If you’re like most people, you probably use Google Docs to keep track of important tasks and projects. But there are times when you need to numbered lists so that you can easily follow along. Here’s how to do it in Google Docs:

  1. Open a new document in Google Docs.
  2. Type the following into the text field at the top of the document: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317

Numbered lists are perfect for items, instructions, or tasks. When you start a new numbered list in Google Docs, it often continues from the previous one. Other times, it’s the opposite. Here’s how to edit numbered lists in Google Docs.

Restart a Numbered List in Google Docs

While Google Docs is helpful by recognizing our lists and continuing the numbering, this isn’t always what we want. If you want separate lists instead of a continuous one, you can simply restart the numbering.

Select the list item where you want to restart the numbering. You can select the list item or the number.

Click Format in the menu. Move your cursor to Bullets & Numbering > List Options and click “Restart Numbering” in the pop-out menu.

Enter the starting number and click “OK.”

And there you go! You started a new numbered list.

Continue a Numbered List in Google Docs

Maybe you have the opposite situation in your document. You have two separate numbered lists that you want to become one. In this case, you’ll simply continue the numbering.

Select the list item where you want to continue the numbering. Again, you can select the list item or the number.

Click Format in the menu. Move your cursor to Bullets & Numbering > List Options and click “Continue Previous Numbering” in the pop-out menu.

Boom! You now have a single numbered list instead of two.

Edit a Numbered List in Google Docs

Aside from restarting or continuing the numbering for your list, you may want to make other changes. You can edit the style of the numbered list, switch to a bulleted list or checklist, or use a color.

Edit the List Style

You might want to keep your list a numbered one but use a different style, especially if you have a multilevel list. Select your list and do one of the following.

Click the Numbered List drop-down arrow in the toolbar and choose a style.

Click Format > Bullets & Numbering > Numbered List from the menu and pick a style.

Change the List Type

Perhaps you want to switch from a numbered list to a bulleted list or checklist. Select your list and do one of the following.

Click the Bulleted List drop-down arrow in the toolbar and choose a style. Alternatively, you can click Checklist to use that list type.

Click Format > Bullets & Numbering > Bulleted List from the menu and pick a style.

Apply a List Color

Rather than changing the list style or type, you may want to simply apply a color. You can use a color for all numbers in the list or only certain ones.

To apply color to all numbers, select the numbering. This highlights all numbers in the list. Then, click the Text Color icon in the toolbar and pick a color.

To apply color to a particular number, first select the numbering. Then, click the number you want to change. This highlights only that number. Click the Text Color icon in the toolbar and choose a color.

If you use Microsoft Word in addition to Google Docs, take a peek at our how-to for working with lists in Word too.