bulleted lists punctuation
For lists made from a series in a sentence, use this sample as a guide.
These employees are
- smart,
- knowledgeable,
- friendly, and
- efficient.
If you were to write this out as a sentence, you would have the following: “These employees are smart, knowledgeable, friendly, and efficient.” This is a series and not a list, which is why there’s no colon after “These employees are.” The introductory phrase is not a complete sentence, and the bulleted items cannot be removed without creating a sentence fragment.
When creating a bulleted list, you use the same punctuation.
In the sample above, notice
- the commas after each item,
- where the “and” goes, and
- the lack of a colon after “are.”
When the items in the list are complex (i.e., they have their own commas), you can use a semicolon after each list item. Also, you can capitalize each item in the list, but you don’t need to do so because the items would not be capitalized if you were to write this out in sentence format.
(This is the tip for day 70 in 300 Days of Better Writing, also available at Hostile Editing in PDF and Kindle formats.
For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.)
“How do I align the periods in a numbered lists?” I’ve seen a variation of this question asked repeatedly in user forums. Here’s an example of one such forum thread.
If you’re wondering how to align the periods in a numbered list. It’s your lucky day. Here’s a video tutorial that explains the tricky workaround.
If you don’t have time for the video, click below to see pictures.
See how the periods don’t line up after the numbers? The simple answer is to use right alignment and increase the First Line Indent value by increments until the numbering is aligned.Here are the detailed steps:1. Select the numbered paragraphs.2. Alt/Option-click the Numbered List button in the Control panel.3. In the Bullets & Numbering dialog box, select Preview.4. Choose Right from the Alignment menu.5. Increase the Left Indent value to create a buffer.6. Increase the First Line Indent value gradually until the periods are aligned.Of course, if your numbering goes past 100, you’ll have to add even more space. This same method works when you’re editing a paragraph style that uses numbering.