There is no doubt that portrait orientation is the way to view the vast majority of documents on the Internet. This is how we always read books and browse websites. Are you currently reading this post in portrait orientation?
However, in some cases, when you are trying to format a document to be larger than the height, Google Docs will help you. Whether you’re creating a presentation slide, poster, or something similar, setting up your document in this way is a matter of a few clicks.
How to use landscape orientation in Google Docs
How to use landscape orientation in Google Docs
To start formatting your document in landscape orientation, choose Page Setup from the expanded menu from the File menu.
From this screen, you can change several page settings, including changing the portrait orientation to landscape orientation.
The paper size of your document is another of these settings, supporting the following sizes:
- Letter (8.5 ? × 11 ?)
- Tabloid (11 ? × 17 ?)
- Legal (8.5 ? × 14 ?)
- Statement (5.5 ? × 8.5 ?)
- Executive (7.25 ? × 10.5 ?)
- Folio (8.5 ? × 13 ?)
- A3 (11.69 ? × 16.54 ?)
- A4 ( 8.27 ? × 11.69 ?)
- A5 (5.83 ? × 8.27 ?)
- B4 (9.84 ? × 13.90 ?)
- B5 (6.93 ? × 9.84 ?)
You can also set the size in inches of each page margin and the background color. The background color can be set using a predefined list of colors or using your own custom hex color code.
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This is what the document looks like with the default landscape orientation applied:
As you can see, it is much wider and better suited for elements such as wide images and tables than portrait orientation.
If you plan to use landscape orientation for an extended period of time, for example, if you are working on a multi-document project, you can click the Set Default button when changing the page setup options.
However, there are two annoying downsides to changing the orientation settings in Google Docs. First, you can only change the orientation of the entire document, but not for individual pages.
This is one of the most important ways Word wins the controversy between Google Docs and Microsoft Word – you can make one page horizontal in Word.
The second drawback is that the media included in your document can be unintentionally rearranged and reordered if you create a document in portrait orientation and then switch to landscape orientation. This will require you to do a little manual cleaning after applying the change.
Aside from these two hurdles, setting up a landscape document in Google Docs is simple, easy, and effective. Always remember that this is an option when you are creating documents with a lot of media and other wide page elements!
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