Change Default Bullet in Word 2007

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Colin - 25 May 2009 15:53 GMT

In Word 2007, if I click on the bullet button in the Home Ribbon or press *
followed by a space, it defaults to a little round bullet and certain
indenting.

If I want to change this, not by adding a macro or custom button to the
Quick Access toolbar, but just to change the default behavior of the Bullet
button in the ribbon bar or the *-space keypress, is there a way to do this?

Word 2007 seems to handle the Ribbon bar settings differently than previous
versions handled their defaults. Are these defaults just stored in
normal.dot in some fasion?

As it turns out, the only change I want to make is to shift the default
bullet from the round bullet to the square bullet, but I'd also like to
understand where Word 2007 gets its defaults in case I want to make other
changes to them in the future.

Thanks,
Colin

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Suzanne S. Barnhill - 25 May 2009 16:36 GMT

The most dependable way to do this is not to count on the Numbering button
(which always applies the most recently used style) but instead to customize
the List Bullet style to use the bullet you prefer and then apply that style
as needed. You can add List Bullet to the Quick Styles if desired, making it
one click away, or you can apply it using Ctrl+Shift+L.

Signature

Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

> In Word 2007, if I click on the bullet button in the Home Ribbon or press
> * followed by a space, it defaults to a little round bullet and certain
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Thanks,
> Colin

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Colin - 25 May 2009 23:48 GMT

But it doesn't use the most recently used button style (except within a Word
session). It always reverts back to the same bullet list. If I could change
that default, I would be very happy.

Is there any way to do this?

In all previous versions of Word, I'd agree with avoiding the default button
bar (and I'd put my own style buttons on it). But starting with 2007 and
going forward, MS is making a real effort to put all valid functions on the
new Ribbon bar. Given that we can't modify the Ribbon itself (can we?), we
need a way to make the styles be the styles we want to use.

Thanks,
Colin

> The most dependable way to do this is not to count on the Numbering button
> (which always applies the most recently used style) but instead to
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>> Thanks,
>> Colin

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Stefan Blom - 26 May 2009 14:06 GMT

No, there is no way to do what you are asking. What you can do is
right-click a recently used bullet format and choose to add it to the
gallery; that way, it will be available when you click the arrow on the
Bullet button.

However, usually one wants to store indentation with a bullet format, and
then using a paragraph style, as Suzanne suggested, is the way to do it.

Signature

Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

> But it doesn't use the most recently used button style (except within a
> Word session). It always reverts back to the same bullet list. If I could
[quoted text clipped - 45 lines]
>>> Thanks,
>>> Colin

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