Remove bullet points from a list and keep the plain lines

How to use bullet list to text

1. Paste your list into Bulleted list.
2. Tick Keep indentation if nested items should stay indented. Leave it off for a flat list.
3. Copy the cleaned lines from the result.

What it does and when to use it

Bullets are useful for reading but get in the way once you want to reuse the items. Copy a list from a slide, a web page, an email or a Markdown file and you get the markers too. Removing them by hand on 50 lines is slow. This tool removes them in one step.

Common reasons to strip bullets:

• Pasting list items into a spreadsheet, one per cell.
• Turning a Markdown checklist back into plain tasks for another app.
• Feeding a list into tools that expect clean lines, such as the text sorter, remove duplicates or the line joiner.
• Cleaning text copied from PDFs or slides, where bullets arrive as • or ▪ characters.

To add bullets instead, use text to bullet list.

How it works

Each line is checked against one pattern: optional leading spaces, then a bullet symbol or a checkbox, then at least one space. When a line matches, the bullet and its trailing spaces are cut off. The leading spaces are kept only if Keep indentation is ticked. Lines that do not match are left as they are, except that their leading spaces are removed when Keep indentation is off. The tool works in your browser.

Worked examples

These outputs come from the tool’s own function.

Mixed markers. A list with • Plan the outline, - Write the draft, an indented * Edit and - [x] Publish gives four clean lines: Plan the outline, Write the draft, Edit, Publish.

Nested list kept nested. - Fruit with - Apple and - Pear under it, with Keep indentation ticked, gives Fruit, then Apple and Pear still indented by two spaces.

Lines that are not bullets. -5 degrees, - item and 1. numbered give -5 degrees, item and 1. numbered. Only the real bullet was removed; the minus sign and the number stayed.

Limits and tips

• Only one marker per line is removed. A line like “• - item” keeps the “-”.
• Bullets in the middle of a line are not touched.
• Symbols outside the list above, such as ★ or emoji, stay in place. Remove them with remove specific characters.