The term "alignment" generally specifies the appearance and orientation of the edges of a paragraph -- left-aligned text, right-aligned text, centered text, or "justified" text (aligned evenly from left to right margins). In left-aligned -- the most common alignment -- the left edge of the paragraph is flush with the left margin.
Additionally, "vertical alignment" determines the up/down position of text within a defined space in the document -- such as placement of a title on a section-break page.
Align the text left or right
- Select the text that you want to align.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select Align Left
or Align Right
.
Center the text horizontally between the side margins
- Select the text that you want to center.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select Center
.
Center the text vertically between the top and bottom margins
- Select the text that you want to center.
- On the Layout or Page Layout tab, select the Dialog Box Launcher
in the Page Setup group, and then select the Layout tab. - In the Vertical alignment box, select Center.
- In the Apply to box, click Selected text, and then select OK.
Justify text
When you "justify" text in a Word document, you give your text straight edges on both sides of the paragraph. Justifying extends each line of your text from the left margin to the right margin. Justifying text might make the last line of text in a paragraph considerably shorter than the other lines.
- Select the text you want to justify.
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, select Justify
.
Tip
In the Paragraph group, select the Dialog Box Launcher
, and select the Alignment drop-down menu to set your justified text.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + J to justify your text.
Create a centered cover page
- On the Insert tab, in the Pages group, select Cover Page.
- Select the cover page that you want.
A cover page is always added to the beginning of the open document.