Adobe Illustrator: Bullet lists

Posted on: April 25th, 2016Author: barb.binderCategory: Adobe Illustrator, Uncategorized

by Barb Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor on Illustrator

This came in from a recent Adobe Illustrator student:

Hey, Barb. I’m laying out a 2-page flyer in Illustrator and I can’t find bullets. Can’t I set up a bulleted list in Illustrator?

As of Illustrator CC 2015, there is no bullets feature (like we have in InDesign), but that doesn’t mean you can’t create a bullet list… you just have to set up yourself. Here’s how:

1. Using the Type tool, drag out an area text box.
   
2. Add and format the list.
   
3. Add the bullet and a tab in front of each list item:
   1. To get the basic round bullet on a Mac, tap Opt+8. To get the basic round bullet on Windows, tap Alt+7 on the numeric keypad. For more fun bullets, see the note at the bottom of this post.
   2. Add a tab after the bullet.
   3. To make it more visual, consider displaying hidden characters so that you can see the tab character between the bullet and the text with Type > Display Hidden Characters.
      
4. Set up a hanging indent:
   1. Select the list and open the Paragraph panel with Window > Type > Paragraph.
   2. Enter a left indent and a negative 1st line indent. (I am measuring in points, but you can use your favorite unit of measure.  I used 20 pts for the left indent and -20 pts for the 1st line indent.)
      
   3. With the list still selected, open the Tabs panel with Window > Type > Tabs.
   4. Select the left-align tab, and then enter the same value that you used for your left indent. Again, for me it’s 20 pts. (Notice that I am using the same value for the left indent, negative 1st line indent and left-aligned tab: 20, -20, 20.)
      
5. When you are done, you can hide the hidden characters and adjust the width of the area frame, while maintaining the hanging indent.
   

NOTE: If you are looking for more fun bullet characters, choose Type > Glyphs. Locate an ornamental font and let the games begin!