The Google productivity suite is an intuitive set of apps designed to make your work or studies more manageable.

It goes without saying that they currently play second fiddle to Microsoft Office and 365. But, that's good for consistent users of the Google apps. It means Google is competing with them with new features to stay relevant.

As Docs is one of Google's most widely used apps, it receives frequent updates. One such update that it released in February is Document Outlines. Read on to find out what it is and how it works.

Document Outlines, Summaries, and Rulers

One of Google Docs' most significant selling points is its collaborative nature. With the new outlines feature, you can easily see an overview of what others have written without having to dive too deep into the content.

Your collaborators can also easily jump to the sections that apply to them, provided you include appropriate headings. They just have to click on the header in the outline, and the document will jump to that heading. This is fantastic for long documents like white papers.

You can also check if your order of heading tags is correct before moving your content over to a website. Document outlines are also handy for online writers who use Google Docs.

Opening a Doc Outline

The outline will build itself automatically. To bring it up, navigate to View > Show document outline. Alternatively, you could use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt +A Ctrl + Alt + H.

a screenshot showing the location of the document outline feature in the menu

Either method will bring up the document outline on the left side of your workspace:

A screenshot showing a sample outline in Google Docs

Each type of heading will have its own indentation level so that you can keep track of your ideas and their hierarchy under subheadings.

Closing a Doc Outline

As handy as the document outline is, it does take up a considerable chunk of your workspace. You can choose to hide it by clicking the arrow in the top left of the outline box. You'll then see this icon:

A screenshot showing the outline icon in Google Docs

Click it to reopen the outline box when you need to.

To get rid of the outline completely, just follow the steps you used to open it in the first place (View > Show document outline).

Remove and Add Headings to the Document Outline

Sometimes, headings will be needed to break up your text but are irrelevant to the outline. To remove headings from the outline but keep them in the document, you just have to hover over the header you want to remove and click the X.

A screenshot showing how to remove headings from a document outline in Google Docs

To add a heading to the document outline:

  1. Highlight the heading in the document.
  2. Right-click and select Add to document outline.
A screenshot showing how to add a heading to an article outline in Google docs

Adding to the Outline Without Heading Tags

Unfortunately, there's no way to add standard text into the outline, except for:

  1. Making it at least two font sizes bigger than the body text.
  2. Inserting it on its own line.

For example, the screenshot below shows the text "Make it bigger" in a 12.5 font size while the body text is set to 10.5.

A screenshot showing that bigger text will show in an article outline

Adding a Summary to the Outline

To add a summary to the document outline, all you have to do is:

  1. Open the outline.
  2. Click the + symbol next to Summary.
  3. Type the summary.
  4. Press Enter or click away.
A screenshot showing a summary of a Google Doc

Mastering the Google Docs Outline Feature

Whether you're writing a book, web articles, office memos, or any other tasks in Google Docs, an outline can make it so much easier to navigate complex documents. Remember that you can open and close it as you please, and add summaries with as little as a few clicks. You'll be a pro at using outlines in no time.