Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Fixing Mismatched Bullets and Numbers.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 26, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365
Sometimes when using the numbering or bullet features in Word, the format of one or more of the numbers or bullets does not match the others. For example, the color, size, or some other formatting could be different. This can be very frustrating to resolve if you don't realize that the format of the number and bullet is actually controlled by the format of the end-of-paragraph marker maintained by Word.
The end-of-paragraph marker is visible when you click the Show/Hide tool on the Home tab of the ribbon (it has the backward P on it). All you need to do is make sure that the paragraph marker of all items in your list are selected when you apply the bullet or numbering formatting or a style that applies such formatting. Word will then make sure that bullets and numbers are formatted the same for each item in the list.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13083) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Fixing Mismatched Bullets and Numbers.
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2026-04-01 08:00:48
j
Thank you so much! That was clear and precise and solved my issue in 30 seconds.
2026-01-06 12:06:03
Christin
Thank you so much! I was trying to figure out why one bullet point is a list was slightly off.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here:
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