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Writing-Related Software Tutorials

How to Create Bulleted and Numbered Lists in Adobe Acrobat (PC & Mac)

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Wooden blocks with checkmarks with text overlay "How to Create Bulleted and Numbered Lists in Adobe Acrobat"This tutorial shows how to create bulleted and numbered lists in Adobe Acrobat. We will also look at how the remove bullets and numbering without deleting the list items.

For general information about working with text, please see “How to Add and Format Text in PDFs with Adobe Acrobat.”

Table of Contents

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The images below are from Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. These steps also apply to Adobe Acrobat 2020. In addition, the steps are the same for PC and Mac. These steps don’t apply to Adobe’s free PDF display software, Acrobat Reader.

How to Create Bulleted and Numbered Lists

The steps below assume you have already opened a PDF with enough room to insert your list. If you need to create more room, please see “How to Create a Blank PDF in Adobe Acrobat,” which includes a section about inserting blank pages.

  1. Select the Tools tab.
Tools tab in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 1. Tools tab
  1. Select the Edit PDF button in the Tools Center.
Edit PDF button in the Tools Center in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 2. Edit PDF button
  1. Select the Add Text button in the Edit PDF toolbar.
Add Text button in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 3. Add Text button
  1. Place your cursor where you want to begin the list.
  2. Select the Bulleted List menu arrow or the Numbered List menu arrow in the Format pane.
Bulleted List and Numbered List menu arrows in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 4. Bulleted List and Numbered List menu arrows
  1. Select a bullet or number format from the drop-down menu.
Numbered List menu in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 5. Numbered List menu

The first bullet or number will appear in a text box. In Acrobat, all text that you add must be in a text box.

  1. Use the text box resizing handles to adjust the width of the text box to accommodate the list items. The length of the text box will adjust automatically.
Text box resizing handles in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 6. Resizing handles
  1. Type the first list item after the bullet or number and then press the Enter key (PC) or Return key (Mac) to move to the next bullet or number.
Numbered list in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 7. Numbered list
  1. (Optional) To move items to the next list level, select the items and then press the Tab key. To return items to the previous level, press the Shift + Tab keys.

Important Note: Acrobat won’t let you move list items to the next level if there is not enough room in the text box.

Multilevel list in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 8. Multilevel list
  1. (Optional) To change the format of existing bullets or numbers, select the entire list number and item and then choose a new format from the Bulleted List drop-down menu or the Numbered List drop-down menu (see figure 5). All the bullets or numbers on that level will be updated.

Pro Tip: You can combine bullets and numbers in the same list.

List with numbers and bullets in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 9. List with numbers and bullets
  1. Press the Enter key followed by the Backspace key (PC) or Return key followed by the Delete key (Mac) to remove your cursor from the list.
  2. Select the Close button to close the Edit PDF toolbar.
Close button in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 10. Close button

How to Remove Bullets and Numbering from Lists

  1. Select the Tools tab (see figure 1).
  2. Select the Edit PDF button in the Tools Center (see figure 2).
  3. Select the Edit button in the Edit PDF toolbar, if it is not already selected.
Edit button in the Edit PDF toolbar in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 11. Edit button
  1. Select the entire list.
Selected list in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 12. Selected list
  1. Select the Bulleted List menu arrow or the Numbered List menu arrow in the Format pane (see figure 4).
  2. Select Delete (the two dashes) at the top of the drop-down menu.
Delete option (two dashes) in the Numbered List menu in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 13. Delete option

This option will remove all bullets and numbering regardless of which drop-down menu you chose. The list items should remain in the text box.

List after removing bullets and numbering in Adobe Acrobat
Figure 14. List after removing numbering and bullets

Pro Tip: If you have existing text arranged as a list, you can select the text and then apply bullets or numbering to all the text at once by selecting an option from the Bulleted List or Numbered List menus in the Format pane (see figure 4).

  1. Select the Close button to close the Edit PDF toolbar (see figure 10).

Related Resources

How to Insert Watermarks in PDFs with Adobe Acrobat

How to Add Page Numbers to PDFs in Adobe Acrobat