Can't figure out how to get bulleted & numbered lists to work

Question

The site help says that making bulleted or numbered lists is easy, but I can't get it to work. I tried typing up a list then applying the list style to it, but it just numbered the whole list "1" and ran it all in. Then I tried starting a list and typing multiple lines, but it only numbered the first one.

Would someone please give a complete dummy's absolute newbie's guide to how to enter a list on this site? Like exactly what to type and when and where to type it? Usually I'm pretty good at this stuff, but the list function here has got me beat.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The way to do a numbered list is like this:

1. one  
 1. sub 1  
 1. sub 1  
1. two
1. three

1. one
   
   1. sub 1
   2. sub 2
2. two
3. three

You can use whatever numbers you want, but markdown is going to re-write them all and do its own counting so using 1. for all of them can make it easier to edit and add/remove points without creating a numbering mismatch between the source and the rendered version.

You must have a space after the period and don't indent or add spaces before the list numbers. This is the same for unordered lists.

 - one
  - a
  - b
 - two
 - three

• one
  • a
  • b
• two
• three

In either kind of list you can indent the second level by adding an extra space at the beginning of the line.

To put more that one line (i.e. paragraph) under a single list item, you have to semantically connect the two paragraphs using spaces. Start related paragraphs that stay under the numbered item or bullet point by beginning each paragraph with three spaces for each level of indent.

1. List item one.

   Next paragraph still under item 1 indented three spaces.

1. List item two.

1. List item one.

   Next paragraph still under item 1 indented three spaces.

2. List item two.