The document editor has all the things you would expect from a rich text editor: indenting and outdenting, bullets and numbered lists, styles and headings, links, spell check, image and table insertion, and so on. To start with, let's create a style.

A style is a set format that your text will conform to throughout a document. It consists of six headings and a normal text style. You can customize each to your liking and save the style as your default across all documents that you create.

If I remember correctly, the default font and font size in Google Docs is Arial size 11. Depending on your interests, this may work perfectly fine for you. But let's say you're a novelist who needs your document formatted in Courier New size 12. It would be a pain to go through and change each heading and normal text instance, wouldn't it? Or how about having to prepare this style before every document you create? In this case it is much better to set Courier New size 12 as your default text and customize the headings for better readability.

Start by creating a new document. Call it "Style Settings" or something similar, since you will be using this document to change your default styles in the future. Now, click on the item in the toolbar that says "Normal", or Format from the main menu. This is a list of your text styles. It should show all the different styles and their look and size. Select each one and type out "Heading 1", "Heading 2", etc. for each on separate lines. The shortcut key is Ctrl Alt 0, Ctrl Alt 1, Ctrl Alt 2, etc., for Normal Text, Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on. Title and Subtitle styles must be applied from the drop down menu or the Format option in the main menu.

Select Title and change the font. Google Docs has a limited selection initially, but you can download more by clicking the "Get more fonts" button at the end of the font list. All fonts are stored in the cloud. Now change the size for the text. The convention is to have each heading larger and bolder than the next, but you can do whatever you like.

Do the same for the rest of the styles. Select your line width from the Format menu and make sure to Ctrl A select everything before you apply it.

Quick Note: You can create a table of contents from the Insert option in the main menu. Each time you add or change a heading, reload the table to create links to each heading. Having a table of contents at the beginning of a large document can make navigating the document a LOT more convenient for yourself and other collaborators.

Now that you have chosen your styles, select the styles drop down menu again or go to Format again. You will notice that none of your styles have been applied and that Docs will revert to Arial size 11 as its normal text. This can be especially frustrating if you hit return after creating a heading and suddenly find your font not in Courier, but Arial. To apply the styles you've created throughout the entire document, you must select a piece of text with the desired font, go to the Format or styles menu, click the arrow next to the desired style, and select "Update to match."

Do this for each of the styles until the style menu is ready to do your bidding.

Now if you select the style, it will apply itself to any selected text. Experiment by highlighting the different lines and hitting Ctrl Alt 0 through 6.

To save these styles as your preset, go to the Format menu, select Paragraph styles, Options, then Save as my default styles. To apply the styles across an existing document, select everything and, in the same Options menu, select Use my default styles. Select Reset styles to go back to the boring Arial size 11.

Next we will discuss sharing your documents.