Basic Text Formatting: Learn It 6

Document Formatting in Google Docs

The formatting options we’ve learned so far from Microsoft Word are also available in Google Docs.

Formatting Fonts and Modifying Styles

To modify the font in any way after you have typed in the document, you first must select the text you want to format, then either use the commands in the window menus or with icons and tools in the action bar. You can select a word and then use the action bar to change the font type, make another word bold, and make another word larger. You can also select a word and use the Format menu to change it.

(a) The Bold button is selected on a tool bar. In the document, the word “Industry” is highlighted blue and bolded. (b) The Format tab is selected, then Text, then Bold.
Font formatting can be done through (a) the action bar or (b) through the Format menu. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)

Formatting Spacing

You can easily change a whole paragraph’s line spacing without having to select the whole paragraph: Just put your cursor anywhere in the paragraph and go to the Format menu and hover over Line spacing. Then, choose the spacing you want.

Format is selected and open to pane of options. Line spacing is selected and opens to Single (selected) and Prevent single lines (selected).
The line spacing formatting options give the user more options than the standard paragraph line spacing. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)

Notice that you have the option to add a space before a paragraph or remove a space after a paragraph. When you are constructing a long document, it might help the readability in long blocks of text to add some extra space in between the paragraphs. This tool will allow you to add that line space either before or after.

Aligning and Indenting

Docs also makes aligning and indenting text simple. As with modifying the line spacing, you can place your cursor anywhere on a single paragraph and adjust the alignment for the whole paragraph. You can either choose an indent from the action bar, or go to the Format menu, then hover over Align & indent, then choose how you want to align the paragraph. If you want to align many paragraphs, just select them all together with the mouse, and then follow the same steps.

To indent a body of text, the first line of the selection is indented to the right five spaces, which is the convention for indenting the first line of a paragraph. To do this indentation, press the Tab key on your keyboard. But if you want to move the entire paragraph to the right, click anywhere in the paragraph and go to the Format menu, then hover over Align & indent, and lastly, select Increase indent.

Format is selected and opens to options. Align & indent is selected, which lists options for: Left, Center, Right, Justified, Increase indent, Decrease indent, and Indentation options.
You can choose indenting from the Format menu to indent selected text. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)
On the toolbar, Align & indent is selected. The text HP, Dell, Apple, Acer, and Lenovo typed in a list is indented to the right at the bottom of the document.
Only the selected text is indented over to the right. The rest of the text remains left-aligned. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)

Page Setup

As in Word, the Page Setup commands are for selecting the paper size and orientation (horizontally or vertically). In Docs, it is all done from the File menu; Page Setup is near the bottom of the File menu. The first combo box is for choosing whether to apply page setup to the whole document, or just a section. You can also adjust the paper size; there is a combo box with popular paper sizes like letter and legal. Additionally, you can change the margins to create custom margins. You can also adjust the margins manually on the top of the window, using the mouse to move the margin markers on the ruler. Many of the page setup tools in Docs are straightforward and minimalistic. Google programs are intentionally designed to be user-friendly, and this is just one example of how easy it can be to make changes to your document.

(a) Page Setup pane displays Paper size options: Letter, Tabloid, Legal, Statement, Executive, Folio, A3, A4, A5, B4, and B5. (b) Page setup pane has Letter selected in the Paper size option.
Margins are set in the Page setup dialog box. (a) These are the margins if you choose an Executive size document. (b) These are the margin sizes for the common Letter type document. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)
A ruler displays a blue arrow facing down, labeled Move this arrow to the right to adjust margin. and labeled Margins. The blue arrow aligns with the left margin of the document.
You can also set margins by using the arrows in the ruler. (Google Docs is a trademark of Google LLC.)
Docs also has numerous keyboard shortcuts that can help you perform tasks faster. These shortcuts are for font formatting, line spacing, indent formatting, making lists, applying styles, moving and resizing objects, and adding citations or comments. Docs can also be manipulated through the Alt commands, to move around in the window menus. These Google Docs keyboard shortcuts can be found at Google’s support page.