How to: Create a bulleted list in Excel

Insert a bullet list in MS WordUnlike Word, Excel doesn't have a similar option to insert a bulleted list.

However, you can easily create a similar list in Excel by using a so called "custom number format".
That might sound a bit difficult but it really isn't.

  1. Just select the list and right-click on any cell in your selection:
    Then choose "Format Cells..."
    Right click > Format cells...
  2. Now choose "Custom" in the number tab.
    In the Type box, enter the symbol or character that you want, followed by a space and the at sign (@)
    To insert the bullet points you can use Alt+0149 (type 0149 on the numeric keypad)
    or copy it from here: • @
    This is an example:
    Insert the bullet point (Alt+0149) or any other character
  3. Any text that you type in cells that are formatted with this new custom format will have the bullet applied to them:
    Bullet points in Excel

Alternative, edit all cells at once

If you don't want to use the customer number formatting but really insert the bullet or any other character into the cells, then you can use the following tool to quickly do this on all cells at once:
ASAP Utilities » Fill » Insert before and/or after each cell in your selection...

Download example workbook

Example workbook: Example bulleted list.xls

More information and resources

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323567
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2010/10/19/create-a-bulleted-list-in-a-cell.aspx

3 comments

Susan M

Bullet lists in Excel?! Wow -I totally did not know you could do this, but of course it will be very handy. Thanks for a great tip!

excel development

Great tip indeed.

You can also add a bullet to your paragraph. I would store the bullet symbol and the paragraph on a different sheet, say one titled "ASAP" with the bullet in A1 and paragraph in B1, and then on your main sheet where you want the bullet and the paragraph:

=ASAP!A1&" "&B1

That would put a space between the bullet and the first word of the paragraph text. Remove one of the &'s and the " " if you don't want a space.

Planilhas Excel

That's a very interesting use of the custom format option!