How to do MLA Format on Google Docs Easily 2026

Open Google Docs and click Blank document from the row of starter options on the home screen. You'll also see a Report, Resume, and Letter template sitting in that same row — none of them are MLA-specific, so for a manual setup, blank is the right starting point rather than trying to strip formatting out of one of those.

Click File, then Page setup, and confirm all four margins are set to exactly 1 inch — Google Docs defaults to this already in most cases, but it's worth checking since MLA is strict about it. Then select all your text and switch the font to Times New Roman at 12pt, the standard MLA calls for. Doing this before you type your identification block keeps everything consistent from the first line rather than requiring a cleanup pass later.

With your text selected, click Format, hover over Line & paragraph spacing, and choose Double. MLA also asks for no extra space between paragraphs, so check the same submenu for an Add space after paragraph option and make sure it's off — Google Docs sometimes adds a small gap by default that throws off strict double spacing.

In the upper-left corner of your first page, type your four-line identification block: your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date, each on its own line and left-aligned. Below that, center your paper's title on its own line — plain text, no bold, underline, or quotation marks unless the title itself references another work.

Double-click into the header area at the top of the page, click Insert, hover over Page numbers, and choose the top-right position. Then type your last name directly before the page number, with a space between them, so every page reads something like "Smith 2" in the top-right corner. This running head has to appear on every page including the first, which is a common place people accidentally uncheck a Different first page option and lose it.

Start a new page for your source list, center the label Works Cited at the top, and list your sources alphabetically by author's last name, still double-spaced. Then highlight the whole list and drag the left indent marker on the ruler to 0.5 inches while snapping the first-line marker back to the original margin — that creates the hanging indent MLA requires, where every line after the first in a citation is indented.

If you'd rather skip manual setup entirely, open the Template gallery from the Docs home screen and scroll to the Education section, where Google lists a Report template labeled MLA alongside APA options. It pre-applies much of the spacing and margin structure for you, though it's worth double-checking against your instructor's specific requirements before you rely on it, since template details can drift from current MLA guidelines over time.