How To Insert Bullet Points in Excel [Easy Guide]

Rows and columns alone aren’t always enough to effectively communicate information in Excel.

In such cases, using bullet points is a great way to make your data more readable. They enable you to communicate your thoughts, activities, or essential points with clarity and accuracy.

But can you add bullet points in Excel? Yes. However, Excel has yet to add a straightforward way of adding bullet points.

In this guide, we’ll show how to insert bullet points in Excel. Read on to learn more.

How To Add Bullet Points in Excel

1. Select the cell or cells you want to add the bullet points in.
2. Go to the “Insert” tab.
3. Click on the “Symbol” icon in the toolbar.
4. In the “Symbol” dialog box, select the desired font from the “Font” drop-down menu.
5. Find the bullet point format you want to use.
6. Click the “Insert” button and close the “Symbol” dialog box.

How To Insert Bullet Points in Excel

There are many different ways to add bullet points in Excel. In the guide below, we’ll show you each of these ways:

Using the Symbol Menu

One way to add bullet points in Excel is by using the “Symbol” menu, which lets you input different symbols that you can’t find on your keyboard.

Here’s how to add bullet points in Excel using the symbol menu:

1. Select the cell or cells you want to add the bullet points in.
2. In the Excel ribbon, go to the “Insert” tab.

3. Look for the “Symbol” icon in the toolbar and click on it. You can find the symbol button in the “Text” or “Symbols” group.

4. In the “Symbol” dialog box, select the desired font from the “Font” drop-down menu. The bullet point symbol may vary depending on the font you choose.
5. You can find the basic bullet points by scrolling to the number section in the font for normal text.
6. Alternatively, you can experiment with other symbols by changing the fonts.

7. Once you find a suitable bullet point symbol, click on it to select it.
8. Click the “Insert” button to insert the selected bullet point symbol into the selected cells in Excel.

The bullet points should now appear in the selected cell(s). With this method, you can insert multiple bullet points in one cell. However, if you want to insert bullet points in other cells, you must copy the cell with the first bullet point and paste it into the other cells.

You can also drag the small square at the bottom corner of the selected cell to copy the bullet points.

While this method is easy, it can be frustrating scrolling through the many symbols to find the one you want to use as your bullet points.

Luckily, Excel uses character codes to help identify symbols quickly. You can insert the character code of the bullet point you’re looking for in the “Character Code” text box.

Here are the character codes for bullet points:

Copy-Pasting from Word

It’s also possible and relatively easy to copy bullet points from a Word document and paste them into Excel. Here’s how to insert bullets in Excel cells by copy-pasting from Word:

1. Open a blank document in Microsoft Word.
2. Go to the “Home” tab and click the bullet point icon.

3. Choose a bullet point format.

4. Select the bullet points you want to copy. This can be a single line or multiple lines with bullet points. A quick way to do this is by typing the Windows keyboard shortcut CTRL + A.

5. Press Ctrl+C (on Windows) or right-click “Copy” to copy the selected text.

6. Open Microsoft Excel and navigate to the cell you want to insert the bullet points in.
7. Select the cell or cells you want to add the bullet points in.
8. Press Ctrl+V (or right-click and choose “Paste“) to paste the copied bullet points into Excel.

The bullet points from Word should now appear in the selected cells in Excel.

When you copy bullet points from Word to Excel, the formatting and style of the bullet points may also be preserved. However, keep in mind that the appearance of the bullet points in Excel can be affected by the default formatting of the cells in Excel.

NOTE: Sometimes, the bullet points may not display correctly or appear as different symbols.

In this case, you may need to choose a simpler bullet point format.

Related: Excel Vs. Google Sheets

Using the CHAR Formula

The CHAR formula works based on the ASCII code. The bullet point symbol’s ASCII code can vary depending on the characters or font used. The code 149 generally represents the bullet point symbol, but it may differ in some cases.

To add bullets in Excel using the CHAR formula, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to the cell you want to insert the bullet points in.
2. In the cell, enter the following formula:

=CHAR(149)

This formula uses the CHAR function to generate the bullet point symbol based on its ASCII code. The ASCII code for a bullet point is typically 149.

If you want to insert multiple bullet points, you can copy the cell with the formula and paste it into the desired cells.

However, with this formula, it will be hard to add text after the bullet points. Therefore, we may need to alter our formula.

In our new formula, we’ll need to concatenate a space character and the value.

=CHAR(149)&" "& “Text value”

You can add whatever value you wish to in the quotation marks for “Text Value.”

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

A very convenient method to add bullet points in Excel is using the bullets and numbering shortcut ALT + 7 (Windows).

For some users, however, the alt shortcut may not work. In such cases, you can try turning on the num lock; otherwise, it may be a compatibility issue. If so, you can try our other methods for inserting bullet points in Excel.

How To Create Custom Format Bullet Points

You can also create your own custom bullet points. Here’s how:

1. Go to the cell you want to insert the bullet points in. Make sure the cell is not blank.

2. Right-click on the cell and select “Format Cells.” Alternatively, you can use the Windows keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 to open the “Format Cells” dialog box.

3. In the “Format Cells” dialog box, select the “Number” tab.

4. From the “Category” list, select “Custom” at the bottom of the list.

5. In the “Type” field, enter the following custom format:

• @

You’ll see a preview at the top of how the bullet point will appear.

6. Click the “OK” button to apply the custom format to the cell.

This custom format uses the bullet point symbol “•” followed by the @ symbol to ensure the cell value is displayed as text. Here, you can use any symbol as your bullet point, and the bullet point symbol will appear in the cell.

If you want to apply this custom format to multiple cells, you can copy the formatted cell and paste it into the desired cells. The bullet point symbol will be replicated in the pasted cells.

Remember that using a custom format to display bullet points doesn’t change the underlying cell value or data type. It only affects how the cell value is visually represented. Therefore, if you plan to perform calculations or use the data in formulas, be aware that the bullet points are treated as text and not as numeric values.

How To Add Bullet Points in Excel to a Text Box

The “Text Box” is a tool in Excel that lets you add text separate from the cells. Here’s how you can insert bullet points in Excel in a text box:

1. Go to the “Insert” tab in the Excel ribbon.

2. In the “Text” group, click on the “Text Box” option. This will activate the text box tool.

3. Click and drag the mouse cursor on the worksheet to draw a text box. The text box will provide a space, and you can enter and format text.

4. Double-click inside the text box to activate the text editing mode.
5. Type your text or any random text.

6. Select the text and right-click on the text.

7. Choose the option for “Bullets.”

8. Select the bullets you want to use.

If you want to number for your bullet points, you can choose the “Bullets” and “Number” options instead.

The bullet points will be displayed within the text box on the Excel worksheet.

Using a text box allows you to have more control over the formatting and layout of the bullet points in Excel. You can also position the text box anywhere on the worksheet, format the text with different font styles, and resize the text box to fit your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Put Multiple Bullet Points in One Cell Excel?

By default, there is no direct way to insert multiple bullet points in an Excel cell within a single cell. However, you can have multiple Excel bullet points in one cell by copy-pasting from Word.

Another way is by going to “Symbol” and inserting multiple bullet points. Between each bullet point, click ALT + Enter (on Windows). This will add line breaks between the bullet points.

How Do You Make a Bullet Symbol?

If you want to make a bullet symbol, you can do so by formatting the cell and inserting a custom bullet point. We’ve shown you how to do this step-by-step guide above:

1. Go to the cell you want to insert the bullet points in. Make sure the cell is not blank.
2. Right-click on the cell and select “Format Cells” from the context menu.
3. In the “Format Cells” dialog box, select the “Number” tab.
4. From the “Category” list, select “Custom” at the bottom of the list.
5. In the “Type” field, enter the following custom format: You can insert any symbol you want instead of the dot.

• @

6. Click the “OK” button to apply the custom format to the cell.

Wrapping Up

Bullet points add structure to your data and make it more readable. Although there isn’t a straightforward way of adding bullet points in Excel like in Word, there are a few workarounds that we have highlighted above.

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