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. 

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.

? 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:

[] 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"):

[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:

--- 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:

[] 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):

[] 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.

Add header/separator with a button

When adding a new item or editing an existing item there is an option to save text as a separator with the button:

Add header/separator without a button

When adding a new item, editing an existing item, using Editor or Checklist Text custom field, there is an option to add a separator by preceding the text with three dashes "---":

How to add description in Editor

To add a description:

• Click Pen icon to open the checklist in the editor
• Add description in the lines below the item to which the description should be attached.
  Remember to start each line of the description with ">>" characters or use "Toggle description" button which will add the characters automatically:
  
  
  
  The checklist from the example above will render as in the following screenshot:
  
  
  
  Click "show description" link to expand the content.

How descriptions are presented in a checklist

If an item has description there will be a link below it titled "Show description". When clicked, description will be shown below the item, but this view will be read-only - descriptions can be added, modified and removed only through the editor.

Advanced formatting and additional elements in description

Descriptions don't necessarily have to consist only of plain text - they can span multiple lines, and consist advance formatting elements (markdown, inline code, user mentions, due dates and issue keys that will be automatically linked to issues, etc.).

For example, the following checklist:

will be rendered as:

Bullet points in description

Since the description can hold multiline text along with emoji and other rich content, a bullet point list can be added as presented below.

For example, the following checklist:

* [done] First response
* [skipped] Questions if any
* [done] Solution
>> • first bullet point
>> • second bullet point
>> • third bullet point

will be rendered as:

Introduction

Example

Markdown formatting

Bold

To bold text, add two asterisk or underscore characters before and after a word or phrase, e.g.,

Italic

To italic text, add one asterisk or underscore character before and after a word or phrase, e.g.,

Strikethrough

To strikethrough text, add two tilde characters before and after a word or phrase, e.g.,

Inline code

To style text as inline code, add back-tick characters before and after a word or phrase, e.g.,

Links

To create a link:

• add URL directly into the text, or 
• enclose the link text in brackets e.g., [Issue Checklist] and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses e.g., (http://gebsun-support.com):

Emails @

To create an email link:

• add the email address directly into text, or
• enclose the link text in brackets e.g., [Contact us] and then follow it immediately with a mailto data (this way you can specify email subject too):

Markdown escaping

It is possible to display Markdown formatting character by escaping it with the backslash \ character like demonstrated below. 

Please note that in the column Rendered output:

• formatting is not applied due to backslash \ usage 
• backslash \ is not displayed when it is used to escape Markdown
• double backslash allows to display a single backslash inside Markdown formatted phrase
• backslash behaves like a normal character when used outside Markdown formatted phrase

Adding a mention

To mention a user type "@" followed by part of the user's display name (full name) or nickname (username). A popup will show up listing all users matching the query. You can change the selected user by using arrow keys and mouse. To confirm your choice and make use of auto-completion press Enter or click on a user in the popup:

Example of user mentions:

More details

If your query is empty, i.e. the mention consist of "@" character only, the popup will show users related to the current issue: assignee and reporter (if they are set on the issue). You can also use two special aliases, "assignee" and "reporter", to find and mention corresponding users:

Mention by email

Mentioning users by their email addresses is supported by Issue Checklist. The search will match partial emails for users who have made their email address public in their profile. Otherwise a full email address must be provided to match the user that needs to be mentioned.

Not linked mentions

Mentions of non-existing (not found) users are displayed as plain text and not a highlighted lozenge:

See also

• Find user mentions
• Email notifications for user mentions

To assign a date to an item type // (double slash), which opens a calendar, and pick the date: 

You can also include date directly in the item's content (supported formats: YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD, DD-MM-YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY):

You can type ":" to open the emoji picker.

Once saved, emoji is displayed in the following way:

Issue Checklist uses square brackets to handle represent the state of an item in the text format. This text format is used in the Checklist Text custom field to enable some important use cases.

A side effect of the mentioned use case is that when you put square brackets at the beginning of a checklist item, the square brackets are removed.

So when you add a new item like this:

The items will look like this:

As you can see, the square brackets are removed from the checklist item.

A workaround to show the square brackets is to use the \ character at the beginning of the item name:

The result will have the square brackets at the beginning: