Template:•

 •

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This is the bullet template; it looks like this: [ • ]... also known as {{bull}}, for those of us who know searching for graphics dots is slow and painful. (Letters, on the other hand, are easy to find on ALL KEYBOARDS.) It works similarly to the HTML markup sequence: [ • ], that is, a non-breaking space, a bullet and a normal space.

This template is used when you want a larger bullet than a bold middot [·], but something smaller than a en dash [–] or em dash [—]. For instance, in dotted lists that have a font-size 80% or less of normal font-size, since then a bold middot becomes too small.

Normal usage

The recommended usage is to use no space before the template and one space after the template, like this:

[[Salt]]{{•}} [[Pepper]]

It will render one space on each side of the bullet, like this:

Salt • Pepper

If it line breaks then the line break will come after the bullet, not before, like this:

Salt •

Pepper

For long dotted lists, each list item can be put on its own line with no spaces between each item and the template, like this:

 [[Salt]]{{•}}
 [[Pepper]]{{•}}
 [[Curry]]{{•}}
 [[Saffron]]

(It does not matter if there are no or some spaces at the end of the lines, after the templates.)

As before it will render one space on each side of the bullets, like this:

Salt • Pepper • Curry • Saffron

And if it line breaks then the line break will come after one of the bullets, not before, like this:

Salt • Pepper •

Curry • Saffron

Incorrect usage

If the template is used slightly wrong, it will, in some cases, still behave well. For instance, if there are no or several spaces after the template, like these examples:

[[Salt]]{{•}}[[Pepper]]
[[Salt]]{{•}}   [[Pepper]]

Both of them will render exactly as before, with just one space on each side of the bullet, like this:

Salt • Pepper

And it will still only line break after the bullet, like this:

Salt •

Pepper

But putting one or more spaces before the template will cause problems, like these examples:

[[Salt]] {{•}}[[Pepper]]
[[Salt]]   {{•}}[[Pepper]]
[[Salt]] {{•}} [[Pepper]]
[[Salt]]   {{•}}   [[Pepper]]

Then it will render with two spaces before the bullet and one after, like this:

Salt  • Pepper

And if it line breaks it might break before the bullet, like this:

Salt

 • Pepper

Technical details

The space before the bullet is a non-breaking space. That means it will not line break and will not collapse together with normal spaces that come before the template.

The space after the bullet is a normal space. That means it wraps (allows line breaks) and it will collapse together with normal spaces that come after the template to form one single space.

Under some circumstances, dotted link lists misbehave. They might get unexpected line wraps or they might expand outside the box they are enclosed in. The how-to guide: Wikipedia:Line break handling, explains when that happens and how to fix it.

The bullet used is Template:Unichar

See also

There are several other templates with similar stream formatting purposes and such (or related) functionality:

• {{·}} – bold middot or ["·"] or (·), mostly used for dotted lists
• {{•}}  – used for bullet separated lists
• {{ndash}} – en dash or "–", a short dash
• {{mdash}} – em dash or "—", a long dash
• {{\}} – for the occasional slash or "/" in lists

Wrap control templates

• When making dotted lists, you might need to handle proper word wrapping (line breaking):
  • {{nowraplinks}} – Prevents wraps inside links and only allows wraps between the links and in normal text, very useful for link lists and easy to use.
  • {{nowrap begin}} – Prevents wraps in both text and links. For the really tricky wrapping cases when you need full control, for instance in very complex link lists.
• For further information, see: Wikipedia:Line break handling – The how-to guide detailing how to handle line wrapping on Wikipedia.

Dot size reference list

Output	HTML effect name	How-to (Code to implement)
·	<small> middot	<small>&middot;</small>
·	middot	'''&middot;'''
·	<small> bold middot	<small>'''&middot;'''</small>
·	bold middot	'''&middot;''' or <b>&middot;</b>
•	<small> bullet	<small>&bull;</small> or <small>{{bull}}</small>
•	bullet	&bull; or {{bull}}
•	bold bullet	'''&bull;''' or '''{{bull}}''' or <b>{{bull}}</b>
–	ndash	&ndash;
—	mdash	&mdash;

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