Word processing with Google Docs

Google’s free word processor is called Google Docs. People with a Google account can use the word processor online or as an app on the iPad/iPhone and Android devices. When someone creates something with Google Docs, Google saves the file in Google Drive. The file will then be in Google Docs and in Google Drive.

Google Docs:

• Google Docs – Online version
• Google Docs – Android
• Google Docs – iPad/iPhone

In this article, we focus on the online version of Google Docs.

• Go to docs.google.com
• Sign in with your Google account if you are not already signed in.
• If you’ve never used Google Docs, you’ll see a “Welcome to Google Docs” window. In that pane, click on the cross at the top right.

The Google Docs folder is in view. Documents may already be listed under ‘Recent documents’. Those are files you created through Google Drive.

Create a new document in Google Drive like this:

• Under “Start a new document,” click the blank document with the colored plus sign. Don’t see ‘Start a new document’? Then click on the white circle with the colored plus sign at the bottom right.

The new, untitled document is ready to be filled.

Google Docs saves the file automatically. So you don’t have to worry about losing text. Google saves any changes or additions to the text. As a result, you can close the browser at any time.

Because a document is saved automatically, Google Docs doesn’t ask if you want to name it. Give a new document a name right away.

• Click on the top left Unnamed document.
• Type a name.
• Press the Enter key.

Once a blank document opens, you can start typing. The text you entered appears on the screen. Unlike a typewriter, you don’t have to press the Enter key at the end of a line on the computer. Google Docs automatically continues on a new line at the end of the line. If you are creating paragraphs and want to start on a new line, just press the Enter key. The cursor (pointer) then jumps to the next line.

To edit or delete large chunks of text at once, you can select the word or phrases. This can be done in several ways. The selected text will then have a gray background:

• Select one word: double click on the word.
• Select a single paragraph: Click three times within the paragraph.
• Select more words or lines: Drag the mouse pointer over the part you want to select while holding down the left mouse button.
• Instead of the above three options, you can also hold down the Shift key and use the arrow keys.
• Select the whole document: click in the menu on To process > Select all. Or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac).

Delete large chunks of text at once by selecting the text first and then pressing the Delete key. You can deselect (deselect) by clicking anywhere in the text.

The default font in Google Docs is “Arial”. Change the font like this:

• Select the text you want to change the font to.
• click on Arial.
• Select a different font.

The default font size in Google Docs is ’11’. Change the size like this:

• Select the text you want to resize.
• click on 11.
• Please select another size.

Make chunks of text as bold (bold):

• Optionally, select the text you want to make bold.
• Click the icon B or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B (Windows) or Cmd+B (Mac).
• Selected text is immediately bold. If you didn’t select any text, the text you type will automatically be bold.
• Click again B or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B or Cmd+B to turn the function off.

Make italics (in italics) for pieces of text like this:

• Optionally, select the text you want to make bold.
• Click the icon I (capital i) or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I (Windows) or Cmd+I (Mac).
• Selected text is immediately italicized. If you didn’t select any text, the text you type is automatically italicized.
• Click the icon again I or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I or Cmd+I to turn the function off.

Underline pieces of text like this:

• Optionally, select the text you want to underline.
• Click the icon YOU or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U (Windows) or Cmd+U (Mac).
• Selected text is immediately underlined. If you didn’t select any text, the text you type is automatically underlined.
• Click the icon YOU or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U or Cmd+U to turn the function off.

The default text color is black. You can give some words or parts of the text a different color. That’s how it works:

• Optionally, select the text you want to underline.
• Click the icon a.
• Click on one of the colored dots.
• Selected text immediately has the chosen color. If you didn’t select any text, the text you type will automatically take on the chosen color.

To make text really stand out, you can highlight the text. Compare that to marking text with a brightly colored marker.

• Select the text you want to highlight.
• Click the icon .
• Click on one of the colored dots.

Alignment means that the text is ‘pressed’ to a certain margin, or appears exactly in the middle of a page. The options for this are right next to the formatting options:

• First option: The text is aligned to the left side of the page. This is enabled by default in a new document.
• Second option: the text is in the middle of the page.
• Third option: The text aligns to the right side of the page.
• Last option: the text is spread over the entire width of the page. Some people think that looks nice. Justified text can be difficult to read because the space between the words varies.

Google Docs has even more formatting options. The menu looks like this:

Menu explained, from left to right:

• Change line spacing icon button: Choose how much space should be left between the lines of the selected section of text.
• Numbering icon button: Creates numbered lists from selected text area. Each new paragraph is numbered.
• Bullet Icon Button: Creates unnumbered lists of selected text area. Each new paragraph gets a bullet or other bullet point.
• Decrease indent icon button: Decreases the indent at the beginning of a selected section of text.
• Increase indent icon button: Increases the indent at the beginning of a selected section of text.
• Clear Formatting Icon Button: Removes all applied formatting from the selected text.

Save a document as a Word document like this:

• Open the document.
• click on File.
• click on To download > Microsoft Word (.docx).

The Word document is now in the download folder of the computer.

• Go to docs.google.com
• Sign in with your Google account if you’re not already signed in.
• Under Recent Documents, click the document you want to edit.