Marking items: check and na

check(id, body)

anchors body to item id of whichever checklist is active for this compile, and renders body exactly as written. Zero visual footprint in the plain compile — safe inside any journal template’s flow. Under --input preview=true, body gets a light highlight with the item id superscripted, purely as a drafting aid.

na(id, reason: none)

declares item id not applicable to this manuscript, with an optional justification. Renders nothing at the call site — it’s typically grouped in one dedicated block rather than scattered through the text, as in the previous chapter’s example.

A minimal, standalone example — no bundle involved, just check() in a plain file:

#import "../../lib.typ": *

#set page(width: 16.6cm, height: auto, margin: 12pt)
#set text(size: 10.5pt)

The primary outcome was #check("6a")[change in disease activity score from
baseline to week 12], assessed by a rater blinded to group assignment.

Compiled once, plain:

Once more with --input preview=true:

check() doesn’t need to know which checklist is active, or even that one exists — it just anchors body under id; whether that id means anything is only decided later, when the grid is built. That’s why this file compiles and renders correctly entirely on its own, with no #show: bundle.with(...) anywhere. It’s also why an id that turns out not to match any item is a diagnostic caught later, in the grid, rather than an error here.

An item can legitimately be checked more than once — a method described once and its rationale discussed elsewhere, say — in which case the grid lists every page it was found on. The one deliberate exception is a single passage that straddles a page break: see The page-break idiom for the recommended way to get a correct, two-page citation for that case specifically.

na() is the explicit counterpart to check(): some items genuinely don’t apply to a given manuscript (a trial with no serious adverse events has nothing to say for a “Harms” item, for instance). Declaring it, with a reason, turns “item never mentioned” from an oversight worth flagging into a documented, deliberate choice.

The point-marker form: check(id) alone

check(id, body) renders body — and that’s the right call almost every time, since most items simply live at their own spot in the manuscript. Occasionally, though, the passage an item covers is already being rendered by something else — most commonly another package’s own marking call, when what a reviewer asked you to change happens to be your answer to a checklist item. Calling check(id, body) there too would print the same text a second time, since it always renders body itself.

For exactly that case, check(id) — one argument, no body — only ever registers the item’s location; it never renders anything, ever. body must already be displayed by something else.

#import "../../lib.typ": *
#import "../../../typst-contexture/lib.typ" as contexture

#let tiny = (
  name: "TINY",
  full-name: [Tiny reporting checklist],
  items: (
    (section: "Methods", topic: "Outcome assessment", group: none, id: "6a",
      description: [How the primary outcome was assessed.]),
  ),
)

#show: contexture.bundle.with(
  template: body => {
    set page(width: 16.6cm, height: auto, margin: 12pt)
    set text(size: 10.5pt)
    body
  },
  documents: (checklist(checklist: tiny),),
)

// check("6a") with no body registers item "6a" here without rendering
// anything at all --- the sentence itself is printed directly, right
// below, exactly once. Compare with marks-check-basics.typ: same
// manuscript wording, but check(id, body) both anchors AND renders
// (with a highlight box under preview:true); check(id) only anchors.
The primary outcome was change in disease activity score from baseline
to week 12, assessed by a rater blinded to group assignment. #check("6a")

Compiled once, plain — the sentence appears exactly once, exactly as written:

Once more with --input preview=true — a small superscripted id, but no highlight box: there’s no body here to wrap one around, but the id is still shown as a drafting aid:

The item still resolves correctly in checklist.pdf, exactly as if it had been written check(id, body). The only function that notices the difference is excerpt-of (Quoting the real wording): with no body to quote, an occurrence marked this way simply contributes no excerpt, which is the honest answer, not an error. The “blank content” diagnostic never fires on it either — a missing body here is the deliberate shape of this form, not the mistake it would be for check(id)[].