How to Increase List Levels on PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint uses list features that you'll find familiar from working in Microsoft Word. These formatting options produce text organized in the same ways you format an outline while structuring a business plan or meeting agenda for your company. Main-level points appear with the smallest indent from the left margin of your text, with subsidiary levels of discussion carrying larger indents to show their position in the hierarchy. When you increase list levels, you help organize your PowerPoint text for greater clarity.

Apply bulleting or numbering to your text if you haven't already done so. Select the text you want to turn into a list. Switch to the Home tab of the Microsoft PowerPoint ribbon and locate the Paragraph group. Within it, click on either the Bullets or the Numbering button, both unlabeled, and choose "Bullets and Numbering" to open the dialog box of same name. Select either the "Bulleted" or the "Numbered" tab and choose a style. Click on the "OK" button to apply your list feature.

Click on the line of text you want to make subordinate to the bulleted or numbered point above it. Switch to the Home tab of the Microsoft PowerPoint ribbon and locate the Paragraph group. Click on the unlabeled Increase List Level button. PowerPoint enlarges the size of the indent applied to the line of text and reduces the type size.

Click on the the Increase List Level button again to apply a larger indent. To reduce the indent, click on the unlabeled Decrease List Level button next to the Increase List Level button.

Switch to the View tab of the ribbon and locate its Show group. Click on the check box for "Ruler" so you can see the indent markers that apply to list-level text. The triangular first line indent marker points down from the top of the ruler and appears at the horizontal position defined by the left edge of the bullet or number applied to your list item. The square left indent marker appears at the bottom of the ruler at the position of the indent after the bullet or number. The triangular hanging indent marker points down from the top of the left indent marker, indicating the position – after a bullet or number and its accompanying tag – at which text wraps on the second and successive lines of text.