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## [O] latex checkboxes

 From: Skip Collins Subject: [O] latex checkboxes Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:09:54 -0400

There is a couple of problems with the way checkboxes are typeset in LaTeX.

- [ ] a
- [X] b
- [-] c

is translated to the LaTeX

\begin{itemize}
\item $\Box$ a
\item $\boxtimes$ b
\item $\boxminus$ c
\end{itemize}

The first problem is that \Box is not the same size as \boxtimes or \boxminus .
The correct symbol to use from the amssymb package is \square which
matches the other two symbols.

Another problem is that these symbols were intended to be mathematical
binary operators, and are therefore rather small for the purposes of a
checkbox. I suggest that LaTeX output could be modified to something
like:

\setbox0=\hbox{\LARGE$\square$}
\begin{itemize}
\item {\parbox[][][c]{\wd0}{\LARGE$\square$}} a
\item {\parbox[][][c]{\wd0}{\LARGE$\boxtimes$}} b
\item {\parbox[][][c]{\wd0}{\LARGE$\boxminus$}} c
\end{itemize}

The parbox ensures that the checkbox is nicely centered with the first
line of text.

Another nice-to-have feature would be to use the checkbox as a label
for list items in non-enumerated lists. Currently, the list bullet
appears as visual clutter next to the checkbox.