Here's the whole program,...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use CGI;
use Mail::Sendmail;
use File::Basename;
use MIME::Base64;

my $SERVER="http://".$ENV{'SERVER_NAME'};
my $form=$SERVER.$ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'} || $SERVER.$ENV{'PATH_INFO'};
my $datapath=dirname $0;
my $progname=basename$0;
my $smtp = "appsmtp.ottawa.ca";

my ($sec,$min,$hr,$day,$mon,$yr)=(localtime);
my $today=sprintf("%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d", $yr+1900, $mon+1, $day, 
+$hr, $min);
my $date;
my $start_hide;
my $end_hide;
my $xls_file = "$datapath/working/file.xls";

my %in=();
my %str=();
my %check=();
my $typetext="text";
my $typetextarea="textarea";
my $closetextarea="<\/textarea>";
my $border=0;

my $SENDSTR;
my $reset;
my $ATTACHSTR;
my $MAIL_TO='bryson.connolly@ottawa.ca'; 
my $submitstr;
my %mainbody;
my $formid;

my $debug =0;
my $new_form;

#------------------
#read form input
#------------------
my $query=new CGI;

my $action=$query->param('action');
my $lang=$query->param('lang');

$formid=&newformid;


if ($lang ne "_fr") 
{    $lang="_en";
    $SENDSTR="Submit";
    $reset="Reset";
    $ATTACHSTR='';
}
else
{
    $SENDSTR="Soumettre";
    $reset="reset";
    $ATTACHSTR='';
}

my $tpl = "registration$lang.html";
$submitstr="<input type=submit name=action value=\"$SENDSTR\"> &nbsp;"
+;
$reset="<INPUT type=reset value=Reset name=resetbutton> &nbsp;";

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

&getdata;

if ($action eq $SENDSTR)
{
        $typetext="hidden";
    $typetextarea="input type=hidden";
    $closetextarea="";
    %str=%in;
    $submitstr="";
    $reset="";
    $ATTACHSTR="";
    $date=$today;
    mailto($query);
}

my $tmp= &readhtml("$datapath/$tpl");
    #$tmp=&doclean($tmp);
print $tmp;
exit;



#return  htmlfile from template
sub readhtml 
{
    my $selectname;
    my $retfile;
    open (DATA, "@_") || print "@_ file not found";
    while (<DATA>)
     {
        #parse input data
        #input type must be specified 
        #type specified right after <input
        #name must only contain "A-Za-z0-9_"
        s|<input type=text([^>]?name=)"?(\w+)"?(.*?>)|<input type=$typ
+etext $1$2 value="$in{$2}" $3 <b><tt>$str{$2}</tt></b>|ig;
        
        #s|<textarea([^>]?)name=(\w+)(.*?>)|<$typetextarea $1 name=$2 
+value="$in{$2}"$3$in{$2}|ig;
        s|<textarea(.*)name="?(\w+)"?(.*?>)|<$typetextarea $1 name=$2 
+value="$in{$2}" $3 $in{$2}|ig;
        
        s|</textarea>|$closetextarea|ig;
        s|(<input type=radio)(.*)( name=)(\w+)( value="?)([\w\.\s\~]+)
+("?)|$1$2$3$4$5$6$7 $check{$4.$6}|ig;
        s|(<input type=checkbox)(.*)( name=)(\w+)|$1$2$3$4 $check{$4}|
+ig;

        s/(\$[\w{}]+)/$1/eeg;  

        #now to do the selects
        if ( /<select name="?(\w+)"?/ig )    {$selectname=$1}
        s/(<option value="?)([\w\@\,\;\.\s\&\/]+)("?)(.*?>)/$1$2$3 $ch
+eck{$selectname.$2}$4/ig;
        s|<option>(.*)</option>|
            package temp;
            my $tmp;
            if   ( ($check{$selectname.$1}) or ($typetext eq "text") )
            {    $tmp="<option $check{$selectname.$1}>$1</option>";   
+     }
            $tmp
        |sgeix;
        $retfile.=$_;
     }
    close (DATA);
    return $retfile;
}


sub getdata {   #  $_ is the form element name and $in{$_} is the cont
+ents.

    if ($action eq $SENDSTR) { 
           open(OUT,">>$xls_file") || print "could not open $xls_file"
+ ;
           }
          
    foreach  ($query->param) 
    {    
         $in{$_} = $query->param($_);    
        if ($_=~/^c_/) {    $check{$_}="CHECKED"            }    #chec
+kbox
        if ($_=~/^r_/) {    $check{$_.$in{$_}}="CHECKED"    }    #radi
+o
        if ($_=~/^s_/) {    $check{$_.$in{$_}}="SELECTED"    }    #Sel
+ect
        

        if ($action eq $SENDSTR) { 
            $in{$_}=~s/\r\n/ /g;
        
           if ($_ !~/action|lang/)  {  # don't print these fields to X
+LS file
           print OUT "$in{$_}\t";
           }  
        }

        $in{$_}=~s/\r\n/<br>/g     || $in{$_}=~s/<br>/\n/g;
        $in{$_}=~s/"/&quot;/g;
        $in{$_}=~s/'/&rsquo;/g;
        $in{$_}=~s/\$/&\#36;/g;
    } # end foreach    

     
          if ($action eq $SENDSTR) { 
           print OUT "$today\t";
       print OUT "\n";
           close(OUT);                
    }
}

sub mailto 
{

blah blah,,,send mail
 }
sub newformid
{
    use File::CounterFile;
    $File::CounterFile::DEFAULT_DIR="$datapath/working";
    my $c = File::CounterFile->new("counter.dat");
    return $c->inc;
}

sub doclean
{
    #remove the hidden fields and submit/reset buttons
    ($_)=@_;
    undef $/;
        s|<input (type=hidden.*?)>|<skip $1>|imsg;
    s|<input type="+submit.*?>||imsg;
    s|<input type="+reset.*?>||imsg;
    $/="\n";
    return $_;
}
[download]

So, I want to print "do data" when the checkbox isn't checked. An easier way would be to just name all the checkboxes different. Ex: check1_checked. It won't line up in the spreadsheet, but the data will be there. although, I wouldn't mind figuring out how to print "do data" when it's not checked. I understand that it's not in the param list when it's blank... just trying to figureout the best way to trap that without messing with the program too much.