Lists are no longer lists in v18

[wake6]

I have just opened an InDesign document I created in Aug 2022. I am now using InDesign v18.1 x42. It converted the document from Shivani.indd to Shivani.indd[converted], as I see it does when you open documents created in previous versions.

However, all my bulleted lists are no longer bulleted lists, they are just text, with the bullet symbol and a single space at the start of each line. When I select the text the bulleted list icon in “Bullets and Numbering” is no longer highlighted. But more of a problem is that clicking on “options” in “Bullets and Numbering” brings up the options dialogue but everything in the box is greyed out and cannot be selected.

Is this a known issue? A feature? A bug or unintended consequence?

Do I now have to go back through the document and remove all the bullet symbols and recreate the lists?

Thank you.

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

Tip: do NOT set Bullets and Numbering directly for a paragraph. Work with styles. Then any such problem can be fixed in a few minutes, no matter how large the file.

[wake6]

You mean paragraph styles?

[wake6]

Ah - I've had a go at doing this and now get what you mean. Great advice - thank you.

[Electroscribe_2022]

I also have lists that are coming out in PDFs tagged as text, not Lists. Am importing them styled in Word as List Paragraph; and have replicated that style in InDesign. In Format Style, Export Tagging, there is no List tag avalable, only P [Text].  Is there any way to either create a List tag in InDesign or import a List tag so that I can assign it to the List Paragraph style?
Manually re-tagging lists in Acrobat Pro's Tags panel is time-wasting and soul-numbing -- but that's my only other alternative. (I work in the public sector and my stuff has to be 508-compliant).

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Make sure you have one or more list paragraph styles in InDesign. Avoid using the little list buttons because they tend to fail accessibility tagging.

And in Word, avoid using those little list buttons there, too. They also frequently fail accessibility tagging and are difficult to import and style map to your InDesign styles. Drill down in Word's Style Panel (show all styles) and use List Bullet and List Number instead. These import nicely into InDesign.

In Format Style, Export Tagging, there is no List tag avalable, only P [Text].  Is there any way to either create a List tag in InDesign or import a List tag so that I can assign it to the List Paragraph style?

By @Electroscribe_2022

Yes, assign it "Automatic." InDesign will then create the correct compound list structure for it. Remember, it's not just an <L> tag but also <LI>, <Lbl> and <LBody> as well.

[Steve Werner]

Even without styling that shouldn't be happening. Have you tried restoring InDesign preferences in the new version? Often this can help solve problems which arise after updating to a new version.

[wake6]

Doh!

I've been unable to reproduce the issue. I opened the document in InDesign v17 and the lists were not shown as lists there so I think I must have not created lists in the original document, I just thought that I had.