Bulleted & Numbered Lists in Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign
Article written on Thursday, 22 May 2025
Bulleted and numbered lists can significantly enhance your layout when styled effectively. I frequently use this technique while designing various printed materials for my long-term client, EmC Leaders. Here’s an overview of my process in creating the proper Character and Paragraph styles :
1. Create a Bullet Character Style
First of all I create a new Character Style (Window > Styles > Character Styles) that defines the style of my bullet. Usually I just want to have the bullet in a different color and size. I start from a duplicate of my body copy Character Style, by choosing Duplicate Style... from the contextual menu after (right) clicking the body copy style in the Characters Style panel.
2. Create a Bulleted List
Next, I select my text, and make it a Bulleted List which you can select from the Control bar at the top, or go to Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists > Apply Bullets. Then I select my entire list, hit Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T to evoke the Tabs panel and tweak things to my preference.
3. Create a Bulleted List Paragraph Style
Once the list is finished, I select it and create a new Paragraph Style for my list. Under the option Bullets & Numbering, I first set the List Type to Bullets and then I select my bullet style I created before in the Character Style dropdown.
4. Create a Numbered List Paragraph Style
I also create a separate Paragraph Style for numbered lists by duplicating this style and setting the List Type to Numbers. One thing you have to keep in mind with numbered lists is that when you create a 2nd list, the numbering continues. To reset the numbering, (right) click into the list text to evoke the contextual menu and choose Restart Numbering. Hope you enjoyed this tip.
