What is the best way to style a list of checkboxes

Question

What I\'d like to achieve is a layout like this

some label  [ ] checkbox 1
            [ ] checkbox 2
            [ ] checkbox 3
            [ ] checkbox 4

Answer 1

This very semantic HTML:

<fieldset class="checkboxgroup">
    <p>some label</p>
    <label><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 1</label>
    <label><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 2</label>
    <label><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 3</label>
    <label><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 4</label>
</fieldset>

And this fairly simple CSS:

.checkboxgroup{
    width: 20em;
    overflow: auto;
}
.checkboxgroup p{
    width: 7em;
    text-align: right;
}
.checkboxgroup label{
    width: 12em;
    float: right;
}

Adjust widths as needed.

The proper way to do this really is to replace the p element in my HTML with a legend element, but this won't style the way you want it to without some pretty ugly CSS.

Answer 2

In my opinion its more some kind of list than a table (but You did not list the whole picture). To me it looks like a definition list so I would use it (if not I would stick to a unordered list example the Magnar solution, adding labels.

The definition list version:

 <dl id="checkboxes">
        <dt>same label or term</dt>
        <dd><input type="checkbox" id="chk1" /><label for="chk1">checkbox 1</label></dd>
        <dd><input type="checkbox" id="chk2" /><label for="chk2">checkbox 2</label></dd>
        <dd><input type="checkbox" id="chk3" /><label for="chk3">checkbox 3</label></dd>
        <dd><input type="checkbox" id="chk4" /><label for="chk4">checkbox 4</label></dd>
  </dl>

Answer 3

I would use this markup:

<div id="checkboxes">
  <label>some label</label>
  <ul>
    <li><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 1</li>
    <li><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 2</li>
    <li><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 3</li>
    <li><input type="checkbox"> checkbox 4</li>
  </ul>
</div>

and these styles:

#checkboxes label {
  float: left;
}
#checkboxes ul {
  margin: 0;
  list-style: none;
  float: left;
}

Tables aren't evil, but they're used for the wrong reasons more often than not. They make for bigger html-files (bad for performance and bandwidth), usually with a more cluttered html-structure (bad for maintainability). As for tabular data however, they are excellent.

Answer 4

<div style="float: left;">
    some label
</div>

<div style="float: left;">
    <input type="checkbox" />&#160;checkbox 1<br />
    <input type="checkbox" />&#160;checkbox 2<br />
    <input type="checkbox" />&#160;checkbox 3<br />
    <input type="checkbox" />&#160;checkbox 4
</div>