How do I reorder chapters in Google Docs?

Moving a chapter in one document

The outline in the left panel is for getting around, not for rearranging. Google's help describes a list of headings you click to jump between. It names no way to move a section from there. So a chapter moves the old way:

1. Click just before the chapter's heading.
2. Scroll to the end of the chapter and Shift-click just before the next chapter's heading.
3. Cut with Ctrl+X (⌘+X on a Mac).
4. Use the outline to jump to the chapter it should follow, click at the start of the next heading, and paste.

Paste with the ordinary shortcut, not Paste without formatting, or the chapter title loses its heading style and drops out of the outline. For a long move, copy instead of cutting, paste, and only then delete the original. If something goes wrong midway, nothing is lost.

When a heading is missing from the outline

The outline lists text styled as a heading, nothing else. A chapter title made bold and large by hand is still Normal text. Click in it and pick Heading 1 from the style menu on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+Alt+1 (⌘+Option+1 on a Mac).

A heading that is styled correctly and still absent may have been taken out with Remove from outline, the small × that appears when you point at an entry. Select the heading text in the document, right-click it, and choose Add to document outline. Also check that the panel itself is open. View → Show outline opens it, and so does the Show tabs & outlines button at the top left of the document.

Tabs as a way around it

Docs now lets one document hold several tabs, listed in the same left panel. Put each chapter in its own tab and reordering becomes a drag: tabs can be dragged up and down the list, and nested under one another for parts or acts. The trade is that a lot of the document's tools then act on the current tab by default, so read downloading or printing a book kept in tabs before you split a finished draft.

In Tabularia

The Outline does both jobs. Select a row to go to the chapter, or drag it by its handle and the chapter's text moves with it, while the book stays one document rather than a stack of tabs.

To bring a Google Doc over, download it with File → Download → Microsoft Word and import the DOCX. Heading 1 titles become chapters, so styling them in Docs first saves work afterward. The import cannot open a Docs link or connect to your Google account; it needs the downloaded file.