Word shortcut to start bulleted list

For bulleted lists, type * and then press Tab.

You can start other styles of lists with similar shortcuts.

For numbered lists, type 1., 1) or (1) and then press Tab.

You can also use a or A for lowercase or uppercase lettered lists, with your choice of brackets or period.

For Roman numeral lists, use i or I.


Is there a keyboard shortcut that exists or that I can define to emulate the behavior of clicking on the bulleted list button?

To answer this part of your question: there is a way of precisely doing this, i.e. assigning a keyboard shortcut to any button on any ribbon in the MS-Word. Here's what you do:

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+NumPad Plus keys together to enter the mode where you can assign a keyboard shortcut. You should see the "looped square knot" () symbol in place of the cursor arrow.
  2. Now, you just have to point to and click the button to which you want to assign a shortcut and
  3. you will be shown a window where you could assign the shortcut.

Alternately look into this blog post, or to this video on YouTube: Easiest way of assigning keyboard shortcuts in MS-Word.