How to Make Google Docs Landscape

The steps in this guide are going to show you how to switch to landscape orientation from portrait orientation in Google Docs by adjusting a setting on the Page Setup menu. We cover this topic briefly at the beginning of the guide, then dive further into detail below, with pictures for each of the steps.

  1. Open your Google Docs document from Google Drive.
  2. Select the File tab at the top-left of the window.
  3. Choose the Page setup option from the bottom of the menu.
  4. Click the circle to the left of the Landscape option to change the page orientation.
  5. Click the OK button to apply the change.

The page orientation for a document in a word processing application like Microsoft Word or Google Docs is something that affects the layout of the entire document. While landscape mode is not an uncommon setting for a document, you will find that most of these types of applications will default to the portrait orientation. Our tutorial below is going to show you how to change that and create a Google Docs landscape document.

You can also change orientation in Google Docs, which can be useful when you are trying to figure out how to print a Google Slide.

Need a different size of paper? Our how to change page size in Google Docs article can help you find the setting that you need to adjust.

How to Change to Landscape Orientation from the Page Setup Menu in Google Docs

The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of the Google Chrome Web browser, but will also work in other desktop browsers like Firefox or Edge. We are going to open Google Docs from Google Drive in this method.

Step 1: Sign into your Google Drive at https://drive.google.com and double-click the Google Docs document you wish to modify, or create a new document.

Step 2: Choose the File tab at the top-left of the window.

open the File menu

Step 3: Select Page setup from the bottom of this menu.

open the Page setup menu

Step 4: Click the circle to the left of Landscape under orientation to select it, then click the OK button.

How to make Google Docs landscape

Now that you know how to switch to landscape orientation in Google Docs you can use some of the other options to change additional document settings. For example, you can read our article on how to remove background color in Google Docs using one of the options on this menu.

Google Docs Landscape Tips

  • Google Docs only lets you change the page orientation setting for the entire document. This means that you won’t be able to have a single landscape page or have a different orientation for each page of your document. If this is something that you need to do and it must be done in Google Docs, then you will need to create a bunch of single page documents in your Google Drive and manage them all individually.
  • You can have one page landscape and others in portrait mode in Microsoft Word, but the workaround is a little tricky. You need to create a bunch of different section breaks within a single MS Word document, then adjust the page orientation for each of those sections.
  • Note that there is a paper size option on the Page setup menu as well if you need to change to a different size of paper than the one that is currently selected for your document.
  • In addition to the option to change the document paper size, the Page setup menu also lets you change other page layout settings like the page color and the document margins. You can even utilize the Set as default option at the bottom-left of that menu if you would prefer to use your selections as the default choice for future new documents that you create in Google Docs.

Find out how to add a new page to a document in Google Docs if you need to include some additional information in the middle of your document and don’t want to have to manage it by pressing the Enter key a bunch of times.

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