How to add line numbers to text
Paste your text and every line comes back with a number in front of it. It is handy for numbering meeting notes, for pointing at a specific line while explaining a code snippet, and for turning a checklist into an ordered list.
The start number is the number placed on the first line. Enter 1 to begin at 1, or enter the next number in sequence when the text continues an earlier document. Setting the step to 2 raises the count by two each line, which leaves room to insert items later without renumbering everything.
Automatic zero padding matches the width of the last number. In a list of more than a hundred lines it stops single digit and triple digit numbers from looking ragged against each other. Choose a fixed width of two, three or four digits when you need the same padding across several separate blocks.
The separator can be a period, a colon, a closing parenthesis, a vertical bar or a tab. Choosing the tab makes the number and the text land in separate cells when pasted into a spreadsheet. The output is plain text rather than a table, so it survives being pasted anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Whatever you enter becomes the number on line one. Enter 1 to start at 1, or enter 47 if this text continues a document that already ran up to 46.
The width of the last number that will be used. A 120 line block gets three digits so everything from 001 to 120 lines up, while a nine line list gets no padding at all.
No, it is plain text with the number and separator prefixed to each line. That keeps the layout intact wherever you paste it, including editors, terminals and chat apps.