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Is there a standard typography symbol for point used to reference a preceding list, analogous to the section marker §? Conceptual example:

As to •3 above...

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Even if there is a symbol for that, I would always prefer the long version, point or item. Why would you want to use one? To save space? The only reason I could imagine is, if it is common practise (e.g. this here). When too many symbols or abbreviations are used (fig. instead of figure), then the reader gets interrupted in the flow of reading. –  Marco Nov 7 '11 at 21:20
Is that not a question that could be asked of any symbol, including §? Brevity has its value. Also, since you can say, As to 3 above..., using As to •3 above... instead can be seen as a clarification rather than an obfuscation. –  Kazark Nov 7 '11 at 21:27
Of course, this goes for any symbol. If its use of the symbol is commonplace and its out spelling would distract/confuse the reader, then stick to the symbol. BTW: I would never say “As to 3 above”, rather ”As illustrated in point three,…”. –  Marco Nov 7 '11 at 21:43
I see how this would be handy: systematical brevity can be a blessing or even required under some circumstances. I'm all for well defined (or even selv defined) abbreviations, but I'd advise against using • for that pupose. It is way too big and bulky (much more black in one place than any other character), so it will stick out from the running text, interrupt the flow of reading and emphasize parts of the text for no good reason. If you want an shorthand for "point", I'd suggest something like "pt.~" plus a clarification in the list of abbreviations. –  Florian Nov 8 '11 at 11:12

2 Answers 2

up vote 7 down vote accepted

I don't know of a standard typography symbol for "point" and, as Marco has pointed out, using such a symbol might result disruptive and could produce ambiguity (since it's a non-standard convention). That said, you could use the cleveref package to redefine, in an automated way, the label used to cross-reference the items in a list. In the following example I illustrate the standard label used by cleveref for the first-level items of an enumerate environment, and show two new options using \textbullet, and \textopenbullet (the latter from the textcomp package).

I'd rather sacrifice brevity for clarity and use the standard words "item" or "items" (and their upper case variants), but it's up to you to use some symbol.





  \item First item.\label{firsta}
  \item Second item.\label{seconda}
  \item Third item.\label{thirda}



  \item First item.\label{firstb}
  \item Second item.\label{secondb}
  \item Third item.\label{thirdb}



  \item First item.\label{firstc}
  \item Second item.\label{secondc}
  \item Third item.\label{thirdc}




enter image description here

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You may be interested in the following symbols, which all operate in text mode:

\textperiodcentered (may be too small, but you appear to 
   reference it in your question)
\textopenbullet (requires loading the "textcomp" package)

These three symbols look like this:

enter image description here

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