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How to Insert an Arrow in Google Docs

In Google Docs, you can insert a variety of different shapes into your document.

One such shape that many users wonder how to add to their documents is an arrow shape.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to insert an arrow in Google Docs.

Table of Contents

How to Add Arrows in Google Docs

There are several different methods that you can be used to get an arrow inside of your file.

In this guide, I will cover three different methods.

If you are new to this, we recommend trying each method until you figure out which one you prefer best.

The three methods are below.

Inserting Arrows Using the Drawing Feature

The first method that I will show is using the drawing feature to add an arrow to your document.

Here are the steps:

1. Open your Google Doc and in the top menu select Insert>Drawing>New

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2. In the toolbar of the Drawing editor, select the Shape tool and then select Arrows from the drop-down

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3. Choose the arrow that you want to display in your document

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4. Now to make your arrow, click and hold while dragging your cursor and release the mouse when the arrow is the appropriate size. You can resize the arrow and changes its colors if desired

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5. Once your arrow is ready, select the Save and Close button at the top right corner of the drawing editor

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6. You will now see your arrow in your Google Doc

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Inserting Arrows with Special Characters

You can also quite easily insert arrows using the special characters option in Google Docs.

Here are the steps for this method:

1. In the top menu select Insert

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2. Then, from the drop-down menu select Special characters

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3. You should now see the Insert special characters pop-up on your screen. From here select the Symbol option and set the symbol type to Arrows

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4. You will now see all of the different arrow types that you can insert into your document. Select whichever arrow you desire

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5. You will now see the arrow that you have selected in your file. You can exit out of the special characters editor whenever you like by selecting the x in the top right corner

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Using Equations to Insert Arrows

The last method that I will cover is inserting arrows using equations. 

Here are the steps for this method:

1. Open your Google Doc, and in the top menu select Insert

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2. From the drop-down menu, select Equation

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3. Below your menu, you should now see the equation menu. From this, select arrows, and then choose the arrow that you want to appear in your document

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4. You will now see the select arrows in your file

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Closing Thoughts

Getting an arrow into your document might seem like a confusing thing to do at first, but it is actually really easy to do once you have learned how.

You can use any of the methods that I have used in this post to accomplish this.

Ultimately it is up to you to learn which method you prefer best.

More Google Docs Tutorials:
How to Insert Special Characters
How to Insert a Square Root Symbol