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Drawings: Creating drawings

To start creating drawings in Google Docs, open a document, presentation, or spreadsheet, and click Insert > Drawing. Then, select the type of object you'd like to insert from the toolbar.

Once you've created your drawing, click Save & close at the top right of the canvas to close the window and insert the drawing into your doc.

Point your cursor to the buttons of the toolbar below to learn about each option.

Edit

Click this drop-down menu to cut, copy, paste, order, rotate, align, or export your drawing, and select Snap to grid or other editing options. Learn more

Undo or redo changes

You can undo and redo changes by clicking these buttons in the toolbar. You can also use these keyboard shortcuts:

Undo (Ctrl-z)
Redo (Ctrl-y or Shift-Ctrl-z)

Zoom in and out

To zoom in and out on your drawings, click the Zoom button in the toolbar.

Shapes

Select a shape from the Insert shape menu in the toolbar. Then, drag your mouse on the drawing canvas to insert the shape and change the size, or simply click if you'd like to insert the shape in the default size.

Create word art by clicking Insert shape > Word Art from the toolbar (the letter "T" in the second row of shapes). Then, enter your text and click OK. Your word art will be added to the drawing canvas.

All of the shape editing options are available with word art, so you can rotate, choose fill and line color, and change line width.

Lines

Select Insert line from the toolbar, click in the drawing canvas to place one end of the line, and drag to the other end.

Arrows

Select Insert arrow from the toolbar. Click anywhere on the drawing canvas to place the end of the arrow, and drag to add the arrowhead.

Scribbles

Select Insert scribble from the toolbar. Then, click to choose your start point, and drag to create the scribble. It will be automatically smoothed out once you've finished.

Text box

Use text boxes instead of word art if you'd like to use word wrap or specify a different text size.

Click Insert text box from the toolbar, enter your text, and click OK. Your text will be added to the drawing canvas.

Fill color, line color, and line width

These and other editing options are available only when you've selected a specific shape. For example, when you insert a text box or word art, you'll see the Edit text button at the right end of the toolbar. Click it to change the selected text.

Note: To duplicate a shape, just hold the Ctrl key while dragging the shape.

If you don't want collaborators or viewers to have access to the revision history of drawings, you can make a copy of the doc and then share that version. Once you make a copy of the document, the revision history is removed from that copy.

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