Styles and Table of Contents in Google Docs

If you're using the Bold command for your headings and subheadings, then you need to discover Google's styles! Not only can you quickly assign size/color/spacing/bolding to text, you can update all instances inyour document with just one change!

Assign and update

As you're creating your document, instead of bolding, assign one of the heading styles (don't worry if you don't like the look of it — you can change that). Once you've assigned a style to a piece of text, highlight the text and make the changes until you're happy with the result. Then you can update the heading (see image below) and all instances throughout the document will be updated!

You can even set the defaults for all future documents you create by selecting Save as my default styles from the Options at the bottom of the styles list.

Table of Contents from your styles

Once you've formatted all your text using styles, you can quickly create a Table of Contents. Just select Table of Contents from the Insert menu. Google will automatically insert the text from your styles and indent the subheadings like this:

Check out the sample document

Resources

Working with styles - Lynda.com (free to MacEwan University students and staff)

Edit and format a Google document - Google Help
Add titles, headings and customize the style of your document - Google Help
Table of contents in documents - Google Help

To find out how you can take advantage of Google Apps in your area, contact Trevor Beck (beckt@macewan.ca) at 780-497-5053.

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