Document design

Register here for our self-paced course on how to setup the design of your document.

Text formatting

For styling your document, you have two options:

1. Style a selection of text
2. Style all text in a document

To style a selection of text, click inside a block, highlight the text, then apply styling using the top toolbar.

To apply styling to a snippet of text in a non-numeric cell within a pricing table, first select it, then style it with the help of the top toolbar.

You can also apply styles to specific columns in pricing tables and tables. To do this, highlight a column by clicking on the green handle at the top, then format text in numeric cells by using the top toolbar.

To style all text in a document, go to the Design tab on the right. Here you can choose between a pair of options:

1. Apply a predesigned theme. Select Choose another theme to see the list of themes, then select a theme to preview it. When you find one you’d like to use, select Apply theme.
2. Apply your own styling under Design if you have strict branding guidelines you need to follow. (Go here to learn how to set up a default theme for new documents you create.)

Under Design you have four options for formatting:

• Colors (theme coloring for all Headings and hyperlinks)
• Typography (both for Headings and text)
• Table (for tables, pricing tables, and table of contents)
• Page (design for header and footer, also for background)

Border styles

You can add borders to a specific paragraph or to all paragraphs in a text block. To add borders to a specific paragraph click on the paragraph inside a block, then select Border styles from the top toolbar. Border styling allows you to select:

• Border color
• Border style
• Border width (The limit is 250 pt.)

To apply borders to all paragraphs in a text block, highlight the text in a block, then apply border styles via the top toolbar. 

Set borders styling in theme design settings

If you'd like to add borders to all headings or text blocks with the same styling in your document, go to Design tab, then select Text or Headings and apply specific border styles.

If you’ve applied your current custom theme to several templates and content library items in your workspace, you can easily update all of them at once after changing border styles. Simply select Publish in the pop-up at the bottom of the page when changing border styles in your custom theme. 

Add custom font

We have six built-in fonts available for you to use, but you can add more.

1. Go to Design. Under Typography, select either Text or Headings (depending on which you’d like to style). Once you add a font, it will become an option in both Headings and Text.
2. Click on the font options dropdown, then select +Add custom font.
3. Next, go to Google Fonts, find the font you’d like to add, then choose “Select this style.”
4. Unfold the “Family selected” tab and copy the import URL. (See the screenshot below for the correct import URL.)
5. Paste this URL into PandaDoc and click Add font.

You can also add a custom font from Google via the top toolbar.

Text headings

Go to the Design tab on the right. Under Typography, click Headings. Here you can:

1. Change the style of all headings
2. Change the style of individual headings
3. Add auto-numbering for individual headings

You can preview the styles of your theme headings from the top toolbar. 

Page layout

You can change page size, margins, and orientation by selecting the horizontal ellipsis (three dots) button on the right above a page, then Page properties from the dropdown, and finally, Layout.

You can change the layout and margins for all pages in your document or template by clicking on the vertical ellipsis button, then choosing Layout setup from the dropdown.

If you’re using Canva to create designs, you can upload them as a page background in your PandaDoc document.

First, hover over the dot between pages, as you would if you were adding a new page. Next, select Canva from the dropdown menu. (You’ll be prompted to log in to your Canva account, if you’re not already logged in.)

Select a design and click Publish in the top right corner. You now have a design imported from Canva that will serve as a page background. If you like, you can add content blocks on top of it.

Learn more about our integration with Canva here. 

Cover pages and blank pages

Our standard blank pages are built with blocks that have relative positioning, which allows you to construct your document the way you want. You can place blocks side by side, change image size, and modify the width of blocks.

Cover pages, on the other hand, allow for freestyle, absolute positioning. This means that blocks and fields can be added to a cover page and placed outside the boundaries of a block grid. Using this method, content doesn’t need to be set in relation to another item — you can place it wherever you like.

You can add as many cover pages to your document as you like. To do so, select +Add content above or under a page, then choose Cover page from the dropdown menu.

Page background

As with text formatting, you can apply a page background to a single page, several pages, or all pages in a document.

To style a specific page, select the horizontal ellipsis (three dots) button in the top right of the page, then go to Page properties. Next, upload a background image or choose a background color, then adjust the background using the additional settings.

To add a background to every page in your template, go to the Design tab, then choose Page Background.

Table of contents

You can customize the table of contents block as any text or table block in your template or document. Start by selecting the block, then select Properties on the floating panel, then go to Design on the right. Here you’ll be able to customize:

1. Row colors
2. Title typography
3. Subtitle typography

Alternatively, go to the Design tab on the right. Under Tables, click Table of contents, where you can change styling.

Table design

Start by selecting a table or pricing table, then select Properties on the floating panel, then go to Design on the right. Here you’ll be able to:

1. Style table headers 
2. Hide or show table borders
3. Change border style, color, and width
4. Edit row color and adjust cell paddings

You can change the design of all tables and pricing tables in the document by going to Design > Table design.

Stretch an image 

1. Select an image block, then select Properties from the floating panel. Next, go to Advanced formatting.
2. Set the block margins to a negative value, depending on how far you’d like to stretch your image.
3. Use the blue dots on the corners to resize the image, based on the new margins.

Arrange blocks into columns

To place content blocks in columns, hover over a block until you see a white box on the left side of the block. Click this white box, then drag and drop it next to another block. When a side of another block’s blue outline turns bright blue, your selected block will move to that location. You can build as many columns as you want.

Page numbering in PDF

To add page numbering to the PDF of your document, go to Design tab, then under Page select Header and Footer. Next, toggle Show in header or Show in footer. Then select the needed formatting for the page numbering.