# Can I have bullet points under a todo? **URL:** \ **Category:** FoldingText\ **Tags:** mode\ **Created:** [July 3, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070 "2014-07-03T13:30:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lorin](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@lorin](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/lorin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/1 "2014-07-03T13:30:53Z")
Sometimes, in a .todo section, I’d like to have a bulleted list as a sub-list of a checkbox. Something like this: ``` [] Task1 [] Task2 [] Task3 * Sub-element 1 of task 3 * Sub-element 2 of task 3 * Sub-element 3 of task 3 [] Task4 [] Task5 ``` What’s the best way to accomplish that? ---
**Author:** ![JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/JSLR)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/2 "2014-07-03T14:37:51Z")
I use double dashes for this: - task – point of information – second point ---
**Author:** ![jessegrosjean](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@jessegrosjean](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/jessegrosjean)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/3 "2014-07-17T18:27:35Z")
@lorin You can’t right now. But I may adjust the todo mode to only effect direct children of the title. This would mean if you wanted nested todo (with checkboxes) you would need to add .todo to the end of the parent item… like so: ```markdown my.todo - one - two.todo - a - b - c - three ``` So if I made that change (a, b, c) will only get checkboxes if “todo” is added to “two”. Does that make sense? Thoughts for or against this? ---
**Author:** ![lorin](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@lorin](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/lorin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/4 "2014-07-18T16:31:59Z")
@jessegrosjean I like the proposal that children of .todos aren’t checkboxes by default. Here’s an idea: what if the behavior depended on whether the .todo is on a header row. For example, in this case, the children would be checkboxes. ``` # My heading.todo - This is a checkbox - So is this ``` But if .todo is just on its own, then children don’t inherit it: ``` # My heading .todo - This is a checkbox - But this isn't ``` ---
**Author:** ![JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/JSLR)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/5 "2014-07-19T14:15:44Z")
@jessegrosjean adds a few extra key presses, but I’m not averse to the idea. @lorin interesting suggestion, but would break compatibility with TaskPaper editors. For example, I’m using Editorial’s TaskPaper mode for my FoldingText .todo lists on iOS. I need to end project headings with a colon to have it recognised as a project there, so I’m in the habit of having the .todo identifier on the line below— e.g. ``` # Project Heading: .todo - action item - second action item ``` This has also got me in the habit of putting any other project information before the .todo list… ---
**Author:** ![jamie](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/aca169/32.png) [@jamie](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/jamie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/6 "2014-07-22T16:36:40Z")
Hi Jesse, This is a significant change, and I’m not sure I agree (maybe it’s something where 1/2 of users will want it to work one way and 1/2 want it the other way). Currently in build 741, neither the `.todo` and `.calc` modes are inherited, so if I use a top-level heading to start a `.calc` section and want to add subsections to it, I have to re-state those as `.calc` as well. This seems to make the whole idea of modes a lot more flimsy. I’d think that the default behavior should be to inherit modes, and then have specific ways to override this. For example, use the `.text` mode. For the `.todo` mode specifically, perhaps only lines starting with a hyphen are recognized as to-do items, or something like that. Anyway, I hope you’ll consider reverting this. As it is now, it really reduces the power of modes and seems to give them second-class status in the app. Just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![deckhart](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@deckhart](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/deckhart)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/7 "2014-07-23T16:10:20Z")
I was surprised by this behavior in 741. I have a bunch of todo lists with lot of hierarchy. I’ll have to pepper them with `.todo`s to make them work like they did. It’s a lot repetition for something that is homogeneously a todo list. Worse, this change ruins one of my primary ways of using FoldingText. Previously, I could use all of FoldingText’s _Organize_ menu shortcuts to rearrange of tasks very fluidly. Having to both indent children and declare the parent a `.todo` seems silly and redundant. I kind of like the idea @lorin had where a heading would kind of supercharge a mode, though. It’s intuitive: a mode attached to a heading ‘feels louder’ than one on its own line. It would also provide a way to get each behavior without introducing a preference. Boy, there are a lotta subtleties to this plain text syntax. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jessegrosjean](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@jessegrosjean](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/jessegrosjean)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/8 "2014-07-31T18:13:33Z")
@jamie @deckhart Thanks for your feedback, I’ll find some way to fix this… though I haven’t quite done it yet. The implementation of modes themselves hasn’t changed… they are still hierarchical. It’s just the particular ‘todo’ mode implementation that changed. The issues are: 1. I do think it’s useful to be able to put bullet list items under a todo 2. But I also see how hierarchy is useful in todo At the moment the only solution that I see is kinda a fiddly hack, but maybe OK. Maybe in todo mode only list items that start with “-” become todos… if you use “\*” or “+” they will remain bullets? Good? ---
**Author:** ![lorin](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@lorin](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/lorin)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/9 "2014-07-31T19:55:23Z")
@jessegrosjean That works for me. ---
**Author:** ![jamie](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/aca169/32.png) [@jamie](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/jamie)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/10 "2014-07-31T22:41:24Z")
@jessegrosjean I think differentiating on the starting character would be a good solution (I think I was going to suggest that in my pervious post). Note that in the 741 the other modes also don’t seem to “cascade” through descendant nodes. ---
**Author:** ![JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/JSLR)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/11 "2014-08-03T00:12:19Z")
@jessegrosjean This works for me as well. ---
**Author:** ![deckhart](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@deckhart](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/deckhart)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/12 "2014-08-03T03:07:08Z")
Works for me. I think I tried using an asterisk in place of the hyphen, the first time around, so so I expect I would have discovered the difference right away. ---
**Author:** ![koy1](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@koy1](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/koy1)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/13 "2015-03-12T18:06:53Z")
Any news on this? Doesn’t work the way you agreed on in the latest release. ---
**Author:** ![JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/JSLR)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/14 "2015-03-12T19:23:46Z")
Just to be clear, Koy, are you hoping for the implementation of Jesse’s following suggestion?: > [@Link to other folding text documents within a ft doc?](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/link-to-other-folding-text-documents-within-a-ft-doc/347/8): > > Maybe in todo mode only list items that start with “-” become todos… if you use “\*” or “+” they will remain bullets? Good? Not to speak on his behalf, but you’re unlikely to see any news on this before the next release. Jesse’s working on a complete rewrite of the application. Might be that the new release takes care of this, or renders it redundant as an issue… ---
**Author:** ![koy1](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@koy1](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/koy1)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/15 "2015-03-12T19:35:15Z")
That’s what I was referring to. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![kerryd](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@kerryd](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/kerryd)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/16 "2015-05-22T01:24:39Z")
There is something that sounds interesting about Foldingtext. How is this different from say IA Writer Pro or Ulysses. I’m missing soemtjing. It’s the big picture so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/JSLR)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 11:36am UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/17 "2015-05-22T11:36:27Z")
I’d offer the thinking that FoldingText isn’t just a text editor or tool for authoring Markdown documents. In its current incarnation, FoldingText works for me as a text-based active thinking tool. Sounds a bit high-falutin’ I know, but I think that’s probably the easiest way of describing it. A lot of that functionality comes from the Taskpaper functionality that’s baked in— I use FoldingText to manage all of my to-do lists and projects, anything that I want to do, need to do or would like to think about doing at some indeterminable point in the future. But the flexibility is what makes FoldingText more useful to me than any of the other task managers that many of us have experience of. I’m a writer and an administrator/producer, and having a tool speaks to both sides of my brain is invaluable. Want to type up a quick note that might become a lesson plan, blog post or essay? FoldingText can do it. Want to outline a larger piece of writing, and work within that outline to get actual writing done? FoldingText can do it. Want to track tasks that are due in the near future? FoldingText can do that, too. Note: I enjoy writing in iA Writer— I use it on occasion for focused writing. Ulysses looks great, but never really did find a place in my workflow… It’s also worth keeping an eye on the coming changes to FoldingText flagged in the “FoldingText for Atom” threads… ---
**Author:** ![kerryd](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@kerryd](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/kerryd)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/18 "2015-05-22T16:22:59Z")
A very good reply. This is exactly what I’d like. It sounds rather perfect really. Can I ask - IA writer is nice but the one problem I have with it is the font size seems to stuck. As these old eyes grow weary I’m finding something like Typed a little easier on them altough the product isn’t currently working right. Ulysses is for the highly structured individual that might misplace a piece of writing. Kerry ---
**Author:** ![JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JSLR](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/JSLR)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 7:34am UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/19 "2015-05-24T07:34:13Z")
iA Writer / font size: as far as I understand it, that’s actually intended behaviour, and part of the “feature set”. The windows are responsive, however— maximise your iA Writer document window to full screen and the text should size up accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![tuzmusic](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@tuzmusic](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/u/tuzmusic)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 3:32am UTC](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070/20 "2019-07-13T03:32:43Z")
I just discovered FoldingText today and I love it. Have bullets under a todo been implemented? Nested todos are great, but I need bullets under todos much more often. Thanks! [Next page](https://support.doubledogsoftware.com/t/can-i-have-bullet-points-under-a-todo/1070.md?page=2)