Basic Text Formatting – Google Docs (Senior 4 ICT) | Ganzaa

Google Docs

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Senior 4 · ICT

Google Docs

5 lessons

Lesson 2 of 5

Basic Text Formatting

24 min

The same words, two notices

The Environment Club secretary types a notice for the noticeboard: the club will plant trees with the village during the Umuganda community work on Saturday 28 November 2026, members meet at the school gate at 7:30, and each member brings a hoe. She types it all in one font, one size, with no blank space, and pins it up. Almost nobody reads it.

The next week she formats it: a large bold title, the date and time in bold, the list of things to bring indented, the club's name centred at the bottom. Same words, but now the eye finds the date in two seconds. Formatting is not decoration. It shows the reader what matters, in what order.

Definition

Formatting: changing how text looks without changing what it says.

Character (text) formatting: applies to the selected characters only. Examples: font, size, bold, italic, underline, colour, highlight, superscript.

Paragraph formatting: applies to a whole paragraph, wherever the cursor is in it. Examples: alignment, line spacing, space before and after, indentation.

Paragraph style: a named, saved set of character and paragraph formatting, such as Normal text, Title or Heading 1, applied in one step.

Character formatting

Select the text first, by dragging or double-clicking a word, then use the toolbar, the Format → Text menu, or a shortcut. A new Google Doc starts in Normal text, Arial, size 11.

Effect	Toolbar or menu	Shortcut (Windows, ChromeOS)	Use it for
Bold	B	Ctrl + B	Key facts: a date, a deadline
Italic	I	Ctrl + I	Titles of books, foreign words
Underline	U	Ctrl + U	Rarely: readers mistake it for a link
~~Strikethrough~~	Format → Text	Alt + Shift + 5	Showing a cancelled item
Superscript, subscript	Format → Text	Ctrl + . and Ctrl + ,	10³, m², H₂O, CO₂
Font and size	Font and size boxes	Ctrl + Shift + . (bigger), Ctrl + Shift + , (smaller)	Titles larger, body text 11 or 12
Text colour, highlight	A and the marker pen	none	A warning in red, a word to revise
Capitalisation	Format → Text → Capitalization	none	lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case
Clear formatting	T with a line through it	Ctrl + \	Return pasted text to plain Normal text

On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.

Paragraph formatting

A paragraph, for a word processor, is everything between two presses of Enter. Paragraph formatting applies to the whole paragraph, so you do not need to select it: click anywhere inside it.

Alignment decides where the lines sit between the margins (Format → Align & indent, or the align button).

Line spacing (the line-spacing button or Format → Line & paragraph spacing): Single, 1.15, 1.5 or Double. A teacher who wants room to write corrections asks for double spacing.
Space before and after a paragraph: Add space after paragraph, or Custom spacing to type a value in points. This, not pressing Enter twice, is how professional documents separate paragraphs.
Indentation: Ctrl + ] and Ctrl + [ increase and decrease the indent; the ruler's blue markers set a first-line indent or a hanging indent.

Styles and the document outline

The Styles box on the toolbar (it shows Normal text) applies a whole set of formatting at once: Title, Subtitle, Heading 1 to Heading 6. Shortcuts: Ctrl + Alt + 1 to 6 for headings, Ctrl + Alt + 0 for Normal text.

Headings made with styles do three jobs that bold, large text cannot:

They appear in the document outline on the left, so a reader can jump to any section.
They feed an automatic table of contents (Insert → Table of contents), which you met in S3.
They can all be changed at once: format one Heading 1 the way you want, then choose Format → Paragraph styles → Heading 1 → Update 'Heading 1' to match, and every Heading 1 in the document changes.

To copy the look of one piece of text onto another, use Paint format (the paint-roller button): click inside the formatted text, click the roller, then select the target text. Ctrl + Alt + C and Ctrl + Alt + V copy and paste text formatting from the keyboard.

Teacher's Tech: How to use Google Docs, Beginners Tutorial. Watch the sections on fonts, styles and alignment. Notice how a heading style also adds the heading to the outline at the left.

Worked example 1: plan the formatting of the club notice

Part of the notice	Formatting	How
"Tree planting on Umuganda day"	Title style, centred	Styles box → Title; Ctrl + Shift + E
"Saturday 28 November 2026, 7:30, school gate"	Bold, size 14	Ctrl + B; size box → 14
Three paragraphs of details	Normal text, justified, line spacing 1.15, space after each paragraph	Ctrl + Shift + J; line-spacing button
"Bring a hoe and drinking water"	Highlighted	Highlight colour (marker) → yellow
"Environment Club, S4 to S6"	Italic, right-aligned	Ctrl + I; Ctrl + Shift + R

Notice the order of decisions: first what the reader must see first (the date), then the rest.

Worked example 2: why don't the headings show in the outline?

A student's 12-page report has six section titles, each typed in bold, size 16. The document outline is empty, and Insert → Table of contents produces nothing.

Diagnosis. The titles look like headings but are still Normal text with character formatting added. The outline and the table of contents read paragraph styles, not appearance.

Fix. Click in each title and choose Heading 1 (Ctrl + Alt + 1). To make them bold, size 16, as before, format one, then Update 'Heading 1' to match. The outline fills at once, and the table of contents can be inserted.

Warning

Do not line things up with spaces or empty lines. Text pushed across with the space bar, or kept apart by pressing Enter several times, falls out of place as soon as the font, the size or the page changes. Use alignment, indentation, tab stops and paragraph spacing: they stay right.

Do not overdo it. Two fonts at most, and colour only where it means something. A page in five colours and four fonts is harder to read, not easier.

Tip

Character or paragraph? Ask: "Could this apply to one word?" If yes (bold, colour, size), select the word first. If it only makes sense for the whole paragraph (alignment, spacing, indent), just click inside the paragraph.

✦

Hands-on: format the Umuganda notice

In your S4 ICT folder create a document named Club notice.
Type, as plain text: a title line; the date, time and meeting place; two or three short paragraphs about the activity; a line of things to bring; and the club's name.
Apply the formatting in worked example 1.
Use Format → Paragraph styles → Borders and shading to put a light background behind the line of things to bring.
Change the title's font, then use Paint format to give the club name the same font.
Press Ctrl + Shift + C to see the word count.

Check: from a metre away, can a classmate read the date and time first?

Practice

Explain the difference between character formatting and paragraph formatting, with two examples of each.
Give the shortcut for each: bold; centre; Heading 2; clear formatting.
How do you type the unit m² and the formula H₂O in Google Docs?
Name the four paragraph alignments and say which gives both a straight left and a straight right edge.
A student separates paragraphs by pressing Enter twice. Suggest a better method and explain why it is better.
Give three advantages of making section titles with Heading styles instead of bold, large Normal text.
A pasted paragraph from a website arrives in blue, size 9, Times New Roman. What is the quickest way to make it match the rest of your document?
Evaluate this design: a notice with every line centred, in four fonts, with each word in a different colour.

Show answersHide answers

Character formatting changes only the selected characters (font, bold, colour); paragraph formatting changes the whole paragraph the cursor is in (alignment, line spacing, indentation).
Ctrl + B; Ctrl + Shift + E; Ctrl + Alt + 2; Ctrl + \ .
Superscript for the 2 in m² (Ctrl + .) and subscript for the 2 in H₂O (Ctrl + ,), or Format → Text.
Left, centred, right and justified; justified gives straight edges on both sides (except the last line).
Use Add space after paragraph or custom spacing. The gap stays the same size everywhere and does not create empty paragraphs that move when the text changes.
They appear in the document outline; they feed an automatic table of contents; all headings of one level can be restyled at once with Update to match.
Select it and clear the formatting (Ctrl + \), which returns it to the document's Normal text; or paste it with Ctrl + Shift + V, which pastes without formatting.
Poor design. Centring every line makes long text hard to read because each line starts in a different place; four fonts and many colours distract the eye, so nothing stands out. One or two fonts, left or justified body text and colour only for a warning would be clearer.

Quick check

Your cursor is in the middle of a paragraph and nothing is selected. Which change will apply to the whole paragraph?

Key points

Character formatting (font, size, bold, colour, superscript) needs a selection; paragraph formatting (alignment, spacing, indent) applies to the paragraph the cursor is in.
Separate and align text with paragraph spacing, alignment and indents, never with spaces or empty lines.
Use paragraph styles (Title, Heading 1 to 6) for headings: they fill the outline, feed a table of contents and can be restyled at once.
Ctrl + \ clears formatting; Paint format copies it.

Sources and credits

Word processor, Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted by Ganzaa.
Menu names and shortcuts checked against Change how paragraphs & fonts look, Add a title, heading, or table of contents in a document and Keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs, Google Docs Editors Help, Google (linked for reference, not copied).
Video: How to use Google Docs, Beginners Tutorial, Teacher's Tech, embedded from YouTube.
The scenario, alignment diagram, tables, worked examples, hands-on task and practice items were written by Ganzaa.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1The same words, two notices

2Character formatting

3Paragraph formatting

4Styles and the document outline

5Hands-on: format the Umuganda notice

The same words, two notices

Character formatting

Paragraph formatting

Styles and the document outline

Hands-on: format the Umuganda notice