Printing a checklist on paper is fine. But sometimes it is more useful to make a digital checklist, especially if you want to share it with others so that they can participate too. With a recent update to Google Docs, you can create and mark up checklists with the built-in checklist tool.
Enter data
The new checklist button in Google Docs works a little differently than the well-known list functions. You either start typing a new list or you work with an existing list to convert it into a Google Doc checkbox. If you want to start from scratch, just start typing after pressing the button Checklist in the toolbar. You enter the first item next to the checkbox, you press Enter or return and then type the next item. If you already have a list of items in the document, it’s even easier. Select the list you want to convert and then click the button Checklist in the toolbar. The selected items are immediately converted into a check list.
indent
Let’s say you have a numbered or bulleted list, and you want to convert just some items from that list into checklist items. Then you work in three steps. First click on a number or any bullet, this will select all items in the list. After that, just click the number or bullet for the item you want to convert. Then Google Doc will select only that item. Then use the right mouse button and select the check box in the shortcut menu. You can also indent items in the checkbox. Hover over the item you want to indent and press tab or click on Increase indent in the toolbar.
Check off list items
Every time you check off an item, Google Docs will also cross out the item. When you have created a checklist with multiple levels, you still need to check off the parent item when all the child levels are ready. Google Docs doesn’t do that automatically. Soon, Google will expand this checklist feature even further so that you can assign certain list items to others. Those items will also appear in Google Tasks. Pending the time when we can write a QuickFix about it, this is still on Google’s own to-do list.
