Nested Bullets in Pages 09???

Question

Level 1

5 points

Nested Bullets in Pages 09???

I'm making a diligent effort to ween myself off of Mac Office 2008 with iWork 09 as my word processing and spreadsheet needs for very basic.

I am trying to create a one page agenda for a business meeting using an existing Word doc that has nested bullets using a different graphic for each level of the nesting.

With Word, hitting the Tab key indents the bullet and correctly selects the bullet for that nesting level. Shift+Tab key moves the bullet line item to the left and correctly changes the bullet for the higher level nest.

I cannot figure out how to create the same bullet list in iWork 09. I can do nested outlines using numbers, but not characters.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.
Bud James

MacPro 8-Core, MacBook Pro 15" Aluminum Brick, MacBook, , iMac, iPhone 3G, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Former captive of the tyrannical Bill Gates empire!

Posted on Jan 27, 2009 6:11 PM

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Answer 1

Ashka

Level 4

3,891 points

Jan 27, 2009 6:26 PM in response to budjames

Inspector > Text (T) > List > Arrow drop down under bullets.
Lots of options.

Custom bullets lets you use your own pictures.

You can also set your own Bullet & Text indent and Indent level to set alternative bullets.

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Answer 2

budjames Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 27, 2009 7:58 PM in response to Ashka

Thanks for the tip, but I've been there already.

Pages is not smart enough to change the text bullet to the character associated with the level nested. It seems that this is a formatting benefit of Word that Pages does not do.

It may sound trivial, but it's a great time saver as a I use a lot of bullet lists for agendas, etc. Having to change each bullet character every time I indent a bullet to be nested underneath the previous bullet item is a real pain.

Therefore, I still need a solution or I might stick with Word for now.

Bud

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Answer 3

Bekins

Level 3

734 points

Jan 27, 2009 8:38 PM in response to budjames

Sounds like you need to define a list style. Try experimenting with Harvard, which has different number formatting at different levels. You can define your own list style that does the same thing, but with graphical bullets instead.

In general, the way you define a new list style is to set up some sample paragraphs, with one at each level, formatted the way you want. Select them all and pick *Define New List Style from Selection…* from the styles drawer (click on the triangle next to the current list style). You may find it useful to start out with Harvard or Numbered List to give you the basic indentation at each level, then change each paragraph's label to the graphic you want.

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Answer 4

budjames Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 28, 2009 1:32 AM in response to Bekins

Bekins,

Thanks for your tip. That did the trick.

Yahoo! One less thing that I need MS Word for Mac 2008 for.

Cheers.

Bud James

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Answer 5

Mar 30, 2009 9:07 AM in response to Bekins

I had the same problem and eventually got this to work. Thanks.

I think the think that is throwing people off (this problem has showed up in a number of other places) is that if you define the style, as you suggest, but use the draggable indent triangles rather than setting numbers in the inspector, it doesn't seem to work.

In summmary: I followed your advice of just formatting the paragraphs and redefining the style and it didn't work. But when I started with the Harvard outline and used the inspector, it worked for some reason. Must be some obscure setting that gets missed if you try it from scratch.

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Answer 6

Mar 30, 2009 9:34 AM in response to Bekins

Actually, after saving and re-opening, I discover that this did NOT in fact work.

When I create a harvard outline and then re-define the numbering as bullets, it still reverts to the harvard outlining when you enter the outliner mode.

What am I doing wrong?

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Answer 7

Mar 30, 2009 11:25 AM in response to globaltrev

What you see on-screen in Outliner mode and what appears in the typesetting are 2 different things are they not?

Does it revert to what you want when you leave the Outline mode?

Sorry I'd try it but I am a bit busy right now.

Peter

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Answer 8

Mar 30, 2009 1:49 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Thanks Peter,

Yeah, the blue outliner bullets disappear when you leave outliner mode, but I am trying to have actual bullets on a couple levels of my outline.

Still can't get it to work. Close though...if you make Headings 1-5, add bullets to all levels (won't work if some levels don't have bullets) then create a new list type, it almost works...until you try and apply a style from the style drawer. Then it breaks down.

*Picture this: An outline that uses Headings 1-5, with bullets at some levels. When I promote or demote a heading, I want it to adopt the right bullet.*

Just can't seem to make it work. Drives me crazy 😉

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Answer 9

Mar 30, 2009 1:52 PM in response to Bekins

Mr. Bekins,

You seem quite knowledgeable on this...is it possible to have an "outline with tiered bullets?"

Meaning, a structured outline where some of the heading levels have bullets, and promoting or demoting causes the heading to adopt the correct bullet.

(I use this for taking point-form notes)

Tiered outlines work well with numbers (i.e. the harvard outlines) but not if you don't use numbers...if you use bullets, it doesn't work.

Any ideas at all?

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