From this answer it seems like it is possible to use ModelAdmin.formfield_overrides to override the ManyToManyField to use CheckBoxSelectMultiple:
from django.db import models
from django.contrib import admin
from django.forms import CheckboxSelectMultiple
class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
formfield_overrides = {
models.ManyToManyField: {'widget': CheckboxSelectMultiple},
}
I haven’t tried it and am merely quoting from the source, but it seems plausible. Good luck.
Warning: as @errx rightly pointed out, the documentation highlights the following caveat:
If you want to use a custom widget
with a relation field (i.e.ForeignKey
or ManyToManyField), make sure you
haven’t included that field’s name in
raw_id_fieldsorradio_fields.
formfield_overrideswon’t let you
change the widget on relation fields
that haveraw_id_fieldsor
radio_fieldsset. That’s because
raw_id_fieldsandradio_fieldsimply
custom widgets of their own.