The Pageless layout was announced over a year ago and is only just now making its way into Google Docs. With Pageless you can make use of every bit of space available to a document (instead of dealing with margins). In simplest terms, it just gives you more room in your documents. It’s also a much cleaner (more modern) way of approaching documents. For example, you might insert a table or an image into a document that’s wider than the typical margins. When you do that, things can get a bit wonky and you might find yourself struggling to get things to be presentable. That’s precisely why Google added the Pageless layout to Google Docs, as it allows you to break free of the standard constraints and add the elements you need exactly as you need them. So, how do you make use of the new layout? Let me show you.
Requirements
The only thing you need to use Pageless layout is a Google account. That’s it. Let’s see how this works.
Enabling the Pageless layout
The process for enabling the Pageless layout is very simple. Open a new (or existing) document in Google Docs (or from Google Drive) and click File > Page setup. In the resulting pop-up (Figure 1), click the Pageless tab. In the Pageless tab (Figure 2), you can set a background color for the document (or leave it as the default white) and click OK. When you click OK, the document will switch to the Pageless layout (Figure 3). You’ll immediately notice your margins for text remain the same. However, if you add a very wide table, you’ll find it extends beyond the text margins (Figure 4). And that’s the gist of the new Google Docs Pageless layout. Although this might not be perfect for every use case, you will find some types of documents that will greatly benefit from the new layout. Give Pageless a try and see if it doesn’t become your de facto standard layout for Google Docs.
