How to Edit Google Docs

Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.

• Western Governors University

Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions.

What to Know

• Web browser: Open a Google Docs file. Edit the document using the menus at the top of the screen.
• Insert images, adjust text formatting, and run spell check are just a few of the options.
• Google Docs app: Open a document and tap the pencil icon. Use the menus at the top and bottom of the screen to edit. Tap the check mark.

This article explains how to edit Google Docs from a web browser on a computer or the Google Docs app on a mobile device.

Edit Google Docs on the Website

Google Docs is a popular word processor because it runs entirely online, but that doesn't mean it skimps on editing options. You can edit papers and other documents you've created yourself as well as files that have been shared with you in a web browser or mobile app. Here's how to edit Google Docs in a web browser.

1. Open Google Docs. This is the best way to locate a document, especially if you made it yourself. If it was shared with you or you can't find it there, see how to open Google documents for other methods of finding it.

Select the document you want to edit. If you don’t find it right away, use the search bar at the top; it finds documents by title and text content. If it was created in MS Word and is on your computer, upload it to Google Docs.

Edit the document. There are menus at the top of the page to do things like insert pictures and other objects, adjust text formatting, run spell check, and more (see below). One common task is changing font size, which you can do with the number toggles.

Editing Options

There are so many editing tools in Google Docs that it'd be helpful to have them laid out to explain what they do. Here they are, separated by section in the formatting toolbar:

• Undo, redo, print, spelling/grammar check, paint format (for easily copying/pasting formatting)
• Zoom; for adjusting how you see the document (it doesn't change the actual text size)
• Styles; for making titles and subheadings
• Font changer, text size adjuster, bold/italic/underline, text color, highlight color
• Insert a hyperlink, insert a comment, insert an image
• Align; for make text and objects left-aligned, centered, right-aligned, or justified
• Line spacing, such as double-spaced; highlight a section of the document to change how much spacing is between the lines
• Make numbered and bulleted lists, increase and decrease indents, and clear formatting

Another way to find some editing tools is by right-clicking or going through the menus. For example, the Insert menu lets you make a chart, build a table, use special characters and equations, add footnotes, and create a table of contents.

Use the Google Docs App

1. The mobile app is how you edit documents from a phone or tablet. Download it now if you don't already have it: