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Today’s blog post is brought to you by Gary Willoughby. Gary is a writer on Office.com who has created and edited content about Excel, Access, and Project.
For those of you who like bulleted lists and are frustrated that you can’t insert one in a cell, there is a way to insert bullet points in a cell to emulate such a thing. Just keep in mind that this isn’t a true list, so you can’t generate more bulleted lines by inserting a new line – you have to insert a bullet character on each line. That said, here’s how you do it:
With your cell selected and in edit mode (reminder: press F2 to go into edit mode), position the cursor where you want a bullet point. Then press ALT+0149 to generate a bullet character. And, just to refresh your memory, to insert a new line in the cell you press ALT+Enter.
Hint If you’re doing this on a laptop, enable Num Lock so that you’ll have a numeric keypad to use. Otherwise, you’ll get just as frustrated as I did by trying to enter the ALT+0149 key combination by using the number keys in the number row on the keypad. What happens is that the Open dialog box is displayed after I press the 4 in the key combination. It seems that pressing ALT+4 opens this dialog box, so for some reason the 0 and 1 appear to be ignored. My pain, your gain.
On most laptops, to enable Num Lock, you press SHIFT+Num Lock or Fn+Num Lock. If your laptop (typically a smaller model, such as a netbook) doesn’t have a Num Lock key, see its documentation to learn how to enable it.
Here’s a cell with the bullet characters that I entered.
Comments: (12) Collapse
Hi Diego/Gary, you would be happy to note there is a slighly shorter (and thankfully more memorable) way to do this. Instead of "ALT+0149" (which I'm sure you'll forget tomorrow), just use "ALT+7" (But you have to use the 7 on the Keypad, not the 7 above the letters).
If you are feeling adventurous, or feel like spicing things up, you can always throw in an "ALT-9" bullet too.
Putting more than one piece of data in a single cell is one of the first steps to spreadsheet hell. Don't do it.
I use a dynamic way, which allows me to put each item in a range of cells, and create the list in a single cell, this makes it easier to edit!
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE("¬"&B17&"~"&"¬"&B18&"~"&"¬"&B19&"~"&"¬"&B20&"~"&"¬"&B21&"~"&"¬"&B22&"~","¬~",""),"~¬",CHAR(10)&"• "),"¬","• "),"~","")
By placing the list items in cells B17 to B22, they can be deleted or added and still keep the correct formatting! it also has the advantage that you can build the strings from formulas if needed!
before anybody points out simple concatenation, this formula doesn't add extra line breaks or blank bullet points!
Agree with Bruce. If this is a Beginner tip, then a warning should be in place.
...Although this kind of things are the ones that make users come to me for assistance, and sometimes that means money !!!
Nice tip though. And the comments with the keystrokes, well... great !!
rgds,
Martin
THank you! this is really helpful. Although I don't have Excel 2010, bullets can still be inserted in Excel 2007. And, also noticed that you can do the same by hitting Alt-7. I wonder what the difference is.
thanks again!
A slightly different way for Excel 2010.
Insert, Symbol, scroll to bottom of symbols and you will find a ●
click Insert to add this to the formula bar.
Select the symbol in the formula bar, Ctrl-C to copy.
Select a cell range, add a custom format, Ctrl-V to paste the symbol then space and @, your custom format will be ● @
.... or you could just paste a bulleted list from MS Word into a cell (works perfectly).... or use the Insert Symbol option from thr Ribboon, both of which seem to me to be rather easier thah remembering Alt+number combinations.
Curiously, Excel 2007 allows you to add the bullet and numbered list icon to your quick access toolbar but it is always greyed out (as far as I can see) - surely Microsoft could add this simple and often required feature?
.... or you could just paste a bulleted list from MS Word into a cell (works perfectly).... or use the Insert Symbol option from thr Ribboon, both of which seem to me to be rather easier than remembering Alt+number combinations.
Alt-4 on the keyboard opens the fourth icon in the Quick Access Toolbar next to the Office button. It may be something besides the Open dialog box, depending on how you have customized the toolbar. It is Print Preview on my machine. You can see this by tapping Alt--numbered tooltips appear below the icons. I don't typically use the Alt-(number) shortcut in Excel, but I use it all the time in Outlook to open the Quick Parts gallery.
vishnukumar7
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