The hanging indent is an academic formatting style that indents all the text in an article except for the first line. It is typically used in MLA and Chicago style and enhances the article by giving it a neater look. It is so named because the first line of the article hangs over the rest of the lines. Adding hanging indent over a text in Google Docs is fairly easy. Let’s see how it is done.
How to do hanging indent on Google docs
Step 1: The first step is to select the text that you wish to indent. This text can be of any length provided it is more than a line.
Step 2: Next, click on Format. You will see the option in the menu ribbon on the top of the Google Docs window.
Step 3: Then click on the option that says Align & Indent. It is most probably the third option in the drop-down menu that appears.
Step 4: Clicking on Align & Indent will open another list of options for you. From that list, click on Indentation Options. It will be the last option on the list.
Step 5: Completing step 4 will open a Special Indent window for you. You will see three fields here: Right, Left, and Special Indent. Click on the drop-down menu under the Special Indent field and choose Hanging as your preferred indentation style.
Step 6: Next, enter the size you want your indentation to be by entering an amount in inches in the field next to the Special Indent drop-down menu. Typically, 0.5 is a good enough amount.
Step 7: Lastly, click on the blue button that says Apply in the bottom-right of the Special Indent window. This will save your preferred settings of the kind and size of indentation you wish to apply to your text.
Clicking on Apply will close the Special Indent window for you and take you back to your text. You will see that your text has been hanging indented.
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