Change how paragraphs & fonts look

Want advanced Google Workspace features for your business?

You can use the buttons in the toolbar at the top of a document to:

Edit and format the text and paragraph spacing
Change the font and background color
Bold, italicize, underline, or strikethrough text

These options are also available in the Format menu. To open the Format menu, use the keyboard shortcut:

Windows and Chrome OS: Alt + Shift + o
Mac OS: Control + Option + o

Tip: Many of these actions have keyboard shortcuts that can be used without the toolbar or menus. Take note of the shortcuts presented with the menu options you use frequently to work more efficiently.

Computer Android iPhone & iPad

Format paragraphs

Change paragraph spacing and alignment

Change paragraph alignment

Go to the paragraph you want to change.
- Or select multiple paragraphs.
To change the paragraph spacing and alignment:
- In the toolbar, at the upper right, select Align.
- Open the Format menu, then select Align & indent.
Choose an alignment option:
- Left
- Centered
- Right
- Justified

Change line & paragraph spacing

Go to the paragraph you want to change.
- Or select multiple paragraphs.

To change the line and paragraph spacing:
- In the toolbar, at the upper right, select Line & paragraph spacing.
- Open the Format menu, then select Line & paragraph spacing.

Choose a line spacing option:
- To change your paragraph spacing, click Single, 1.15, 1.5, or Double.
- To change your spacing between paragraphs, click Remove space before paragraph or Add space after paragraph.
- To enter a custom size, click Custom spacing. Then, enter the size of the spacing you want before and after a paragraph and click Apply.
- To keep paragraph headings and text on the same page, click Keep with next.
- To keep all lines of text in the same paragraph on the same page, click Keep lines together.
- To prevent single lines at the beginning or end of paragraphs, click Prevent single lines.

Important: Keep with next, Keep lines together, and Prevent single lines aren't available in documents that are in pageless format. To use these features, make sure your document is in pages format.

Change paragraph borders or color

Go to the paragraph you want to change.
- Or select multiple paragraphs.
Open the Format menu.
Select Paragraph styles and then Borders and shading.
In the dialog that opens, tab to a paragraph appearance option:
- Position: Choose a top, bottom, left, right, or between paragraph lines.
- Border width: The width of the positional border lines.
- Border dash: The dashed, dotted, or solid style of the positional border lines.
- Border color.
- Background color.
- Paragraph padding: Spacing before the paragraph.
To remove paragraph borders or color, select Reset.
When done, select Apply.

Change paragraph style

Your documents will have a more consistent appearance when you apply a style instead of updating font appearance.

To apply a style:

Go to the paragraph you want to change.
- Or select multiple paragraphs.
To change the paragraph style, you can:
- In the toolbar, select Styles.
- Open the Format menu, then select Paragraph styles.
Select a paragraph style:
- Normal
- Title
- Heading level
Select Apply.

Format font

Change font

Select the text you want to change.
- To choose from a menu of fonts:
  1. In the toolbar, select Font.
  2. Choose a font from the dropdown list.
- To search for a font, press:
  1. For Windows or Chrome OS: Alt + slash.
    - For Mac OS: Option + slash.
  2. Enter part of the font name.
  3. Press the Down arrow to select the font name.
    - If the name has a sub-menu, you can choose your preferred font weight.
To change the font, press Enter.

Tip: If you search for a font, you can quickly set it again if you choose the first option in the recent list that appears when you press Alt + slash (Option + slash on Mac).

Change font size

Select the text you want to change.
To change the font size:
- Open the Format menu and then Text and then Size:
  - Select Decrease font size or press Control + Shift + ,
  - Select Increase font size or press Control + Shift + .
- From the toolbar:
  - Select Font size then choose a size.

If you know the size you want to set:

Press Alt + slash.
- On Mac, press Option + slash.
Enter font size [number].
Press Enter.
- Or just enter the numerical size and confirm the match in the results list.

Change text case

Select the text you want to change.
Open the Format menu.
Select Text and then Capitalization.
Choose your capitalization:
- lowercase
- UPPERCASE
- Title Case

Choose a default font

Select the text you want for a default.
Open the Format menu.
Select Paragraph styles and then Normal text and then Update 'Normal text' to match.

Tip: To have new documents use this font, open the Format menu and then select Paragraph styles and then Options and then Save as my default styles.

Add fonts to your font list

In some languages, you can add new fonts to your font list.

Press Alt + slash.
- On Mac, press Option + slash.
Enter more fonts.
Press Enter.
- A dialog box appears with a list of fonts.
To add new fonts, press Space.
Once done, press Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

Tip: The font dialog includes options for sorting and searching. You can search for types of fonts like “serif,” “script,” or “mono.“

Available languages

Fonts are available in these languages:

Afrikaans
Albanian
Arabic
Azerbaijani
Bangla
Burmese
Catalan
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Gujarati
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian
Italian
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Kyrgyz
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Malay
Malayalam
Marathi
Mongolian
Nepali
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese

Change the font color

On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
Select the text you want to change.
On the toolbar, select Text Color .
Select the color you want.

Change the background or highlight color

On your computer, open a document in Google docs.
Select the text you want to change.
On the toolbar, select Highlight Color .
Select the color you want.

Change the font color or highlight color by searching

Select the text you want to change.
Press Alt + slash.
- On Mac, press Option + slash.
Enter a color, like blue or yellow.
Select the text color or highlight color that you want.
Press Enter.

Bold, italicize, or strikethrough text

Select the text you want to change.
Open the Format menu.
Select Text.
Choose your text format:
- Bold
- Italic
- Underline
- Strikethrough

Tip: You can select text formats like bold, italic, and underline from the "Toolbar menu" or use keyboard shortcuts for your preferred format.

Related resources

Delete a document
Print or change the page setup
Add headers, footers & page numbers
Crop and adjust images
Add a title, heading, or table of contents

Choose a section to give feedback on

Change how paragraphs & fonts look

Format paragraphs

Change paragraph alignment

Change line & paragraph spacing

Format font

Related resources

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