Bullet points are a great way of allowing readers to scan a page and quickly find the information they need. This is important for websites as visitors only take a few seconds to search for whatever they want. If information is not found quickly, then readers will move on to another website. Some web pages contain a lot of information which makes it difficult to find specific information. The use of short bullet points helps to break up blocks of text and direct visitors to important details. Bullet point lists are created for websites using HTML coding. This article explains the different types of lists which may be created with HTML coding and looks at the use of images and icons to separate list items.

There are two types of bulleted lists. A numbered list is referred to as an “ordered list”. This would be used for a set of instructions which should be followed in a sequence of 1, 2, 3 etc. Letters of the alphabet may also be used for an ordered list. In this case, each item would commence with a, b, c and so on. Authors of formal documents might use Roman numerals I, II, II, IV, although this is less common on web pages.

An “un-ordered” list is a bulleted list of items separated by a dot, circle, square or a small image known as an icon.

The majority of bullet list items are separated by a black dot. This makes the list easy to read:

• First item

• Second item

• Third item

The dot can be changed to a square or circle by a simple change to the HTML code. The use of a coloured dot, square or image requires the use of a CSS style sheet. Using an image for a bullet point helps the list items to blend in with the colour theme of the website and gives a professional look to web pages. Images for bullet point lists are generally in the size range of 8×8 pixels to 12×12 pixels. Larger icons of 16×16 pixels are also used on web pages to attract attention to specific items of information.

Images and icons for bullet point list may be found on the internet, but care should be taken to ensure that there are no copyrights or restrictions on use before downloading and using an image on a website. It is also possible to create icons from images by reducing the image to an appropriate size.