You can customize bullets, numbers and outline styles from the Bullets and Numbers dialog. First, select the style you want to work from. (You can customize bullets, numbers, or outlined lists.) Then, click the Customize button.

The dialog you will see will depend on what you are customizing. Let’s look at the bullets customization dialog box first.

The first option in this box is to choose a Bullet Character. You can pick from one of the six default characters, or you can click Character or Picture to pick a different bullet from pre-defined lists. You can also click Font to change the font size or type for the bullet.

The next option is Bullet Position. This option tells Word how far to indent the bullet; you can pick as far back as negative 22 inches or as far forward as plus 22 inches!

The third set of options lets you set the Text’s Position in relation to the bullet. The Tab Space After option lets you set how far the first line of text should be indented. The Indent At option lets you set how far the next lines of text should be indented.

Finally, at the bottom of the Customize screen, you can see a preview of how your bullets will look in a sample block of text.

The Customize Numbered List box looks similar, as you can see by the figure on the left. The first set of options lets you choose a Number Format. (You can type in the first box to change your style, but it’s not recommended.) You can, however, click the Font button to the right of the Number Format box to set font options (such as style, size, colour, and effects) for your numbering scheme.

The next box in the Number Format section lets you pick a number style (such as 2. or 2, or I or I) or a). Then, you can type the number you would like the list to start with in the Start at box.

Our second set of options is Number Position, which allows you to set the number to the left, to the right, or in the centre. The third set of options (Text Position) is almost the same as in the Customize Bulleted List dialog box. You can enter the point where you want numbers to be aligned in the Aligned at box. And, you can set text indents with the Tab space after (for the first line) and the Indent at (for the rest of the lines) boxes.

We also have a preview of our settings at the bottom of the Customize Numbered List dialog.

The Customize Outlined Numbered List looks a bit different than the other two customize boxes, but the same concepts still apply:

In the Number Format section, you can choose the level of formatting that you want to change with the Level scroll box. The Number Format box will show you what the individual numbers, letters, or bullets of that level will look like. You can pick different number, letter, and bullet styles with the Number style box, and choose a starting point with the Start at box.

If you have selected a level other than 2, you can set the number and font for the previous level using the Previous level number menu.

The Number Position options remain the same. You can choose to align the number to the left, right, or centre, and set the exact point (in inches) for the numbers to be aligned at. Then, use the Tab space after and the Indent at boxes to set the position for the first and subsequent lines of text, respectively.

Once you’re done making your changes, click OK to save them or Cancel to discard them.

Once you have set these options, your custom bullet/number/outline will then appear in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box:

To reset it to the default bullet, select your customized scheme and click the Reset button:

The reset button will not be available for default schemes.