Add line numbers

• Start at. Begin with any number, including 0 or a negative number. Useful when you continue a list that already has 25 items: start at 26.
• Step. Count by 1, 2, 5, 10 or any other positive number. BASIC-style line numbers (10, 20, 30) are a step of 10.
• Leading zeros. Pads every number to the same width: 01, 02 … 10, or 001 … 100, depending on the largest number. Lists with padded numbers sort correctly as text.
• Don't number empty lines. On by default. Blank lines stay blank and don't use up a number, so paragraphs separated by blank lines are numbered 1, 2, 3 without gaps.

The 1⇥text format puts a tab between the number and the text. When you paste the result into Excel or Google Sheets, the numbers land in the first column and the text in the second. That's handy for turning a plain list into a numbered table, or for adding row IDs before importing data.

Input:

Groceries
Do the dishes

Go to the post office
Pay the electric bill

With format 1., start 1, step 1, skip empty lines:

1. Groceries
2. Do the dishes

3. Go to the post office
4. Pay the electric bill

With format [1], start 10, step 10, leading zeros on: [10], [20], [30], [40].

Numbering happens instantly as you type, and nothing is uploaded.

Many apps turn a line starting with 1. into an automatic numbered list, and some renumber it or change the indentation when you edit. If you want the numbers to stay exactly as typed, use the 1) or [1] format, which apps rarely convert. The tab format is best kept for spreadsheets, since tabs often disappear in chat messages.

• Checklists and to-do lists you want to share in a chat or email where automatic numbering isn't available.
• Reference lists and footnotes.
• Code listings in documentation, or line numbers for a script you want people to discuss ("see line 14").
• Survey options, quiz questions and agenda items.
• File and item IDs: combine leading zeros with the add prefix and suffix tool to make codes like ITEM-001.

If your list already has numbers you want to replace, remove them first with find and replace: turn on regular expressions, find (^|\n)\d+[.)] and replace with $1. For a list of numbers without any text, the number sequence generator is the better tool.

• Want the numbers to restart for each section? Number each section separately and set Start at to 1 each time.
• Want letters instead of numbers (a, b, c)? That isn't built in; number the list and edit the few labels by hand, or use a word processor's list feature.
• Text that wraps in the box is still one line; only real line breaks get a new number. Check the count with the line counter.