from the forms toolbar. If you have specific needs regarding formatting which cannot be achieved using the forms controls (or if you want to program events in VBA), then you'll have to switch to the ActiveX controls (control toolbox controls).

taken from: http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/controls02.asp

R Hamilton
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  • "or if you want to program events in VBA". One example is that I want to show and hide other checkboxes when one is ticked. I can do this with both form controls and active x controls with VBA. So I should Active x because I use VBA? – Xtreme Oct 16 '17 at 20:01
  • Only if you are going to rely on Events from them to trigger code etc. Otherwise the pro's of Form controls still outweigh. – R Hamilton Oct 16 '17 at 20:06
  • and the article is at least eight years old. Must have been doing a lot of work with active x since then. – Xtreme Oct 16 '17 at 20:08
  • lol probably did a lot of work on form controls in that time too :) – R Hamilton Oct 16 '17 at 20:12