How to Use Google Docs - Beginner's Guide

Open any web browser and go to docs.google.com. Sign in with your Google account. If you don't have one yet, click Create Account and walk through the free signup - it takes about two minutes.

There's nothing to download. Everything runs inside the browser tab, which means your Chromebook, your old laptop, and a brand new PC all behave exactly the same. You can also reach Docs from drive.google.com by clicking New and picking Google Docs from the menu.

On the Google Docs home screen you'll see a row called Start a new document. Click the big plus sign labeled Blank to open an empty page.

To the right of Blank you'll see ready-made templates: meeting notes, project proposals, brochures, business letters, resumes. Click Template gallery in the top right to see the full set. Templates are a head start when you don't want to start from a blank page.

At the top left, your new doc is called Untitled document. Click that text, type a real name, and press Enter. The new name shows up immediately.

You don't need to hit Save. Google Docs writes every keystroke to your Google Drive in the background. Look just below the menu bar - it says All changes saved in Drive. If your wifi cuts out mid-sentence, Docs queues the edits and pushes them when you reconnect.

Click the small folder icon next to your document title. A panel opens showing your Google Drive folders. Either pick a folder that already exists or click the new folder icon at the bottom to create one, name it, and tap the checkmark.

Click Move here to file the document away. Now when you open Google Drive, your doc lives where you put it instead of cluttering the top level. Good folder habits pay off six months from now when you have a hundred docs.

Type a sentence in the document. Then select the text by clicking and dragging, or press Ctrl+A to grab everything. The toolbar at the top has every formatting option you need.

From left to right: font (Arial by default, with more fonts under More fonts), font size (use the dropdown or type a number like 18), bold, italic, underline, text color, and highlight color. Click any button to apply it to whatever you've selected. Click again to undo.

Click in a blank line and open the styles dropdown - the one that says Normal text by default. Pick Title for the big top heading, then Heading 1 for major sections and Heading 2 for subsections. Docs auto-formats each one.

For lists, place your cursor where you want one and click the bullet list or numbered list button in the toolbar. Press Tab to indent a sub-item, Shift+Tab to back out. The little outline panel on the left automatically tracks every heading you use, which is how you navigate a long doc.

Click where you want the image. Go to Insert in the menu bar, then Image. You get six options: upload from computer, search the web, insert from Drive, Google Photos, by URL, or with your webcam camera.

Search the web is the fastest for clip art. Type a keyword, pick an image, click Insert. Once it lands in your doc, click the image and drag its corners to resize. The little toolbar that appears below the image controls how text wraps around it - In line, Wrap text, or Break text.

Select the text you want to turn into a link. Click the link icon in the toolbar or press Ctrl+K. A small popup opens with two fields: Text (what readers see) and Link (the URL).

Paste or type the URL into the Link field. Google often suggests pages you've recently visited and other docs you own, so you don't always need to paste a full address. Click Apply. The text turns blue and underlined, and anyone reading the doc can click straight through.

Click the blue Share button at the top right. The Share with others panel opens. Type the person's email address in the People field. Add a short note in the message box so they know what they're looking at.

Now click the pencil icon to choose what they can do. Can edit lets them change anything. Can comment lets them suggest changes without altering the doc. Can view is read-only. Pick the right level, then click Send. They get an email and can open the doc instantly.

To save a copy outside Google Drive, go to File then Download. Pick the format you need: Microsoft Word (.docx) for editing in Word, PDF for sharing a finished version, plain text for emailing, or HTML for the web.

The file downloads to your computer like any other file. To print directly, go to File then Print, or press Ctrl+P. Pick your printer, page count, and color settings, and hit Print. Your original stays untouched in Google Drive either way.