How do you make lettered lists using markdown?
MarkdownMarkdown Problem Overview
Markdown allows ordered lists using numbers. How can I instead get an ordered list using letters? i.e.
A. the letter A
B. the letter B
C. etc
instead of
1. the number 1
2. the number 2
3. etc.
Markdown Solutions
Solution 1 - Markdown
It doesn't appear that standard Markdown has this capability. You can:
- Use CSS, by putting this somewhere in your markdown document (note, this will effect all ordered lists in the document)
<style type="text/css">
ol { list-style-type: upper-alpha; }
</style>
- Use an extended version of markdown. Pandoc markdown has a
fancy_listsextension that will allow you to mark lists with letters and roman numerals.
Note: if using capital letters, two spaces are required before the text. See https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#fn1
A. the letter A
A. the letter B
A. etc
Solution 2 - Markdown
Markdown itself cannot do that, but since you can put HTML in it, this provides a pretty simple way to do it:
<ol type="a">
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ol>
Some derivations on some platforms might interpret only a very strict subset of HTML. For example, StackOverflow doesn't support the type attribute. But Wikipedia's MediaWiki Markdown does, and the GitHub Wiki Markdown does too.
Solution 3 - Markdown
At least for recent versions of Pandoc (I'm using version 1.13.1), it looks like you can use some of the fancy_list syntax without having to enable the extension, e.g.:
I. One
A. two
1. three
2. four
i. five
ii. six
- seven
* eight
II. Nine
To compile this into a PDF you can then run:
pandoc input.md -o output.pdf
NOTE: For this to work, you have to make sure you add an extra space after any letters or roman numerals: instead of the usual one space between a bullet and the text, use two instead. (see pandoc docs under "Extension: fancy_lists")
Solution 4 - Markdown
Late to the party, but this might help other people looking for an R Markdown solution.
In R Markdown it's straight forward. The following minimal example lists.rmd shows different types:
---
title: "Lists"
output: pdf_document
---
A list with bullet points:
- Something
- Something else
A numeric list:
1. Something
1. Something else
A list using small letters:
a) Something
a) Something else
A list using capital letters:
A) Something
A) Something else
This knits to:
Solution 5 - Markdown
There's really no way to do this on most platforms -- GitHub, Slack, SO, BitBucket. (Source: A. This comment discussion B. You can try it.)
I suppose a regrettable workaround would be like this:
Sample MarkDown (RAW/EDIT MODE)
## My awesome list
- A. First option.
- **B.** Second option with bold.
Sample MarkDown (PREVIEW MODE)
My awesome list
- A. First option.
- B. Second option with bold.
Solution 6 - Markdown
To do indent formatting this is what I use:
<style type="text/css">
/* Indent Formatting */
/* Format: a-1-i-A-1-I */
ol {list-style-type: lower-alpha;}
ol ol { list-style-type: decimal;}
ol ol ol { list-style-type: lower-roman;}
ol ol ol ol { list-style-type: upper-alpha;}
ol ol ol ol ol { list-style-type: decimal;}
ol ol ol ol ol ol { list-style-type: upper-roman;}
/* https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_list-style-type.asp */
/* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11445453/css-set-li-indent */
/* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13366820/how-do-you-make-lettered-lists-using-markdown */
</style>
Links at bottom to where I sourced the information. And Format is explained on the second line.