How to Add Bullet Points in Excel: The 4 Best Methods (2024)

Bullet points are used to organize and structure writing. They are a great way to present lists of facts, highlight important points, or give out clear instructions.

Sadly, Excel doesn’t have a built-in button for adding bullet points, unlike most word processors like Microsoft Word. It’s such a basic functionality to be left out 🤔

But that doesn’t mean you can’t insert bullet points in Excel.

In fact, there are many ways to insert bullet points in Excel. In this article, you will learn the 4 BEST methods 😊

Ready?

Download your free practice workbook here and let’s start!

Method #1: Add bullet points in a text box

This tutorial covers the 4 best methods for how to add bullet points in Excel. The first best method is to add bullet points in a text box.

You probably know your way around adding a text box in other programs. In Excel, it works just the same.

Open your practice workbook and follow these steps below 👇

  1. Go to the Insert Tab.
insert bullets
  1. Click the Text button.
insert bullets
  1. Select the Text Box button.
insert bullet list
  1. In the worksheet, click where you want to have the Text Box. You can also drag it to your desired size.

The Text Box isn’t anchored to a cell in a worksheet. So, you can move, resize or rotate it using the handles.

  1. Type the item list in the Text Box.

It can be anything like a list of names or objects or even your to-do lists ✍️

insert bullet points in Excel
  1. Select the lines you want to turn into bullet points.
  2. Right-click on them, and then click the Bullets.
insert bullet points in Excel

There you have it, your first bulleted list in Excel 👏

This type of bullet point is the heavy solid bullet we commonly use.

bulleted lists

Aside from the black solid bullet, you can choose other bullet types like the hollow circle bullet or the solid square bullet and more.

When you hover over different bullet types, Excel will show you a preview of how it would look like.

bullet symbols

One down, 3 more methods to go!

Method #2: Add bullet points using keyboard shortcuts

The quickest way to insert a bullet symbol into your cell is by using keyboard shortcuts. You’ll find this super helpful when you have a numeric keypad on your keyboard.

Let’s go!

  1. Select the cell.
  2. Press the Alt key + Numpad 7 on your keyboard.
insert bullet icon

Viola ✨

You can also try these key combinations for the other types of bullet points.

key combination for hollow bullet point

Wasn’t that very quick? It’s a real shortcut to insert bullet points in your cell ⚡

But just to remind you, this works only when you have a numeric keypad on your keyboard.

🤔 Quick question though: How do you insert a new line for the next bullet point of your list?

This is a good question, scroll down and you’ll learn exactly how.

Insert multiple bullet points in a cell

Inserting multiple bullet points in a single cell in your worksheet is super possible!

This is a great way to group the items in a bullet list in the same cell.

Follow this bulleted list on how to insert multiple bullets in your cells.

  1. Press the Alt key and Numpad 7 in any cell.
insert bullet point
  1. To add a new line for the next bullet point in the same cell, press the Alt key and Enter.

Alt + Enter is a keyboard shortcut used to create a new line in an Excel cell.

line break

You can insert the next bullet in this line by pressing Alt + Numpad 7 again.

Repeat the steps to insert more bullet points.

line break

One of the best methods to add bullet points in Excel is adding from the Symbol menu button.

Here’s how to do that 👇

  1. Click on the cell
  2. Go to the Insert Tab.
  3. Click the Symbols button.
add bullets symbols group

The Symbol dialog box will appear.

symbol dialog box
  1. For the Subset, select General Punctuation.
  2. Select the Bullet symbol.
  3. Click Insert.
bullet character
  1. Finally, click Close beside the Insert button.
bullet point

There you go 😊 You’ve inserted a bullet symbol by using the Symbol menu button. Type in the first item in your bullet list and create the next bullet points.

bullet point lists

That’s how you insert bullet points in Excel using the Symbol menu button.

Pro Tip!

You don’t have to scroll through all the characters and symbols to find the bullet symbol.

Save yourself some time by entering 2022 in the character code box to skip to the bullet.

Copy bullet points to cells

You can insert a bullet point to multiple cells too 😀

All you have to do is to insert a bullet point in a cell and then copy. You can insert a bullet point using any of the methods you’ve learned above.

Once you’ve inserted the bullet point in the cell, you can copy it to adjacent cells by dragging the fill handle.

other cells

You can also copy the bullet point to non-adjacent cells by utilizing the copy-and-paste method. You are fully aware of the shortcut keys for copy and paste.

Select the cell with the bullet point, then Press Ctrl + C.

Select the cell where you want to paste the bullet point then press Ctrl + V on your keyboard.

single cell different cell

You don’t have to manually insert bullet points in Excel. Let’s use the copy-and-paste method to insert bullets into other cells. Then drag the fill handle down or to the right.

Or you can do this last (but definitely not the least) best method below instead 😉

Method #4: Add bullet points by using a formula

As you know, Microsoft Excel is known for its powerful functions and formula that allows users to perform tasks easier and faster.

There’s also a formula to insert bullet points in Excel: the CHAR function.

The CHAR function can return a specific character based on the character set used by your computer. On Windows, the character code for a filled round bullet is 149, so the formula goes as follows:

=CHAR(149)

Using the CHAR function can help you add bullets to multiple cells in one go. Let’s do it😊

  1. Select the cells where you want to put the bullet points.
  2. Type this formula in the formula bar

=CHAR(149)

selected cells
  1. Press Ctrl + Enter.

The formula is inserted into all the cells you’ve selected.

bullet points in Excel

That’s how to insert bullet points in excel using the CHAR function. Amazing, right? 😀

This method is super helpful when you already have some items in another column and you want to quickly create a bulleted list with those items.

Of all these methods, which one is your favorite?

That’s it – Now what?

Your Excel skills in inserting bullet points are on point 🎯

You’ve learned the 4 best different methods how to insert bullet points in Excel. Organize your lists, highlight main points and give out clear instructions with bullet points in Excel.

You can now even insert bullet points in multiple cells with the CHAR function!

Talking about functions, there are still a lot of Excel functions that you (and everyone) should know. Functions like the IF, SUMIF, and VLOOKUP. Knowing these essential Excel functions will surely help you work a lot faster and easier 🚀

Learn these essential Excel functions when you sign up for my free email online course!

It’s free and easy 😊

Other resources

If you want to make your data organized, then you may want to know about Sort and Filter feature in Excel. Read more about How to Sort Data or Filter Data when you click their links.

Do you know that you can add checkboxes in Excel too? Yes, you can. Checkboxes are a great way to keep your data organized too (and a whole lot more!). Read about checkboxes here.

I hope you learned (and enjoyed) a lot from this blog post 👋

Frequently asked questions

Align your bullet points by highlighting the bulleted list in your text box first. In the Alignment Group in the Home Tab, click Align Left, Center, or Right buttons according to your preferred alignment.

To add a numbered list, highlight your content in the text box that you’ve added to the worksheet. Right-click and choose the little arrow beside the Bullets option. Click the Bullets and Numbering button for the dialog box to appear.

Click the Numbered Tab and select the type of numbered list you want to add to the text box and click OK.