Tips for Formatting Text in Google Docs

You want to create high-quality documents with Google Docs? Knowing how to format text is essential. In addition to making your document more attractive, formatted text can draw the reader’s attention to specific parts of the document and help convey your message.

In this article, you will learn how to format the font, size, and color of the text, as well as how to highlight the text. You will also discover how to use the shortcut buttons for bold, italic, and underlined text, and how to add hyperlinks.

The Shortcut Menu on the Toolbar

Google Docs offers a variety of formatting options that you can use to change the appearance of your document. These options can be found in the shortcut menu on the toolbar. In the following sections, you will learn how these options can enhance the appearance of your document.

Changing the Font

1. Select the text you want to modify.
2. Click the Font dropdown arrow in the toolbar. A menu of fonts will appear.
3. Select the font you want to use. In our example, we will choose Roboto and select the normal font.
4. The selected text will change to the new font.

If you don’t see the font you’re looking for, or if you want more choices, you can add additional fonts by clicking More Fonts in the Font dropdown menu.

Changing the Text Size

1. Select the text you want to modify.
2. Click the Font Size box in the toolbar. A dropdown menu of font sizes will appear.
3. Select the font size you want to use. In our example, we will change the font size to 24 to make it larger.
4. The text will change to the new font size.

Changing the Text Color

1. Select the text you want to modify.
2. Click the Text Color command in the toolbar. A dropdown menu of text colors will appear.
3. Select the text color you want to use. In our example, we will choose blue.
4. The text will change to the new color.

Using the Bold, Italic, and Underline Buttons

1. Select the text you want to modify.
2. Click the Bold (B), Italic (I), or Underline (U) button in the shortcut toolbar.

Changing Text Alignment

Google Docs offers four alignment options in the Align dropdown menu:

• Left-align: Aligns the selected text to the left margin.
• Center: Aligns the text equidistant from the left and right margins.
• Right-align: Aligns the selected text to the right margin.
• Justified: The text is even on both sides and also aligns with the left and right margins. Many newspapers and magazines use this full justification.

Here’s how to change the text alignment:

1. Select the text you want to align.
2. Click the desired alignment button.
3. The text will realign.

Line and Paragraph Spacing

In Google Docs, line spacing is measured in lines. For example, when the text is double-spaced, the line spacing is two lines. You can reduce line spacing to fit more lines on the page or increase it to improve readability.

To format line spacing:

1. Select the text you want to format.
2. Click the Line Spacing button, then select the desired line spacing option from the dropdown menu. You can also click Custom Spacing to customize the spacing.
3. The line spacing will adjust in the document.

Just like line spacing, you can also choose options for spacing between paragraphs. Additional spaces are usually added between paragraphs, headings, or subheadings to improve document readability.

To format paragraph spacing:

1. Select the text you want to format.
2. Click the Line Spacing button.
3. Select Add space before paragraph or Add space after paragraph from the dropdown menu. You can also click Custom Spacing to customize the spacing.
4. The spacing between paragraphs will adjust in the document.

If you want to remove paragraph spacing, click the Line Spacing button and select Remove space before paragraph or Remove space after paragraph.

Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is a link to a web address (URL). If you want to include a web address in your Google document, you can format it as a clickable hyperlink. The hyperlink will open the web page in a new browser window.

To insert a hyperlink:

1. Select the text you want to convert into a hyperlink.
2. Click the Insert Link button or right-click the selected text and click Link.
3. A Edit Link dialog box will appear. The selected text will appear in the Text field. You can modify this text if desired.
4. Enter the address you want to link to in the Link field. Google Docs may automatically fill in this field if the selected text looks like a URL.
5. Click Apply. The selected text will now be a hyperlink.
6. Click the link to view the URL.

If you want to edit or remove the hyperlink, click the link and select Edit or Remove from the options that appear beneath the link.

Challenge!

1. Open our example file. Make sure you are signed in to your Google account, then click File > Make a Copy.
2. Select the first two lines of text and center-align them.
3. Select the text starting with “2 beds 1.5 bathrooms” and ending with “Available from June 1”. Then, change the line spacing to 1.5.
4. Select the words “For Rent” and change the font to your choice.
5. With “For Rent” still selected, change the font size to 30pt and make the text bold.
6. Select the words “ABOUT VILLA PIÑA” and change the font color to green.
7. Scroll to the bottom of the page, select the web address on the last line, and change it to a hyperlink.
8. When you’re finished, your document should resemble the example.

Please note: To see the document example, click here.

Have fun formatting text in Google Docs!