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About this lesson
How to effectively use the options in the toolbar.
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Toolbar Options in Docs SolutionLink Toolbar Options in Docs
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Quick reference
Toolbar Options in Docs
The toolbar is where the most useful and common editing options are located in Google Docs.
When to use
Whenever you need to change text after it’s been written.
Instructions
Toolbar buttons
- Print - Print the document
- Undo - Undo the last action
- Redo - Undo an undo
- Paint format - Select a text and click this button to copy a format; select another text to apply the format
- Zoom - Zoom in or out of the app
- Styles - Change the default format of headings and subtitles; select a text and click on a style to apply that format
- Font - Change font; click “more fonts” to see more options
- Font size - Change the size of text
- Bold - Make text bold
- Italic - Make text italic
- Underline - Make text underlined
- Text color - Change text color and highlight color
- Insert link - Select a text and click “Insert link;” paste a URL to turn the text into a link
- Add comment - Add notes and conversations about the document without having to edit it
- Left align - Straighten on the left
- Center - Center the text
- Right align - Straighten on the right
- Justify - Straighten on both sides
- Line spacing - Change the distance between lines and add or remove spaces between paragraphs
- Numbered list - Tturn text into a numbered list
- Bulleted list - Turn text into a bulleted list
- Decrease indent - Move text to the left
- Increase indent - Indent text to the right
- Clear formatting - Remove all formatting from selected text
Columns
To divide the text into columns:
- Click “Format”
- “Columns”
- Choose 2 or 3 columns
- 00:05 Let's now take a look at the toolbar, so we can understand the different ways in
- 00:09 which we can adjust and edit the content within our document.
- 00:13 First, we find the print icon, which will open up the print dialogue.
- 00:18 We next have our undo and our redo controls, which again,
- 00:22 you can also access by using the shortcut keys, CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y.
- 00:28 The next one is paint format, which may be new for some of you.
- 00:31 This is not a feature that is available in every word processor.
- 00:36 What the paint format allows us to do is to copy certain formatting.
- 00:41 So for example, if I like the bold and the size of the text here, I can highlight it,
- 00:47 select paint format and then come down and apply it somewhere else.
- 00:52 Now, I have the exact format in a different place in the document.
- 00:57 Next up we can adjust the zoom of what we are viewing.
- 01:01 We can zoom in if we wanna take a closer look or we can fit to page,
- 01:06 so we can get the exact width of the document that we are working with.
- 01:11 Next up, we can change our text style.
- 01:15 And you may have some presets in terms of the title, subtitles and
- 01:19 different headings within your document.
- 01:21 We can also quickly change the font of our text, by selecting the various
- 01:26 fonts that are given to us or we can select more fonts if we like.
- 01:31 Let’s try Ultra for bullet point number one.
- 01:34 We can also adjust the text size with the next option here,
- 01:38 if we want to make something larger or smaller.
- 01:42 We have some other basic editing functions such as bolding the text,
- 01:46 adding italics, underlining a text or changing the text color.
- 01:52 Let’s say, I’d like this bullet to stand out, now,
- 01:55 I’m gonna give it a red text color.
- 01:58 Next up, we have the link icon,
- 02:01 which allows us to insert a link to a website or some other URL.
- 02:07 And we also have the ability to add a comment.
- 02:11 So let's say that I am collaborating with someone and
- 02:14 I'd like to make a comment about the title.
- 02:16 Simply highlight the area that you would like to comment on and
- 02:20 then select this icon.
- 02:22 In the right hand side of my screen, I can now add in a comment or
- 02:27 an idea, maybe something like, I like this.
- 02:30 And I'm gonna submit that comment.
- 02:32 Now, when someone else is viewing this document,
- 02:35 they can see the comment which is attached to this particular area.
- 02:39 We next have some further formatting options if we want to change the display
- 02:44 of our content.
- 02:47 So, for example, maybe I'd like to adjust this and I want it to be on the right hand
- 02:52 side or upon further review, maybe I'd like it to be centered on my screen.
- 02:58 We can next adjust our line spacing for the text that we are viewing at and
- 03:02 also add various bullet points.
- 03:04 If I would like a numbered list, very much like you see here, or
- 03:09 perhaps I would like to convert this to just a bulleted list.
- 03:14 There we see my bullet points there.
- 03:17 We can change the indentation of some of our files by moving them to the left or
- 03:22 moving them to the right.
- 03:23 And if we'd like to clear some of our formatting all together,
- 03:27 we can select that text and select clear formatting.
- 03:31 Now you see everything here has the same size and the same format applied.
- 03:37 Lastly in the toolbar, we have the option to change what mode we are viewing it in.
- 03:42 Again, by default, most likely you will be viewing it in editing mode, so
- 03:46 that you can edit the text.
- 03:48 But we can change that to suggesting mode,
- 03:50 where our only capability is to add comments and suggestions.
- 03:55 And lastly, we have the view mode, in which we can view it in a read or
- 04:00 print format.
- 04:02 So now, we're comfortable with the toolbar, we can start to edit and
- 04:06 make more complex changes to our document.
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