How to move bullet closer to text in Powerpoint

The amount of space between the bullet and the text is controlled by the indents setting. Make sure the Ruler is displayed (View > Show/Hide Ruler). Drag the right indent marker (the triangle) to the left to decrease the hanging indent.


Microsoft provides a help page on this topic: Change the look, position, or function of bulleted or numbered lists in your presentation.

From the sub-section Change the indent, or spacing between text and points:

To increase or decrease the space between a bullet or number and the text in a line, place the cursor at the start of the line of text. To view the ruler, on the View tab, in the Show/Hide group, click the Ruler check box. On the ruler, click the hanging indent (as shown in diagram below) and drag to space the text from the bullet or number.

NOTE: There are three different markers that appear on the ruler to indicate the indentation defined for a text box.

Indent markers

  1. first line indent: Indicates the position of the actual bullet or number character. If the paragraph is not bulleted then this indicates the position of the first line of text.
  2. left indent: Adjusts both the First Line and Hanging indent markers and maintains their relative spacing.
  3. hanging indent: Indicates the position of the actual lines of text. If the paragraph is not bulleted then this indicates the position of the second line (and subsequent lines) of text.