2 Ways to Change Bullet Spacing in MS Word
- Using the Adjust List Indents command
- Using the Line Spacing feature
We’ll consider two different aspects—list indents and line spacing.
List indents affect the spacing of a bullet symbol to its corresponding line.
In contrast, Line spacing refers to the the spacing between bulleted items.
Method 1: Using the Adjust List Indents Command
First on our list of methods involves adjusting the list indents. Use this method if you want to align your bulleted list to a specific paragraph or sentence in your document. Additionally, you can apply this method if you want more characters to occupy the first lines of each bullet item.
Step 1: Open an MS Word document.
Start by opening a Word document that has a bulleted list. If you already have this kind of document, locate it in your file storage and open it by simply double-clicking it. Suppose you want to try this first on a new document, then launch the MS Word program and click the Blank document command. Before you can proceed with the succeeding steps, use the Bullets feature and create a list similar to the one being shown below.
Step 2: Right Click the Bullet
Highlight any of the bullet symbols in your document. From there, right-click on the top of the highlighted bullet , as shown below.
Step 3: Display the Adjust List Indents dialog box.
Click on Adjust List Indents. This will open the Adjust List Indents dialog box.
From here, we’ll be focusing on the Bullet position and Text indent fields.
Step 4: Make necessary adjustments to the Bullet position or Text indent.
Determine whether you need to adjust the positioning of the bullet symbols or the spacing between the symbols and texts.
Set the new values in the corresponding number fields.
Step 5: Finalize the list indents adjustment.
Upon setting your preferred adjustments, click the OK button on the dialog box.
Notice that the indentation of your bulleted list changes according to the values you have entered.
Method 2: Using the Line Spacing Feature
If you wish to adjust the line spacing between the items of your bulleted list, then you can use this method.
Step 1: Open a Word document.
Step 2: Right click on any bullet
Right-click in any part of your bulleted list to display this menu.
Step 3: View the Paragraph dialog box.
From the Right-click context menu, click the Paragraph command.
Doing this will open the Paragraph dialog box.
From this dialog box, our focus will be on the Spacing section under the Indents and Spacing tab.
Step 4: Adjust the line spacing of your bulleted list.
The Spacing section contains the settings that you’ll be needing.
Click the Line spacing drop-down button to view the list of line spacing options that you can apply.
You can also set line spaces before and after your entire list by specifying values on the Before and After number fields.
In addition to your changes, uncheck the “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style” checkbox.
Step 5: Apply the adjustments you have made.
Finalize your setting by clicking the OK button of the Paragraph dialog box.
The adjustments you have applied will instantly take effect on your selected bulleted list.
Conclusion
We hope you found this article helpful!