Writing a two-column paper

This guide builds a journal-style paper in Docs from a blank page: two columns of typeset text, a title block across the full width, numbered equations, ruled tables, figures with captions, and live citations and references. It's the same kind of document Docs produces when you import a paper with Import PDF, so you can also use it to understand and edit an imported paper.

Every setting here can be changed at any time. Nothing is locked in by the order you do things.

This guide is also inside Docs: click the ? button at the top right of any document to open it beside your page.

1. Choose the document style#

Open a new document, click Document style (the A button at the top right of the editor, next to References), and under Start from choose:

Choose Journal, two columns. The page changes at once: narrower margins, two columns, and the LaTeX typeface. Text you type flows down the left column, then the right, then on to the next page.

You can fine-tune everything in the same panel:

• Body text: the font, size, line spacing (a multiple of the size: 1.15 gives 11.5pt lines for 10pt text), first-line indent, space between paragraphs, justify and hyphenate.
• Columns: one or two, and the gutter (space between columns) in inches.
• Caption numbering: how figures and tables are labelled (see Captions).
• Citation style: how citations and the reference list are printed.

Tip: Paragraphs follow LaTeX's rules automatically: a paragraph is indented unless it comes right after a heading. To start a paragraph flush left anyway (for example, text that continues after a display equation), choose More → Blocks → No first-line indent.

Paper size and margins are in Page setup (the sliders button). The Journal style sets 0.7in side margins on Letter paper; change them there if your journal asks for something else.

2. The title block, across both columns#

In a two-column document, any block can span both columns: put the cursor in it and click Span both columns in the toolbar (the ↔ arrows button, which appears only in two-column documents; it's also under More → Blocks). Click it again to put the block back into one column.

Build the title block like this, spanning each part:

1. Title. Type it, choose Heading 1, centre it, and click Span both columns. Heading 1 is set bold; use the font size box to make it 12pt, the usual journal size.
2. Authors. A centred, spanned paragraph. For affiliation marks, select the "1" or "∗" after a name and press Ctrl+. (superscript).
3. Affiliations and date. Centred, spanned paragraphs; make the affiliation italic and 9pt to match most journals.
4. Abstract. A spanned paragraph at 9pt. To indent it on both sides the way RevTeX does, drag the left and right indent markers on the ruler in by about ¾ inch. It stays justified.

Everything after the abstract goes back to two columns automatically, because new paragraphs don't span unless you ask.

3. Sections and headings#

Use Heading 2 for sections ("I. INTRODUCTION"), Heading 3 for subsections ("A. Notation") and Heading 4 for sub-subsections. In a typeset document they follow the article classes: sections and subsections bold, sub-subsections italic, all at the body size. Centre a section heading if your journal does.

Type the section number as part of the heading; Docs doesn't number headings for you. Headings always stay with the text that follows them, so a heading never ends a column on its own.

The Outline button lists every heading. Click one to jump to it.

4. Equations#

• Inline: type $ followed by LaTeX and a closing $, for example $g_A^e g_A^N$. The formula is set in the same Computer Modern design as the text, at exactly the text size, and doesn't open up the line spacing.
• Display: on an empty line type $$ and a space, then the LaTeX. Display equations are centred in their column and numbered (1), (2), … at the right margin.

Click an equation to edit it. Untick Number this equation for an unnumbered display.

Wide equations. A display equation too wide for its column is set slightly smaller to fit. If it would get too small to read, click Span both columns while it's selected to set it across the full page width, as journals do with long equations.

Referring to an equation. Use Cross-reference (the ↳ button), choose the Equations tab and pick the equation; it reads "Eq. (5)". For "Eqs. (4) and (5)", type "Eqs. " and insert two cross-references with Number only ticked, so they read just "(4)" and "(5)". Numbers update whenever equations are added, removed or moved.

5. Tables#

Journal tables look different from spreadsheet grids: horizontal rules only, a rule under the header, columns sized to their content, and the table centred under its caption. Docs does this with table styles.

Create the table#

1. Put the cursor on an empty line and insert a table: the table button in the toolbar (drag to choose rows and columns), or type /table. The first row is a header row.
2. With the cursor in the table, open Table options (the table-and-gear button that appears in the toolbar while the cursor is in a table) and add the caption first: Add caption. Table captions go above the table, as journals print them, and read "TABLE I." in the Journal style.
3. Type the column names in the header row and the data below.

Choose the table style#

In Table options → Table style:

Then tick Fit width to content. The columns shrink to their contents and the table is centred, instead of stretching across the column. Untick it for a full-width table.

Header rows#

• Toggle header row makes the first row the header.
• For a two-level header, with a group label over several columns (for example "Matter" over two columns and "Antimatter" over two more), add a second row. Select the cells of the top row that belong together and choose Merge cells, then put the cursor in each cell of the second header row and choose Toggle header cell. The rule under the header is drawn under the last header row.
• Header cells aren't bold in Booktabs and Journal tables, as in print. Make them bold yourself if your journal wants it.

Aligning columns#

Put the cursor in a cell and use the toolbar's align buttons, cell by cell or over a selection of cells (drag across a column to select it). The usual convention is text left-aligned and numbers centred or right-aligned.

Maths and formatting in cells#

Cells hold normal text, so everything works inside them: inline equations ($b_\mu$, $m^{-1}$), bold symbols, superscripts, italic. Use Shift+Enter for a line break within a cell.

Wide tables#

A table with many columns can span both columns: with the cursor in it, choose Span both columns in Table options (or the toolbar button). Span the table's caption too, so they stay together.

Notes under a table#

For notes like "ᵃ Measured at 300 K.", add a small (8 or 9pt) paragraph straight after the table. Use superscript letters in the cells for the marks.

Referring to a table#

Cross-reference → Tables inserts "Table IV" (Journal style) or "Table 4". It updates if tables are added or reordered.

6. Figures and captions#

1. Insert the image (toolbar image button, or paste it).
2. Click the image and choose Caption in its toolbar. A figure caption goes under the figure and reads "FIG. 1." in the Journal style.
3. Resize the image with its handles. In a two-column page it can't be wider than the column; for a full-width figure, click the paragraph holding the image and choose Span both columns, then span the caption too.

Caption numbering in Document style chooses the labels:

Captions renumber themselves when figures or tables are added, removed or moved, and so does every cross-reference to them.

Theses and books number figures, tables and equations within chapters: "Figure 4.6", "Table 2.1", "(2.3)". Set Document style → Number within chapters to the heading level your chapters use. A chapter heading can carry its own number ("Chapter 2", "CHAPTER FOUR", "Appendix A"), and headings without one (References, Acknowledgements) don't start a chapter. If no chapter heading has a number, chapters are simply counted.

7. Citations and the reference list#

1. Open References (the books icon) and add your references: paste DOIs or arXiv IDs, BibTeX entries, or import a .bib file.
2. Cite in the text with the quote button (or /citation). In the Journal style, citations read [1], [2, 3], [4–7], numbered in the order you first cite them.
3. At the end of the paper, insert the reference list with /reference list. In a two-column paper it runs down the columns like the rest of the text. If you don't want its "References" heading, delete it: APS papers have none.

Change Citation style in Document style or the References panel, and every citation and the reference list are reformatted at once.

8. Acknowledgments and appendices#

An acknowledgments section is a Heading 2 ("ACKNOWLEDGMENTS") followed by normal paragraphs. Appendices are sections like any other ("Appendix A: Derivation"). To start the appendices or the references on a new page, insert a Page break (Ctrl+Enter).

9. Checking and exporting#

• The header shows the page count; scroll through the pages to check where columns break. A figure, table or equation is never split between columns, and headings stay with their text.
• Export → PDF document prints the paper with the same columns, fonts and spacing. Print… does the same.
• Export → Word document gives an editable .docx, with equations as Word equations and cross-references as links. Columns and table styles aren't exported to Word yet; the .docx comes out in one column with full table grids.

Quick reference#