Use of Bullets

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 3:38 pm

This is a bit of a difficult discussion because bullets don't seem to show up in these posts.

Bullets are more formal and have been around longer than smilies

, and I'm beginning to think that there are beginning to be conventions for their use.

Html buffs will know that an ordered list will produce a certain pattern of bullets and tab keys often change the bullet in word processing programs.

Recently, I've redone my own CV and helped to prepare several students' CV's. When listing achievements, I have found that Chevrons (arrows without the shaft) look good for main points in CV's with ticks for secondary points and I've advised students to stick with this format. Not because it is a convention, but just because it looks good.

Does anyone know of any conventions for the use of bullets?
Anyone teach such conventions?

joshua2004 · Post by **joshua2004** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 9:47 pm

I am not aware of any specific teaching you could do regarding bullets. All I know is that they can be effective if used:

when making a list.

when the list is a continuation from the sentence introducing the list.

without a capital letter when denoting that the sentence is continued from the sentence introducing the list.

Other than that I think it is up to the "image" the bullet is supposed to help create that one decides whether to use a chevron or some other shape.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:05 pm

Thanks Joshua,

I've been messing about with unordered lists in html. It seems that you always get:
1. a round solid bullet first, then
2. a round open bullet, then
3. a solid square bullet.

You can nest further, but you'll always get closed squares after the third level of nesting.

This code shows what I'm talking about:
<html>
<body>
<B>Nested Unordered List</B>
<ul>
<li>This is the first item</li>
<li>This is the second item</li>
<ul>
<li> This is the first subitem of the second item</li>
<ul>
<li> And this is a subitem of a subitem</li>
<li> This is the second subitem of a subitem</ul>
<li> This is the second subitem of the second item</li>
<li> This is the third subitem of the second item</li>
</ul>
<li>This is the third item</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:47 pm

You can get whatever sign you want. You just have to add the attribute to the tag.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 8:03 am

Stephen wrote:

You can get whatever sign you want. You just have to add the attribute to the tag.

Thanks Stephen, actually, I knew this - the commands are:
<UL type="disc/circle/square">

I realise now that I should have used the words "disc/circle/square".

I was pointing out that the default nesting of bullets in html is disc -> circle-> square, and was speculating that this is the accepted order of nesting in unordered lists in general.

I know that I didn't make myself very clear.

I still prefer chevrons and ticks in CVs, though, as they seem to say, "Hey, look at this, this is something positive that you want to look at," wheras discs circles and squares seem too neutral and passive.

Ticks and crosses seem good in checklists of do's and dont's.