How to move images in Google Docs

Users of Google Docs often com­plain that they can­not move images once insert­ed into a doc­u­ment. Although this doc­u­ment suite has many time-sav­ing fea­tures, it does not have very advanced fea­tures for mov­ing images. It is easy to make a mis­take and be unable to move an image. Here’s how you can move images in Google Docs and exact­ly what you should do if you can’t move an image in Google Docs:

How to Move an Image in Google Docs

These are the stan­dard instruc­tions for mov­ing images in Google Docs.

1. Click the image and make sure the mode is set to “Wrap Text”
2. Move the image with the right or left-arrow keys on your key­board, or use your mouse to drag-and-drop it into place
3. Hold the Shift key to move the image slow­ly with more precision

This should get you going, but some users may still be unable to move images. Don’t wor­ry, it hap­pens to everyone.

What if I can’t move an image in Google Docs?

Some­times it can hap­pen in Google Docs that you can’t move an image for one rea­son or anoth­er. Fol­low these steps to resolve the issue:

1. Dou­ble-check and make sure that the image is set to “Wrap Text” (pic­tured above)
2. Make sure “Move with text” is select­ed and not “Fix posi­tion on page”
3. If the image is in a head­er (top of page) or foot­er (bot­tom of page), you must first dou­ble-click this area before select­ing the image
4. Make sure the image is small enough to fit in the area you would like to move it. You can’t shift a pic­ture that takes up the entire mar­gin left or right
5. A bug or Google Docs issue could be the rea­son. Close your win­dow and open a new Google Docs ses­sion if you still are not able to move the picture

In addi­tion to mov­ing pic­tures left, right, up, and down, you may also want to move pic­tures for­ward or back­ward. This can be use­ful if you would like to place oth­er ele­ments over the image or if you want to cov­er ele­ments with the image. Unfor­tu­nate­ly this func­tion­al­i­ty is not yet avail­able in Docs.

You can also right-click on an imagee and choose “Image Options” to explore oth­er pos­si­bil­i­ties for mod­i­fy­ing the image.

Moving Images in the Google Docs App

The process for mov­ing images is slight­ly dif­fer­ent in the Google Docs app, but still very simple:

1. Hold your fin­ger on the image to select it
2. Press your fin­ger and “hold” the image
3. Drag the image with your fin­ger to repo­si­tion it

Mov­ing images in Google Docs is not always as straight­for­ward as it should be, espe­cial­ly if you are a new user or migrat­ing from Word. But it is still rel­a­tive­ly sim­ple to do once you know the steps. A lit­tle bit of patience pays off!