This is topic I know how to make a bulleted list! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
From a meeting this morning:

"I think these items on this page should be in a list."
"Okay."
"A list with bullets on the side."
"All right."
"The first line is this, and it is over just a little. Then this is the next line, lined up with the first one. <he pauses and looks at me until I nod> Then this is the last one on the list, lined up with the others."
"..."
"Do you see what I'm talking about? It needs to be a list."
"Yes, make it a list. About these other changes..."

<five minutes later>

"Don't forget that one document. Make that paragraph a list instead. With bullets on the side."
"Okay."
"Are you just agreeing to get rid of me?"
"Yes."
 

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Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
 
Prove it.
 

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Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
 
Do we want to know what side of the conversation you were on, Kat?

-Trevor
 

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Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
 

• How cool is that?
• I've never seen its like.
• What shall we do with it?
• I think we shall go to the park and play on the electric meat-go-round.
• Jolly good.
• Pip pip and all that.

 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
See, I thought you (kat) might mean in UBB code.

So how did you (Primal) do that?
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
[list+]
[*]One item
[*]Next item
[/list]

Only without the '+'

Hobbes
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 

• Dude
• Hobbes

• Take list to open field.
• Staple list to tree, post, intern, any useless thing around.
• Pull out automatic weapon.
• Step back several paces
  (the amount of space depends on the weapon. Rule of thumb, the bigger the weapon, the more space).
• Shoot list.
• Repeat.
• Repeat.
• Repeat until stress is relieved or until list is well tattered.

• Indent and hand-draw cute little starry bullets on the page.
• Ask your boss constantly if he can make the next bullet for you.
• Hit the "bulleted list" button up on the Word control pane.

The third is the least fun way to do it, and I would suggest one of the first two. I guarantee your document has at least a 50% increase in impression level if you do it the first way.
 

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Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :
 
Use that second option.

<--Hates bulleted lists. They are just so much flash.

But smilies are okay!
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

• You
• can
  
  • also
  • make
  • a
  • nested
  • list.

 

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Posted by Marek (Member # 5404) on :
 
how far back you need to stand also depends on what the list is stapled to, if it is an intern then you may want to be further back to avoid getting messy.

oh, and instead of drawing the little starry bullets you could draw smilie faces, or pentagrams, those would also make an impression I think.
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
Perhaps you should just make a normal list and then walk into your supervisor holding the list and crying your eyes about how you just couldn't conquer the difficult task he'd assigned you.

Hobbes
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
Whenever I got annoyed about something like that, I'd ask questions just to mess with them. In a document context, it'd be something like:

"OK, so you want a bulleted lists with hanging indent. Should it be full or left justified?"

"How do you want the leading and paragraph spacing set up?"

"Maybe that should go in a sidebar?"

"Do you want a serif or sans-serif font?"

"Do I need to manually kern the space between the bullets?"

"Should we use depleviated or feorian bullets?"

Sometimes they'd actually pick one of the made up choices; usually they'd ask for my suggestion.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 

quote:

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"Should we use depleviated or feorian bullets?"

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That's great Dag! I'm going to use that sometime!

FG
 

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Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
 
"Do you want regular or armor-piercing bullets?"


 

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
Just don't use depleted Uranium bullets. They lead to an increase in Computer Viruses.
 

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Posted by xnera (Member # 187) on :
 

1. Another list of lists!
   
   2. Because xnera's a geek.
   3. No, really!
2. Are you sure?
   
   1. Yes, of course I'm sure xnera's a geek.
   2. Don't be ridiculous.
   3. (And notice how there is no "e" in ridiculous)

Tried to make a three-level list, but it barfed on the code. And I don't know where that phantom list item is coming from. Hmm.
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
Did you know bullets in printing got their name because actual bullets were originally used to cast the lead type used to create them in a printing press? The shape made it easy to center the dot on the lead blank.

Dagonee
* That's not true, but I bet I could get people to believe it. Has anyone here ever played the game Malarky?
 

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Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
 
I'd like to point out that, thus far, kat has not proved that she can in fact make a bullet list. Perhaps this guy knew what he was talking about.
 

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Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
 
Wow, Dag. That's almost as believable as the "Commas and periods used to fall off the printing press, and that's why they go inside quotation marks" myth. You should start a chain email or something.
 

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Posted by Mean Old Frisco (Member # 6666) on :
 
Have we ever figured out why, in America, we do that? Every explanation I've seen in all my searches has had to do with the fact that those symbols were more delicate and were more likely to be damaged. Why is that so unbelievable?

There must be some good reason why we defy logic for convention.
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
If it were highly believable, it wouldn't be a testament to my powers of persuasion to say I could get someone to believe it, now would it?
 

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
Internal Dobie

I know how to make a Bullet list
 

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Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
 

quote:

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Have we ever figured out why, in America, we do that? Every explanation I've seen in all my searches has had to do with the fact that those symbols were more delicate and were more likely to be damaged. Why is that so unbelievable?

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• Thank the heavens, the conversation was not with my boss. My boss is not an idiot.
• The conversation was with the person who bore the responsibility for the project but is dependent on me to make it happen. Maybe he was nervous.
• My co-worker and I are considering banning meetings for this project and sticking to e-mail. The above conversation should clarify why.

quote:

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Personally, I'd guess that it's a purely aesthetic convention.

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But see, the fact that the theory I stated is pretty universally accepted and the observance that there's nothing any more aesthetically pleasing about the inside-the-quotations periods and commas lead me to believe that we don't know very much at all about the first printing presses, and that it truly was a problem. Maybe "X." was more stable than "X".

Why would we bother making a universal rule if that weren't true? I think the most aesthetically pleasing place for punctuation is where it belongs.

And the fact that not even Snopes has debunked the theory makes me believe it's true.
 

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Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
 
Universally accepted? I've seen just as much "universal acceptance" of the ridiculous old theory that the 's on possessives came from a contraction of his. And of what "observance" of aesthetics do you speak?

Quotation marks weren't even used with the first printing presses, anyway. They were invented in the seventeenth century. And it's not like nobody knows how early printing presses worked.

I can't see anything inherently more "stable" about tucking commas and periods inside, especially considering the fact that colons and semicolons didn't get tucked inside. The characters in a line of print are like bricks—they're all the same height (though not all the same width), and they fit snugly together. It's not like a narrow brick in a wall is going to break or something.

And the fact that there are so many variations of your explanation—the characters break or bend, they fall off the end of the line, they get knocked out of alignment, and so on—has "myth" written all over it.

If there's one universal rule about punctuation, it's that personal taste and aesthetics reign supreme.

[ July 15, 2004, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Snarky ]
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
From a telephone conversation today with the same person:

"The pages on the web site have a yellow background, but when you open the pdf document, it looks like a pdf document."
"That's because it is a pdf document."
"Do we want it to look like a pdf document?"
"Can't really get around that as long as it is a pdf document."
"I know that. But do we want it to look like it?"

[ July 15, 2004, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]
 

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Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
 
kat... that gives me flashbacks. I've had whole conversations consisting of those very things and variants.

Bah! Round and round we go. Where the technobabble stops nobody knows. But, someone will get hurt if it lands on me that's for sure.
 

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
Buy a Dilbert book or Calendar and put it on your shelf.

You will gain new levels of fear and respect from stupid managers everywhere.
 

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Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
 
Watch out for the managers who grin evilly and say, "I'm Catbert!"
 

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Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
 
My first attempt at making a bulleted list:

• How am I
• doing
• so far?

Woah! That is so cool!
Thanks, Hobbes.

[ July 17, 2004, 04:21 PM: Message edited by: digging_holes ]
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 


Hobbes
 

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