When you are formatting a formal contract, a lease agreement, or a school permission slip in Google Docs, you eventually need to add a signature line at the very bottom. Most users simply hold down the Shift and Hyphen (underscore) keys to draw a long black line. This is a terrible method. As soon as someone tries to type their name digitally on top of that underscore line, the line breaks, shifts to the right, and ruins the layout of the entire document. To create a professional, unbreakable signature line, you must use a disguised Table.
Creating the Table Structure
By using a table, we create a rigid box that holds its shape no matter what the user types inside it.
- Open your document in Google Docs.
- Click your cursor exactly where you want the signature line to appear.
- Click Insert in the top menu bar.
- Hover over Table, and carefully click the very first square in the grid to create a tiny 1×1 table (a single box).
Formatting the Invisible Borders
You now have a square box on your page. The trick is to make the top and side walls of the box invisible, leaving only the floor.
- Click anywhere inside the box you just created.
- Look at the top toolbar and click the small downward arrow next to the Border color icon (it looks like a pencil icon).
- Change the color to White (or transparent). The entire box will disappear.
- Now, you need to bring back only the bottom line. Look closely at the top right corner of the invisible box; you will see a tiny downward arrow. Click it.
- From the drop-down menu, select the icon that represents the Bottom border.
- The bottom line will be highlighted in blue. Go back to the toolbar and change the Border color back to Black.
You now have a perfect, solid black line sitting elegantly on the page. Because it is technically the bottom wall of a table, someone can click above the line and type their name, and the line will remain completely stationary, exactly where it belongs.