# How to do a numbered countdown in Discourse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-numbered-countdown-in-discourse/1019902>\
**Category:** Site Feedback\
**Created:** [June 20, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-numbered-countdown-in-discourse/1019902 "2025-06-20T18:11:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-numbered-countdown-in-discourse/1019902/1 "2025-06-20T18:11:08Z")

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Discourse wants to automatically set up a rising numbered list if you enter a number, even if you don’t click on Numbered List.

1. number one
2. number two
3. number three

But what if you want to do a countdown?

1. number ten
2. number nine

Using the backward slash (\) allows you to block some functions. A backward slash before a \* will cancel the italic function and not be itself shown.

_italic_  
\*italic\*

But that produces an odd effect on numbers.

\10. number ten  
\9. number nine

The numbering goes down, but the backward slash is visible.

Does Discourse provide a workaround to get a clean countdown list?

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-numbered-countdown-in-discourse/1019902/2 "2025-06-20T18:20:52Z")

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10. Ten  
9. Nine  
8. Eight  
7. Seven  
6. Six  
5. Five  
4. Four  
3. Three  
2. Two  
1. One  
**BLAST OFF**

Make your entries like  
10\. blah  
not like  
\10. blah

The number-dot combo is what triggers auto numbering. Escaping the dot with the \ character does the trick.

Note that this isn’t exactly perfect in that a typical list is indented and also justified on the dots, whereas as you can see between 10 and 9, this is simply left justified and not indented. You can fix the indented part by skipping the \s, wrapping the whole thing in \<ul\>\</ul\> tags and inserting \<br/\>s before each newline:

So like this  
\<ul\>10. Ten\<br/\>  
9. Nine\<br/\>  
etc …  
\</ul\>

to get this:

10. Ten  
9. Nine  
8. Eight  
7. Seven  
6. Six  
5. Five  
4. Four  
3. Three  
2. Two  
1. One  
\*\*BLAST OFF\*\*

If you really want to sorta fix the alignment, you can insert &nbsp; character(s) ahead of the shorter numbers. It won’t be perfect and will look different in different fonts on different devices, but it’ll be close:

\<ul\>10. Ten\<br/\>  
&nbsp;&nbsp;9. Nine\<br/\>  
\</ul\>

to get

10. Ten  
&nbsp;&nbsp;9. Nine

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-numbered-countdown-in-discourse/1019902/3 "2025-06-20T18:37:08Z")

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Great answer. Many thanks.