Need help writing formula to count checked boxes

Question

This is probably a no brainer for you experts but I am making a spreadsheet for scoring a test and I have put in check boxes. Beside in the adjacent cells to the cells with check boxes I have placed the values that correspond to those check boxes. I want to be able to format a cell to do several things.
First I need to link the adjacent values to the check box cell that it corresponds to.
Then I need to format a cell to
1. Count the number of boxes that have been checked.
2. Display the values that are linked to cells if the total is 10 or under
3. Display text that relates to the values that are linked to the cells.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
Shane

Answer 1

The Pickler wrote:
In answer to your first question. Each question is multiple choice and my layout is chosen to mimick the test itself for easy scoring.
So I take this to mean that it is only valid to have one check per row.
Second, if there are more than 10 I want it left blank.
Right now, it is simpler to have this behave the the other way, in that it eliminates a complicating special case.
So here's a screen shot of what I have on this:
!http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6263/questionairesummarywo1.png!
Let me discuss this and explain some of the changes I made to your initial attempt.
(1) Since I presumed one check per row, you can see in the "Responses" table I switched over to this type of data entry. This has several advantages and, most importantly, was key in clarifying my thoughts downstream. It does not permit the invalid multi-check per row and can be more readily entered via keyboard. The use of A,B,C,D for the choices is arbitrary; they could be 1,2,3,4 or any other distinct set of 4. If you ever want to simultaneously evaluate several questionnaires this can be accommodated better by adding additional columns to this table.
(2) The references associated with each question's choices are encoded in the "Key" table. This table can be squirreled away on another sheet dedicated to questionnaire configuration and remain out of harm's way while entering response data. The column headings must correspond with the answer designations used in the "Responses" table.
(3) The "Tally" table is purely for the computation of the "Summary". It allows both the number of each type of reference to be computed and the listing of the references. Since it is purely computational, it should be hidden away on another sheet.
(4) The "Descriptions" table is where the association of references and the statements is expressed. Since, like the "Key" table, it is likely edited infrequently, this too should be squirreled away on the questionnaire configuration sheet.
(5) Finally, the "Summary" table display the counts of each reference type and zero to ten of the references and associated statements. Currently, this shows as many as the first 10 because, as stated above, it avoids a complicating special case and is displayed elegantly via this filtered table (which avoid displaying the unused reference rows). The count is always the total count, even if it is exceeds ten.
Third, since I don't know the first thing about writing formula's I guess I need to have you hold my hand through this process or teach me some basics. Please.....if your kind and willing enough to do so.
As there are more than a couple of formulas here, the least time consuming way to explain them is simply to upload this Numbers document to a place you (or anyone else who is interested) can download it. Explore it for yourself and feel free to ask any questions you have about it or how to modify it to better suite your needs.
You will find that the file contains three sheets. What is presented here resides solely on the third sheet. The first two sheets can safely be ignored/deleted, but I have left them in as they represent two earlier attempts (the first only partial, the second, more complete) at a solution. Some may find them interesting, perhaps containing good techniques for other problems.
[Questionnaire Summary Numbers Document|http://www.mediafire.com/?1125t9nm9xm|Click to download a zip archive]
This will take you to a page that will allow you to download the file directly (I apologize for any of this free hosting site's advertisements that you might find offensive). Click on the link in the yellow region on the mid-left part of the page. If all goes well, the zip will download and automatically unarchive into the Numbers document "QuestionnaireSummary.numbers". Let me know if you have trouble.