What’s actually slowing this PC down?

Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Keep the list markup and change only its presentation. In HTML, use CSS such as list-style: none to hide bullets or numbers; reset spacing separately if you also want to remove indentation. In Markdown, keep the list syntax until a parser turns it into a semantic list—deleting the markers from raw text turns the items into ordinary text.

Hide HTML list markers with CSS

Use the right native element for the content, then remove its visual markers with CSS. The list and its items remain in the HTML:

<ul class="clean-list">
  <li>First item</li>
  <li>Second item</li>
</ul>
.clean-list {
  list-style: none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

list-style: none hides the markers. The margin and padding resets are separate choices: remove or adjust them only if you also want to change the list’s spacing or indentation. The W3C Design System uses this clean-list pattern in its list guidance.

Choose the correct list semantics

  • Use <ul> for non-sequential items, such as choices or examples.
  • Use <ol> when sequence, priority, or order matters.
  • Use <dl> for terms and their descriptions.
  • Keep <li> elements inside their appropriate list container. Do not use list markup just to create indentation or layout.

Content that looks like a list should be marked up as one, whether or not bullets are visible. That is the guidance in W3C WCAG Technique H48. The older W3C HTML accessibility techniques also caution against using list elements for formatting effects and note that ordered lists can help non-visual users navigate.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.

Check accessibility after hiding markers

Removing markers changes appearance, but it can affect whether some browser and assistive-technology combinations expose the list correctly. MDN documents a Safari caveat: lists styled with list-style: none may lose their list semantics in the accessibility tree. The precise behavior can vary with browser and assistive technology, so verify the result in the target environment. See MDN’s list-style reference.

  1. Inspect the browser’s accessibility tree and confirm it exposes a list and the expected number of items.
  2. Test with the screen reader and browser combination your audience uses. Confirm users can identify and navigate the list and its items.
  3. If the list is not exposed as expected, test adding role="list" to the list element. The W3C Design System suggests this as a way to restore list semantics when needed; treat it as a compatibility remedy to validate, not a replacement for native <ul> or <ol> markup.

Keep Markdown list syntax until parsing

Markdown markers are source syntax, not decorative HTML characters. Asterisks, plus signs, and hyphens can introduce unordered lists. Ordered-list prefixes create ordered lists; the literal numbers do not necessarily set the displayed numbering. For example, prefixes such as 3., 1., or 8. can all produce a normally numbered ordered list. See John Gruber’s Markdown syntax documentation.

Rank #2
Sale
HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
  • HTML CSS Design and Build Web Sites
  • Comes with secure packaging
  • It can be a gift option

If you delete those prefixes from raw Markdown, the parser no longer has the list structure to render. To remove markers while preserving semantics, parse the Markdown and change the rendered output’s CSS, or transform the parsed syntax tree while retaining its list and item nodes. Avoid regex deletion: it is harder to audit and can turn real list items into ordinary paragraphs.

Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

Do not type bullets in place of real lists

Manually inserting bullet or number characters may look like a list, but it does not provide the same structure to assistive technology. Section508.gov advises using an application’s list toolbar or an unordered-list element rather than manually creating bulleted or numbered lists. Some screen readers announce bullets, but that announcement is not a substitute for list semantics. See Section508.gov’s authoring guidance.

Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
Rank #4
Sale
Web Design with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery Set
  • Brand: Wiley
  • Set of 2 Volumes
  • A handy two-book set that uniquely combines related technologies Highly visual format and accessible language makes these books highly effective learning tools Perfect for beginning web designers and front-end developers

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.