Google Docs | Add Horizontal and Vertical Lines

Google Docs is an editing tool used for the creation and designing of a document. It provides various features such as “making a poster”, “merging the table cells”,” searching a word”, and much more to retain its users. Except for these features, there is also an amazing feature which is “adding horizontal and vertical lines” in a Google docs document.

In this article, we will describe the four methods to add horizontal or vertical lines in the Google Docs document.

Before starting with the practical implementation of these four methods, we consider a “Sample Document” of Google Docs as an example. We will use this selected document in all methods for adding Horizontal or vertical lines.

Now, let’s start with the first method.

Method 1: Use the “Insert” Tab to Add Horizontal and Vertical Lines

In the first method, the “Drawing” tool of Google Docs will be used to add Horizontal and vertical lines in the document. To do so, the following steps are carried out:

Step 1: Create a New Drawing Window

Navigate to the “Insert” tab. A drop-down list will open, having various options. Hover over the “Drawing” option and then press on the “+ New” one:

A drawing window will open where the horizontal and vertical lines will be drawn:

Step 2: Draw a Line

There are different options seen on the “Drawing” window. In this step, we will draw a vertical line using the “line” option:

Click on the highlighted “line” icon. From the drop-down menu, select the first option, “Line”:

After this, draw a vertical line with the help of a pointer:

Step 3 (Optional): Customize the Line

The drawn line can be customized by using different options such as:

  • Border/Line Colour: Used to change the color of the line.
  • Border/Line Weight: Utilized for adjusting the width of a line.
  • Border/Line Dash: Represents the style of the line.
  • Line start: Used to style the start point of the line.
  • Line end: Used for styling the endpoint of the line.

These options are highlighted in the following screenshot:

When the line is drawn, close the “Drawing” window by pressing the “Save and close” button:

The “Drawing” window will be closed. And the drawn vertical line will automatically appear on the selected “Sample Document”.

One can add the horizontal line the same way as we did in “Step 3”.

Note: The drawn line can be copied and reused anywhere in the document.

Method 2: Use the “Format” Tab to Add Horizontal|Vertical Lines

Here, another method is demonstrated for adding horizontal or vertical lines in Google Docs. Let’s start with the steps of this method:

Step 1: Choose a Specific Location for the Lines

Firstly, move the mouse pointer and place it in the specific place where you want to add the horizontal or vertical lines. In this case, the mouse pointer is placed at the end of the first paragraph of the “Sample Document”:

Step 2: Change Paragraph Style

Click the “Format” option. A drop-down menu will open after pressing the selected tab:

Move to the “Paragraph styles”. A submenu will open; choose the “Border and shading” option from this:

A “Border and shading” menu will open as shown below:

The opened “Border and shading” window have different options. These options are used for different purposes, as described below:

  • Position: Utilized to assign different line positions.
  • Border width: Used for changing the width of a line.
  • Border color: Used for changing the color of a line.
  • Background color: Used in changing the background color of the line.
  • Paragraph padding: Used for adjusting the space of lines from the paragraph.

Step 3: Add a Line

We will use the opened window to add a horizontal line at the selected position. For this purpose, click on the highlighted option:

The user can customize the line using the options explained in step 3 of the second method.

After selecting the line, click on the “Apply” button:

The horizontal line will appear at the specific position in the “Sample Document”:

The horizontal line is added using the second method. The same way can be adapted to add a vertical line.

Method 3: Use the “Shortcut” Key to Add Horizontal and Vertical Lines

In this method, we will use a “Shortcut” key from the keyboard to add horizontal and vertical lines.

For Horizontal Line

The shortcut key to adding a horizontal line in the Google Docs document is “Shift + _”. With the help of this shortcut key, a small horizontal line will appear on the document at the specific place. Keep on pressing this shortcut to complete the horizontal line. The process is displayed in the following “GIF”:

For Vertical Line

The shortcut key to adding a vertical line in the Google Docs document is “Shift + |”. With the help of this shortcut key, a small vertical line will appear on the document at the specific place. The “GIF” visualizes the process:

That’s all from this guide!

Conclusion

In Google Docs, the user can add horizontal and vertical lines using the Format” and the “Insert” tabs. Moreover, the user can also utilize the “Drawing” window and the “Shortcut” keys “Ctrl + |” (for vertical line) and “Ctrl + _” (for horizontal line) to perform this task. This guide has demonstrated all the workable methods to add horizontal and vertical lines in Google Docs.