How To Add Bullet Points In Google Sheets
Bulleted lists can help break down information into bite-sized pieces and make documents appear more professional and easier to understand.
In modern word processing software, there are menu items to turn text into a bulleted list with a single click, but if you’ve looked for that option in Google Sheets you’ll know it’s not available.
Fortunately, it’s easy to manually add bullets in Google Sheets, and you can even choose the bullet style from a number of available options.
Adding Bullets Using the Keyboard Shortcut
If you have a numerical keypad on your keyboard, you can use the keyboard shortcuts to insert one of three basic bullet characters. Note that this method does not work with the regular number keys across the top of the keyboard.
However, many laptop keyboards and other compact keyboards have a Num Lock key that can be used to turn a portion of the keyboard into a numeric keypad.
To use the numeric keypad shortcuts follow these steps:
Step 1
Double click on a cell to enter edit mode, then move the cursor to the position in the text where you want to insert the bullet
Step 2
Hold Down Alt on your keyboard if you are using Windows or Option if you are using Mac
Step 3
Press the number 7 on your numeric keypad then release all keys. A simple circle bullet character will be inserted. Be sure to add a space after the bullet character to separate it from the text that follows it
Step 4
You can also insert a hollow circle ○ or a diamond ♦ bullet character with this method, just follow the steps above but use the following numbers on the numeric keypad instead of the number 7
Hollow circle ○ – 9
Diamond ♦ – 4
Copying Bullets from the Internet
If you don’t have a numeric keypad or just want more options for the style of bullet, you can copy/paste bullets from the internet into your Spreadsheet.
Here’s How:
Step 1
You can find bullet characters in a number of places, but W3Schools has a handy list of bullets to copy/paste that you can find Here.
Scroll down past the Example section to the table of characters and highlight the one you want to use with your cursor, then hit Ctrl+C to copy that character.
Step 2
In Google Sheets, double click on the cell you want to insert the bullet in to enter edit mode then hit Ctrl+V to paste the bullet. Be sure to add a space after the bullet character to separate it from the text that follows it
Step 3
You can also use any other character or emoji you find on the internet as a bullet
Summary
Example Spreadsheet: Make a copy of the example spreadsheet
In this tutorial, I covered how to add bullet points in Google Sheets. Want more? Check out all the Google Sheets Tutorials.