Word with bullet points

Turn lines of text into a bulleted list by selecting the text and then clicking Home> Paragraph> Bullets. Each line or paragraph becomes a bullet in the list.

Tip: Press Enter to move text to its own line, or press Enter twice to end the bulleted list.

Starting with a blank page?

1. Place your cursor where you want a bulleted list.

2. Click Home> Paragraph, and then click the arrow next to Bullets. Choose a bullet style and start typing.

Press Enter every time you want a new bullet, or press Enter twice to end the bulleted list.

Tip: Word can create lists as you type. When you start a paragraph with an asterisk or a number 1., Word decides that you want to start a bulleted or numbered list.

(Note: This guide on how to add bullet points in Word is suitable for all MS Word versions including Office 365)

Microsoft Word is a very effective software used for documentation purposes and also helps in keeping track of lists. Instead of just having the items one after the other without any visual cues, it’d be better if you could have some bullet points to emphasize the points. 

Bullet points help pinpoint certain important information and help the reader understand important points easily. In this article, I will tell you how to add bullet points in Word using 4 easy methods.

You’ll Learn:

• How to Add Bullet Points in Word?
  • Add Bullet Points to an Existing List
  • Add Bullet Points to a New List
  • Add Bullet Points Using Symbols
  • Add Bullet Points in Word Using Keyboard Shortcut
    • Using the Alt Key
    • Using Asterisk or Number
• Define a New Bullet

Related Reads:

How to Insert Watermark in Word? 3 Easy Ways

How to Double Space in Word? 4 Easy Ways

How to Wrap Text in Word? 6 Wrap Text Options Explained

How to Add Bullet Points in Word?

Add Bullet Points to an Existing List

When you download or copy any data, the data might not have bullet points. Also, when you create a list of points in a hurry, you might not have the patience to add bullet points to each entry in the list. In such cases, you can add bullet points to an existing list using this method.

Consider a Word document that has a list of colors. 

• To add bullet points, first, select the data.

• Then, navigate to Home. Under the Paragraph section, click on Bullets or Numbering based on your choice.

Note: Instead of navigating between tabs, you can add bullet points to the list using the toolbar which pops up when you select the data. 

• When you click on the bullets option, only the default bullet pointer (•) gets added to the list. If you want to add a different bullet to the list, select the data and click on the dropdown from Bullets. 

• Then, select the bullet you want to add.

If you want to add more entries to the list, press Enter. This adds a bullet point onto a new line and you can type in the next entry.

To exit the bullet mode, press Enter twice. This will revert the list from bullet mode to normal paragraph mode.

Add Bullet Points to a New List

If you want to add bullet points to a list as you create them, you can easily do that using this method.

• First, place the cursor where you want to add bullet points.

• Then, navigate to Home. Under the Paragraph section, select the default bullet point or any bullet point from the dropdown. In this case, let us add the square bullet point.

• Once you click on the bullet point, the indented pointer appears with the cursor next to it. 

• You can then type in the data you want to add to the list.

• To add another point or list, press Enter. 

• The cursor moves to a new line and a new bullet point is added where you can add your data.

By pressing Enter as you input the data, you can easily create a list in Word. And if you want to stop adding bullet points to the list, press Enter twice.

Add Bullet Points Using Symbols

This is one way to add a variety of bullet points to your lists. 

• First, place the cursor where you want to add the bullet point.

• Navigate to Insert. Click on the dropdown from Symbols and select More Symbols.

• This opens up a Symbols dialog box. In the dialog box, scroll up and down, and choose the symbol of your choice for the bullet points.

• Select the symbol and click Insert.

• This adds the selected bullet point to the list. 

• Now, you can copy and paste the bullet point to add them anywhere you want in the list.

Suggested Reads:

How to Recover a Word Document ? 4 Proven Ways

How to Convert Speech to Text in Word? A step-by-Step Guide

How to Add Columns in Microsoft Word? All You Need to Know

Add Bullet Points in Word Using Keyboard Shortcut

There is a keyboard shortcut for almost every operation. In Word, using the shortcut keys to add bullet points is easy and effective. There are two ways to add bullet points in Word using shortcut keys.

Using the Alt Key

• Place the cursor in the destination where you want to add the bullet point.

• Now, hold the Alt key and press the Numpad keys 0, 1, 4, and 9 one after the other, i.e. Alt+0149.

• Once you leave the Alt key, the bullet point appears.

Unlike other methods to add the bullet points, pressing Enter won’t add a bullet point in the next line. 

Though this method is easy, you cannot add bullet points using shortcut keys to an existing list and can only be added using number keys in the Numpad. You can only use the shortcut keys to insert a bullet point and then add the list.

Note: The number 0149 is the code for the default bullet pointer. If you want to use another symbol for the bullet pointer, navigate to Insert. Click on the dropdown from Symbol and select More Symbols. In the dialog box, click on the symbol you want and remember the shortcut key given below.

Using Asterisk or Number

Using the Alt key and codes is one way to insert bullet points, but there is an easier method to add them.

• If you want to add bullet points, first, place the cursor in the destination. 

• Enter an asterisk (*) and press Space. 

• This inserts the bullet point in the location. 

• In the same way, if you want to insert a numbered list, enter any number and press Space.

• This adds the number pointers to the list.

• You can press Enter and add bullets one after the other. 

• And, if you want to exit the bullet mode, press the Enter button twice.

Note: This method works with a new list or an existing list, but the cursor should be placed at the start of the new line for this method to work.

Define a New Bullet

If you take a particular liking to a bullet point, you can add it to the bullet point repository and use them whenever you like with just the click of a button.

• To define a new bullet, navigate to Home. Click on the dropdown from bullet points and select Define New Bullet.

• This opens up a Define New Bullet dialog box. 

• From the dialog box, select either the symbol, picture, or font option and choose the bullet point.

• You can also see the preview of how the bullet point will appear in the Preview pane.

• Click OK.

• Now, your selected bullet gets added to the repository. 

When you need to use the bullet, just click on the dropdown and select the bullet point.

Also Read:

How to Find and Replace in Word? 7 Simple Methods

How to Superscript in Word? 4 Easy Methods

How to Make a Checklist in Word? 3 Simple Steps

Frequently Asked Questions

Closing Thoughts

Bullet points and numbered lists are very powerful visual cues to help the user easily ascertain and categorize the information. 

In this article, we have seen how to add bullet points in Word in 4 easy ways. You can either choose to add the bullets to an existing list or while creating a new list. You can also use a variety of symbols and shortcut keys to add bullet points in Word.

For more high-quality guides on MS Word or Excel, please visit our free resources section. 

SimonSezIT has been effectively teaching Excel for 15 years. We have a very comprehensive set of courses with in-depth training modules covering all major business software. 

You can access all these 140+ courses for a low monthly fee. Please visit our courses section for more information about our offers.

Although most of an academic paper should be written with full sentences divided up into paragraphs, bullet points and numbered lists can be useful in some contexts. For instance, vertical lists are particularly useful when giving examples or reporting steps in a process.

Microsoft Word also makes adding lists to a document reassuringly simple. All you need to do is follow the instructions below.

Using Bullet Points in an Essay

Bullet points are useful when listing things non-sequentially (i.e., when there is no specific order in which the items involved should be listed). They should also be reserved for longer lists, as short lists of up to three or four items can be included in the main text.

To add a bullet pointed list to a document in Microsoft Word 2007 or later, simply:

1. Place the cursor where you want the list to begin
2. Go to “Paragraph” under the “Home” tab on the main ribbon
   
3. Click the “Bullets” button to begin a list (you can select the type of bullet point you want by using the arrow to open a new menu)
4. Type the first entry in your list, hitting “Enter” to start the next one

To end your list, hit “Enter” twice after the final item. You can even customize your bullet points with an image of your choosing for a little extra color. We like using eagles, but we admit that this probably isn’t appropriate for most academic documents.

Using Numbered Lists

Numbered lists are appropriate when listing items sequentially or in order of importance. The process for adding a numbered list to a document is similar to adding a bulleted list:

1. Select where you want to begin your list
2. Go to the “Paragraph” section of the “Home” tab
3. Click the “Numbering” button (you can select a numbering style from the dropdown menu by clicking the arrow)
   
4. Type your first entry, then hit “Enter” to create the next one

As with bulleted lists, you end a numbered list by hitting “Enter” twice after the final item. For more control over the style, select “Define New Number Format” in the numbering menu.

Using Multilevel Lists

Finally, if you really want to push the boat out, you can use a “Multilevel” list. This is useful if you want to include sub-lists within a main list, like in the following:

To add a list like this to your document, you’ll have to:

1. Select a list style under “Multilevel List” in the “Paragraph” section of the “Home” tab
   
2. Write out your list as normal, beginning each item on a new line
3. To adjust the “level” of any given point, simply open the “Multilevel List” menu and select the appropriate option from the “Change List Level” submenu
   

As with the other lists discussed here, you can customize the style of multilevel lists by selecting “Define New Multilevel List” from the menu. This will open a new window where you can modify each level of your chosen list style as required.