How to Automatically Number Headings with CSS

To automatically number headings with CSS, we can use three CSS properties that are working as counters: counter-reset, counter-increment, and counter:

body {
  counter-reset: heading;
}

h1:before {
  content: counter(heading) ") ";
  counter-increment: heading;
}

This code will first create a new counter called heading, with a default value of 0. To create counters in CSS, we can use counter-reset. Then to use it for headings, we can use the ::before pseudo-element and reference the counter we have created, using the counter function. Make sure you also call counter-increment, this will increment the counter by one for every element. This will generate the following:

<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
<h1>The Tale of CSS</h1>
<h1>Acknowledgments</h1>

<!-- Will be rendered as: -->

1) Table of Contents
2) The Tale of CSS
3) Acknowledgments

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Resources:

• Official docs for using CSS counters