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KB0414: How to implement custom list bullets

HTML-based formats, including Epub and Kindle, don't currently support custom text bullets such as a dash, since the required CSS is not universally supported across ereaders. ODT does support custom text bullets.

However, custom bitmap bullets are supported. Add a media document to your project containing a bullet bitmap, for example a PNG file with transparency (and a white background) at 10 x 8 pixels. In your list style, choose the bitmap bullet format and set the file name in the symbol type control, such as media/bullet.png.

This should work in most Epub and Kindle readers, and also ODT. However, if you wish to use a proper text bullet symbol for ODT, you can create a duplicate style sheet to be used only for ODT output:

  1. Go to Project Properties/Styles.

  2. Save the style sheet to a file (check only the one you want to save when prompted).

  3. Rename the current one (e.g. "Default Style Sheet" to "Style Sheet 2")

  4. Load the saved style sheet.

  5. Make suitable changes to the bullet definitions of each list style, as above.

  6. Set the configuration option Style sheet to the appropriate style sheet for each configuration.

Using CSS

If you wish to experiment with CSS for HTML, Epub and Kindle formats, you can set the bullet style to Symbol and clear the symbol text, to tell Jutoh to use no bullet.

Then, enter custom CSS, for example in the properties for the document containing the list:

li:before {
  content: '-';
  position: absolute;
  left: 1.5em;
}
The 'content' property specifies the character to be used for the bullet. Note that this won't work on all e-readers - in particular, Adobe Digital Editions adds bullets to all paragraphs in the document - and the 'left' spacing may need to be adjusted to work well with specific ereaders.

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