People often think Microsoft Word has a mind of its own. This seems to ring especially true for people when working with bulleted and/or numbered lists. Here are some simple shortcuts to help you!
If you need multiple levels of bullets/numbers, then you after you press Enter, press Tab. This levels the information.
***Tab demotes***
If you need to move back up a level in the list, then shift + tab promotes back up.
***Shift Tab promotes***
Sometimes when we type our list, we need to drop text onto the next line but align with the text, not the bullet shape. This is easy to accomplish with a soft return. When you press enter then it produces a hard return (and in a bulleted/numbered lists another bullet).
***If you hold shift when you press enter it produces a soft return. ***
Time to stop playing the “backspace game”. The backspace game is what happens when you get the last bullet typed and then you get another right after pressing enter!
***If you hit enter twice it will end the list. ***
Here is a Sample list:
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This is a first level tab. When I press Enter, I get another bullet on the same level.
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So here is another level 1 bullet. To go to level 2, press Enter then Tab.
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Now I have a level 2. Enter and Tab again gives me level 3.
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This called “Demoting”, but now I need to “Promote”, which is Enter, SHIFT+Tab.
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And it takes me up 1 level at a time, Enter, Shift+Tab.
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All the way back to 1. If I need to add a line of text under the bullet, Shift + Enter.
Shift+Enter is called a “soft return”, now I will press ENTER, ENTER (Enter Button twice) to end the list.
I love bullets now!!!
