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How to Add Bullet Points in Google Sheets

When working in Google Sheets, there may be times where you want to create lists by adding bullet points to your spreadsheet.

There is not a simple way to do this like there is in Google Docs. To add bullets you will have to get a little creative.

In this tutorial, I will show you 4 different methods for adding bullet points to your Google Sheet.

Table of Contents

Keyboard Shortcut to Insert Bullet Points

One of the quickest ways for adding bullet points to your spreadsheet is by using this keyboard shortcut:

  1. Make sure Number Lock (num lock) is enabled on your keyboard
  2. Double-click inside the cell you want to add bullets to
  3. Hold ALT and press 7 on the number keypad
  4. If you want to add bullets to other cells you can now copy and paste them from your first cell

Bullet keyboards

On most computers, this method will only work if you have the Num Lock enabled and are using the numeric keypad

Copy and Paste from Other Applications

Another simple way to get bullets into your Google Sheet is to just copy and paste them from other applications or programs.

You can copy bullet points from Google Docs, Word, PowerPoint or other programs and paste them into your spreadsheet.

For example, here are a few styles of bullet points that you can use in your spreadsheet:

•○✓

Simply copy and paste them from this site into your sheet.

To copy bullet points from Google Docs into Google Sheets, here’s what you need to do:

  1. Open up a Google Doc
  2. In the toolbar menu select Bulleted list
  3. Bring your cursor over to the bullet point and double-click on it
  4. The pullet point should now be highlighted, right-click and select Copy or press CTRL + C on your keyboard
  5. Go to your spreadsheet and click on the cell where you want to place the bullet point
  6. Right-click and select Paste or press CTRL + V on your keyboard
  7. You will now have pasted your bullet point into the cell. Copy and paste it to additional cells if desired

Copy and Paste Bullet

Insert Bullets with Custom Format

Another way to add bullet points is by creating a custom format to add bullet points to all of your selected cells.

Sometimes this is the most efficient option because after you set your cells to the format, any new data you enter into the cells will include bullet points.

Here are the steps to add bullets by creating a custom format:

1. Highlight the cells that you want add bullet points to

Bullet-format-1

2. In the top menu, select Format and then select Number

Bullet-format-2

3. In the drop-down menu, select More Formats and then select Custom number format

Bullet-format-3

4. In the text box, press ALT + 7 on your numeric keypad (it has to be the keypad!). Then add an @ symbol. So you will have “•@” in the text box. When this is done click Apply

Bullet-format-4

5. Now all of your selected cells should appear as a bulleted list like the below image

Bullet-format-5

This method is extremely fast if you want to quickly add bullets to a lot of cells

Insert Bullets with CHAR Formula

The final way that I’m going to show is by using a formula to add the Unicode numbers for bullet points. With the CHAR function, you can specify the Unicode number to add bullets to a spreadsheet.

The syntax for this is:

=CHAR(8226)

You can use this method in combination with the & symbol to add bullets to existing data with a formula like in the below example

CHAR bullet

The syntax for this is:

=CHAR(8226)&” “&A2

In the example above

  • CHAR(8826) adds the bullet point
  • &” ” will add a space to your data
  • &A2 will add the data in A2 into your cell

So what you end up with in your calculated cell is the data in your selected cell with a bullet and a space at the beginning of the data.

Closing Thoughts

Those are four different methods of adding bullet points to your Google Spreadsheet. Each method has its own strengths depending on the data you have on your spreadsheet.

Take the time and learn each method and eventually, you will probably gravitate towards one or the other.

More Google Sheets Tutorials:
How to Make a Numbered List
How to Insert Rows
How to Add or Remove Dollar Sign
How to Insert Current Date and Time