If you need to reuse the same text formatting options repeatedly, you may consider creating a Style Guide. Style Guides let you apply uniform formatting by highlighting text and selecting a style from the Styles menu.
Note: Only Document Owners can create and edit styles, but anyone can use them.
Apply styles
When you first create a document, you’ll find three pre-populated heading styles.
To apply a style:
- 1
- Select your text.
- 2
- From the Edit toolbar, open the Styles menu.
- 3
- Select a style to apply it to the selected text.
Note: The Normal style is automatically applied to text unless another style is specified. You can designate different Normal styles for text and tables.
Edit an existing style
To edit an existing style:
- 1
- From the Edit toolbar, click the Styles menu.
- 2
- Select Edit Style Guide to open the Style Guide Editor.
- 3
- From the left-hand panel, select the style you want to edit.
- 4
- Click Publish in the toolbar to save your changes.
The Paragraph Styles editor has three main sections:
- Text : Edit text settings like font type, size, color, emphasis, and alignment.
- Indentation : Change the indentation for certain lines of text.
- Spacing : Adjust line spacing, as well as add spaces before or after a paragraph.
Create a new style
To add a new style to your style guide:
- 1
- In the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click the New Style icon.
- 2
- Select a style type from the menu. If you select Custom, you can name your style in the text box.
- 3
- Click Add to add your new style.
From here, you can edit your new style using the settings in the right panel.
Import and export styles
If you have a style guide you’d like to reuse, you can import and export it using the options in the toolbar.
To export a style guide:
- 1
- From the Style Guide Editor toolbar, click Export.
- 2
- Select a location to save your file. Style guides are saved in the .style format.
To import a style guide:
- 1
- Open the Style Guide Editor for your document.
- 2
- From the toolbar, select Import.
- 3
- Select a file with a .style extension. This updates the style guide in your current document.
Note: Importing a style guide replaces the existing styles and can't be undone. You can edit styles after import.
Edit List Styles
List styles allow you to customize how your bullet and numbered lists look within a spreadsheet, document, or presentation. Each option in the bullet or numbered list dropdown is a List Style. This means you can create new list styles, modify existing, and delete any you wish to remove from the dropdown for all users collaborating in the file.
To edit your list styles, access the Style Guide Editor by:
Clicking the bullet or numbered list drop-down menu under the Edit tab and choosing Edit List Styles | ![]() |
Selecting the Styles drop-down menu under the Edit tab and clicking Edit Style Guide | ![]() |
To update a list style guide after you’ve accessed the Style Guide Editor:
- 1
- Select the List Styles drop-down on the left-hand panel
- 2
- Under Bullet Lists or Numbered Lists, choose and expand the list style you wish to edit.
- 3
- Select a specific list level by clicking the List Level number in the left-hand panel or choosing the number from the drop-down menu in the right-hand panel
- Each List Style has 10 levels. Level 1 is your default bullet style. Additional levels are what you’ll see if you press TAB while editing your list. This streamlines the creation of multi-level lists.
- 4
- In the right-hand panel, use the Style dropdown to view available symbol options or select Custom to add your own
- If you use Custom Style to add your own symbol, a Custom Symbol field will appear in the right-hand panel. You can copy a symbol from the document Editor page and paste it into this field.
-
Note: You’ll need to ensure that the font in the Style Editor panel matches the font applied to the custom symbol you copied.
- 5
- Edit the Font, Symbol Size, Symbol Color, Indentation, and Emphasis by selecting the checkbox to the left of these options and changing the default formatting
-
Note: By default, list symbols inherit formats from the text being listed unless checked in the Style Guide. Using List Style Indentation will prevent users from changing indentation amounts manually from within the file.
- 6
- Change the Bullet Alignment by clicking the drop-down menu to choose Left or Right indentation
- 7
- To customize your List Text, add a prefix or suffix
- 8
- Select the lock icon to the right of the formatting options to prevent other collaborators from making overrides to your list style
- 9
- Select Publish in the top left corner of the screen to apply formatting changes to your document