Be able to apply bullets including shape, alignment, line spacing and indent

14 Styles – Bullets, Alignment, Line Spacing and Indent

Learning Objective

By the end of this lesson students will be able to apply bullets with the correct shape, set the appropriate alignment, adjust line spacing and create the required indentations in a document.

1. Bullet Shapes

Word‑processing software provides several predefined bullet symbols. The most common shapes are shown below.

• Disc – •
• Circle – ◦
• Square – ▪
• Dash – –
• Numbered – 1., 2., 3., … (ordered list)

These symbols can be selected from the “Bullets” gallery or entered manually using Unicode characters.

2. Aligning Bulleted Lists

Bulleted lists can be aligned in the same way as normal paragraphs:

• Left‑aligned – the default alignment for most documents.
• Centre‑aligned – useful for headings or decorative lists.
• Right‑aligned – rarely used, but can be applied for special effects.

To change alignment, select the list and apply the desired alignment command (e.g., “Align Left”, “Center”, “Align Right”).

3. Line Spacing

Line spacing determines the vertical distance between lines of text within a paragraph or list.

• Single spacing – one line of space (default).
• 1.5 line spacing – one and a half lines of space.
• Double spacing – two lines of space.

Example (single spacing):

Item one

Item two

Item three

Example (double spacing):

Item one

Item two

Item three

4. Indenting

Indentation controls how far a paragraph or list item is shifted from the left or right margin.

• First‑line indent – only the first line of a paragraph is indented.
• Hanging indent – the first line starts at the margin and subsequent lines are indented.
• Block indent – the entire paragraph is shifted left or right.

Example of a hanging indent using a nested list:

• Primary bullet

  • Secondary bullet – appears indented under the primary bullet.
  • Another secondary bullet.

• Another primary bullet.

5. Summary of Styles