Basic Working Procedures > Text Formatting and Styles > Numbered and Bulleted Lists

List definitions only define the bullet or numbering styles to be used, they do not allow you to format indents or paragraph formatting. Paragraph formatting and indents can be applied manually or with styles. In addition to this you can also change the appearance of the bullets and numbers (color, bold, italic etc) by applying manual formatting in the list items.

Key Information

By default lists have their own hidden indent for the numbers or bullets, which is not displayed in the editor ruler. To use your own indent you must apply a style or format the paragraph manually.

The paragraph settings of lists, including the indent for the bullets or numbers, are controlled by the first item in the list. To change the indent or the paragraph formatting of the entire list you just need to format the first item.

1.	Click in the first item in the list. If the list has only one item you must click to the left of the very first character in the first line of the list item.

2.	Adjust the indent of the list with the paragraph tool in the ruler above the editor:

You can also adjust list indents by applying an indented paragraph style to the first item in the list. Note that in outline numbered lists you can only set one indent for the entire list, including the lower levels.

•	You can change the paragraph settings of an entire list by formatting the first item of the list manually or with a paragraph style. If the list has only one item place the cursor to the left of the first character in the first line before applying a style.

•	If you also want to apply font settings you must apply styles to all the items in the list.

If you use the indent tools in single-level lists you will just get an error message. This is because in lists the indent tool is used for changing the list level, but this only works in multi-level outline numbered lists. In single-level lists you will get an error message because the list only has one level and you cannot change it to a higher or lower level.

•	If you want to use the indent tools on single-level lists you must first select the entire list and "turn off" the list by clicking on the bulleted or numbered list tool. After changing the indent with the indent tool you can then turn the list on again.

•	It is easier to change the list indent by formatting the first list item manually or applying a style (see above).

The formatting of bullets and numbering in lists is controlled by the formatting of the last character in the first item of the list.

•	To make bold numbering add a space to the end of the first item in the list, select the space and make it bold. The numbering will also be bold if the entire first item is bold, of course.

•	You can use the same method to change the color of the numbering or the bullets in the list. Just format a space at the end of the first item with a color – the space is invisible so the color won't show.