Number every line — 1. 2. 3., letters or Roman numerals

How to use the numbered list tool

1. Paste your items into One item per line.
2. Pick a Style: 1. 2. 3., 1) 2) 3), (1) (2) (3), a. b. c., A. B. C., i. ii. iii. or I. II. III..
3. Set Start at if the list should not begin at 1.
4. Leave Skip empty lines ticked for a tight list.
5. Copy the result.

What it does and when to use it

Numbers tell the reader that order matters. Use them for recipe steps, setup instructions, agenda items, ranked choices or exam questions. Plain-text places such as emails, chat apps, forms and code comments have no list button, so typing the numbers yourself is the only option. When you later add or remove a step, every number after it is wrong. Paste the list here again and it is renumbered at once.

Which style to use:

• 1. 2. 3. works almost everywhere and is also valid Markdown.
• 1) or (1) suits legal clauses and survey questions.
• a. b. c. and A. B. C. fit sub-steps and multiple-choice answers.
• i. ii. iii. and I. II. III. suit outlines, prefaces and formal reports.

For unordered items, text to bullet list is the better choice.

How it works

The tool reads the text line by line, keeping a counter that begins at your Start at value. Each line with text is trimmed and given the next marker, followed by one space. Letters are counted in base 26 (a to z, then aa, ab and so on). Roman numerals use standard subtractive forms such as IV and IX. Blank lines are either dropped or passed through without using up a number. It all runs in your browser.

Worked examples

These outputs come from the tool’s own function.

Recipe steps. Three lines with the default style give 1. Preheat the oven, 2. Mix the ingredients and 3. Bake for 25 minutes.

Continuing a list. Lines x and y with the I. II. III. style and Start at 4 give IV. x and V. y.

Report sections. Intro, Method and Results with a. b. c. give a. Intro, b. Method, c. Results.

Limits and tips

• Indentation is not kept, because each line is trimmed. For nested outlines, number each level in its own pass and indent afterwards.
• Lines that already start with a number get a second one. Strip the old numbers first.
• Start at must be 1 or more.