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How to I set the bootable partition using the command line in parted?

Ideally I would like a numbered list so I can select which partition to boot from easily.

I use fdisk. before to apply this I recommend to work with a live CD or USB and back up your data.

First check if any bootable partition is present like in my system wich "/dev/sda1" is the bootable partition :

fdisk -l /dev/sda 

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00003256

 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 959991807 479994880 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 959993854 976766975 8386561 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 959993856 976766975 8386560 82 Linux swap / Solaris

If there is not any boot partition do like this with root login :

fdisk /dev/sda
Command (m for help): m

Command action
 a toggle a bootable flag
 b edit bsd disklabel
 c toggle the dos compatibility flag
 d delete a partition
 l list known partition types
 m print this menu
 n add a new partition
 o create a new empty DOS partition table
 p print the partition table
 q quit without saving changes
 s create a new empty Sun disklabel
 t change a partition's system id
 u change display/entry units
 v verify the partition table
 w write table to disk and exit
 x extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-5): 

You've to type 1 if you want to make bootable the partition 1 or and following 2 if you want to make bootable the second partition etc...

and aply the modification with "w" like this

Command (m for help): w

For modify the table of your disk and make the desired partition bootable.

In hoping that help

With the print command you ge the partition number (first column). Let us say it is 1. To make it bootable:

(parted) set 1 boot on