How to Create a Bulleted List in Excel & Google Sheets

Written by

Mel Jenkins

Reviewed by

Laura Tsitlidze

Last updated on July 18, 2023

This tutorial demonstrates how to create a bulleted list in Excel and Google Sheets.

Bullet intro

There are several ways that bulleted lists can be created in Excel. This tutorial introduces a few methods.

Create a Bulleted List With a Shortcut Key

  1. Select the cell you wish to start creating your bulleted list in, and then while holding down the ALT key on the keyboard, on your numeric keypad, type 0149.

Bullet alt

  1. Press the SPACE bar to put a space after the bullet and type in the text.

Bullet Text

  1. Press the ENTER key to enter the bullet and text into the cell and move down to the next cell.
  2. Repeat the process for each item in the list.

Bullet List

Create a Bulleted List Using Format Cells

  1. Type your list into Excel.

Bullet NoBullets

  1. Highlight the list, and then in the Ribbon, go to Home > Number > Number Format.

Bullet Number Format

  1. In the Format Cells dialog box, choose Custom from the Number Category list, type ALT + 0149 on the numeric keypad, and then add SPACE @. The @ symbol here represents text in the cell.

Bullet CustomFormat

  1. Click OK.

Bullet Bullet Custom Number

Create a Bulleted List in a Separate Column

  1. Type only the text for the bulleted list, making sure that there is an empty column to the left of it.

Bullet Empty Column

  1. Click in the blank cell to the left of the first item in the list and then, in the Ribbon, go to Insert > Symbols > Symbol.

Bullet Number Insert Symbol

  1. In the Symbols tab, in the Font drop down, choose Wingdings and scroll down to find an appropriate bullet for the list.

Bullet Symbols Wingdings

  1. Click Insert to insert the symbol into the selected cell and press ENTER.

Bullet Symbols Bullet

  1. Drag the fill handle in the bottom-right corner of the cell down to copy the bullet down to the remaining cells in the list (or copy-paste the bullet into the cells).

Bullet Symbols Bullet Copy

Create a Bulleted List in Google Sheets

Creating bulleted lists in Google Sheets is similar to creating them in Excel.

Create a Bulleted List With a Shortcut Key

  1. In the cell where the first bullet is required, hold down ALT on the keyboard and on the numeric keypad, type 0149. Then type in the text.

Bullet GS AltKey

  1. Repeat this for the entire list.

Bullet GS BulletedList

Create a Bulleted List in a Separate Column

  1. Type the text for the bulleted list and make sure that there is an empty column to the left of it.

Bullet GS BlankColumn

  1. In the empty cell, hold down ALT on the keyboard and on the numeric keypad, type 0149 and press ENTER.

Bullet GS AltBulletedList

  1. Drag the fill handle to copy the bullet down the rest of the list.

Bullet GS DragHandle

Custom formatting is not available to create bulleted lists in Google Sheets.

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