Google Docs Headings make your document stand out and help your colleagues to easily scan your Google Docs document. To make your heading more appealing, numbering heading with heading styles is a great way. Using heading styles allows you to quickly build a table of contents, restructure your document, and recreate its design without manual intrusion for numbering your heading’s text.
The numbering of headings is as simple as inserting an ordinary text in your Google Docs.
Table Of Contents
- Simple way for Google Docs numbered Headings
- Google Docs Table of Contents
- How to add a heading in google docs?
- Google Docs Heading numbering
- Google Docs numbered Heading using “Numbered list”
- Google Docs Headings Numbered Sublist
- Shortcut for Google Docs numbered Lists (Format Headings)
- Google Docs Headings Numbered list using “Format”
- Google Docs Bulleted List
- Shortcut for Google Docs Headings
- Google Docs Restart numbering
- Google Docs Heading Numbers Add-on
Simple way for Google Docs numbered Headings
The quickest and simplest way for inserting numbers in your headings is
- Just type “1.” before your heading
- Write your heading and then press the tab key on your keyboard.
- Google Docs translates this number as a command to start a numbered list and also indents your headings.
Google Docs Table of Contents
The most common way you can insert a Table Of Contents in your Google Doc is only after ensuring all subheadings in google docs are formatted with a heading tag. You have to highlight your subheadings in the formatting bar.
How to add a heading in google docs?
The Google Docs Table Of Contents is inserted using the standard text format of your document. All you have to do is highlighting the entire table of contents to add headings.
Click Format > paragraph styles
You can see the headings ranging from 1 to 6. These headings will come in handy when you are creating a Table of Contents.

You can also simply add your heading by just altering the styles.
Click on the drop-down of “Normal text” and choose your desired heading option.

Google docs table of contents Headers
As you see above in the image, there are 6 types of heading tags available in Google Docs.
Once you have all your headings and sub-headings inserted, you are ready to number the headings.
Google Docs Document Outline
Table of Contents sidebar called “Document Outline” generates a table of contents by extracting all the headings on the page. Everything that you format as Title, Subtitles, or Headings automatically comes under the Document Outline. An important fact is that it also adds things that just look like headings to this list ( bold and underlined contents).
All you have to do to view the document outline which looks just like your Google Docs Table Of Contents is by enabling the left sidebar. To do this, just,
Click Show document outline icon at the upper left corner of the document.

This will display the headings on the left that allow you to number accordingly that helps you to number quickly in your Google Docs document.
Google Docs Heading numbering
Google Docs has a built-in option for numbering your headings. If not so, you can also install the add-ons from the G-Suite marketplace in your Google Docs. Let’s also have a look at it later.
- Click on your headings and drag them by selecting them.
- Go to the toolbar on the top right of your Google Docs document.
- There are two main options
1.Numbered lists (numbers in a variety of formats)
2. Bulleted lists (symbols).

Google Docs numbered Heading using “Numbered list”
- The default numbered list has numbering options from “1”.
- If you click on the icon, your headings will be numbered from “1”

Google Docs Headings Numbered Sublist
- To make a sublist for your headings, first, select your text.
- Click on the triangle to the right of the Numbered list icon at the top right of the toolbar.
- You will have a choice of 6 formats whereas the top left one is the default one.

- You can use these formats for numbering your headings.
Shortcut for Google Docs numbered Lists (Format Headings)
Google docs numbered headings can be done simply using the shortcut “Windows + shift + 7”
Google Docs Headings Numbered list using “Format”
- To number your headings using the “Format” option, first select your headings.
- Click Format > Bullets& numbering > Numbered list

You can now choose your desired format to add numbering for your headings.
Google Docs Bulleted List
The next right Bulleted list icon to the numbered list in the toolbar produces a list with the default bullets.

You can also use them to format your headings.
Shortcut for Google Docs Headings
Adding a bulleted list in Google docs can be done simply using the shortcut “Windows + shift + 8”.
Google Docs Restart numbering
The default starting for the numbered lists to format your headings is “1”.
If you want to continue or begin with a new number for your headings, you can do just by restarting numbering.
For restarting your Google Docs Headings numbering, follow the below instructions.
Click Format > List options > Restart numbering

This will open up a pop-up box that allows you to enter a number to restart.
Enter the number and click “OK”.

Google Docs Heading Numbers Add-on
If you can’t find any other way to add the number to your headings, you can install the “Heading Numbers” add-on from the G-suite marketplace for heading numbering. Heading Numbers for Google Documents is an add-on that allows you to heading numbering styles to any Google Document.
Heading Numbers add-on for Google Docs makes it simple to add any kind of custom numbering style for your Google Docs headings.
- Head up to your Google Docs document.
- Click Add-ons > Get add-ons
- Search for “Heading Numbers” in the G-suite market place.
- Once you found it, click on the add-on and install it.
- Now go back to your Google Docs document.
- Click Add-ons > Heading Numbers
- Choose any of 7 predefined numbering styles.
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Using Headings numbering is essential to keep titles and headings formatted consistently in your document. Google Docs heading numbering not only improve the document structure but also help your visitors understand context easily.
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