How do you make a text box fillable in Google Docs?

A text box is a great and effective way to organize your thoughts visually, or differentiate a set of text on a page. Text boxes can also make your document look more formal and professional, especially if you’re sharing the document with colleagues.

Google doesn’t make adding text boxes in Google Docs as obvious to do as with other word processing programs. Fortunately, there are a few simple methods you can use to insert a text box in Google Docs. Text boxes allow you to add text or images inside of them and then move those boxes around, between, or within documents.

Table of Contents

How To Insert a Text Box In Google Docs

There are at least two ways to add a text box in Google Docs. The main methods are using the drawing tool and using a single cell table, but each method offers different layout and formatting capabilities.

Insert a Text Box In Google Docs Using The Drawing Tool

The drawing tool isn’t the most straightforward way to insert a text box to a document, but it’s still easy to use and allows you to manipulate text boxes throughout the file.

With the drawing tool, you can upload the drawing as an image to Google Drive and add it to your document. You can also add various shapes, line styles, callouts, and arrows. It opens a dialog box in your document where you’ll create, edit, and format the shapes and text boxes using the drawing tool’s commands.

To insert a text box using the drawing tool:

1. Open your document and click Insert > Drawing and then click New to create a text box.

1. Click the Text box icon.

1. Create the text box by clicking and dragging in the drawing area, and then release the mouse for the text box to appear. Add text and customize the text box to your liking, and when you’re done, click the blue Save & Close button at the top right side of the drawing area.

How To Use Shapes To Create And Insert A Text Box In Google Docs

You can add various shapes to your document such as rectangles, squares, callouts, flowchart shapes and more. Google Docs lets you add text in different shapes as you would with a text box, and customize them by adding background colors or changing the border line width.

1. Click Insert > Drawing > New and then click the Shapes command.

1. Click Shapes to select the desired shape you want to use.

1. Click and drag your mouse in the drawing area to create the shape you selected, and then release the mouse. To add text in the shape, double-click anywhere within the shape, and then enter your text.

1. You can add more shapes, lines, arrows, callouts, or even equation symbols to the drawing area. Once you’re done with the drawing, click Save & Close to insert it into the document. You can also resize the shape by clicking and dragging the resizing handle to the size you want.

1. To edit the shape, select it and then click Edit from the options that appear. You can also delete a shape, by pressing the Delete or Backspace key on your keyboard.

You can also customize the shape by clicking the desired formatting command like color, adding an image, adding lines and more. 

For shapes that overlap one another, you can reposition them to Bring forward or Send backward and get the desired ordering. To reposition the text boxes or shapes, right-click the text box or shape in the Drawing dialog box, hover your mouse over Order and click to select an ordering option.

How To Insert a Text Box In Google Docs Using a Single Cell Table

You can insert and edit a text box in Google Docs using a single cell table with one column and one row. To do this, click Insert > Table and then click on a single cell with one row and one column (1×1).

The single cell will appear on the document. You can adjust the length and width of the text box to the desired size, and then enter your text in the cell.

You can adjust the font color, style, and size to your liking if you want to highlight the text or make the document look more professional.

How To Insert Images Into a Text Box Or Shape In Google Docs

You can customize your text box or shape in Google Docs by adding an image, or if you want, you can overlay the image with text.

To insert an image into your text box or shape:

1. Click on the text box or shape, and then click Edit to open the Drawing tool.

1. Click the Image icon on the menu.

1. Insert an image by uploading it from your computer, or you can add from a URL, your albums, Google Drive, or search for it from Google search. Click Select to insert the image.

1. To layer text on top of the image or shape, you’ll need to use a text box. Click on the text box you created, and select Edit from the menu below to go back to the drawing area.

1.  Click the Text box icon to select it, and then change the fill color to set the transparency for the text box. Press Save and Close to insert the text box into your image.

1. Click on the image again, select Image Options from the top menu and select Wrap text from the right pane.

1. Layer the image and text box by dragging them to the desired position.

To move an image in Google Docs, click on the image and change the mode to Wrap Text. Move the image into place using the scroll arrows on your keyboard. If you want to move the image in smaller increments, hold the Shift key down and use the scroll arrows to move.

Were you able to create and insert a text box in Google Docs using the steps above? Share with us in the comments.

How do you insert a fillable field in Google Docs?

How do I create a fillable text box?

Can you do fillable forms in Google Docs?