Multi-level lists and alphabetic lists

Feature requests
1

It would be great to have more support for multilevel lists. For example:

1. Fruit
   a. Apples
   b. Bananas
   c. Clementines

2. Vegetables
   a. Asparagus
   b. Broccoli
   c. Cauliflower

etc.

Currently, as far as I know, this isn’t possible. The second-level list items show up as 1, 2, 3, just like the first-level list items.

27 Likes
2

It depends on the type of nested list you are looking for. AFAIK, Markdown/Obsidian doesn’t natively support lettered lists

Using the Markdown syntax, you can get a nested list with numbers and bullets, you just have to manually change the list marker after you tab. For example:

1. Fruit
   - Apples
   - Bananas
   - Clementines
2. Vegetables
   - Asparagus
   - Broccoli
   - Cauliflower

Works in Obsidian v0.8.1. To get lettered lists, you can embed HTML inside your document as discussed in the stack overflow page linked above:

<ol type="1">
    <li>Fruit</li>
    <ol type="a">
      <li>Apples</li>
      <li>Bananas</li>
      <li>Clementines</li>
    </ol>
    <li>Vegetables</li>
    <ol type="a">
      <li>Asparagus</li>
      <li>Broccoli</li>
      <li>Cauliflower</li>
    </ol>
</ol>

Results in the list shown in your example. This has some obvious downsides as far as readability in the editor, however.

Perhaps a syntax for lettered lists could be added in a non-intrusive manner.

EDIT: Manually changing the list marker in the first example works in the preview, but the Editor offers no help in continuing to build the list (i.e. the list markers are not formatted, and a carriage return does not generate a new list marker as it would when editing a first-level list). Obsidian does support this, as long as you’ve completed your HTML list first (added last </ol> above)

2 Likes
3

Use case or problem (Obsidian v. 0.13.14)

When making ordered lists Obsidian will successfully recognise that a set of instructions should be successively labelled as ‘1) [Some text] \r\n 2) [More text]’ etc. and will be displayed as ‘1. [Some Text]\r\n 2. [More text]’. This does not apply when creating a sub-set of an instruction using alphabetic characters. I.e., Typing ‘a) [Some text] \r\n’ does not result in the new line having ‘b)’ ready for the next sub-instruction or the preview editor recognising that this is a sub-list.

Proposed solution

Add in the use of alphabetic lists to the numbered list functionality.

Current workaround (optional)

No current workaround found

Related feature requests (optional)

Unable to find a topic related/ similar to this

4 Likes
4

Any news on this one?

I wonder if maybe a theme could jump in to allow this? At least I haven’t seen any…

2 Likes
5

What a weird limitation of Markdown. But I’m glad we have this clarified here so that we don’t waste our time trying to figure this out. :slight_smile:

I think the closest any one got to implementing this via CSS is this:

1 Like
6

I tried your nice HTML solution in Obsidian 1.1.16, and it didn’t work: All list items had a number in front of them. Anybody an idea why newer Obsidian ignores the type attribute and how to fix it?

7

This should be the default behaviour, IMO. It should not be hard to create multi-level list with the out-of-box experience

3 Likes
8

Agree 100%. This is already a feature request I suppose. But it should have a much higher priority. This is a must.

2 Likes
9

I need this.

We have numbered lists, so why not alphabetical?

What Obsidian lists need:

  • Better ways to customize lists (custom bullets, varied nested list bullets, letters, size etc.)
  • Better ways to sort and organize lists (drag and drop, rearrange, sort alphabetically etc.)
  • Better list views in editing mode. Lists looks better in reading mode and I don’t understand why there’s a difference.
2 Likes
10

Because the flavor of markdown Obsidian uses does not support lettered lists. For that you need to fall to HTML and use the ol list type attribute, or use a flavor/fork of markdown like ASCIIDOC which allows for different list types (Ordered Lists | Asciidoctor Docs). ASCIIDOC is a particularly well developed fork as it allows for some complex list options which you may appreciate: Complex List Items | Asciidoctor Docs

There is a Plugin request for an ASCIIDOC plugin here if you’re interested: ASCIIDOC plugin

2 Likes
11

I would also like better support for mixing numbered lists and bullet lists.

Problems

  • Creating a mixed list necessitates many wasteful keystrokes
    • Changing a second-level numbered list to a bullet requires 5 keystrokes
    • Making the next number in the first-level numbered list requires 5 keystrokes
  • Adding a new bullet point will reset the next number to 1
    • This also somehow connects any following numbered lists which changes their numbers

Example

Adding a bullet leads to resetting the next number of the following numbered item as well as affecting subsequent ones. These two lists:

Edit: I had to put them in block quotes because this was not displaying the problem in read mode, only edit mode… That takes away the indentation, but hopefully you still get the idea: numbers are the first level and bullets are sub points.

  1. Bob
  • beef
  • broccoli
  1. John
  • chicken
  • potatoes
  1. John
  • chicken
  • potatoes
  1. Cameron
  • pork
  • rice

Change to this when adding another bullet point:

  1. Bob
  • beef
  • broccoli
  1. John
  • chicken
  • potatoes
  1. John
  • chicken
  • potatoes
  1. Cameron
  • pork
  • rice

Suggestion

  • Fix numbered list behavior so that only directly connected lists effect each other
  • Add a setting to choose default ordered/bullet list behavior

Workaround

You can usually Ctrl+Z right after the change happens to the numbered lists and revert it, but you must do this for every change you make to existing lists.