I have been having the same problem as detailed above. In my template i am displaying my form elements like this - without any decoration cos the decorators have caused me endless amounts of trouble.
<dd><?=$this->formCheckbox($this->form->other_venue->getName(), $this->form->other_venue->getValue(), $this->form->other_venue->getAttribs()); ?></dd> but i found that passing the value here is stopping the checkbox value from being passed back when the form is submitted. When i instead used: <dd><?=$this->formCheckbox($this->form->other_venue->getName()); The value was being passed back but the checkbox was still not getting prepopulated. I know its ugly but i ended up having to check if the checkbox is set and if so then pass the value otherwise dont!! <dd> <? if ($this->form->other_venue->isChecked()) { echo $this->formCheckbox($this->form->other_venue->getName(), $this->form->other_venue->getValue(), $this->form->other_venue->getAttribs()); } else { echo $this->formCheckbox($this->form->other_venue->getName()); } ?> This utterly reeks of a hack but i have searched high and low for a solution to my problem and found nothing. Ultimately i need a solution whether its elegant or not. hope it helps someone else. Note that the approach i am using above for outputting without decorators comes from: http://monzee.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/decorators-are-hard-lets-go-shopping/ -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Zend_Form_Element_Checkbox-not-populating-state--tp22378451p23544840.html Sent from the Zend Framework mailing list archive at Nabble.com.