How to make a brochure on Google Docs for your company or cause

For many, Google Docs can be an invaluable work tool: You can create media-friendly text documents that are easily shared, and they even come complete with a few templates to help you format your work in new ways.

One useful example of these templates: Brochures.

It's important to note, however, that the templated brochures included in Google Docs are set up in vertical pages (rather than the traditional horizontal format you might expect, though they can be altered if that's the look you're after.)

With that in mind, here's how to make and customize a brochure using a Google Docs template:

How to make a brochure on Google Docs

1. Go to docs.google.com . (Please note: The shortcut "docs.new" won't work for this. You have to go to the main docs screen.)

SCREENSHOT MAKE BROCHURE GOOGLE DOCS 1 Devon Delfino/Business Insider

2. Click "Template Gallery" (if you don't see it, you'll first need to click the three stacked lines in the upper-left corner) and find the "Work" section.

SCREENSHOT MAKE BROCHURE GOOGLE DOCS 2 Devon Delfino/Business Insider

3. Select the template you'd like to use for your brochure.

4. Edit and replace the filler text and images to suit your needs.

SCREENSHOT MAKE BROCHURE GOOGLE DOCS 3 Devon Delfino/Business Insider

5. Share your brochures as needed (for example, to collaborate with coworkers or to provide a sample to a client), just as you would share any Google Docs file .

You may wish to rename the document (by clicking into the box in the top left corner of the screen), or change the location of the document by clicking the "Move to..." folder icon to the right of the document name.

That way, your new brochure will be easily found among your other documents (though the search function on docs.google.com will also work well, provided you remember a portion of the document name or the core concepts included within it.)

How to customize a brochure template in Google Docs

Google Doc templates are guides, and you can freely diverge from them and remix different templates whenever you want.

If, for example, you're looking for a more traditional brochure (read: horizontal pages with two or three columns), you'd simply create your templated brochure using the directions above and then customize it with the following steps:

1. Click "File" from the menu bar, then click "Page Setup."

2. Select your desired page orientation from the popup window ("Landscape" for horizontal formatting).