Google Docs: Creating Block Quotes

Google Docs is very much useful for those who need a platform to write on, may it be their papers, songs, poems, stories, and the like. With that, every type of written work requires a certain format and style that would distinguish it from the others. One basic example is for formal papers, where you include quotations and citations. 

Blockquotes are commonly used when you are to cite a whole paragraph from another person’s work. There are times that it is needed because it emphasizes your work, especially if you’re trying to prove a point, and that can only be done by citing some references. 

This is the reason why in instances such, knowing how to create block quotes is essential, given that it emphasizes one’s work. To be able to do that, simply follow the steps below. 

1. Open the Google Docs website using your web browser.

To start things off, open the Google Docs website through your most commonly used web browser (eg. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc.). Make sure to have your account logged into Google Docs to ensure that you’ll be able to find the document that you want to edit. 

2.  Select the document that you want to format. 

After you’ve successfully logged into your account, browse from all your previously created documents and choose the one that you want to edit. Click on it to open it. 

3. Highlight the text or paragraph that you’d like to format as a block quote. 

Upon opening your selected document, navigate through it and locate the text or paragraph that you wish to format as a blockquote. Highlight your chosen text or paragraph. An indicator that you’ve successfully done this is when you see that your chosen text or paragraph is highlighted with blue. 

4. Click the increase indent formatting option from the toolbar.

Navigate your cursor to the toolbar located on the upper portion of your screen. Locate the “Increase indent” formatting option (the second to the last icon on the toolbar) and click on it. You’ll now see its change of alignment. 

If you’re having a hard time locating it, you may use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + ] to increase the indent of your highlighted text or paragraph. 

5. Drag the right margin indicator to the 6-inch mark.

Without removing the highlight from your selected text or paragraph, hover your cursor to the ruler at the top of your document. Find the right indent margin, which is in the shape of a triangle and in blue, and drag it to the 6-inch mark. After doing this, you will immediately see the results.

Note: To find it easier, since it’s a right indent margin, you’ll see it on the right side of the horizontal ruler. 

6. (Optional step: Set the line spacing to Double.)

To emphasize your block quote, with your text or paragraph still highlighted, set its line spacing to “Double” by clicking on the “Line & paragraph spacing” menu from the toolbar. This is the seventh to the last icon on the toolbar. 

The Bottom Line

Although it may look harder than it sounds, creating block quotes in your work can be done in just a few simple steps. More so, it allows you to justly recognize another person’s work more properly. Just learn these steps by heart, and you’ll be able to do the rest on your own.