Question

the checkboxes are checked by default. if unchecked they should hide the text. how do i hide or show the text in jquery?

html:

    <div class="check">
<p><input type="checkbox" value="Name" id="name" checked /> <label for="name">Name</label></p>  
<p><input type="checkbox" value="Reference " id="reference" checked /> <label for="reference">Reference</label></p>
    </div>

    <div id="nametxt"> Show Name TEXT </div>
    <div id="reftxt"> Show Ref TEXT </div>

Answer 1

Change the id of <div id="reftxt"> to <div id="referencetxt"> and then you can do this:

$('div.check input:checkbox').bind('change',function(){
    $('#'+this.id+'txt').toggle($(this).is(':checked'));
});

The change event will fire if its clicked on or if someone uses the keyboard to check/uncheck the checkbox.

As long as the ID‘s of the text divs are always checkbox ID + 'txt' and are in div.check then this will handle those too. Keeps you from having to repeat yourself as you get more checkboxes.