The quickest way to learn livedocuments is to make something. This walkthrough takes you from a new document to a first page with text, shapes and a picture on it, ready to share. You do not need to sign in, the editor always works as a guest.
Create a new document
Open a new document. livedocuments makes it straight away and opens it in the editor, with nothing to fill in first.
It is saved where new documents go: to your account once you have signed in, or in this browser while you try things out as a guest (you can move it to your account any time). Default Folders decide which folder it lands in.
Its first tab opens on Start Making Pages: Recommended picks first, then every template grouped by what it makes (Slides, Infographics, Articles and more), with a search. Click one to start from its ready-made pages, or press the × to follow along from a blank page.
You can rename the document any time: click its title in the header at the top of the editor and type. Renaming is instant and saved for you. Names cap at 60 characters: typing simply stops there, which is plenty for a title and short enough to stay readable in a tab bar or a list row.
Choose what the first page is for
Closing Start Making Pages leaves one empty page, which asks What Is This Page For? Choose now: a page keeps its kind once you start.
- Infographic: a sheet to lay out freely. Choose this to follow along.
- Article: a page to write on, like a document. The caret lands in its title, ready to type. See Writing Articles.
- Slide: one slide of a deck. See Slide Pages.
The first time you work on a kind of page, a banner offers a short tour of it, on your own page. Take it or dismiss it; you can take it again from Settings, under Tours. See The Pages Tour.
Add text and shapes
Find the Palette, the strip across the top of the editor. Its categories (Shapes, Write, Concepts, Components, Media, Data and more) sit along it by name: rest on one, or click it, and its elements open in a panel underneath.
Pick Add Text (in Write, or press T), then click the page where you want it, and
type a heading. Click away to finish.
Rest on Shapes and pick a shape tile, then click the page to drop it at its default size, or drag on the page to draw it at the size you want. Double-click the shape to give it a label.
Anything you place on a page belongs to it: whatever hangs off its edge is cut off there, on screen and in exports. Move or resize an element and it snaps to the page's edges, centre lines and margins.
Add a picture
Pick Add Image from Media (or press 9), then click the page. The image lands as an empty
placeholder reading "No image yet".
Press its Select Image button (or double-click it), and on the Upload tab drop a file in, click to browse, or paste from your clipboard. You can also paste a picture straight onto the page. See Images.
Want a picture behind everything instead? Press Background in the page's title bar and choose Image. See Working with Pages.
Share it
Click Share at the top right of the editor, choose a role (Editor, Participant or Viewer), and press Create Pass. The link is copied for you.
Send it to whoever you like. They join the same document and see your cursor and every change live, even without an account. See Sharing Your Document.
Keep going
- Add another page with the + after the last page, and choose its kind.
- Recolour everything with a theme.
- Present or export your pages. See Exporting and Presenting Pages.
Made a mistake? Undo and Redo sit in the controls in
the bottom-right corner (or press Cmd/Ctrl+Z), and the common keyboard shortcuts are in
Keyboard Essentials.
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