How to Insert a Text Box in Google Docs

Unlike Microsoft Word, which has a massive “Insert Text Box” button right on the main ribbon menu, Google Docs makes inserting a free-floating text box surprisingly difficult. Because Google Docs is fundamentally designed as a fluid, flowing word processor (rather than a page-layout program like Microsoft Publisher), it desperately wants all of your text to stay in a rigid vertical line.

If you want to create a callout quote, a sidebar, or text that floats independently alongside an image, you must use a hidden workaround: the built-in Drawing tool.

Method 1: The Drawing Tool (The Official Method)

This is the only way to create a true, free-floating text box in Google Docs that can be dragged around the page like an image.

1. Open your Google Doc.
2. Place your blinking text cursor roughly where you want the box to appear.
3. Look at the top menu bar and click Insert.
4. Hover over Drawing and click + New.
5. A large, checkerboard-patterned canvas will appear. This is Google’s hidden graphics editor.
6. Look at the toolbar at the top of the canvas. Click the icon that looks like a capital “T” inside a square (this is the Text Box tool).
7. Your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair. Click and drag on the canvas to draw the physical shape of your box.
8. Type your text inside the box.

Formatting the Box

While you are still inside the Drawing canvas, you must apply your background colors and borders. Once you push it to the main document, you cannot easily change these.

• Fill Color: Click the Paint Bucket icon on the toolbar to give the text box a solid background color (e.g., light blue).
• Border: Click the Pencil icon to change the color of the outline, and the Line Weight icon (the stacked horizontal lines) to make the border thicker.

When you are finished, click the blue Save and Close button in the top right corner.

How to Make the Box “Float”

When the text box first drops into your document, it will behave like a massive letter in a word. If you try to drag it, it will just snap to the next line. You must change its “wrap” settings.

1. Click once on the text box so it is highlighted in blue.
2. A small menu will appear directly below it.
3. Click the middle icon that says Wrap text.

You can now click and drag the text box anywhere on the page, and your standard paragraphs will automatically flow around it.

Method 2: The Single-Cell Table (The “Inline” Method)

If you do not care about dragging the box around, and you just want a simple, bordered box to highlight an important warning or a summary paragraph in the middle of your text, using the Drawing tool is overkill. A single-cell table is much faster and behaves much better with standard page formatting.

1. Click Insert in the top menu bar.
2. Hover over Table.
3. Use your mouse to highlight exactly one square (a 1×1 table). Click the mouse.
4. A wide rectangular box will appear in your document.
5. Type your text inside the box.

This box will automatically expand downward as you type more text, unlike the Drawing tool box which requires manual resizing. To make it look like a stylized callout box, you can change the background color:

1. Click anywhere inside the table cell.
2. Look at the main toolbar at the top of the screen (you may need to click the three vertical dots on the far right to see more options).
3. Click the Paint Bucket (Background color) icon.
4. Select a light grey or yellow color.

How to Edit a Text Box Later

If you used the single-cell table (Method 2), you can simply click inside the box and start typing to change the text.

If you used the Drawing tool (Method 1), you cannot edit the text directly on the page. If you double-click the box, it will instantly rip you out of the document and throw you back into the checkerboard Drawing canvas. You must make your text edits there, and then click Save and Close to push the updated version back to the main document.