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List Styles

A list style is similar to an outline numbered list, but it's a bit less flexible and most appropriate for use with more basic outlines.

If you aren't comfortable with outline numbering, get familiar with your options before you start using list styles, so you'll know that you're making the best and easiest choice for your document.

Like an outline numbered list, a list style contains paragraph number (or bullet) formatting for up to nine levels of an outline. Unlike outline numbering, however, all nine levels of formatting are contained in one style.

That sounds fantastically easy, and it is, but there is a catch. Since a list style is a type of style itself, it can't contain paragraph styles (as outline numbered lists can) so it can't store unique paragraph formatting for each outline level. List styles can only contain formatting that relates to the paragraph numbering, so all other formatting must be applied separately, which can turn out to be a whole lot of work.

Use list styles where you need a simple multilevel list without much other formatting. For complex outlines or long documents requiring outlines, Outline Numbered lists are your best bet.

To use a list style, just click the list style name in the Styles and Formatting task pane, or select the preferred list style from the List Styles tab in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box (Format menu). Once you apply a list style, press TAB or SHIFT+TAB at the start of each new paragraph to change the outline level.

Font - Displays the (Format > Font) dialog box with the "Font", "Character Spacing" and "Text Effects" tabs.

Numbering - Displays the (Format > Bullets and Numbering) dialog box with the "Outline Numbered" tab.

Shortcut key - Displays the Customise Keyboard dialog box.

In the task pane, an icon of three bulleted lines sits beside each list style.