If your daily routine involves creating or editing text documents, you might be familiar with Google Docs. Being a web application, Google Docs offers a user-friendly and feature-rich platform for editing text documents. It includes all the formatting features required for a document, which helps in modifying the raw work into a more professional one. Page margins are one of the crucial aspects of document formatting on Google Docs.
Margins are an important factor in a document’s page formatting. Without margins, the text added to the page will occupy end-to-end space, making the document appear crowded. This not only affects the appearance of the document but also makes it hard to read. Margins help in maintaining a balanced space distribution for the text or other data on Google Docs.
If you want to create an organized document in Google Docs, this article is made for you. It will guide you through several methods to change margins on Google Docs.
Changing Margins In Google Docs
With Google Docs, you can change the margin of the document in different ways. For desktops or laptops, the options like Page Setup or Ruler come in handy. Being an online application, users can also edit the margins on their smartphones. All the related methods are discussed below:
Changing Margins With Page Setup
- Visit the Google Docs website and open a new or existing document.
- Once the page is loaded, select “File” from the menu bar, located at the topmost section of the document.
- This will open a list of various options. Scroll and select the “Page Setup” option.
- A new window will pop up on your screen. In this window, all the necessary options to format the page will displayed.
- Under the “Pages” tab, locate the Margins section. You will get margin settings for the top, bottom, right, and left sides of the page. Add preferred values to change the margin. If you want to continue the same margin for upcoming documents, you can select the “Set as Default” option.
- Press OK to confirm the changes.
Margins will be added to the page instantly. You can also use the Page Setup section to change the page color, page size, or orientation.
Changing Margins With Ruler
The built-in ruler of Google Docs offers a reference for measurements. With the ruler, you get to set the margin in real-time.
- Check if the Ruler is visible on your document page or not.
- If not, you can activate it by clicking on the View option from the menu bar.
- From the list of options, click on the “Show ruler” option. Make sure a tick appears in front of this option to ensure the rule is visible.
- Going back to the document page, you will see the ruler on the top side of the page (below the menu bar).
- Move your cursor away from any end of the ruler. The cursor becomes an expansion arrow.
- By clicking and dragging this arrow, the margin will be changed. You can check the margin value above this arrow.
- Once the desired margin is achieved, release the mouse button. The setting of the margin will be saved.
These methods are suitable for desktops or laptops and will help you change the margins. If you have to change margins on a phone via the Google Docs app, you can try out these steps:
Changing Margins in Google Docs Via Mobile App
To change the margin in your phone, you have to install the Google Docs app from the Google Play store or Apple App Store. The initial steps of both Android and iOS devices are the same, hence we are sharing the common steps below:
- Complete the initial setup of the app and log into your account.
- Open an existing or a new document.
- Locate the three-dots icon on the upper right corner of the app and tap it.
- From the menu, tap on the “Page Setup” option. You will get a list of settings related to page formatting.
For Android Device:
The margin feature is not available for Android devices. However, you can change the page orientation. Users can also change the page size from a list of standard-sized pages.
For iOS Device:
- After opening the Page Setup menu, tap on the Margins option.
- This will open a window with multiple margin settings like Custom, Wide, Narrow, and Default.
The Wide margin option will add 2 inches on both the right and left side of the page. For both the top and bottom margins, this option will add 1 inch on each side. The Narrow margin adds only 0.5 inches on all sides. Similarly, the Default margin will add 1 inch on all four sides. With the Custom Margin, you can adjust the values for all sides.
- After selecting the desired margin, tap on the “Apply” option. This will confirm your settings for the margin.
Change Margins in Google Docs – FAQs
Ans: If you want to change the margin of different pages in the same document, Google Docs does not allow that. Whenever you change the margin settings, it is applied to all the pages of the document. This helps in keeping the page size uniform for the whole document (this also helps in printing the document, without disturbing the format).
Ans: Fortunately, you can change the margin size of a single page in Google Docs. To do this, move your cursor to the top of the page (whose margin needs to be changed). Select Insert from the menu bar and then use the “Break” option. From the sub-menu, select the “Section Break (next page)” option. You can change the margins for the new page through the Page Setup option (available in the File section).
Ans: The Default margin for Google Docs is maintained at 1-inch, for all the sides of a page. The default margin is set by the application with default values. If you change these values and make them default via the “Set as Default” option”, the documents will accept them as a new default value for the future.
Ans: In Google Docs, you can set a minimum margin of 0.1 inch for all the sides. Similarly, the maximum margin for all the sides is 2 inches. All these values can be set via the Page Setup option of Google Docs.
Ans: If you want to reset the margin value to the default one, you can do it via the Page Setup option. Open the document and click on the File option. From the list of features, select the “Page Setup” option. A new window will open where you can reset the margin by adding 1 inch on all four sides (1 inch is the default margin for Google Docs). Select the “Set as Default” option and then OK.
Conclusion
Formatting a text document on Google Docs is easy due to the wide range of features. When you have to deal with very long text data, it must be presented in an organized manner. Margins come into the picture to create a standard spacing between the writing space and the page’s sides. Therefore, in this article, we have explained various steps to change margins on Google Docs. This information will help you balance the text data on each page of the document.
