Hello! I’m trying to make my own custom bullet points with images. I have a PNG file and I go through the process of format > bullets&numbering > customize > set it as graphics then click, from file, then I add my PNG and the whole thing works beautifully but when I want to go back and use it again say further down on my paper. It’s no where to be found, and I have to go through the whole process of selecting the file and resizing it, setting the indents etc etc. Which is going to end up being a real hassle for what I have planned. I was hoping there was some way I could modify the default graphic bullet points because those seem to stick around. But when I try to make any changes they don’t seem to actually impact them so much as it creates a new bullet point style based on them, which is also not saved for future use. Is there anyway I can make my custom image bullet points a part of that list with the sample built in ones?, where they stay after more than one use? Is there a step I am missing? Thanks so much for you’re time and I really really appreciate the work all of you do to help others and maintain this wonderful application! 
What file type are you using?
LibreOffice version?
Version 7.4.5.1 on Fedora file type is .odt
Format>Bullets & Numbering is not your friend.
It is offered as a “convenience” to convert from M$ Word ill-designed principles while you take time to learn the underlying style principles in LO Writer. In Word, you have nothing beyond paragraph styles and you’re doomed to manually add all the “decorations” to your text.
Format>Bullets & Numbering is one of this features. But it must remain functional across all your lists over the document. With direct-formatting there is no way to guess if the new list items have the same significance as the previous group: same numbering mode or another bullet? Continuation of previous list or new one? Consequently, whenever you leave a list (you insert an unnumbered or bulletless paragraph), Format>Bullets & Numbering is reset. And, of course, in the spirit of this, customisation is not saved.
The solution is to use list styles. The name is rather disconcerting because a list style describes the counter or bullet and the left indent of the various nested levels. You still need a paragraph style for formatting text in the list item.
A list style will “type” the items as belonging to a particular semantic list. For example, you’ll have a list of contract clauses numbered with letters. In the same document, you’ll have an operational procedure which steps are numbered with numbers. It is obvious that both lists have not the same meaning and should not be mixed. Consequently, you’ll create two list styles.
Since I guess you’re not familiar with styles, I suggest you start by modifying a built-in one. To understand the following procedure, read the chapters about styles in the Writer Guide.
- display the side style pane if not already visible (otherwise
Styles>Manage Stylesor F11 except under MacOS – by the way, you didn’t mention OS name, LO version and save format) - click on the fifth icon from left in the pane toolbar (tooltip: List Styles)
- right-click on Bullet ⋅ and
Modify(this is the built-in style to customise)
Caution: from now on, you’ll play only withPositionandCustomizetabs; any action in the other tabs will reset your customisation and you’ll have to start over. - go to
Customizetab - for every level you’re interested in:
- From Number: select
Graphics - From Graphics: browse your filesystem to select the file to use
- size can be adjusted with Width: and Height:
- From Number: select
- go to
Positiontab to adjust left indent - for every level you customised in step 5:
- define the position of the bullet (keep Numbering alignment at
Left) - define the indent for lines 2+ of your line item with Indent at:
- for nice alignment of first line, set Tab stop at: to the same distance
Make sure you leave enough space between Aligned at and Indent at for your image.
- define the position of the bullet (keep Numbering alignment at
Once this is done, you need to apply the style. There are two ways of doing it.
-
Manually (direct formatting)
It is easier for a newbie but less powerful than the other method.- When it is time to type your first list item, apply the ad-hoc paragraph style (to have the expect font face, size, colour, …).
- Turn the (presently empty) paragraph into a list item by double-clicking on the list style name in the style pane.
- Type your text.
-
Remarks:
- The list style remains in effect until you disable it with a press on the “No List” button in the toolbar.
- You can turn any paragraph into a list item by putting the cursor into it and double-clicking the list style name.
- To promote an item to level 2 or more, put the cursor at the very beginning and press Tab. To demote, press Shift+Tab instead.
-
Automatic
The list style will be associated to a specific paragraph style. Don’t do it on Text Body otherwise all your narrative text will become a huge list. And do it even less on Default Paragraph Style because you’ll mess up chapter numbering (which is another internal list style) in addition to tuening absolutely all paragraphs into list items.
This means you need to dedicate a paragraph style to your list.
You can link your list style to the paragraph style in itsOutline & Listtab.
The advantage of this method is: as soon as you apply the paragraph style, you have a list item. When you change the paragraph style, e.g. reverting to Text Body for your narrative, list mode is disabled.
This is not immediate. So, practice a bit to become familiar with it.
PS: I see now you save .odt. Good, this is the only way to retain your customisation through sessions. Never use .docx as a working format because there is no list style in DOCX. When you save, such features need to be approximated to save and cannot be reconstructed on file re-open.
Thanks for the reply! I’ll read through this and see if I can get it working!