How to Create Custom Bullets in Microsoft Word

In my last tutorial, we looked at how to create bulleted lists in Microsoft Word. Today, we’re going to create custom bullets in Microsoft Word using built-in font symbols and using your own images. At the end, we will also remove custom bullets from the Bullets Library.

Quick Links:

How to Use Symbols to Create Custom Bullets
How to Use Images to Create Custom Bullets
How to Remove Custom Bullets from the Bullets Library

This tutorial is available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 150 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. The steps also apply to Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013. However, your interface may look slightly different in those older versions of the software.

How to Use Symbols to Create Custom Bullets

Important note: Symbols are part of font files, so the symbols available to you will depend on the fonts installed on your computer.

Select the Home tab in the ribbon.

Home tab in Word 365 — Figure 1. Home tab

Select the Bullets menu arrow in the Paragraph group.

Bullets menu arrow in Word 365 — Figure 2. Bullets menu arrow

Select Define New Bullet from the drop-down menu.

Define New Bullet option in Word 365 — Figure 3. Define New Bullet option

Select the Symbol button in the Define New Bullet dialog box.

Symbol button in the Define New Bullet dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 4. Symbol button

Select the font containing the symbol you want to use from the Font menu in the Symbol dialog box.

For this example, I choose Webdings. Other good choices include the Wingdings, Wingdings 2, Wingdings 3, and Symbols fonts.

Font menu in the Symbol dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 5. Font menu

Choose the character or symbol you want from the menu.

Symbol menu in the Symbol dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 6. Symbol menu

Select the OK button to close the Symbol dialog box.

OK button in the Symbol dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 7. Symbol OK button

Optional Steps: Change the Color and Size of Bullets Made from Symbols

Select the Font button in the Define New Bullet dialog box.

Font button in the Define New Bullet dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 8. Font button

Choose a new color and size from the Font dialog box.

Font dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 9. Font color and size menus

Select the OK button to close the Font dialog box.

OK button in the Font dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 10. Font OK Button

Select the OK button to close the Define New Bullet dialog box.

OK button in the Define New Bullet dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 11. Define New Bullet OK button

The first custom symbol bullet will appear in your document. Continue to create your bulleted list as you normally would.

Example of custom buttons using cat symbol — Figure 12. Example of custom symbol buttons

How to Use Images to Create Custom Bullets

You can use your own images to create custom bullets in Word. However, simpler images work better than complex images because complex images may become unrecognizable when they are scaled down to become bullets.

Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
Select the Bullets menu arrow in the Paragraph group (see figure 2).
Select Define New Bullet from the drop-down menu (see figure 3).
Select the Picture button in the Define New Bullet dialog box.

Picture button in the Define New Bullet dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 13. Picture button

Select From a file in the Insert Picture dialog box.

Alternatively, you can choose Bing Image Search if you want to search for an image online or OneDrive if your image is stored in the cloud.

The dialog box will close automatically after you make your selection.

Insert Picture dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 14. Insert Picture dialog box

Navigate to and select the image in the second Insert Picture dialog box.
Select the Insert button.

Insert button in the Insert Picture dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 15. Insert button

Your image will appear in the Preview section of the Define New Bullet dialog box.

Select the OK button to close the Define New Bullet dialog box (see figure 11).

The first custom image bullet will appear in your document. Continue to create your bulleted list as you normally would.

How to Remove Custom Bullets from the Bullet Library

After creating a custom bullet with a symbol or image, it will appear in your Bullet Library. You can remove unneeded bullets from the Bullet Library, as necessary.

Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
Select the Bullets menu arrow in the Paragraph group (see figure 2).
Right-click the unneeded bullet in the Bullet Library and select Remove from the menu.