Create your document

I've created a new document in Quark (only because the program gets very little attention - this technique will work just as well in inDesign). All you need to do is create your text box and fill it with your list (I should point out that it doesn't have to be a list, you can use this technique to highlight any piece of text).

Making your list

As I've already mentioned, this technique isn't isolated to lists, but for the purpose of this, we'll stick with it. Get your text, and style it anyway you want to.

Create your graphics

Time to switch to Illustrator (or the graphics package of your choice). Create the graphic you want use, for this I've simply made a red rectangle with rounded corners. Note that this should tie in with the leading of your list (my list back in Quark has 12pt leading, and I've made the height of this rectangle 14pt to give me a little space - make sure you type in 'pt' after your height measurement otherwise it will default to the measurements set in your preferences).

Import your graphic

Time to go back to Quark. We now need to make a picture box and import the graphic at 100%. Make the size of your picture box 1mm wide by 12pt hight (again, ensure you specify the measurements in the Quark dialog boxes). You can now import your picture, though in truth you will see very little of it (we'll come to that in a second). What we now need to do is remove the restrictions in place, so that the picture extends beyond the boundaries of the image box.

For this, press +alt+T. This will bring up the clipping dialog box. Select 'Picture Bounds' in the type drop down menu, and then uncheck 'Restrict to Box'. Click OK. You should now be able to see your full graphic.

We now need to embed the graphic in the text box. Using the item tool, select your graphic box, and press +X to cut the box. Then, switch to the content tool and place the cursor in the place you wish to embed the graphic (I placed it at the very beginning of the line on one of the list entries) press +V to paste the graphic on the line of text. We now need to ensure the box doesn't affect the alignment of the text line in relation to the other list entries.

Bring up the runaround dialog box (+T). We need to ensure that the runaround to the right of the graphic box is ignored by the text. As the width of our graphic box is 1mm, we just need to negate that, so make the runaround -1mm.

Now you need to just adjust the position of the graphic (using the content tool) to your satisfaction. Once you've done this, you're finished. The graphic is effectively text now, so you can copy and paste the graphic as many times as you like, and they will all be consistently in the correct place on each line. The beauty of this technique is that if you make any alts to the text, the graphic flows with it, so you don't need to worry about things being out of position.

Hope this helps.

Sean