How to Add a Bulleted or Numbered List in PowerPoint

If you’ve been creating presentations for some time, you know how important bullet points are in your PowerPoint presentations. For anyone who’s new to the world of presentations, let me tell you. Bullet points are one of the most important elements of a good presentation. Never put walls of text on your slides, when you compress all that information into a few, short bullet points. Whether you’re outlining key points, presenting steps of a process, or even showcasing comparative data, bullet points and numbered lists are powerful tools in your presentations. They can help enhance clarity and organization in your presentations. In this guide, we’ll go through the process of creating bullet points, and customizing them, allowing you to create beautiful, impactful presentations. So, let’s begin!

How to Add a Bullet Point or List in PowerPoint

Select the slide where you want to add your list and click on Home in the ribbon.

Once you’ve selected a text, or in general when working on adding text, the Paragraph section will be available. You can create bullet points or numbered lists by clicking on their respective buttons.

Each button will give you drop down menu with multiple choices of styles. Choose one that suits your need, and it will be applied to your text.

Once you’ve created a list, you can easily add more points by just pressing Enter.

You can customize these bullet points and numbered lists as well.

To do this, click on Bullets and Numbering at the bottom of the drop-down menu.

This opens a dialog box that lets you customize many aspects of the bullet points.

Just like in the drop-down menu, you will be able to choose between different styles of bullet points and numbers (including alphabets, and more). Once you select a style, you can also use the Size option to adjust its size. Play around with different colors as well for your bullet points by clicking on Color. This is crucial, when your background is of a different color.

Apart from these common features, you can also add a little character to your bullet points by adding a picture. This picture will appear as the bullet points, and this is especially useful when you’ve got strict branding guidelines that you need to follow. Or it could even be an aesthetic choice.

Now if you want more characters than the ones PowerPoint suggests, to use as bullet points, click on Customize. This will open another dialog box where you can find and select symbols to use as bullets in your presentation.

You can choose characters from different Fonts, and Subsets as well, by selecting them from the respective drop-down menus. A recently used section is available to re-use your recently used symbols. And if you know the character code of the symbol you’re looking for, simple enter the code into the Character code area. Finally press OK, and you’re done.

Additional tips while using bullet points or numbered lists:

Make sure you maintain visual consistency. Use the same bullet or numbering style in all your slides, this gives your presentation a cohesive look. You can also use sub-lists by pressing tab. Do this to maintain hierarchy in your lists.

By using bullet points and numbered lists in PowerPoint, you can enhance the clarity and organization of your presentations. Well-formatted lists improve audience comprehension and engagement, allowing you to deliver your message effectively. Try these steps today. Oh and don’t forget to check out SlideBazaar.com for PowerPoint presentation themes and templates.