Bullet Point Symbols Copy and Paste

How to type a bullet point on Windows

Hold ALT and type 0149 on the numeric keypad for •. The older short code ALT 7 produces the same bullet in most applications, and ALT 254 gives the solid square ■. Every character above lists its own decimal code next to it.

In Microsoft Word, type 2022 and press ALT + X to turn the code into •. Typing an asterisk followed by a space at the start of a line starts a real bulleted list instead, which is what you want inside a document.

Windows key + full stop opens the emoji and symbol panel, where the Ω tab holds the geometric shapes and the smiley tabs hold the coloured bullets.

• ALT codes need Num Lock on and the numeric keypad, not the number row.
• On a laptop with no keypad, copy from this page or use the emoji panel.
• Character Map (search for charmap) can also copy any of these characters.

How to type a bullet point on a Mac

Option + 8 types • directly on the standard US layout, which is by far the fastest route for the plain bullet. For anything fancier, press CTRL + CMD + SPACE to open the Character Viewer, search for a name such as florette, square or triangle, and double click the result.

If you keep reaching for the same decorative bullet, save yourself the search: open System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Text Replacements and map a trigger such as bb to ✦. It then works in Notes, Mail, Pages, Slack and on your iPhone if iCloud sync is on.

Bullets in HTML and CSS

In prose, &bull; gives •, &middot; gives · and &#9642; gives ▪. In a real list, do not type the character at all. Use <ul> and <li> and let CSS decide the marker, because screen readers announce a genuine list and its length, while a typed bullet is read out as the word bullet or skipped entirely.

list-style-type accepts disc, circle and square, and modern browsers also accept a string, so list-style-type: "▸ " works with no extra markup. For finer control, style the marker itself: li::marker { content: "✦ "; color: #e07b39; }. That keeps the text indent intact, which typing a character into the line never does.

If you do need a bullet as a decorative separator between inline items, wrap it in a span with aria-hidden="true" so it is not read aloud between every link.

Custom bullets in Word, Google Docs and PowerPoint

Word: on the Home tab, open the arrow next to the bullet list button, choose Define New Bullet > Symbol, and either pick a character or paste one from this page into the box. Save it to the bullet library and it stays available in that document.

Google Docs and Slides: click the arrow next to the bulleted list button, choose More bullets, then search by name or draw the symbol. Docs keeps recently used bullets at the top of that panel.

PowerPoint: Home > Bullets > Bullets and Numbering > Customize, which is also where you set the bullet size as a percentage of the text and its colour. A warning that saves a lot of pain: bullets taken from Wingdings or Webdings are font-dependent and can turn into random letters on another machine or in a PDF. Pasting a real Unicode character such as ▪ or ✦ survives the trip.

Choosing a bullet that reads well

The default cascade in word processors is • for the first level, ◦ for the second and ▪ for the third, and readers already recognise it, so there is rarely a reason to fight it. Save the decorative shapes for places that cannot do real lists at all.

Two practical notes. Coloured emoji bullets such as 🔹 and ✅ are drawn from the emoji font, so they ignore your text colour, sit slightly off the baseline and are announced by screen readers with their full name, for example small blue diamond, on every single line. Plain geometric bullets behave themselves. And in Instagram bios, LinkedIn posts or plain text emails, a pasted bullet plus a normal line break is the only kind of list available, so keep one space after the bullet for even alignment.

• Documents and reports: • ◦ ▪
• Pointed, action-oriented lists: ‣ ▸ ➤
• Checklists: ☐ ☑ ✔
• Social bios and invitations: ✦ ★ ❀ ❧
• Plain text and code comments: - or –
• Status lines where colour helps: 🔴 🟡 🟢