How to Add and Remove Dotted Line in Google Docs

There are different ways to add a dotted line in Google Docs, and users often see dotted lines for different reasons — some intentional, like a manually drawn divider, others automatic, like page break indicators.

Some people add dotted lines manually for decoration or to divide content.
Others see blue dotted lines appear automatically when inserting page breaks or section breaks.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover both cases: how to add a dotted line in Google Docs, and how to remove or restore the automatic blue dotted line.

How to Add Dotted Line in Google Docs

There are two simple methods to add a dotted line in Google Docs:

With Shortcut
With the Drawing tool

Using Keyboard Shortcut

Open Google Docs on the computer and put the cursor where you want to create a dotted line then press and hold “Period Key” from keyboard till the length of line you want.

Using the Drawing tool

Open Google Docs.
In the top Menu bar, click Insert > Drawing > +New.
In the drawing toolbar, select the Line option.
After drawing the line, open the Line dash menu and choose the dotted style.
Click Save and Close to insert Google Docs dotted line between pages.

make dotted line in Google Docs with drawing tool

Tip: You can also check to underline in Google Docs which is another text formatting.

How to Remove Blue Dotted Line in Google Docs

When multiple breaks are inserted, Google Docs shows a blue dotted line across pages. If you don’t want to see these:

Open your document.
Click View in the menu bar.
Uncheck Show print layout.

How to remove blue dotted line in Google Docs

blue dotted line Google Docs — Example of blue line in Docs

Continuous page in Google Docs without blue dotted line

This removes the blue dotted lines and makes your document display as a continuous page.

How to Change Page Break Back to Dotted Line

If you want the dotted line indicator visible again:

Go to View.
Re-check Show print layout.
Optionally also check Show section breaks.

How to change page break back to dotted line in Google Docs

FAQ

Why is there a dotted line in Google Docs?

When you enable “Show section breaks” under the “View” menu, page breaks display as a blue horizontal dotted line in Google Docs.

What is the blue dotted line in Google Docs?

A blue dotted line represents section breaks and page breaks in Google Docs — it’s a formatting mark, not part of your printed document.

Dotted lines in Google Docs can be useful for formatting, like dividing sections, but they also appear automatically for page breaks.

To add a decorative dotted line: use the period-key method or the Drawing tool.
To remove the blue page-break line: turn off “Show print layout” under View.

Next time you see a dotted line in Google Docs, you’ll know whether it’s decorative or a formatting mark — and exactly how to manage it.

Working with other Google Docs formatting? See how to underline text in Google Docs or use the document outline to navigate long documents faster.