How to Change the Bullet Color in InDesign

Color adds visual interest to any bulleted list. Learn how to change the bullet color in InDesign to make lists feel styled and professional.

When you’re designing a text layout, the details matter, and small adjustments like colored bullets can go a long way toward making your text stand out. In this handy guide, we’re sharing how to change bullet color, InDesign style. To do this, you’ll need to apply a character style to the bullets.

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Changing the Bullet Color in InDesign

1. Open your InDesign project, and select the Type tool from the Tools panel (or press T). 
2. Click into any text box and highlight the bullet points you want to edit. In the Properties panel, find the section for Bullets and Numbering and click Options.
3. In the Bullets and Numbering dialogue box, select Bullets as your List Type. If you already have a character style set, choose it from the Character Style dropdown menu and click OK; your bullets will change color according to the character style. If you do not yet have a character style set, proceed to the next step.
4. To create a new character style, click into the Character Style dropdown menu and choose New Character Style at the bottom. 
5. In the dialogue box, give your character style a name and adjust its settings as needed (choosing the font family, size, spacing, etc.).
6. Select the Character Color tab from the left. Choose any color from the list and click OK. 
7. Click OK again to close the Bullets and Numbering dialogue box. Any bullets in your selected text box will automatically change to the selected color.

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Defining a Paragraph Style

After creating a new character style, you can apply the same process to paragraphs so that every new paragraph has specific attributes. For example, you might want a paragraph to always use black bullet points or blue arrows.

Here’s how to apply a paragraph style to any text frame in InDesign:

1. Choose the Type tool and click in the relevant text box, so that some of the type is highlighted in the desired paragraph. 
2. Open the Paragraph Styles panel. (If you can’t find this panel, just select Type > Paragraph Styles from the main menu.)
3. Click on the Paragraph Styles panel menu (the three small lines in the panel’s top right corner) and choose New Paragraph Style. 
4. In the New Paragraph Style dialogue box, give your paragraph style a name. If you check Apply Style to Selection, your style will be associated with the highlighted paragraph.
5. Click into the Bullets and Numbering tab. Here, you’ll see the current character style and bullet settings. If you’ve already created a character style in this particular text box, these settings will be identical. If you haven’t yet set a character style, you can choose one now.
6. Click OK, and your new paragraph style will be saved to the Paragraph Styles panel. Now, if you highlight other paragraphs with the Type tool and then click on the new paragraph style, your formatting (such as a custom bullet color) will instantly be applied.

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Cover image via amenic181

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