Is it possible to add bullet points and numbers in XD?

[AntDX316]

I can't figure out how to do it.

Play Planetside 2 as it's a lot better than Battlefield 2042 with 800+ people on a map during Primetime and no lag.

[clint.malson.zenplanner]

How on earth can Adobe be this far behind with XD. InDesign, PS, AI all have text formatting and controls far beyond XD. Why must an entire block of text have the same formatting. Please FIX this NOW. I have a team of 8 that would switch, but how on earth can you present designs to a developer without basic text formatting principals (bullets, numbers, soft returns, line spacing that doesn't span a whole block, indents, etc.) Some of us who value traditional type styling and formatting are asking. For Pete's sake this comment block has more options 😞

[HARSHIKA_VERMA · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out. If you're visiting this thread for the first time, use the links below to upvote these feature requests and share your feedback with the product team.: Bullet Points / Unordered list and Ordered / Numbered Lists

In the time that this feature makes it to XD, we suggest trying the "Bullet plugin" and "List Plugin" from the Plug-Ins panel. You may also try copy-pasting text with bullets and numbered list from authoring tools into XD.  Hope this helps, Harshika

[ElectricDS]

Harshika...surely the fact that so many people here and previously over the years has requested this urgently as a feature proves that it's required!!!  Why do we need to upvote the request again...your developers should be prioritising this functionality.  The whole text section of XD needs an overhaul as it's such an important part of building a website...the lack of functionality is ridiculous.

Instead of apologising for the frustration...we don't need that!!...we need Adobe to take action and get it done.

Thanks, Daniel

[elainecc]

Hi, Daniel-

We agree with you, which is why we're actually in the process of overhauling our text engine to be able to provide advanced text features to you. However, this is a multi-year effort for us, so it's going to take a while to get there. Don't worry - it's on our radar, and something we're working on bringing to you!

Hope that insight helps!

Elaine Chao

Sr. Product Manager, Adobe XD

[ElectricDS]

Thanks Elaine for coming back...it's nice to see feedback is being read.

I guess what would help people is, as and when you know...you share a date when this can be expected, otherwise it feels a bit of an empty promise.  This functionality is so important, I think users deserve some kind of timeline as to when this will be implemented.

Thanks again.

[skrantzman]

Daniel,

I wouldn't hold your breath for this.  Elaine clearly states that overhauling their text engine is a "multi-year effort".  Seriously, any decent programing team could write from scratch a text engine in 6 months or less, so why is it going to take multiple years to overhaul an existing text engine?  Let me break this down for you (these are my opinions FWIW):

1.  It shows very little forethought and planning on the XD engineering team's part if they have to overhaul the text engine on such a new product, just to add some basic functionality such as bullets and numbering.
2. It shows that the XD engineering team's priority is to add fluff that they think makes them look good, instead of adding basic functionaltiy to make their end users more productive.

I have to say that I have lost some confidence in Adobe because of this issue.

[ElectricDS]

Agree with everything you've said.  I'm a graphic and web designer and if I said to client they'd have to wait a year for some additional functionality, they'd quite rightly kick off...and I'm a one person operation.
Adobe are huge, cost a massive amount of money to keep going and behind the curve in so many ways.

I've never understood how the various teams responsible for the various apps aren't more aligned.  Especially with cross platform functionality like text options.  If I can add bullets in InDesign, then I should be able to in XD!!  Appreciate not everything can be done but the basics like text options, these should be.

[Peter Villevoye]

Wait folks. I guess I was a bit too harsh in my verdict about that List plugin. The challenge of "overhauling the text engine" (as Harshika and Elaine stated) shouldn't be underestimated ! And comparing it with (or demanding) the typographical capabilities of our cherished heavy-weight InDesign application, just isn't fair.

The problem with web type (or app type) in general is that it isn't up to par with all the fancy options we've been using in word processing and layout software for decades (and in non-digital processes for centuries). Web type features are still maturing, even growing into unexpected new directions (like Variable Fonts). And all the legal fuss behind using and distributing type is another area which still needs further development.

An application like XD and a company like Adobe needs to behave responsibly. So probably that's why they just implemented a very rudimentary text engine for now, while trying to catch up with what's happening in this digital domain, and hopefully leapfrog into a leading position. Which takes time !

In the meantime, any sign of a more proficient feature in typography in XD, obviously and immediately spurs a lot of rightful complaints and new feature requests. Even a bare bones approach of lists (which were already available in the first proposal for HTML in 1993, and in Adobe PageMill in 1995) will open the proverbial can of worms...

So maybe that's why the List plugin deploys a very flawed and un-typographical approach.

We'll just have to sit back and wait.

[3200 Creative]

I worry that something so simple is on your radar so far out. It scares me that adobe isn't capable of competitively scaling. As an agency-level tool it's difficult  to see the following:

• Super affordable competing products accomplishing the same task.
• Plugins built for XD accomplishing it poorly.
• That I'm currently using bullet points to explain myself to you. This is a SUPER common form of UX and should be in a UX tool.

[skrantzman]

Why and who marked this as the correct answer?  The real correct answer is: "As of Aug. 30, 2021, you still can't add bullets and numbering natively in Adobe XD".  By the way, the real question should be, Why is Adobe senior management not aware of this, and if they are, why aren't they embarrassed as hell about it?

[chuck_penz]

Wait until you find out you can't embed a video!

[Peter Villevoye]

The Adobe XD team has developed a plugin to create numbered and bulleted lists.

It's aptly called "Lists" and can be found and installed through the Plugin panel in XD.

However – it's flawed by design (the way to invoke and use it is really very strange), lacks a lot of settings (even very obvious ones), and the flexibility afterwards is just terrible. I don't know if it's the weak textual and typographical underpinnings of the XD application itself is causing all these issues. But this plugin is hardly helping to ease the pain. It's actually adding insult to injury !

 

[wendys45979959]

Lists plugin – It isn't very good.

[wendys45979959]

I forgot to add it's a very poor substitute. Sketch can do bullets. Why can't XD?

[craig_clark]

I'd love better test formatting options in XD. I spend so much time messing around trying to simulate basic formatting. It takes me longer to make lists than it does to the design for everything else. For our clients we use real content, so it's hard to fake things. I've used the lists Plugin. It is no substitute for real lists.

[ini-sxd]

Fix this please!

[Robert Allen Payne]

Wow. This simple omission alone makes XD totally non-usable for me. I never thought I'd say this about an Adobe product, but this one is getting deleted. A "multi-year" effort to add things that Microsoft Word did 25 years ago? Here's an idea for free. Take the text editor that I'm using right now in your own forum, and use that.

• Bullet
• Points
• Are
• Easy

Sometimes you have to "pause" your multi-year plan to make what you currently offer useful. Collaboration features won't win you any converts and generate any revenue unless you can do the basics.

[benjudy47]

And this explains why Figma, Sketch, and now Whimsical are in the lead while Adobe XD lags behind. (See Taylor Palmer's 2020 Design Tools Survey.)

How ironic that the Adobe Support Community forum supports bullets just fine.

• See?
• It's
• Not
• That
• Hard.

Maybe I should just do my UI design here in this comment box.

[Anjika]

This is such an inconvenience for those of us dealing with clients who are very detai oriented.

I have litterally pages of documents with bulleted lists and my client can't see past the fact there are no indents. Super lame.

[alberto_sasa]

Ok. Let's see... Daniel, you ask for the bullets on December 2019. It's march 2021 and... We continue missed the bullets. =(

[Stanford22115435fvun]

It's now

• March
• 2022

1. What
2. A
3. Joke
4. XD
5. Is

[Marina at Distillery]

Hello. I come from the future to complain about <li> as well. At least we are not wearing masks these days.

[Chris W. Griffith]

FYI: XD is in maintaince mode, and will no longer be developed with new features. Figma supports lists 😉

[Hassam Saeed · Accepted solution]

For Mac Users:

option + 8 Key

 For Window Users:

alt + 8 Key

[chuck_penz]

While your answer is theoretically correct, most are looking for an integrated solution to create bulleted and numbered lists with automatic hanging indents etc. And even better would be additional control over the bullets like using a picture or glyph.