ugui C# coding, get checkbox status and set highlighted button

OK, I give up, after a-lot of wasted time on 4.6 ugui, i haven't been able to work it out, my 2 questions are simple #1) how do i get the bool checkbox status for ugui (New Gui system in 4.6) I expected something like : gameObject.transform.FindChild ("MyCheckbox").GetComponentInChildren().status I need this because I don't want the interaction of the checkbox to change anything until an apply button is pressed #2) How do I highlight the first button programatically? I explicated something like this : gameObject.transform.FindChild ("MyButton").SetHighlighted(). Again, I have a number of panels, when I turn a panel on I want to set the highlight to the default option so the user can then continue and use keyboard/joystiq to choose an option