John,
the difference between a radio button set and checkboxes is (going way back to Mac UI guidelines in the 80s) is that a radio button group always has a value
[snip -- I did know the difference between checkboxes and radio buttons!]
If you're saying that a set of radio two or more buttons must always be shown with at least one pre-selected, i.e. as soon as the page loads, one is already selected, then there are only two options for the original poster to get good information from their form:
1) Three radio buttons, one of them pre-selected for the value "nothing" or "incorrect input" -- the user is encouraged to select one of the other two and an error given by the script if they don't
2) A select menu, with one option pre-selected for "nothing" as above.
The first seems kind of illogical to me, and the users will be more used to the second.
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"Have You Validated Your Code?"
John Horner (+612 / 02) 9333 3488
Senior Developer, ABC Online http://www.abc.net.au/
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