RANK question (vertical sorter) plus NOT APPLICABLE

I'm using this combination of RANK + NOT APPLICABLE. In general, all is working well.

What I did not realise with the vertical sorter is I cannot set a range to rank. I have 7 items plus the one check box. Can I somehow set the question to allow any of the 1-7 items to be selected, or the check box? I thought this was a simple setting within the ranking question, but not so. I then realised it is available for a numeric ranking question, but not the vertical sorter.

And I often use this CSS script to allow me to choose a colour to high-light the check box script ...

But for this situation, the check box script colour appears in black.

<style>
	.mobile_select {
    color: #5A5A5C;
}
 .highlight {
  color: #0077D6;
  font-weight: bold;
}
</style>