9 Make use of Outline view
Not only do Styles ensure your document looks consistent,
they can also be used to aid navigation. Look for the Outline
button in the top left corner of the document window – click this
to view a series of collapsible headings related to the Styles
you’ve applied. Click one to jump to that point in the document
or click the ‘X’ to remove it (your text remains unaffected).
7
Update other Styles
You can now move on to define your other Styles. Any
changes you make to these – whether font, attributes, colour, size,
text alignment, line spacing and so on – should have no effect on
any other Styles. However, if you subsequently make changes to
the ‘Normal text’ Style, you’ll find they affect all your other Styles
too, forcing you to redo those Styles again.
5
Space out paragraphs
Alternatively, click ‘Custom spacing’ to choose your own
precise figure, including decimal points. It’s not possible to
reduce the spacing below 1 (unlike in Word), which is useful
for compressing large text spread over multiple lines. Use the
‘Paragraph spacing’ controls to create a gap between paragraphs
- 8-12 pts either before or after the line is usually sufficient.
10 Add a Table of Contents
Choose ‘Insert > Table of Contents’ and select the type of
table you want: either using page numbers or hyperlinks. This is
built automatically from your Heading styles. Click a link to jump
to that point in the document or roll your mouse over it for more
options. If you add more headings to your document or make
other changes, click the ‘Update table of contents’ button. Q8
Define hyperlink Style
Google Docs doesn’t have a built-in tool for amending the
default hyperlink Style, but you can change it via an add-on:
browse to ‘Add-ons > Get add-ons’ and search for ‘Link Style’.
Once installed, add all the hyperlinks you need, then select one,
style it the way you wish and choose ‘Add-ons > Link Style >
Update link style to match’.6 Apply to style
Once you’re happy with the look and feel of your body text
as you’ve styled it, make sure the text remains selected and then
choose ‘Format > Paragraph styles > Normal Text > Update
‘Normal text’ to match’. The text will automatically update to
match your new Style – and other existing Styles will update too,
reflecting the fact that they’re based on the ‘Normal text’ style.34 |^ |^ August 2019