How to Efficiently Organize Google Docs and Word Documents

Understanding headers and the navigation pane

This is a guide for organizing a Word document or Google Doc using headers, the navigation pane, and a table of contents. It highlights keyboard shortcuts and the context menu via a right/secondary click, both of which are more efficient than using the menus at the top of the application

Choose your approach

You can read the guide here or download a Word version and open it in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. The downloaded version allows you to:

• save your work,
• practice skills while reading through the document, and
• avoid rote copy-pasting text in the “Practice” section into a new Word document or Google Doc.

Headers

A heading in writing is a title or subtitle used to introduce and organize sections of text. Headings:

• make the text easier to understand by acting as a signpost for the author and reader to guide them through the narrative,
• allow screen readers to guide a user through a document in an organized and efficient manner, and
• can be used to create a table of contents with a few clicks of the mouse.

You can make headings with a few keystrokes in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Press Ctrl+Alt+(number) on a PC or Cmd+Option+(number) on a Mac to designate a heading level to that particular text. More details are in the “Use the keyboard to create headers” section.

The navigation pane

The navigation pane is an interactive panel automatically generated by headings. If enabled, it appears on the left side of a Google Doc or Word document. It improves:

• idea organization,
• document navigation, and
• teamwork and delegation.

Heading structure

A first order topical heading like “Understanding headers and the navigation pane” above is a level 1 heading. A second order heading like “Heading structure” above is a level 2 heading. Somewhat counter intuitively, title headers are discouraged due to the way they are handled in screen readers and web searches. Heading level 1 should generally appear only once in your document.

Example heading use cases

These are some examples of how headers can help.

1. When writing a paper, you can jump from your introduction to your conclusion with a click. This can help you ensure that your introduction and conclusion are argumentatively aligned.
2. You can send a link to a particular section (Google Docs), create hyperlinks within the text to specific sections (Google Docs and Word), or tell a collaborator to look at section “XXX” and use the navigation pane to get there (Google Docs and Word).
3. You can “zoom out” of a long document with headings by looking at the navigation pane. With this view, you can assess questions like “Is everything there that should be?” and “Does this order make sense?”
4. In Microsoft Word, you can collapse all sections of your document to focus on the one or two that you are currently working on. Word also allows you to reorder sections by dragging and dropping them within the navigation pane.

Microsoft Word

Skills

Head to the next page to learn about the skills needed to efficiently use headers and the navigation pane.