Google-docs – Using Google Docs to fit criteria set by professor for paper

google docsmicrosoft word

My friend's college professor asked her to write a paper for class with the following criteria:

written in MS word
A4 paper, margins 35mm on top, 30mm on sides and bottom
font size 11pt (it's a japanese essay so the font is MS P 明朝)
line spacing 18pt, 36 lines per page

However, neither of us have MS word, and would rather not pay over a hundred dollars + a monthly fee just to write an essay.

Is there anyway to fulfill these requirements using Google Docs? The essay will be printed and handed in, no digital copy.

I found the settings for line spacing in Google docs, but it's measured in number of lines, not in "points". And when I do the math (18pt / 11pt (the font size) = 1.64), the number of lines per page comes out to 30 instead of 36.

Is there anyway to make the formatting work correctly using Google Docs (or another free solution)?

Best Answer

You might want to give Open Ofice or LibreOffice a try. You will fnd all the needed options there. To get around your lines/page issue i would recommend to just adjust the linespacing.

From my experience in the academic world, its a lot easier to just use the demanded software (MS Windows & Office, Citavi, etc.) and most of the times the faculties offer licenses for their students. I use a spare laptop for my university stuff only.

Related Solutions

Google-docs – Using Google Docs in full screen mode without using file menu

It is not possible to do this via changing a URL parameter. The only other option is pressing F11 to enter/exit full screen mode.

Note: Although it doesn't appear to be exactly the same as clicking View > Full Screen

Google Apps Script – Set Cursor to Headers in Google Docs

There's no way to obtain heading URLs, this is a popular but unsatisfied request. However, you can speed up your function by only looking into headings:

function goto ( title ) {
  var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument (),
      body = doc.getBody (),
      searchType = DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH,
      searchResult = null;

  while ( searchResult = body.findElement ( searchType, searchResult ) ) {
    var par = searchResult.getElement ().asParagraph (),
        heading = par.getHeading ();
    switch ( heading ) {
      case DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING1:
      case DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING2:
      case DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING3:
      case DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING4:
      case DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING5:
      case DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING6:
        if ( par.findText ( title ) ) { 
          // assumes that title is unique among headings
          // and it does not appear as a subset of a heading
          doc.setCursor ( doc.newPosition ( par, 1 ) );
        }
        break;
    }
  }
}

If you want to help, you can star the corresponding Google Apps script issue.

EDIT: Fixed a]two syntax errors

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Google-docs – Using Google Docs in full screen mode without using file menu

Google Apps Script – Set Cursor to Headers in Google Docs

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