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Understanding Bullets

This will probably appear a bit confusing but knowing how a single level bullet is defined will help you to explain some of the unexpected results and sometimes weird behaviour.

The first thing to understand is that Word stores single level bullet formats as "List Templates".

What is a List Template ?

A list template represents all the formatting associated with a specific bullet format.

Every list template you define in a document is added to that documents List Template collection.

Since the (Format > Bullets and Numbering) dialog box only displays the seven most recently used list templates not all of the these are easily accessible.

List templates are referenced on a document specific level.

Every document can contain a different set of list templates.

They only contain one level of bullets.

They all contain a text "indent at" value.

They all contain a text "tab space after" value.

They all contain a bullet "indent at" value.

They all contain a starting point.

They all contain a finishing point.

What is a List Gallery ?

A list gallery is a collection of seven GLOBAL list templates that are held at the application level.

Word has three built-in list galleries and each gallery contains the seven most recently used list templates.

These three galleries correspond to three of the tabs on the (Format > Bullets and Numbering) dialog box.

Bulleted lists - This tab displays the seven different bullet formats in the Bulleted list gallery.

Numbered lists - This tab displays the seven different numbered bullet formats in the Numbered list gallery.

Outline Numbered lists - This tab displays the seven different outline bullet and numbered bullet formats in the Outline Numbered list gallery.

These galleries are consistent every time you display this dialog box when a bullet format is not currently selected.

Bulleted Tab

This tab only displays the seven most recently used list templates.

List templates are created (and managed) automatically for you which is why this dialog box causes so many problems.

However the contents of this dialog box will be replaced if the current selection has a bullet format applied to it.

If the current selection does not have a bullet format applied to it your global List Gallery will be displayed and "None" will be selected.

Resetting my Bullet Formats

It is possible to reset your list Galleries by using the Reset button at the bottom of the (Format > Bullets and Numbering) dialog box.

Before doing this make sure you do not have a bullet format selected by opening a new blank document.

You must select each of the seven list templates in turn and press the Reset button.