Task lists

- [ ] Open
- [x] Done
- [ ] With sub-points
  - [x] Part one
  - [ ] Part two

• Open
• Done
• With sub-points
  • Part one
  • Part two

What this template does differently

Out of the box Quartz shows a ticked box and leaves the text unchanged.

In this template a completed point also gets a muted colour and a strikethrough. A state that hangs on a small tick alone is no state at all for some readers — hence three signals instead of one. And the template draws all six states Obsidian knows, not just two — see below.

The list also loses its bullets as soon as it contains boxes: bullet and box next to each other are one marker too many.

Other characters in the box

Obsidian allows any character between the brackets and shows its own symbols for them:

- [/] half done
- [-] dropped
- [>] deferred
- [?] questionable

• half done
• dropped
• deferred
• questionable

All four arrive on the site, and this template draws them — every character gets its own mark in the box:

Character	Mark	Colour	Text
[ ]	empty box	muted	plain
[x]	tick	accent	struck through
[/]	slash	accent	plain
[-]	minus	muted	struck through
[>]	arrow to the right	muted	plain
[?]	question mark	muted	plain

The colour separates two groups: accent for what is still going somewhere, muted for what is being left behind. A reader who does not know the characters at least sees those two groups.

It was not always like this

Until recently Quartz kept only [ ] and [x]; everything else became an empty box and the character was gone. Since the Obsidian plugin writes it onto the line as data-task it is there — and since then a template can do something with it.

Clicking works, but it stays in this browser

On the built site an open box can be ticked. Measured: Quartz remembers it in this browser’s localStorage and restores it on your next visit — your note still says what it said, and another browser sees the list as written. Ticking things off still happens in Obsidian; the tick on the site is a note to yourself.