How to Add a Hanging Indent in Google Docs

If you are writing a research paper, an essay, or a thesis, you will inevitably need to format a bibliography or a Works Cited page. Academic style guides like APA, MLA, and Chicago all require a very specific formatting trick called a “hanging indent.”

A hanging indent ensures that the first line of a citation sits flush against the left margin, while every subsequent line of that exact same citation is indented slightly to the right. While this is easy to do in Microsoft Word, Google hides this feature deep inside a formatting menu. By learning how to add a hanging indent in Google Docs, you can stop manually pressing the spacebar and ensure your academic formatting is flawless.

The Common Mistake: Using the Tab Key

When most users encounter a multi-line citation, their instinct is to click at the start of the second line and press the Tab key or hit the Spacebar five times. Do not do this.

If you use the Tab key, Google Docs will often push the entire paragraph over, or break the word wrapping completely. Furthermore, if you ever change the font size or the margins later, your manual spaces will scatter randomly across the page, ruining the document.

You must use the built-in indentation tool.

How to Apply a Hanging Indent (Menu Method)

The most reliable way to format your citations is by using the top navigation menu.

1. Highlight the text of the citation you want to format. (If you have a massive list of citations, you can click and drag to highlight the entire bibliography at once).
2. In the top menu bar, click on Format.
3. Hover your mouse over Align & indent to open the sub-menu.
4. Click on Indentation options at the very bottom of the list.
5. A small popup window will appear. Look for the section labelled Special indent.
6. Click the dropdown menu (which currently says “None”) and change it to Hanging.
7. The default indentation depth is 1.27 cm (or 0.5 inches), which is the exact requirement for APA and MLA formatting. Leave this number alone.
8. Click Apply.

Your highlighted text will instantly snap into the correct hanging formation.

How to Apply a Hanging Indent (Ruler Method)

If you prefer a faster, visual method, you can use the blue formatting ruler at the top of the document.

1. Highlight your citation text.
2. Look at the ruler at the top of the page. On the far left side, you will see a small blue icon made of two pieces: a flat rectangle sitting on top of a downward-pointing triangle.
3. Click and drag the bottom triangle (the Left Indent) to the right by 1.27 cm (0.5 inches). This will move your entire paragraph to the right.
4. Now, carefully click and drag the top rectangle (the First Line Indent) all the way back to the left margin (0 cm).

By moving the bottom piece right, and the top piece left, you have manually created a hanging indent using the ruler.

Updating the Default Styles

If you write academic papers frequently, you do not want to repeat this process every single time you paste a new citation.

Once you have perfectly formatted one citation with a hanging indent, highlight it. Then, click the Normal text dropdown in the toolbar, select Options at the bottom, and click Save as my default styles.