The editor allows you to quickly made changes to several items at once. It is also a convenient way to introduce or change formatting of the items in Markdown WYSIWYG mode.

Use cases, when editor turns to be very useful:

compile a checklist in a text form (like a text in the editor)
use Markdown WYSIWYG mode
use toolbar buttons to apply formatting
copy-paste bullet point list of items from an external list (Word, Trello, OSX Notes, web page, you name it)
delete all items at once (press Ctrl+A to select editor content and then press Delete to remove selection)

Opening the editor

To open the checklist editor, click the pencil button located in the top-right corner of the Checklist panel:

The editor's content will represent the entire checklist, like in the example below:

Content of the editor

Saving the editor's content overwrites the entire checklist for a given issue, so that any changes made in other tabs will be lost.

Line beginning

In general, every new line is a separate checklist item, unless it starts with:

>> for description, or
# for the name of the checklist in the Checklist Text custom field, for example: # Default checklist

Making a list

Checklist item line can start directly with item text or Markdown characters like the following: * - + []

Examples

Unchecked items

Following is a list of six valid unchecked items (each with text/summary "checklist item").

As you can see, various prefixes are accepted to indicate the checklist item (e.g. [], *, -, but no prefix works fine too).

In this simple form, each line is translated into a separate checklist item.

Unchecked items

checklist item
[] checklist item
* checklist item
* [] checklist item
- checklist item
- [] checklist item

Optional and mandatory items

Following is a list of valid optional items (each with text/summary "checked item"). Question mark is used to mark item optional.

Optional items

? checklist item
[]? checklist item
*? checklist item
* []? checklist item
-? checklist item
- []? checklist item

Following is a list of four items, two of which are mandatory and two others are optional:

Checked items

[] mandatory checklist item (not completed)
[x] mandatory checklist item (completed)
[]? optional checklist item (not completed)
[x]? optional checklist item (completed)

Checked items

Following is a list of three valid checked items (each with text/summary "checklist item"):

Checked items

[x] checklist item
* [x] checklist item
- [x] checklist item

Separators (headers)

Following is a list of three valid items and one header at the beginning (headers start with three dashes "—") containing some advanced formatting elements:

Formatting

--- Acceptance Criteria
- checklist item 1
- checklist item 2 with **bold** text
- checklist item 3 with link to an issue IC-245

Description

Following is a list of two items of which the first contains additional details in description:

Item description

[] Unchecked checklist item with description
>> Details for the item above come here. Description text can be long and multiline. It can also contain links, mentions, dates, and other formatting elements. 
[x] Checked item

Statuses

Following is the list of items with different statuses (as defined in your Jira settings):

Item status

[] Open item
[open] Another open item
[in progress] Item with status 'in progress' which is still unchecked 
[done] Completed/checked item with status 'done'
[skipped] Completed/checked item with status 'skipped'

Advanced formatting

Items can consist not only of plain text, but also advanced formatting elements like description, markdown, inline code, user mention, due dates, issue keys that will be automatically linked to issues, etc.

Editor

You can examine the text format of the checklist in the editor.

Besides manually entering Markdown and other formatting elements, it is possible to use toolbar buttons to quickly bold, italic or ~~strikethrough~~ selected text, toggle item completed or not, add a link, date, separator (header), mention a user, or add emoji.

Bold, Italic, Strikethrough

These basic formatting actions are available directly from the editor's toolbar. Select the word or phrase and click a selected button to apply formatting.

Link

Click a link button in the editor's toolbar and enter the link's label and URL in a dialog. This will generate and insert link's Markdown for you.

Toggle item

Click a toggle checklist item button in the toolbar to mark an item as Done. Click the button once again to reverse the action and uncheck the item.

The table below presents the states of an item when toggled:

Item unchecked	Item checked
* Example	* [x] Example

Toggle if item is optional

Click the toggle optional button (looks like a question mark) in the toolbar to mark an item as optional. Click the button once again to reverse the action and make the item mandatory again.

The table below presents the states of an item when toggled:

Item is mandatory	Item is optional
* Example	* []? Example

Add description

Click a toggle description button in the toolbar to change the current line into an item description (it becomes a description for the preceding item).

The table below presents the states of an item (line) when toggled:

Checklist item	Item description
* Example description	>> Example description

Add separator

Click a separator button in the toolbar to turn an item into separator (header). Click the button once again to turn the separator into a checklist item.

The table below presents the states of an item (line) when toggled:

Checklist item	Separator (header)
* Example	--- Example

Mention user (user picker)

Click a mention button to insert a "@" token into cursor's current position and open a user picker popup. You can continue typing and click inside the popup to have a complete user mention inserted into an item.

Date (calendar picker)

Click a calendar button to insert a "//" token into the cursor's current position and open a calendar popup. You can continue typing or click inside the popup to have a complete date inserted into an item.

Emoji (emoji picker)

Click an emoji button to insert a ":" token into the cursor's current position and open an emoji popup. You can continue typing or click inside the popup to insert an emoji into an item.

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