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Q: how can I get a different face for checked-off items in org plain lists?

I use org-mode's plain lists a lot: 

- [X] item 1
- [ ] item 2
- [ ] item 3
- [ ] item 4, with a whole lot of text that makes this item
  span more than one line

The problem is that I find that the checkboxes do not give enough visual cues that I have or have not completed an item.

Is there a way to apply a different face to checked-off list items (in the example, "item 1") while leaving the face alone for non-checked items?

A built-into-org way to do so would be ideal, but if I need to roll my own functionality, a complicating feature is that my items often span more than one line (as with "item 4..."). How can I do this?

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  • You can add an appropriate checked-off statement in org-set-font-lock-defaults, just beneath the existing statement relating to checkboxes at the section with the comment ;; Checkboxes; and, perhaps modify the existing checkbox statement so that it only operates on unchecked items. While modifying org-set-font-lock-defaults probably seems sacrilege, that is actually the proper way to do it (in my opinion, of course).
    – lawlist
    Commented Dec 3, 2019 at 17:47
  • In addition to the above comment, you may also need to have a look at the section of code in org-mouse.el where it states (when (memq 'activate-checkboxes org-mouse-features) ... Modifications at that location may be appropriate ...
    – lawlist
    Commented Dec 3, 2019 at 17:55

1 Answer 1

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From https://fuco1.github.io/2017-05-25-Fontify-done-checkbox-items-in-org-mode.html :

(defface org-checkbox-done-text
    '((t (:foreground "#71696A" :strike-through t)))
    "Face for the text part of a checked org-mode checkbox.")
  (font-lock-add-keywords
   'org-mode
   `(("^[ \t]*\\(?:[-+*]\\|[0-9]+[).]\\)[ \t]+\\(\\(?:\\[@\\(?:start:\\)?[0-9]+\\][ \t]*\\)?\\[\\(?:X\\|\\([0-9]+\\)/\\2\\)\\][^\n]*\n\\)"
      1 'org-checkbox-done-text prepend))
   'append)

unfortunately it only matches the first line, patches welcome ;)

But at least you can collapse list items.

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