Word 2013

Lists

Page 1
Introduction
Bulleted and numbered lists can be used in your documents
to outline, arrange and emphasize text. In this lesson, you will Video: Lists
learn how to modify existing bullets, insert new bulleted
and numbered lists, select symbols as bullets, and format
multilevel lists.

Optional: Download our Lesson 13 Practice Document.

Watch the video (3:52). Need help?

To Create a Bulleted List:

1. Select the text you wish to format as a list.

Selecting text to format

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command. A menu of bullet styles will
appear.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Clicking the Bullets drop-down arrow

3. Move the mouse over the various bullet styles. A live preview of the bullet style will appear in the document.
Select the bullet style you wish to use.

Selecting a bullet style

4. The text will be formatted as a bulleted list.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 A bulleted list

Options for Working with Lists

To remove numbers or bullets from a list, select the list and click the Bulleted or Numbered list command.
When you're editing a list, you can press Enter to start a new line, and the new line will automatically have a
bullet or number. When you've reached the end of your list, press Enter twice to return to "normal"
formatting.
By dragging the indent markers on the Ruler, you can customize the indenting of your list and the distance
between the text and the bullet or number.

Customizing the indentation

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Page 2

To Create a Numbered List:

When you need to organize text into a numbered list, Word offers several numbering options. You can format
your list with numbers, letters, or Roman Numerals.

1. Select the text you wish to format as a list.

Selecting text to format

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Numbering command. A menu of numbering
styles will appear.

The number command

3. Move the mouse over the various numbering styles. A live preview of the numbering style will appear in the
document. Select the numbering style you wish to use.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Viewing the live preview

4. The text will format as a numbered list.

The formatted list

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

To Restart a Numbered List:
If you want to restart the numbering of a list, Word has a Restart at 1 option. It can be applied to numeric and
alphabetical lists.

1. Right-click on the list item that you would like to restart the numbering for, and then select Restart at 1 from
the menu that appears.

Restarting a list

2. The list numbering will restart.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 The restarted list

Page 3
Customizing Bullets
Customizing the look of the bullets in your list can help you emphasize certain list items or personalize the design
of your list. Word allows you to format bullets in a variety of ways. You can use symbols, different colors, or even
upload a picture as a bullet.

To Use a Symbol as a Bullet:

1. Select an existing list that you wish to format.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Selecting an existing list

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command. Select Define New Bullet...
from the drop-down menu.

Defining a new bullet

3. The Define New Bullet dialog box will appear. Click the Symbol... button.
©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Clicking the Symbol button

4. The Symbol dialog box will appear.

5. Click the Font drop-down box and select a font. The Wingdings and Symbol fonts are good choices as
they have a large number of useful symbols.
6. Select the desired symbol and click OK.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Selecting a symbol

7. The symbol will appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet dialog box. Click OK.

Preview of the new symbol

8. The symbol will appear in the list.

The formatted list

To Change the Bullet Color:

1. Select an existing list that you wish to format.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Selecting a list to format

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command. Select Define New Bullet...
from the drop-down menu.

Selecting Define New Bullet...

3. The Define New Bullet dialog box will appear. Click the Font button.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Clicking the Font button

4. The Font dialog box will appear. Click the Font Color drop-down box. A menu of font colors will appear.
5. Select the desired color and click OK.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Changing the bullet color

6. The bullet color will appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet dialog box. Click OK.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Clicking OK

7. The bullet color will change in the list.

The new bullet color

To Use a Picture as a Bullet:

1. Select an existing list that you wish to format.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Selecting a list to format

2. On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Bullets command. Select Define New Bullet...
from the drop-down menu.

Defining a new bullet

3. The Define New Bullet dialog box will appear. Click the Picture button.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Clicking the Picture button

4. The Insert Pictures dialog box will appear. From here, you can locate an image file stored on your
computer or in your SkyDrive, or you can use the search fields to search for an image online.
5. In our example, we'll click Browse From a file to locate a picture stored on our computer.

Clicking Browse From a file

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

6. The Insert Picture dialog box will appear. Locate and select the desired image file, and then click Insert.

Inserting a picture

7. The image will appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet dialog box. Click OK.

Preview of the picture

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 8. The image will appear in the list.

The formatted list

Not all pictures work well as bullets. Generally, it's best to use a simple graphic that has a white (or transparent)
background. This ensures that the bullet will have a recognizable shape.

Page 4
Multilevel Lists
Multilevel lists allow you to create an outline with multiple levels. Any bulleted or numbered list can be turned
into a multilevel list by using the Tab key.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 A multilevel list

To Create a Multilevel List:

1. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the line you wish to move.

Placing the insertion point

2. Press the Tab key to increase the indent level of the line. The line will move to the right.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Increasing the indent level

To Increase or Decrease an Indent Level:

You can make adjustments to the organization of a multilevel list by increasing or decreasing the indent levels.
There are several ways to change the indent level:

To increase the indent by more than one level, place the insertion point at the beginning of the line and
press the Tab key until the desired level is reached.

Increasing the indent level more than once

To decrease the indent level, place the insertion point at the beginning of the line, then hold the Shift key
and press the Tab key.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Decreasing the level of a line

You can also increase or decrease the levels of text by placing the insertion point anywhere in the line and
then clicking the Increase or Decrease indent commands.

The Increase and Decrease indent commands

When formatting a multilevel list, Word will use the default bullet style. To change the style of a multilevel list,
select the list and then click the Multilevel list command on the Home tab.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Formatting a multilevel list

Page 5
Challenge!
1. Open an existing Word 2013 document. If you want, you can use our Lesson 13
Practice Document.
2. Insert a new bulleted list into the document. If you're using the example, add
"Fundraising", "Chair's Report", and "Other business" to the bottom of the list.

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

 3. Create a new numbered list.
4. Restart the numbering of the list so that it begins with a number of your choice.
5. Use a symbol as a bullet. If you're using the example, change the open circles
into a different symbol.
6. Modify the color of a bullet. If you're using the example, change the color of the
green diamond bullets.
7. Change the style of the list. If you're using the example, change the bulleted list
into a numbered list.
8. Use the Tab key to change the levels of some of the lines. If you're using the
example, increase the level of the two bullets under the list item "International
Arborists Association".

©1998-2013 Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.