In this tutorial, you will learn how to add arrows in Google Docs.
How To Add Arrows In Google Docs
Adding arrows to your documents can be a great way to draw attention to certain points or to outline a process. In Google Docs, you can easily add arrows using the pre-made shapes available in the Drawings tool.
Google Docs also supports adding arrow characters through the Special characters tool and through pre-defined character substitutions. For example, we can type “==>” in our document to output “⇒” automatically.
In this guide, we will show you various methods you can use to insert arrows in Google Docs. We will also explain how to customize the appearance of your arrows so that you can make them look exactly the way you want.
How to Insert Arrows in Google Docs
Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to insert arrows in Google Docs.
Step 1
First, open up a Google Docs document where you wish to insert arrows.
Step 2
We can insert arrows through the Drawing tool. We can access this tool by clicking Insert > Drawing > New.
Step 3
In the Drawing tool, click on the dropdown arrow next to the Line icon. Select the Arrow option.
Use your cursor to draw an arrow from one point of the canvas to another.
Step 4
You can also use one of the available arrow shapes. To add an arrow shape to the drawing canvas, click on the Shapes icon in the toolbar and select one of the arrow shapes in the Arrow options.
Step 5
You can use the provided formatting options to change the look of your arrow. For line arrows, you can choose the line width, line color, line style, as well as the direction of the arrowheads.
Once you’re satisfied with the look of your arrow, you can click Save and Close to insert the drawing into your document.
You’ll be able to resize and move around the arrow as if it were an image.
Step 6
Google Docs also includes several shortcuts to create arrows using just your keyboard. See the image below to look at some of the characters you can type that will automatically convert into in-text arrows.
Step 7
To access even more arrow characters, we can use the Special characters feature. Start by selecting Insert > Special characters.
Select the categories “Symbol” and “Arrows” to view all arrow-like characters.
Click on any of these characters to add them to your document.
Step 8
Another use case for arrows is for vector notation in mathematics. Luckily, Google Docs supports vector notation when using the Equations tool.
Click on Insert > Equation to add a new equation to your document.
We can type “\vec” to insert a new vector equation.
The arrow will appear over any letter or text you’ll place beneath it.
Summary
This guide should be everything you need to learn how to add arrows in Google Docs.
Click this link to make a copy of this sample document to try doing it yourself!