Google-drive – What manual style settings can I use for block quotes in Google Drive (gdocs)

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I know that Google Drive no longer has a standard block quote style in its built in menu.

What manual styles can one apply that would convey that what's being read is a block quote?

Changing to a highly different font (serif for sans serif body text, or vice versa) and narrowing the borders occurred to me, but they don't seem to make it look "quote-y" enough.

What else can be done as a workaround until Google reinstates a similar style?

Best Answer

The formatting of a block quote depends on the style guide to which you adhere. For example, this Google Doc Template is for an MLA Style Research Paper in which block quotes are indented an inch from the left hand margin (see MLA Formatting Quotations). I know in college I was taught to indent from both the right and left hand sides and single space the block quote.

The Chicago Manual of Style says block quotes should be indented a half inch and single spaced, while APA Formatting maintains double spacing at a half inch margin. For visual effect, of course, you can change the typography, though that would not be adhering to any 'academic' style guide I'm familiar with.

Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style suggests the use of elastic leading before and after block quotations:

2.3.3 Add extra lead before and after block quotations.

“But if the leading within the block quotation differs from the leading of the main text, these blanks before and after the quotation must be elastic. They afford the only opportunity for bringing the text back into phase.” (41)

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