Formatting Tip: List Tricks

Question

I was just putting together a To Do List on a profile I've been working on, and I really wanted to have a sub-item to one of my numbered tasks.

After doing a little digging, I discovered a solution!

Numbered lists can be created using the "#" sign as follows:

This is my To Do List:

# First task

#Second Task

#Third task

This will render a list that looks like this:

This is my to do list:

1. First task
2. Second task
3. Third task

I wanted a list that looks like this:

This is my to do list:

1. First task
   • sub-task
2. Second task
3. Third task

Apparently, using Wiki markup, you can accomplish that by using this type of coding:

This is my To Do List:

# First task

#* sub-task

#Second Task

#Third task

You can see the profile where I used it here.

I hope that's helpful to someone! :-) 

Comments

NICE!

I use the "*" Asterisk a lot

* for first level (makes a bullet list)

** for second (etc.)

I'll have to experiment with the pound/hash mark "#" to see if I like it better.

More options are always better!!!

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The think I learned from this, Scott, was to combine the # w/ the * to create a second level of the list w/out interrupting the numbering.

I should have spelled that out!! lol

Answer 1

Julie,

Nice.

Also using it like this:

# Level One

## Sub level one of one

### Sub sub level of one

Using # also works well for a list of children, or any numbered list

Comments

Agreed!

I had no idea you could combine # and * ... Wiki markup is remarkably flexible if you take the time to go hunting for answers. :)

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And I'll add another one you can mix in there, and that's the colon!  It's great for when an item is actually several items, like several paragraphs for the same item (e.g. a list of instructional steps).  It's also great when you want to add a note to an item, using # for the item then #: for the associated note.  Or when the section is all using the leading colon and you want to insert a numbered or bulleted list (:#, :*).

You do have to be really careful mixing #, *, and : though.  If you insert even one wrongly, then the numbered list is renumbered from one at that point.  I've been so frustrated at times when writing up a step by step procedure, to finally get it formatted the way I wanted, preview it, and discover it's one long nicely formatted list of items - all numbered 1!  And it's also easy to mess up later, when you want to add a note (e.g. perhaps a note deprecating a step, or noting a later revision), and discovering you just renumbered part of the list.  Once in awhile, I would have to give up on # and hard code the numbers.