While Google Docs isn't really built for cartoon, there are options for users who are looking to add shapes to their documents. Most users will employ Google Drawings inside a Google Docs document to do this, simply you lot can also insert images, use basic tables, and utilize special characters to add shapes within the text.

If you want to know how to add shapes in Google Docs using these methods, here's what you'll need to do.

Inserting Shapes Using Google Drawings

The all-time way to add shapes in Google Docs (and the only Google-suggested manner) is to use the Google Drawings tool. While Google Drawings is a service in its own right, yous can access information technology direct from Google Docs without leaving your document page.

Google Drawings isn't a Photoshop replacement by any means, so don't expect to create circuitous images using it. What it will do, still, is allow you to create, edit, and manipulate basic shapes and diagrams. A drawing tin contain a single shape or, if you want to group several shapes together, y'all tin insert multiple shapes.

  1. To create a new drawing, open up your Google Docs document. From the menu, select Insert > Cartoon > New. If you have an existing drawing containing shapes that you wish to insert, select From Drive instead.
  1. If you lot choose to create a new drawing, a pop-up Google Drawings window volition appear. From the menu bar, select the Shapes pick.
  1. The Shapes drop-down bill of fare has various sub-menus, including shapes (for basic shapes), arrows (for pointer shapes), telephone call outs (for chat bubbles), and equations (for mathematical symbols). Select the shape y'all want to add start, then use your mouse or trackpad to draw the shape to the size you want in the Drawing window.
  1. Once you've added a shape, you can format it by irresolute its color, transparency, border sizing, and more. Select the formatting options yous wish to apply from the menu, and so select the Save and shut push to insert the shape into your document in one case you're done.
  1. The cartoon will appear on the document page. Yous can move and resize information technology at will, but if you demand to edit it, double-click the shape, or select it, then select the Edit button.

Adding Shapes in Google Docs Using Images

If y'all desire to create more creative shapes and images, create them in a photo editor like Photoshop or GIMP and upload them to your document as an epitome. You tin can also find and insert shapes using the built-in Google search tool.

  1. To upload an image, open up your Google Docs document and select Insert > Image > Upload from computer to brainstorm the process. If you want to employ Google search to observe an image, select Search the web instead.
  1. If yous choose to upload an image, use the Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer pop-upward window to find and upload it. Google Docs will insert the image as soon as it'due south uploaded. If you lot choose to search for an image containing shapes, use the search bar in the correct-hand menu to practise and so. Once you've located the paradigm, select it, so select the Insert button at the bottom to place it in your certificate.
  1. 1 you lot've inserted an image, you can resize it in the certificate directly. You can too make further changes (for example, adding transparency or a edge) by right-clicking the image and selecting the Image options selection. This volition open a carte on the correct with various image editing options.

Using Special Characters to Add Shapes to Text

Text wrapping will let you to insert images and shapes around text. If yous want to add shapes in Google Docs to the text directly, the best way to practise so is to utilise special characters. This allows y'all to insert shape-like objects into the text. You can format these similar standard text, with color, font, sizing, and more.

  1. To insert special characters, open your Google Docs document and select Insert > Special Characters.
  1. In the popular-upwardly Insert special characters window, search through the list of characters to find shapes you lot want. Alternatively, use the search bar to locate particular shapes instead (for instance, square for characters with square shapes), or use the drawing tool beneath it to draw and search for shapes manually.
  1. Hover over any of the special characters to see a larger preview and description. To insert a special grapheme, select it from the list on the left. This volition insert it into your certificate. Selecting the character in one case will insert information technology once, but yous tin can select it repeatedly to add further characters.
  1. Once the special character (or characters) are in place, you lot can use the text formatting options to make changes. Select the special grapheme using your mouse, then employ the formatting bar bill of fare to change its font, font size, emphasis, colour, and more.

Using Tables to Insert Basic Square Shapes

The methods to a higher place exhaust most of the obvious ways a user tin can insert shapes into Google Docs. There is another other style, even so, that you lot can insert a very simple shape into Google Docs. Not simply tin can be it formatted with color and custom borders, information technology can also accept text inserted into information technology directly.

The fashion to do this is past inserting a basic table. While a tabular array can only take the form of a square or a rectangle, it does offer advantages over other forms of shapes. For instance, if you desire to add easily-edited text inside a shape, creating a table is the best way to do it.

  1. To insert a table, select Insert > Table, then select the size yous want from the pop-up menu. If you want the table to fill the folio horizontally, select a ane×i size. If you want it to be smaller, but still allow you to add text either size of it, cull a larger size (for instance, 2×two or 3×three). You lot can and so hibernate the other table segments later.
  1. If y'all've created a i×1 table, yous can resize and manipulate it at this signal. For case, if you want to alter the background color, select the Background color tool on the toolbar. You can besides resize information technology past dragging a border left or right using your mouse or trackpad.
  1. If you've created a ii×1 or larger table, you can also hide other segments either side of the segment y'all wish to utilize. This allows you to insert text to the left or right of the tabular array (using the subconscious segments as text boxes), as well as create padding that moves the visible segment into some other position on your page.

    To do this, select ane of the edge lines you lot wish to erase using your mouse (or highlight the entire segment). From the toolbar, select the Border width selection, so choose 0pt from the menu. Alternatively, select the Edge color option, choosing White from the menu.

  1. Repeat this step for each border line y'all wish to hide. Once hidden, the table segment you lot wish to exit in place will announced in position. You can make further changes by adding text, colour, and boosted formatting options.

Creating Better Documents with Google Docs

Once you know how to add together shapes in Google Docs, you tin begin to create documents that use all kinds of content. Images, drawings, fifty-fifty tables can exist used  to bring attending to other parts of your content.

There are enough of similarities betwixt Give-and-take and Google Docs so, if you lot're used to Role, you lot shouldn't discover it too hard to get to grips with document creation in Google Docs. Once you've mastered the basics, you tin can employ features like column splitting to create different styles of documents, from brochures to leaflets.