Q. How many spaces should you leave between a bullet and an item in a vertical list?
A. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, the default setting for a bulleted list applies a hanging indent of 0.25 inches. This means that the bullet is a quarter inch to the left of the text. A similar indent value can be used for typeset text in Adobe Illustrator or the like. Here’s what the HTML editor for this Q&A does by default:
- This is the first item in a bulleted list.
- This is the second item. It’s long enough that it should spill over to the next line in practically any program you might use to view this page.
- This is the third and last item in the list.
But don’t type actual spaces after a bullet (i.e., using the space bar). It’s better to use the list option in whatever program you’re using, which should apply a fixed amount of space after each bullet to create the hanging indent.
But if you create the list manually—for example, by inserting a bullet character followed by a tab (or what Word and Docs do automatically)—you’ll need to apply a hanging indent also. Whichever method you use, the size of the hanging indent can be adjusted to suit your preferences. For some additional considerations, see CMOS 2.25.