Just like you can format a certain amount of spacing (leading) before and
after a paragraph, I want to modify my Styles Bulleted style to automatically
insert a fixed amount of space between the last line of a paragraph and the
list of bulleted items that follow it.

Right now, my document template is set up for single spacing. It requires
two hard returns at the end of a paragraph to have a blank line between
paragraphs. When the user starts a list of bulleted items, I need some
additional white space before the list starts to set it apart, but not as
much space as a single line height. I am using Times New Roman in 11 point
size as my default fault, so I think 6 points of spacing above the first
bulleted line would be ideal.

When I click "modify" for the Styles Bulleted in the Styles palette, the
Paragraph option is grayed out in the Format pull-down on the bottom left. I
have looked through all the other settings and I cannot find a way to make
this happen.

Does any have any suggestions (preferably not manual formatting each time;
we're trying to automate this as much as possible) of how to make this work?

Thanks for your suggestions.