Add Line Numbers to Text
Paste your lines and every one comes back numbered - pick the format (1., 1), [1], 001), where the count starts, and what separates the number from the text. Poets number stanzas, lawyers number paragraphs, teachers number worksheets, and programmers number everything they are about to argue about. The output updates as you type and copies in one click.
The separator field is where the styles live: a period for classic lists, a closing parenthesis for outlines, a pipe for spreadsheets-to-be. Zero-padding keeps columns aligned when the list runs past ninety-nine - and the count at the bottom tells you the numbering reached the bottom line, not just the first ten.
How to use
- Paste the lines, pick a format, set the starting number, and the numbered text appears below - copy it when the format looks right.
- Use zero-padding (001) for lists that run long: it keeps the numbers the same width so the text columns line up in monospace views.
- Start from a number other than 1 to continue an existing list - line 41 picks up exactly where the last draft stopped.
Frequently asked questions
How do I number lines in a poem or script?
Paste the stanza, choose the plain 1. format with a space separator, and the numbers run down the left margin the way anthologies and audition scripts print them. Blank lines are skipped rather than numbered, so stanza breaks stay as stanza breaks - the count at the bottom tells you how many true lines got numbers.
What format do legal documents use for numbered paragraphs?
Contracts usually number top-level paragraphs as 1., 2., 3. with the number and text separated by a period and space, and sub-clauses as 1.1, 1.2 - this tool produces the flat top-level layer; generate the deeper layers per section. Courts care that numbering restarts predictably per section, which the start-number field handles.
Why would I zero-pad line numbers?
Alignment. In monospace contexts - code review comments, log excerpts, plain-text tables - 1, 2, 10 jags to the eye while 001, 002, 010 stays straight. Zero-padding changes nothing about the numbers themselves, only their width; strip the padding later with the whitespace cleaner if the destination is a typeset document.
Can I number only non-empty lines?
That is the default behavior here: empty lines pass through unnumbered so paragraph breaks and stanza breaks survive the trip. If you need every physical line numbered including blanks - debug logs, for instance - the whitespace cleaner can strip the blanks first, and then every line that remains is a numbered one.
How is this different from a numbered list in my word processor?
A word processor's list renumbers itself as the text moves - right up until you paste it somewhere that strips the formatting and the numbers vanish with it. This tool bakes the numbers into the text itself: what you copy is what every plain-text destination shows, from GitHub issues to email clients to the code review that quotes line 47 back at you.