You can customize the appearance of a list by defining your own numbered, bulleted, and multilevel lists. These full customization options are available in Word. Once you customize them, you can save those settings as a style and use it again.
Note
This content applies to Word for Windows (including Word with a Microsoft 365 subscription). The steps and options may differ in Word for Mac or Word for the web.
What would you like to do?
Define a new bullet
The following steps describe how to customize lists in Word.
Do any of the following:
Change the bullet to a symbol
Select the text or bulleted list you want to change.
On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select the arrow next to Bulleted List
, and then select Define New Bullet.Select Symbol and then choose the symbol you want to use.
Select OK.
Change a bullet to a picture
- Select the text or bulleted list you want to change.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select the arrow next to Bulleted List
, and then select Define New Bullet.
- Select Picture and then browse for your picture from a file or Bing Image Search.
- Select Insert.
- Review what the picture bullets will look like and select OK to add it or change the picture by repeating steps 3-5.
Change the bullet font
- Select the text or bulleted list you want to change.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select the arrow next to Bulleted List
, and then select Define New Bullet.
- Select Font and then change the font properties to be used for the bullet. You can choose settings on the Font tab or Advanced tab:
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Font tab | Change the bullet font, style, size, color, underline style, underline color, and effects. |
| Advanced tab | Change the bullet font character spacing and OpenType features. |
Change the bullet alignment
- Select the text or bulleted list you want to change.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the arrow next to Bulleted List
, and then select Define New Bullet.
- Under alignment, choose Left, Centered, or Right.
- Select OK.
Define a new number format
Select the text or numbered list you want to change.
On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select the arrow next to Numbered List
, and then select Define New Number Format.To change the style, select the down arrow next to Number style and choose numbers, letters, or another chronological format.
To change the font size, style, and color, select Font and choose a setting on the Font tab or Advanced tab:
Tab Description Font tab Change the bullet font, style, size, color, underline style, underline color, and effects. Advanced tab Change the bullet font character spacing and OpenType features. To append the numbering with a dash, parentheses, or another value, enter it in the Number format field.
To change the number alignment, choose Left, Centered, or Right under Alignment.
Select OK.
Define a new multilevel list
Select the text or numbered list you want to change.
On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the arrow next to Multilevel List
, and then click Define New Multilevel List.Expand the Multilevel list dialog box by clicking More in the lower left corner.
Choose the list level to modify by selecting it in the list. 1 is selected by default.
Choose where you would like to apply your changes by clicking Whole list, This point forward, or Current paragraph.
To use an existing style in Word for each level in the list, choose a style under Link level to style.
Choose the number to show in the gallery. Level 1 is shown by default.
Give the multilevel list a name in the ListNum field list name. This name will appear wherever you see the Listnum field.
To append the numbered list with a dash, parentheses, or another value, enter it in the Number format field.
To change the font size, style, and color, click Font and choose a setting on the Font tab or Advanced tab:.
Tab Description Font tab Change the bullet font, style, size, color, underline style, underline color, and effects. Advanced tab Change the bullet font character spacing and OpenType features. To change the style, click the down arrow next to Number style and choose numbers, letters, or another chronological format. Specify a level number to include this from.
Choose the number to start the list at. The default value is 1. To restart numbering after a specific level, select the Restart List After check box and choose a level in the list.
Select Legal Style Numbering to enforce a legal style on the multilevel list.
To change the number alignment, choose Left, Centered, or Right under Alignment.
Specify a value for where to start the alignment and a value for the text indent.
To apply these values to the entire list, choose Set for All Levels.
Enter a value for what should follow each number, Tab character, Space, or Nothing. Check Add tab stop at and enter a value.
Select OK.
Define a new list style
- Select the text or numbered list you want to change.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the arrow next to Multilevel List
, and then click Define New List Style.
- Specify a name for your new list style.
- Choose the number to start the list at. The default value is 1.
- Choose a level in the list to apply your formatting.
- Specify the font face, size, and color for the list style.
- Change the down arrow to change the style of the numbered list or bulleted list.
- Choose a symbol for the list.
- Choose an image for the list.
- Choose to move the indent to the left or the right.
- Choose to apply these changes to Only in this document or New documents based on this template.
- To change more formatting settings, click Format and choose Font, Numbering, Text effects, and so forth.
- Click OK.
Turn off automatic numbering for lists
- Select File, and then from the left pane, select Options.
- In the Word Options dialog, in the left pane, select Proofing.
- In the right pane, under AutoCorrect options, select AutoCorrect Options.
- Select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
- Under Apply as you type, clear the Automatic numbered lists check box, and then select OK.
Related information
Change the indent between a bullet or number and text in a list