Vineet Naik has a post with a nice tip. He often has complex build processes and rather than automating them with a script, he prefers to use an Org checklist that specifies the steps. He likes to keep the checklist in the project directory and check off the build items as he performs them.
That seems pretty straightforward but there’s a catch. After he’s done the build and checked off all the items the list is no longer useful. He’d like to reset the checklist to “empty” but what’s the best way of doing that? My first reaction was to keep the checklist as a Yasnippet, delete the completed checklist, and use the snippet to create a new copy.
But, he says, what if he needs to make a change to the checklist during the build? Then he has to remember the change the snippet too. The thing about Org mode is that everything is just text so he solved his problem by doing a query-replace to change [x] to [ ]. That worked well so his next thought was to automate it by writing a bit of Elisp.
That’s when he discovered that Emacs already has a package for that. That’s the point of the tip. After loading the package you need simply add :RESET_CHECK_BOXES: t to the property drawer and Emacs will handle everything for you. When the status of the checkbox tree changes from TODO to DONE, all the checkbox items are cleared and the status is reset to TODO. All this happens automatically. That makes it perfect for Naik’s problem.
There’s actually a bit more to the solution so be sure to check out Naik’s post for the details.