Adding bullet points in Quark Xpress is not difficult. But they won't import from Microsoft Word.

Creating bullet points in QuarkXpress

When I import text from Microsoft Word into QuarkXpress, I notice that the bullet points disappear. What is the best way to format bullet points in Quark?

Microsoft Word bullet points will not carry across into QuarkXpress. What's more, you may not want them to. MS Word font styles are often not up to the standard that many graphic designers expect, nor are they as customisable.

The simple way to add bullet points in Quark is to type Option + * on a Mac. Under Windows, bullet points are created using the numeric keypad by holding the Alt key down and typing 0149.

Unlike word processing programs, QuarkXpress, being a DTP program geared at professional print design and production, allows bullet points to be any variety of shapes and sizes. Indeed, many designers prefer to use Zapf dingbats, or create customised fonts or embedded graphics for bullet points.

But simply adding bullet points is the easy bit. Formatting them so as they line up, especially when using QuarkXpress style sheets, can be a bit more tricky. If a paragraph style hasn't been given the correct indents then the bullet points will not line up with the paragraph text on the left, which doesn't look very professional.

The following image shows an example of how to set up paragraph styles so that bullet pointed paragraphs will line up. Obviously, these settings can be varied to suit, depending on the design. The left indent has been given a positive number, which will indent the paragraph text. The first line has been given a negative figure, which will draw the bullet point back and line it up with the text.