Creating tasks that have three possible states instead of two

[dutyfreemind]

What I’m trying to do

Is there a way, maybe with a plugin, to create tasks which allow not only the uncompleted/completed couple of states but rather have three states? I imagine having a default list of recurring tasks in my notes (via a template). But not all of these tasks should show up immediately as “incomplete”, as they do when there’s no x in the brackets. Rather I’d like a state “inactive” (the default one). Then when I decide the task needs to be done I will mark it as “pending” and as soon as it’s completed I can mark it “done”.

Thanks for your ideas!

[ryanjamurphy]

I think you can already do this. E.g.:

- [ ] Something
- [?] Something
- [x] Something
- [!] Something

will all be recognized as different task states.

@death.au created a popular task CSS snippet to handle some of these:

deathau/obsidian-snippets/blob/main/checkbox.css

Different plugins and themes manage task “states” differently.

[dutyfreemind]

Your first code example doesn’t do anything, but I’m looking into the snippet and adapting it. Thanks!

[ryanjamurphy]

Sorry, yes, it doesn’t do anything obvious. But in the background Obsidian recognizes the character you put between the [ ] and then plugins and CSS can use that data, like the snippet above.