I have a form, it looks like 
And I want the users know the items of the form can't not be all zero.
Should I say Items must not be all zero or Items can't be all zero
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1Look up can and must in the dictionary. Think about what happens if someone tries to put all zeros in the form. Then decide what you really want to tell users about this.– DrewCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 3:00
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1You could come at it from another angle: At least one item must be nonzero. Depending on the context, you might use change item with something more natural sounding too.– faintsignalCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 3:39
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"The items must not all be zero." This is how I should phrase that situation. "Can't" would be more appropriate if it was literally impossible to put zero in all of the fields, which I don't suspect to be the case.
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Why don't you suspect that it is impossible to use all zeros? What part of the question makes you think that? You might be right, but the question is not clear about what the story really is.– DrewCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 3:01
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Yes, it would be very easy to add input validation to the form to disallow all zeroes.– JimCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 3:10
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Yes, I did the
input validation, I just need to show the warning message.– rj487Commented Nov 28, 2016 at 3:18 -
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1I would consider, "At least one of the entries must be non-zero." I think that makes more sense as a warning after a person has entered all zeroes. Commented Nov 28, 2016 at 4:01